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Sunday Details (Edgewood Oxford Church Performance + Rehearsal)

Hi everyone!

Well, we are almost there!!!  Here are details about our last weekend of regular rehearsals before our first concert of 2010-11...

Church Performance: Sunday, October 31 at 9:15 ( for a 10:30 service)
SCHEDULE
9:15   Warm up, learn hymns, rehearse pieces
10:00 Change, finish your new black belt (you will have to cut it to length and attach a provided piece of velcro)
10:30 Service

DRESS: full concert dress (black gowns, black hose, black soft shoes, hair pulled off face

REPERTOIRE:
Kyrie
Remember Me
Da Pacem
Vivos Voco

LUNCH: Let's have lunch together somewhere???

REHEARSAL:
1:30 Warm up
1:45 Hilary (cellist) arrives - Hebrew Lovesongs and Nada te turbe
5:30 Home!

Don't forget snacks ... if you forgot to bring one on your week, maybe this would be a good week to beef up the snackage?  It's going to be a long (but AWESOME day)!!!!

Good luck putting the final touches on your memorization!
Christina

Da Pacem

Hi Lovelies!

The Canadian Chamber Choir sang Da Pacem live at Podium this year and CBC recorded it.  It's now available online.  It's not a perfect recording (the soprano 1s were all sick and they sound tired!) and the CCC altos have much more vibrato than we do but the phrasing and handling of text is right on most of the time.  FYI, there are only 9 women singing.  I'd recommend listening to it a few times while looking at your score - you may discover further musical nuance and, at the very least, reinforce the good work we did today!  You can find it here:

CCC sings Da Pacem by Enns

Of all the pieces on our program, I would say that we haven't found meaning and expression yet in this one.  The text is so simple that it's easy for us to just communicate a "peaceful haze" while we sing a beautiful piece.  For Jeff Enns' sake (and ours!) I think we can bring more to this.  In the context of the entire concert, this is the moment when our grief finally achieves peace; when we finally accept the loss of the one we love and realize that we are ready to move forward (which we do, in Vivos Voco!).  So, this isn't just a "happy haze" of peace ... instead, it's a poignant, cathartic statement of peace.  While our loved one may have already released his/her life, this is the moment when WE are ready to release.  Imagine holding a helium balloon (symbolizing the life of the one we loved) that desperately wants to soar into the sky.  We have been holding onto that string, with our arm upstretched, all through the concert.  In Nada te turbe, we realize we aren't afraid anymore and it's time to let go.  Da Pacem is the moment when we finally open our hand and release.  It's a bit sad, kind of quiet and simple, but also deeply freeing.

Let's see if we can bring something more powerful to this piece when we sing it in church next Sunday.

DON'T FORGET!!!

... we start at 1:30 this week!!

Exciting News!!

I'm really looking forward to starting the "home stretch" for Voices Remembered on Sunday!  I've heard from a number of you that you've been working really hard over the last couple of weeks (congrats to a few who have ALL the rep memorized already!!).  I'm really proud to work with such motivated musicians who know the importance of our team effort!

A reminder that our performance next Friday (22nd) will be the first half of the program.  This Sunday we will focus on refining this repertoire during the first half of our rehearsal and establishing our formation changes, etc.  This will also be the first rehearsal we have with handbells for Vivos Voco (!!!)  I'm really excited to see this piece come together.  It's going to be very moving in the context of the Voices Remembered program.

The exciting news I have to share is that André Jutras, head of the choral department at the Canada Council for the Arts will be flying in from Ottawa to attend our concert in November!!  He's the head-honcho for choral funding in Canada so we will want to blow his socks off!!  I think this program offers great potential for this as long as we bring to our singing the level of polish we are capable of and the emotional depth we specialize in.

So, if you need to do any extra work to ensure you are really up to speed for this Sunday, please make sure you create time for it.  By this point, you should be able to sing all of this repertoire without error so our focus can be on memory work, musical nuance, ensemble, and communication.  I know that most of you are there, so please make sure that you aren't the weak link!

If there's anything you need from me before Sunday to ensure that you are ready to leap forward with the whole choir at this rehearsal, please let me know.  From this week forward we are in performance mode so it's time to shine!

See you soon!

Christina

PS - I submitted a large grant application ($11,000) on our behalf for "Played" today.  We won't hear for 3 months (ish) but keep your fingers crossed anyway!!

Tour Finances

I know that you all received a hand out about the cost of the tour (either at camp or at the first rehearsal) but I wanted to re-articulate how this is working.

The tour committee has estimated that our trip to NF will cost no more than $1500 each (and likely a bit less).  We are working on the principle of thirds - 1/3 personal contribution; 1/3 fund raising; 1/3 grants.  That means that I am taking responsibility (through grant writing) for finding $500 for EACH of you so that Festival 500 can happen.  This also means that, assuming that everyone steps up and participates in our fund raising activities, you will only have to contribute $500.

We will be discussing our approach to fund raising this Sunday during an extended break (snack people, please make sure we have good sustenance for this!!).  Tenille has put in a tremendous number of hours to building a set of fund raising activities that will actually give us the potential to meet our goal.  These things will be a lot of fun but they will definitely take commitment.

I know you have it in you!  Let's start making this dream a reality!

Christina

An Important Sunday

Hi everyone,

Well, this Sunday will be a momentous one.  First, we are making the final transition to pure music-making (thank you for your hard work last Sunday and the time you've spent in between to get your music really solid) and the deposits for Festival 500 are due.  

As Heather and Tenille told you last week, we have been asked to offer a performance at F500 on a far larger scale than I had ever imagined!!  We will be paired with LadyCove Women's Choir to give a concert in the Arts & Culture Centre on the last night of the Festival.  The A&C centre seats 1100 and we will be the only performance that night.  This is a BIG deal!!!  Only three singers have spoken to me about the extenuating circumstances which will prevent them from being part of this amazing tour so I am thrilled that we will have a choir of at least 23.  I know this is a big commitment for you but we will bond together and make this a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

So, here are some specific details about Sunday:

1.) Alto 2 sectional from 1:30 to 2:20; full choir from 2:30 to 5:30

2.) Your F500 cheque of $175 is to be made out to Camerata Xara OR Halifax Camerata Singers.  Remember that, as long as we meet our fund raising goals (i.e. we all chip in with time and effort!), you will only have $325 more to pay after this.  I am already working on multiple grant applications to try to raise 1/3 of the total cost of our tour and your fund raisers will raise the other 1/3.

3.) As our last rehearsal before Thanksgiving (which you have off) this marks our shift to the "home stretch" of preparation for "Voices Remembered".  After Thanksgiving, we only have 3 more rehearsals until the concert.

4.) This is the last change to bring in money for season's subscriptions - this is really important so make sure to get to your people!!

5.) We will be having a longer break that is combined with a meeting to discuss our fund raising strategies for the year.

This is Xara's 3rd season and I truly believe that this group of people have the potential to craft performances that are stronger than any we have presented to date.  You are such talented, passionate singers!  What's important now is our work ethic and attention to detail as potential can easily go to waste without these things.  The first concert of the year is the hardest in some ways because we have to figure out how to be a choir at the same time as preparing our music.  Please don't underestimate how little time is left before our concert!!  In fact, we will be singing the first half of the program at our NSMEA engagement on Friday, October 22 which is a mere TWO rehearsals away!

I'm really looking forward to this week's rehearsal and can't wait to see how far you've come over the last couple of weeks.  On a personal level, the last week has been a tremendously difficult one (work things) so I'm really looking forward to being immersed in your wonderful music and to seeing some of our musical goals begin to achieve reality.

See you soon!

Christina

Conducting Masterclass Details

Hi everyone!

I hope your week is going well.  Here are the details for Saturday:

• Time: 1:15-5:15 PM (being on time is CRITICAL)
• Location: Dal Arts Centre, Room 409 (to start)
• Dress: Xara t-shirts and black bottoms (t-shirts for new singers will be available)
• Repertoire: 
• Kyrie by Telfer (you may use your scores)
• Sure on this Shining Night by Barber (score and mp3 were emailed to you)
• Dana Dana (only those singers who already know this piece will sing it as the Hungarian cannot be sight-read!)

Bring your Kyrie score.  Paper scores of the other two pieces will be available for you at the masterclass.

We will be finishing downtown at the Spring Garden Road Public Library with a public "Sing Out" in support of funding to and participation in choral music.  Tell your friends to come at 4:30 to participate!!!

See you on Saturday!

Christina

Five Hebrew Love Songs - Pronunciation (in IPA)

So, here is a definitive IPA transcription of Whitacre's Five Hebrew Love Songs.  It just so happens that I studied Hebrew for two years so I went looking for the texts written out in their original language and took the pronunciation from there!  (I kept the hyphens between syllables to help you copy this into your music but the accented and non-accented syllables have been addressed through vowel modification.)

I'll have an IPA hand-out for you at rehearsal to augment the work we did at camp.  Between what you already know and the key you'll get, you should be good to go!

FIVE HEBREW LOVE SONGS – IPA

I.               Temuná

[tə-mu-nɑ be-li-bi xɑ-ɾu-tɑ

no de-dɛt bein oɾ u-vein o-fɛl

min dmʌ ma shə-kʌ-zo ɛt gu-fɛx kɑx o-tɑ

u-sɑ-ɾɛx ɑl pʌ-nɑi-.ix kɑx no-fɛl]

II.             Kalá  kallá

[kʌ-lɑ kʌ-lɑ ku-lɑ ʃɛ-li,

u-vɛ-kɑ-lut tə-ʃɑk hi .li]

III.           Lárov

[lʌ-ɾov ʌ-mɑɾ gɑg lə-ʃə-mɑi-.im

xʌ-mɛɜ-xɑk ʃɛ-bei-nei-nu hu .ad̪

ɑx lif-nei zmɑn ʌ-lu lə-xɑn ʃnʌ-.im

u-vɛi-nɛi-nu niʃ-ɑɾ sɛn-ti-me-tɛɾ ɛ-xɑd̪]

IV.           Éyze shéleg!

[‘eizɛ ʃe’lɛg kmo ,xʌlɔ’mot k,tʌ’nim nɔ’flim mɛ,hɑʃə’mɑ.ɪm]

V.             Rakút

[tʌm]

[hu hʌ-jɑ mʌ-le ɾʌ-kut

hi hai-tɑ kʌ-ʃɑ

vɛ-xol kɑ-mʌ ʃɛ-ni-stɑ lə-hi-ʃʌ-ɛɜ kɑx

pʌ-ʃut u-vli si-bɑ to-vɑ

lʌ-kɑx o-tɑ el tox ʌt-smo vɛ-hɛ-ni-ɑx

bʌ-mʌ-kom hʌ-xi ɾɑx]

Concert Order

Hi everyone,

Here's our concert order, in follow up to our conversation last Sunday about the narrative that's guiding this program.

SCHEDULES

Hi everyone!

I have added the memorization and sectional schedules to our rehearsal calendar (which you can view on the right side of the blog).  Because this is a mini version of the calendar you need to click on the entries to view all the details.

In case you'd prefer to refer to them within a post, they are below!

Memorization Schedule for "Voices Remembered"

Sectional & Snack Schedule for "Voices Remembered"

Ooooo! Fun Times!! FORMS!!

Hi everyone,

You will have just received (by email) your registration and commitment forms for the 2010-11 season.  They'll only take a couple of minutes to fill out, but please do so ASAP.  I haven't posted them here since the general public could then fill them out so please access them via your email.

Only 6 more days until our first rehearsal!!
Christina

IPA [ai pij :ei]

Hi everyone!

What an AWESOME camp weekend we had!!  The evaluations were extremely positive and I know that I had an amazing time.  Thank you so much to everyone for planning this into your summer schedule so we could kick the year off in style!

A number of you listed the session on IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet) as one of your favourites. Don't worry if you missed it or felt you didn't grasp it all - we're going to be doing lots of it this year!  For those of you who would like to continue to practice and expand your repertoire of IPA knowledge, I thought I'd pass on this really amazing website:

http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/

On it you will find charts that you can click.  When you click a chart, it becomes bigger and each letter is then clickable so you can hear what the symbols sound like!  It's very, very useful!  You'll discover that we've only scratched the surface with our vowels and consonants!!

Only one more week to go until we start the year off in earnest!  I can't wait!

Our newest Soprano 1

BRIANNA COOMBS (Soprano 1)
Brianna comes to us from the Annapolis Valley Honour Choir (Heather's group!)  She is beginning her first year at Dal and also plays french horn in a number of ensembles.

And another new member!

Somehow I totally forgot Andrea from the list .... sorry Andrea!  There is likely another new member to come who is auditioning tomorrow so I'll add her bio later in the week so you can "meet" her before camp. :-)

ANDREA ELLIS (Alto 1)
Andrea is on her way to Halifax from PEI so she can finish her master's degree in musicology and work in arts management.  She has sung with the National Youth Choir as well as numerous groups and vocal ensembles at UPEI.  She's a smart, organized person who will be an awesome addition to Xara!!

Introducing ....

.... our new members!!

We have a number of new members this year and they are all fantastic!!  The choir is a bit bigger than last year so there's even more XaraLove to go around. :-)

ASHLEY WITHROW (Soprano 2)
Ashley is a high school science teacher who grew up singing in the Dartmouth All-City Girls Choir.  Last year she sang with the Bay Chorale (Christina's other choir) and is thrilled to be part of Xara!

MACKENZIE COSTRON (Alto 1)
Mackenzie is a student of Acadia University where she studies Music Therapy.  She grew up singing with the Cantabile Choirs of Kingston, ON under Mark Sirret and is a great friend of our own Margaux Ross!

ROBIN LAURISTON (Alto 1)
Robin has recently finished studies in photography here in Halifax but grew up singing in choirs, including in the First Baptist Girls Choir of Truro under Jeff Joudrey.  She's also a strings player and has a strong musical background!

EMMA BAASCH (Alto 2)
Emma is entering a PhD program in English lit at Dalhousie University.  She grew up singing in Montreal at the FACE school (a Fine Arts School that our Jade also attended) and has sung in numerous other groups over the years including a small vocal ensemble in Ireland where she studied for a time.

JENNY TRITES (Alto 2)
Jenny sang with Xara during our first season but then moved to Montreal.  We are thrilled that she is returning to Halifax and now with her new husband in tow (who has a degree in technical theatre from the National Theatre School!). They are actually getting married this weekend!!  Congratulations Jenny and we can't wait to have you with us again!!

Directions to Camp

Here are driving directions to camp ... if you like written out directions (i.e. words) they are just below this map.  Please note the map only shows what to do after you reach Exit 15 on Hwy 101.

Driving Directions

Get yourself to Hwy 101 (which goes to the Valley)
Drive on Hwy 101 for 105 km
Take exit 15 for Berwick
At the top of the ramp turn left.
Drive through the cute town.
Pass a Royal Bank (right side), a Tim Horton's (right side), and a Home Hardware (right side).
Just AFTER Orchard St. (also on the right - do NOT turn onto Orchard) are the camp grounds (right side).
The first small driveway/gate is not accessible - continue to the main, white gates and turn into the camp here.
One of the Xara girls will be there to direct you for parking.

Camp Packing List

Here's a list of things you should bring to camp.  After this, bring what you like but there are two things we are not allowed to have on site: candle and cigarettes (etc).  To my knowledge we don't have smokers in the group (hooray for healthy singing lungs!) but if you are, please do your best to be cigarette free by camp time!


Packing List:
Weather-appropriate clothes;
Warm clothes for evening
Toiletries
Towel & facecloth
Warm bedding (double sheets)
Pillow
Shoes for walking around camp
Gym slippers or lightweight sneakers for sessions
Water bottle, pencil
Yoga mat or large towel
Journal or something to write in/on
$15 for supper at Union St. Cafe
flashlight

Camp Details!

Hi everyone!

It's so exciting that Xara Camp is just a few weeks away!  I wanted to let you know some important details so you can begin planning for this wonderful weekend of singing, moving, and social time!

Xara Camp is taking place this year from Friday August 20 (7 PM) to Sunday August 22 (7 PM) at the Berwick United Church Campgrounds. Please make sure that you have this time booked off of work so you can be there for the whole weekend!

Important details:

• Xara camp is FREE for everyone (i.e. the Camerata Board is paying) - with the exception of travel costs and supper on Sunday evening (yay!)
• You must organize your own transportation to Berwick - please start planning this ASAP!
• It can be super hot or super cold at Berwick camp, so make sure to bring lots of layers
• We will be staying in cabins this year - these are rustic but comfortable! You will be sharing accommodation with 4-5 other singers. The rooms are not remotely soundproof, so if you are light sleeper, bring ear plugs!
• There are showers, sinks and flush toilets at camp in a building beside the cabins.  

Special Fun Details:

• There will be both new and returning members at camp this year so we are approaching this weekend with a spirit of openness and fun! 
• We would like to ask that each cabin inclues at least one new singer to help everyone get to know each other a bit better!
• In the spirit of the trickster theme of our spring show "Played", we are going to have 'secret friends' over the course of the weekend. On Friday night, you will draw someone's name out of a hat and they will be your 'secret friend' for the weekend. Your job over the course of the weekend is to surprise them in a fun and positive way (ie leaving them a little surprise on their bed, at their place for dinner, in an unexpected way etc) without them knowing that it's you! We will reveal the secret friends on Sunday!  You my want to bring a few things to help you with secret friend projects.

Welcome to the Xara Blog!

This year, instead of emailing you and stuffing your inbox full of messages, I am going to put all the information you need on our blog!  Part of your responsibility as a Xarite is to check this blog at lest twice a week in order to stay up to date with important information.  I will be sharing notes from our rehearsals, information about upcoming rehearsals, posting polls, and lots of good stuff.

Please subscribe to our blog in order to be well informed.  The first set of info that will be heading your way is about camp!  If you look to the right of the screen, there is a button called "Follow" - please click there in order to be informed when there are new posts.

Happy summer!!!
Christina