Sunday March 2 + Memorization Schedule + TEDxNS info!

Hi everyone!

Thanks for your great work on Sunday! Here's what we've got going on for this week:

Schedule:

1:15   Pakkanen duet dancers / V'la l'bon vent quartet
1:45   Full company
4:10   TEDxNS set
4:50   LiveArt set

We'll also be learning the blocking for I'll Give My Love an Apple. Christina will also be auditioning for solos in the context of rehearsal for I lie, Heaven Will Rise, and Uraren besotik.

Homework:

For this week, Christina would like you to be working ahead so that you are coming to rehearsal confident with your notes and rhythms learned - Heaven Will Rise and Day Dawn in particular. I'll Give My Love an Apple should be memorized by this point. The Waiting on the Eastern Line music memorization schedule is listed below.

TEDxNS sound check & performance time:

TEDxNS has filled us in on our soundcheck time and they would like us to be there on the afternoon of Saturday March 8th. Our soundcheck time is 4:20 pm. Please arrive no later than 4:10 pm. If they are on schedule, we will be done by 4:45 pm. However, please allow some flexibility in your schedule in case they are running behind. The rehearsal will be at the McInnes Room of the Dalhousie Student Union Building (second floor).

**As a side note we are trying to schedule our LiveArt soundcheck immediately preceding the soundcheck with TEDxNS. We will confirm once we have more info.

Our performance time on Sunday March 9th will be in Session #2 which runs from 1:30-3:00 pm. We'll let you know a more specific call time as soon as we receive more details from TEDxNS.

Rehearsal March 9:

Since we lost the rehearsal on February 16 due to weather, we would like to use the rest of the Sunday afternoon on March 9th to rehearse. After the TEDxNS performance is finished at 3:00 pm, we will transition to St. Matthew's and rehearse music there from 3:30-5:30 pm.

Music Memorization Schedule:

March 9: V'la l'bon vent

March 16: I Lie

March 30: Heaven Will Rise

April 6: Day Dawn & Uraren besotik

February 23rd Notes & Information for Live Art and TedxNS

Notes and Homework

• March 23^rd rehearsal will be at Bethany United for recording purposes. There will be a regular rehearsal and then a recording session at the end. More information to follow
• Listen to all of the pieces on Soundcloud! :-)
• Next week: Solo auditions for I Lie, Uraren and Heaven Will Rise
• Ask about suitcases and costume pieces if you know of anywhere we could get them!

V’la l’bon vent

• We will be going for a very Acadian French feel, rather than a classical French. Lips won’t be pushed forward nearly as much.
• In rehearsing, pay close attention to commas and dynamics. This piece should feel very nimble.
• The ‘ching’ should buzz in the nose.

Day Dawn

• Use the midi recordings that Christina sent out to shore up your own line, and also to hear how your line fits with others.
• Review from the beginning up to measure 26; pay attention to dynamics, phrasing and emotion. This should be strong by next week.

Heaven Will Rise

• A lot of work was done today on getting the word “Heaven” sounding correct – make sure you have notes about this in your score so that you remember what sound your section is going for.

I Lie

• Final consonants on the runs are always going to be as written (i.e. the final eighth) but should not stand out from the texture of the line.
• Reminder to Altos to leave off final consonants when singing the single eighths underneath the moving parts, except in measures 44-46 where you will put the ‘n’ on the end of the eighth.

I’ll Give My Love An Apple

• When rehearsing this piece, make sure to properly set your vowels.

Musical & Blocking Notes for Live Art (March 8^th)

Pakannen 

• Will be performed a semi tone down from what is written. 
• The blocking will be similar to what was done in Wail…

Earth 

• Will be performed a whole tone up (as we did it in Constellations). 
• Blocking is essentially the same as Constellations – some of the turns have changed to be facing towards the audience. 
• At the end, rather than creating the ‘traveling formation’, move toward the centre (in the same order as before) and create a mixed scattered formation facing the audience.

Sister Song  

• starting note is an octave up from the last note of Earth 
• stand in mixed scattered until measure 15
•  at m 15, walk to a new mixed scattered formation (one step per bar)
• at measure 27 stop walking and face the audience
•  at measure 51 walk to a new mixed scattered formation
• at measure 62 stop walking and face the audience
• crescendo on the last chord until the cut-off.

Musical & Blocking Notes for TedxNS (March 9th)

There will be text in between each piece during this performance.

Warrior

• Begin in a regular U
• Come to mixed scattered formation in the same order that you went from sitting to standing in Constellations (everyone who didn't do this in Constellations will move after Kristin)
• Steps forward on the third verse (as in Constellations at the Canta Mara concert)

Sister Song 

• will be sung a semi-tone lower than written (an octave up from the Alto end note in Warrior) 
• Exactly the same blocking as the Live Art performance
• NO CRESCENDO ON THE LAST CHORD

One Voice

• Transition to regular U during the text in between
• Trio moves to centre on their lines
• On "This is the sound of all of us" - move to mixed scattered, and XYE will be joining us on stage. Please make sure to leave enough space for them to mingle.

Notes for Sun Feb 23

Hi everyone,

Since we were snowed out last week (boooo!), we will just bump the rehearsal plan from last Sunday up to this Sunday. Read over the previous blog post for details but here's some key info:

• Full company called at 1:15 pm
• We will be trying out different voices on the V'la l'bon vent quartet
• We will now push ahead auditions for the other solos (Heaven Will Rise, I lie, Uraren besotik) to Sunday March 2

Homework

Christina would like you to have I'll Give My Love an Apple memorized for this Sunday. There are a couple of you for whom this piece is brand new - we ask you to try your best but we will be understanding! A recording of Xara singing the piece has now been uploaded to Soundcloud. For Soundcloud access:

Visit www.soundcloud.com

Username: xaraxingers@gmail.com

Pass: xaraxingers

There is now a playlist started for Waiting on the Eastern Line. 

Thanks everyone!

Notes for Sunday Feb 16 + Set Lists for March Gigs & Church Service!

Hi everyone!

It was so awesome to be all together again, and to welcome/welcome back singers into the family! A great first rehearsal on our Podium show, and many more to come!

For Sunday's rehearsal, full company is called for 1:15 pm. We're back at our regular rehearsal venue, St. Matthew's. Most of the rehearsal will be spent digging into the new repertoire for Waiting on the Eastern Line.

**This Sunday Christina will be listening to different voices try the quartet line in V'la l'bon vent. If you are interested, please learn any of the parts and come prepared to try it out! We'll be looking at the unison section (mm 1-10) and the harmony section at mm 40-45. In the harmony section, please look over the line you would normally sing in a four part split (though you may get asked to sing a different one depending on voice blend!)

We will be auditioning for the rest of the solos in the show on February 23 (Heaven Will Rise, I lie, Uraren besotik).

In the last hour of rehearsal we will be working on the two short pieces that we will be singing for the Live Art "Salt Truck Follies" performance (March 8) as well as the TedxNS appearance (March 9). Here are the set lists for those gigs:

Live Art:
An abridged adaptation of the Lyra story
Pakkanen
Earth
Sister Song

TedxNS:
Theme of community engagement in the arts/communities of women in the arts. Full body/full spirit.
Warrior
Sister Song
One Voice

Just to give you a heads up, here are the pieces we will be performing at the church service at Edgewood-Oxford on Sunday April 27, the first Sunday after Easter:

Heaven Will Rise
I Himmelen
Lux Aeterna

Reminder that you should be checking in with your section group this week to determine your fundraising activity. All groups need to report to Tenille on Sunday!

Can't wait to see you all on Sunday!

I lie, V'la l'bon vent & Fundraising

February 9 – Rehearsal Notes

Fundraising Notes

- We have a little over $4000 left to fundraise this year.

- Each voice part (Sop1, Sop2, Alto1, Alto2) is responsible for fundraising at least $250 as a group (i.e. $1000 in total)

-  Tenille would like to hear an idea from each group by next Sunday (February 16^th) When and what, solid details not required!

- The board is currently looking at ideas of ways to fundraise the remaining $3000.

Homework

Look over each piece – there will be a link to Soundcloud later this week. There is no recording of the Enns, as this is a premiere. However, Christina will get in touch with Jeff in order to obtain a midi recording of the piece.

V’la l’bon vent

Auditions for the Solo Quartet will be held next week . Prepare page 1 & Measures 40-45 to audition.

I Lie

Altos, please de-emphasize your final consonants so that you blend your words with the upper parts.

Sunday Feb 9 Rehearsal! Welcome Back!

Hi everyone!!

Christina and I are sitting in a cafe for our regular Wednesday meeting and we are still glowing about last weekend's performances!! Thank you all so, so much. It was an extraordinary week and we are so grateful for your talent and dedication. We definitely made magic for our audiences!!!!!!

We will have several singers joining or re-joining us this Sunday (yaaaay!!!) Welcome back to Tejas, Sarah, Robin, and Shila, and welcome to Maggie and Corinne!

And now we are on to the next show and round of projects. Never a dull moment in Xara land! Here's what you need to know for this Sundays' rehearsal:

• Due to a booking conflict at St Matthew's, we will be rehearsing at Bethany United Church for this Sunday only. The church is located at 7171 Clinton Ave (by the rotary), please enter from the doors off the Clinton Ave parking lot.
• Full company called for 1:15 pm.
• We'll be doing a bunch of fun stuff - a Constellations debrief, the show & tell for our new show Waiting on the Eastern Line, some fun intro activities, and sight singing a whole bunch of new music!
• For the last hour of rehearsal (4:30-5:30 pm) we will be recording some of the music from Constellations. Only those singers who performed in Constellations should plan to stay for this last hour. The songs we'll record this week are Warrior, From Ash You Rise, and Lux Aeterna.

Please bring all of your music from Constellations. You will be able to turn in some of it to Erin this week.

Thanks everyone!!!! We can't wait to be back together again on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!

xoxoxo Claire & Christina

PS - 

We've had a request from Heather Fraser at the Nova Scotia Choral Federation asking for volunteers for one of the Podium projects. She writes:

"Just a question re Podium’s Juvenata Project… this is the massed high school honour choir we’re assembling for the final highlight concert.

We’re now gathering volunteers and I’m wondering if any of the Xara girls might want to help with the teens on that weekend?  It would be nice to have younger faces as supervisers/chaperones and at the Sat night entertainment we’re running some trivia and a coffee house and it might be great, if some of them wanted to help?  I would love to get them involved. Please pass it on and let me know!!   Have them contact me if interested!" (programs@nscf.ns.ca)