Prep for Oct 22 Rehearsal

Hi everyone!

First of all, it's important that I summarize the big news that we shared at last week's rehearsal since there were a few folks who couldn't be there and I don't want them to be in the dark.

Change in Schedule for the Year (AGAIN)
If you're new to Xara this year you must be wondering why our dates are changing constantly. Please know that this is highly irregular for us and we typically have the whole year quite clearly laid out by the summer that precedes our start up. However, this year, many things have made that impossible. The first was the potential Neptune collaboration (as you know). Once that was settled and off the calendar, we thought that everything would be good to go without any notable changes. However, a bit more than a week ago, we got some very disappointing news - for the first time since Xara has existed we were turned down for a large grant that our season hinged on. We have an astonishing track record of getting grants but I guess it had to happen sometime. Furthermore, there was an administrative mix-up that meant we heard the news about this grant far later than normal.

What this all boils down to is that we do not have sufficient funding to move forward with The Girl Who Stole the Sun. The Board of Directors thought long and hard about this and we were very, very grateful for the perspectives of our new singer reps. Instead of just pushing "pause" on Xara life until January (tears!!) we decided to make the most of this time!! There are several smaller projects that we've been wanting to do but haven't been able to fit into our schedule. Plus, with so many new folks this year, we could really, really use some extra group bonding time, vocal pedagogy time, and "Beyonce training" (a la Claire!).

So, this fall, we are going to work up a few of the pieces that were from the show to recording level and record them - giving us new, high quality material to share with our fans and use for promo. On top of that, we are going to shoot a new music video!! It's been two years since we have been able to do this and it has always been such a rewarding and useful thing. Finally we will also do a bunch of group bonding and skill development activities. :)

The other "silver lining" to this situation is that we will get to start on RISE (our Spring show) in January instead of in February. The extra time this gives us allows us to make that show even more spectacular ... which is important because it's our 10th anniversary performance!!

If you have any questions about this news, please feel free to talk to me or to any of the singers who sit on the board (Hayley, Georgia, Morgan).

Prep for Oct 22 Rehearsal
First of all, rehearsal will be from 2:00-5:30 PM again. Alto 1s are on snack duty!

The memorization schedule is no longer in effect and this Sunday I'll be discussing which pieces we are going to focus on and to what level we are going to take them (ex. will they just be for recording or will they be memorized and blocked)?

For this week, please review your music and the choreography for Stig In, Lucia and Sure on This Shining Night. We will be running both of these and expect to see them in really top-notch shape. Several of you still had quite a bit of work to do on your Swedish so hopefully you've been doing that!

Otherwise, there is nothing else you need to formally prepare for this week. Come ready to do lots of singing and a bit of personal sharing too!

Schedule of Important Dates for the Season
Based on the latest developments, the schedule of important dates for the season has changed again. Hopefully this will be the last major change!!!! Please find it here. Also, please note that you are off both next Sunday and the Sunday after (Oct 29 and Nov 5) because the whole artistic team (Christina, Jenny, Claire, Erin plus 14 singers, our lighting designer and two guest artists) are touring Xara's show Fatty Legs through southern Ontario. Please wish us well!! It's a really intense schedule (14 shows) and a very emotionally intense story to tell through our singing.