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"