Reference Recordings

For ease of finding, here is the folder with all of the reference recordings...

CLICK HERE

Casting - Tales of the Old North 2016

Hi everyone!

Thank you to all who auditioned last weekend for speaking roles in Tales of the Old North. There were truly SO many talented people that it made our job extremely difficult. There were many different ways we could have cast the show, and we took many things into account, including needing to keep each section balanced throughout the show, and trying to feature different performers from production to production. There are still a number of vocal solos that we will be auditioning for (listed below), so please look ahead to preparing those. We'll let you know when we will be auditioning for these solos.

King: Alan
Queen: Leah
Seer Woman: Jordyn
Soldier: Joanna
Soldier’s Mother: Morgan
Princess Runa: Mackenzie
Princess Sanna: Georgia
Princess Vita: Natasha
Sentinel: Luke
Captain: Sid
Lieutenant: Colleen
Lutin: Dan
Troll: Denton
Magical Bird 1: Kallie
Magical Bird 2: Rowan
Magical Bird 3: Maria
Magical Bird 4: Hayley

Vocal Solos

Pakkanen: mm. 2-11 (S2 line)
Pakkanen: mm. 68-71 (S2 line)
Nothing Else Matters: mm. 33-40
Songbird: mm. 1-8
Call of the Flowers: mm. 34-end (duet)
Clocks: mm. 17-24, 132-133
Kayama: Letter A
Kayama: Letter C (first 7 measures - trio)

Memorization Schedule - Tales 2016

Hi everyone - Please see our music memorization schedule for each piece of music in our show:

September 18 - Jing-ga-lye-ya
September 25 - Lie Light
October 2 - Snowdrift Soundscape + Pakkanen
October 10 - O Yo Yo
October 16 - Nothing Else Matters
October 23 - Songbird + Pseudo-Yoik Lite
October 30 - Call of the Flowers + Clocks
November 6 - Kayama + Parting Glass

Notes for Sunday Sept 18

Hi everyone!

Thank you for a wonderful weekend of rehearsing and group bonding! We are off to a wonderful start for our 9th season and we are excited to continue to dig deeper into Tales of the Old North this fall!

Here's the plan for our next rehearsal, Sunday Sept 18. SSAA company is called for the full rehearsal. Tenors, basses, and Jennette are called for 3:45-5:30 pm only.

1:15 Physical Warm up
1:25 Vocal Warm up
1:35 Church & Deloitte Music
2:20 Tales of the Old North Music
3:45 Break (Tenors, Basses, Jennette arrive)
4:00 Jing-ga-lye-ya blocking
4:40 Snowdrift Soundscape
4:55 Block Scene 1

Note that for this rehearsal, Jing-ga-lye-ya must be memorized! (All music + blocking we have worked on so far)

We will be working on Pakkanen, Lie Light, and O Yo Yo music in terms of Tales of the Old North SSAA rep.

Please review Erin's very excellent and detailed blog post containing rehearsal notes and IMPORTANT INFO regarding attendance, snack, communication etc. Please note that tenors & basses are on snack this week!

Important Upcoming Dates

All dates are in the Google Calendar (to the right of this page) but please make sure you have the following special events marked:

Sunday Sept 25 - St John's United Church service (morning, exact times TBA)

Friday Sept 30 - Deloitte Luncheon at Delta Halifax (approx 11:00am-1:30pm)

Saturday Oct 1 - Yoga Fundraiser at DANSpace on Grafton (10:30-11:30 am)

The yoga fundraiser is a super easy way for us to raise money for Xara! Please start to spread the word and let your friends and family know all about it. We will teach a very accessible class suitable for all experience levels. Cost is $10 per person. Bring your own mat!

Rehearsal Notes - September 11 2016

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

Snack

Please Click Here for the snack schedule this term!

Late Arrival

If you are going to arrive late to rehearsal, please text Erin (902 300 9840). When you arrive late, please text and you will be let in. It is our policy NOT to answer the doorbell.

Missing Rehearsals

If you know ahead of time that you must miss a rehearsal, please email Erin (eringaudet06@gmail.com) AND Christina (xara.choir@gmail.com) AND Claire (claire.xara@gmail.com) Please send ALL known rehearsal conflicts by next Saturday (September 18th) at the very latest.

If you need to suddenly miss a rehearsal, please email and/or text Erin, Christina and Claire. If you are able to attend rehearsal due to illness (even if you can’t sing or move around a lot) that is preferable to missing rehearsal altogether.

Fees

We will discuss fees for the term at rehearsal next week.

REHEARSAL NOTES

Jing-ga-lye-ya - Music memorized for September 18th (all notes and rhythms, all words, all dynamics, all movement to date)

Music Notes

Observe staccati

Go to the “ng” quickly each time you have it in a word

Full woman sound

Click for videos of each section :-)

Blocking - Opening

M 1 - Altos Enter

M 4 - Basses Enter

M 7 - Tenors Enter

M 11 - Sopranos Enter to the middle of the stage, others make room for them and look at them

Letter C - Move to groups and form your circles (Sop Downstage left, Alto Upstage left, Tenor Downstage right, Bass Upstage right)

Letter D - Walk in circle with your group

M 48 & 49 - Open circles into the Wifi symbol

Letter E

M 50 - 54 Walk forward 5 steps (one step per bar on the downbeat). Right foot first. Bring feet together after the 5th step.

M 55 - 59 Walk backward 5 steps (one step per bar on the downbeat). Right foot first. Bring feet together after the 5th step.

M 60 - 64 Move into two sets of parallel lines (one set downstage, one set upstage)

Xara Retreat 2016!

Hi everyone!

Thank you all for a wonderful first rehearsal last night! We are really excited for this fall, and eager to dive deeper into our season with our Xara retreat weekend! Please note that all XCTE members + Youth Mentorship Artists are expected to be present for the whole weekend. Tenors and basses are only called for the Sunday afternoon rehearsal.

Schedule

Friday - XCTE + Youth Mentorship Artists
Location: Women's Council House, 989 Young Avenue, Halifax

6:00  Welcome
6:30  Dinner
8:00  Group Bonding
9:30  Home

Saturday - XCTE + Youth Mentorship Artists
Location: St. John's United Church, 3360 Nova Scotia Trunk 2, Fall River

9:30 Voice & Movement Clinics

10:30 Break

10:40 Music Session

12:15 Lunch Prep (sopranos)

12:30 Lunch (sopranos)

1:30 Xara Ambassador Session

2:00 Music Session

3:15 Break

3:30 Acting Session

4:15 Music Session

5:30 Dinner Prep (altos)

5:45 Dinner (altos)

7:00 Group Bonding

8:00 Home

Sunday - XCTE + Youth Mentorship Artists + Tenors & Basses
Location: St. Matthew's United Church, 1479 Barrington St., Halifax

1:15 Physical Warm up

1:25 Vocal Warm up

1:35 Music Session

2:30 Movement Session

3:15 Break

3:15 Blocking - Jing-ga-lye-ya

4:30 Annual General Meeting

5:00 Auditions - Tales of the Old North

Food

We will have three meals together. Friday evening's dinner is very graciously being provided by the Xara Board of Directors (thank you!!!!). The second two will be potlucks - Saturday lunch will be brought by the sopranos, and Saturday dinner will be brought by the altos. From past experience, this works best if you coordinate beforehand what everyone will bring - so use the Facebook group to your advantage! Please keep in mind that we have a variety of dietary needs (some vegetarian, some vegan, peanut allergies, some gluten-free, some minimal/no dairy etc), so try to accommodate these as much as possible. There is a thread on the Facebook group for dietary considerations.

Drives

Please start organizing carpooling drives NOW for Saturday. Our Facebook group is a great place to take care of that!

To Bring:

Comfortable clothes for sessions - must be able to move freely

Sensible footwear - sneakers or shoes you can move in

Water bottle, pencils (a pencil case full of things is a great idea)

Music folder

Sunscreen for any outdoor activities

Yoga mat or large towel (for Saturday only)

Potluck item, as per schedule

Gas money for your driver

Any questions for this weekend, please let us know via email! We can't wait to be back together again and getting ready for what is going to be an amazing season!!!

XCTE 2016-17 Season Start Up!

Hi everyone!

We are in full swing gearing up for our 9th season and we can't wait to see you all on Monday September 5th for our first rehearsal! Expect lots of communication over the coming couple of weeks as we give you details for the beginning of the year and start getting into heavy rehearsal mode for our first show, Tales of the Old North: The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain.

Our first rehearsal is on Monday, September 5 from 5:30-9:30pm at St. Matthew's United Church. We'll do some group bonding, a big group snack (everyone is on snack duty!), our Show & Tell for The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain, sing through the SATB repertoire, and discuss the audition process for speaking roles/vocal solos.

5:30 Team Building Activities
6:00 Potluck Snacks
6:30 Show & Tell + Casting/Audition Process Discussion
7:00 Physical Warmup
7:20 Vocal Warmup
7:40 Music
8:45 Script Read-Through

Note that auditions for all speaking roles will be held on Sunday September 11.

Please make sure to be checking the Google Calendar for all dates/times for the fall rehearsal season. We will make a separate post on the Facebook group when we add anything to the calendar to give you a heads up. Any known conflicts for the fall need to be communicated via email to Claire, Christina, and Erin. We would like to know all conflicts by Sunday September 11.

If you have any questions prior to Monday, please don't hesitate to let us know. We are looking forward to being back together and having a wonderful season!!