Dear Choir Students and Parents. This rather lengthy post contains all the information each choir student needs to be ready for our upcoming concert. Parents, if your student is younger or new to the program, I strongly encourage you to read the entire thing and to support your student in being responsible for their part in this group. If you have had a kid in the choir for years now, you probably know how all this works and you just need to scan the email for the parts that pertain to you. I could especially use some support from the parents in terms of getting all the singers to spend time on their music at home! You should be finding your student actively listening and singing and studying their score for at least 20-30 minutes a day as we prepare for Sunday. If they are not doing that, they are probably not contributing much to the actual product. There are elaborate online resources listed at the bottom of the post. I hope every singer will take the time to use those and to be ready musically for our first big concert of 2010-11.
Looking forward to seeing you all next Sunday.
Best,
Bill Liberatore
Gunn Choir Fall Concert One Week from today!!Updates in this email:
I. Tickets
II. Publicty/Flyers
III. Program Ads/Donations
IV. Attire
V. Help with Risers
VI. Schedule
VII. Solos
VIII. Musical Stuff/Links to StudyI. Tickets: If you are among the 60 families that donated to the Choir Boosters, you should have received a Booster Pass that will get you into the Fall, Winter and Spring Concerts. Everyone else will need to purchase tickets. Students were issued a packet of 4 tickets to sell. You can also buy your tickets at the door. All unsold tickets and/or money are due back Thursday, Oct 21.
II. Publicity/Flyers: Sukey Bryan designed a beautiful poster for our concert. I have lots of nicely printed copies in the choir room. Students please stop by and take some with you. Let’s get them up all over campus. I have posted the PDF here:
http://drop.io/FallConcertFlyer in case you would like to download it to include in your emails inviting people, or to print one yourself, or to use on your evite or Facebook invitation.
III. Program Ads/Donations: The deadline for ads is tomorrow, Monday, October 18. If you have not started to join in this effort, please find some time to do so before the Winter Concert. By the Winter Concert we really want to see that everyone going to Italy has tried to secure at least 2 donations towards the scholarship fund. You can download materials or read more about this at
http://drop.io/Sponsorship2010IV. Attire: Guys: Black dress shoes, black socks, black dress pants (no jeans or dockers), and the tux shirt/tie and cummerbund we bought for you. You also need to take home your tux jacket before Friday.
Girls: If you are new to the choir, you should already have taken your dress in to be hemmed by now. NO ONE IS TO HEM THE DRESS THEMSELVES. We have had really bad experiences with people hemming the dress at all kinds of different lengths. If you have not taken the dress in, please do so as soon as you can. Detailed instructions on how to do this and where to go were included in the package with the dress. (More detailed attire info is posted at
GunnChoir.org).
V. Help with Risers
I need a team of kids who will help with the set up and break down of the risers. Your reward for helping will be a really great pizza party at lunch on Friday, Oct. 29th. The riser crew will need to meet me at Gunn on Sunday at 3:00 PM, load the risers onto the truck and help set them up at the church. We will also need to load them back onto the truck after the concert. (We can unload the truck Monday morning.) Write me back if you are able to help with that.
VI. ScheduleMonday: A Period: Treble Choir
Monday Lunch: Final opportunity to audition for the following solos:
Ah El Novio, What a Wonderful World, You Raise Me Up, It Takes a Village
7:30-9:30 Chamber Singers (We are starting later to allow kids to attend the college fair.) Anyone absent from this rehearsal will not be allowed to sing with the group on Sunday.
Tuesday: E Period: Concert Choir, A Period: Treble Choir
Tutorial: Advanced Women’s Ensemble
Wednesday: E period: Concert Choir and A Period: Treble Choir (German coaching on Wed!)
ONSTAGE IN SPANGENBERG to set riser formations
and to practice entrances and exits. Chamber Singers will set riser formation during brunch.
Wed Lunch: Soloists practice with Mr. Liberatore.
Thursday: E period and A Period onstage on the risers in Spangenberg.
Lunch: Advanced Women’s Ensemble
Friday: E Period Concert Choir
Lunch: ADDED CHAMBER SINGERS RUNTHROUGH ON THE RISERS. REQUIRED!
Sunday:3:00 Riser crew will meet at Gunn and do set up for the concert. (I will need a couple parent volunteers to drive the kids from the school to the church once the risers are on the truck.)
4:45 ALL SINGERS DRESSED AND ON THE RISERS FOR WARM UP AND STAGING REHEARSAL AT THE CHURCH. (If you are not there for the staging rehearsal, you must have cleared this with me ahead of time. Otherwise you will not be allowed to perform in the concert. You have to know when and where to enter and exit and where we stand for each song. ) There will be pictures taken during the rehearsal so you need to be in full concert dress, with your hair done, etc.
6:30 DOORS OPEN, 7:00 CONCERTVII. SolosI have set some of the solos.
There is still an opportunity to audition for Ah El Novio/ What a Wonderful World/You Raise Me Up and It Takes a Village Monday at lunch.
Solos or small groups I have already assigned:
1) All Treble solos have already been assigned for a long time now.
2) Advanced Women: Cailin Kelly will sing the sop solo in Dirat On.
3) Ch Singers: Libiamo Soloists: Sophie Christel and Daniel Wolfert
4) Concert Choir:
Babethandaza Sextet: Delia Gratta, Mariam Helmy, Emily Simon
Shivani Rustagi, James Oh, Matthew Leong
Hit Me Baby Solo: Elias Kaufhold
Hit Me Baby Solo Trio: Daniel Wolfert (Top), Sam Hayward (Middle), Blake Vesey (Bottom)
(for the Hit Me Baby and Babethandaza people: you can access parts recordings of those at the following sites:
http://drop.io/HitMeBabySoloTrio and
http://drop.io/BabethandazaSoloGroup
VIII. Musical Stuff/Links to studyBy the time you get to the week of a concert every choir member should be studying their music at home for a minimum of 20-30 minutes a day. If you are not doing that, it is unlikely that you will leave the concert feeling like you were vocally a person who really contributed. You will feel like you were there and like you sang along some or most of the time, but it is a very different feeling when you are on top of your part and contributing with energy and purpose throughout every song.
I am not planning on holding folders for any of the music in this program.
Again the order is:
Treble Choir: Soli Deo, Brahms (solo sextet can hold for their verse), Rise Up, Take Me to the Water
Advanced Women: Jubilate Deo, Dirait On, Salmo 150 (this group may hold on their 2nd and 3rd pieces since we have had a lot less rehearsal than the other groups.)
Chamber Singers: Ah El Novio, Ubi Caritas, Libiamo
Concert Choir: Jubilate/ Cantate/ Ave Maria/ Babethandaza
Women: Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World
Men: Hit Me Baby, You Raise Me Up
All: It Takes a Village
There are MANY online resources to help you study scores at home.For Treble Choir:Brahms: This youtube video is a fantastic performance of the piece! I strongly encourage you to practice along with these girls. It will help with memorization and pronunciation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f48GjZKrOYTake Me to the Water: I think this youtube performance is GREAT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN9kBhWmpSYChamber Singers:Ah El Novio: A good recording of the University Of Utah singing it is posted here:
http://drop.io/AhElNovioUbi Caritas: Awesome Luther College performance here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNTDUIRrV-oLibiamo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEg7BdnX_AwOf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV84o8ofZyUAdvanced Women:All of your parts are posted here:
http://drop.io/AdvWomensEnsembleConcert Choir:Cantate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afiVr3bRFYE&feature=relatedAve Maria: There are two helpful recordings at the publisher’s website. You can hear Dan Hughes’s awesome choir sing it, or you can click on See and Hear, and you will hear just the parts played on midi. It is a great way to practice to sing your part with the midi file that has no vocals and make sure you have the words memorized!!
http://sbmp.com/DanielHughesSeries.htmlBabethandaza: Right under Ave Maria at the same link is Babethandaza. Fantastic recording!!
http://sbmp.com/DanielHughesSeries.htmlWomen:
Over the Rainbow/ What a Wonderful World:
Everything you need is posted here:
http://drop.io/Rainbow_WonderfulWorldIncluding parts recordings for Sop2 and Alto.
Men: Hit Me Baby and You Raise Me Up Parts are all posted here.
http://drop.io/Fall2010PartsRecordings(The Ten 1 and Ten 2 parts to Babethandaza are there also.)
YOU HAVE TO HAVE THESE MEMORIZED RIGHT AWAY.
It Takes A Village: The best recording is at the publishers website
http://sbmp.com/HighSchoolFrameSet/HighSchoolFrame.htmlClick on “I” and scroll down to find It Takes a Village.
I am looking forward to a great first concert!
Best,
Bill Liberatore
