Choir Show: Solo Auditions

Hey Everybody! Auditions for solos in the Choir Show ("Braveheart and Soul") are this Monday night starting at 6:30 in the choir room. If you would like to sign up for a specific time slot, go here: Choir Show Solo Auds. You can come just for your audition time, or stay for the whole thing. It should be a lot of fun.
As you can see, I have made a playlist of a lot of the most famous Motown songs. There are also lots of speaking parts and singing before we get to the Motown section, so don't be afraid to audition with a regular musical theatre song. There is plenty of that too. I will be emailing out more specific info about the characters etc in case you want to pick your song based on a specific character.
Almost all of the songs have lyrics posted online, and I have the sheet music to everything posted here, so don't feel you need to go buy sheet music. Just come and audition and have fun. You can audition alone, or as a duet or quartet is fine too.
Look for an email over the weekend with a plot synposis, character descriptions, etc.
Happy New Year!
Bill Liberatore

Winter Concert on Youtube

Hey! I had a parent who was willing to film a lot of the Winter Concert onto my flip video camera. I made a playlist of all the songs I have, plus a few bonus videos from the recording session.
Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!!

Many thanks to everyone for all the extra effort these last few weeks. The CD sales were a super big hit, and the Chamber Singers concerts throughout our community were inspiring and very well received. It has been a tremendous effort on the part of a lot of students and parents, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it. I also really appreciate all the help with tour scholarships. To all the families that have found sponsors to buy ads and make donations, a very sincere thank you!
Now on to the holiday! Have a great break, and I look forward to 2011 and diving into the world of "Braveheart and Soul: The Birth of Moortown Music". I'll be sending out emails with audition info and song ideas, so look for those after the 25th.
Here's a little taste of your fantastic concert last night.

Holiday CD Launch!

Carols, Old & New
The Gunn Choirs have recorded a wonderful new holiday CD. Carols, Old & New will be on sale next week! It's a wonderful collection of our own arrangements of carols from the 15th and 16th century plus a number of songs written by Gunn students, parents, and staff. $10each . All proceeds go to the Choir Tour Scholarship.

Great Concert!

What a great first concert. Wow! The DVD is wonderful too! I think if you turn in an order form by Friday, you could still get a copy reasonably soon. Order forms are linked to the GunnChoir homepage, as is the link to Don Anderson's amazing pictures. Check them out!

New today also is a link to a whole set of videos from Party Worth Crashing. I hope you will check them out. More details about how to audition, etc, will be out soon, but for now just enjoy checking out the material and see what you think!

http://partyworthcrashing.blogspot.com

Also, here is a link to the propsed plan for recording the holiday CD.
CD RECORDING SCHEDULE

Even more online resources!!

Dear Choir Students,
I am really looking forward to Sunday. I know that if everyone will take the time to be responsible for their own part, we could make it an amazing night. I have posted even more online resources today to help you get your part learned. Everyone needs to sit down for 15 or 20 minutes a day with their score and review the pieces you are having trouble with or have not memorized yet. Check out my links. They are pretty cool!
See you tomorrow.
BL

Concert Choir
I have posted a bunch of new stuff today!
Jubilate- New Ending!
Cantate for Altos
Ave Maria for all 4 parts (your part played against the recording. It's really helpful.)
PLUS I made the basses a cheat sheet for memorizing It Takes a Village. Check it out. It will make memorizing a lot easier.
These are all posted here: http://drop.io/ConcertChoirOct19

Over the Rainbow is still here: http://drop.io/Rainbow_WonderfulWorld
Hit Me Baby and You Raise Me Up are still Here: http://drop.io/Fall2010PartsRecordings

Treble Choir
Brahms (including a new recording of the alto harmony!) http://drop.io/BrahmsAlto
Take me to the Water Solo Group (includes a new full group recording that is awesome) http://drop.io/TakeMe2theWaterSoloGroup

Advanced Women
All your parts are still listed here: http://drop.io/AdvWomensEnsemble

Chamber Singers
I have posted tons of new stuff today including:
Libiamo parts for Bass, Tenor and Alto, plus the recording for sops
Ubi Caritas for the Basses
Ah El Novio for the Basses
These are all posted here: http://drop.io/ChamberSingersOct19

I hope this helps. You cannot get it all learned at once, but if everyone puts in 20 minutes each day, by Sunday it could be really great!

Also, here is a new plan for memorization and confirmation of the soloists.

Treble Choir: All 4 memorized (except the small group in Brahms.) Remember we are using the first verse of Brahms for the full group on both the first and the 3rd verse.

Adv Women: We are holding music.

Concert Choir:
We are not holding music. Jubilate/Cantate/Ave Maria/Babethandaza/Rainbow/HitMe/Village.
Shivani Rustagi will sing the solo on What a Wonderful World.
Elias Kaufhold will sing the solo on Hit Me. (The trio is Daniel W, Sam H, and Blake V)
Jun Yeup Kim will sing the solo on It Takes A Village
If the men can get You Raise Me Up Learned tomorrow, I will announce soloists on verses 1 and 2.

Chamber Singers: PLEASE HAVE YOUR MUSIC IN CLASS EVERY DAY.
All men will hold on Ah El Novio. No men will clap. 50% of the women will hold Ah El Novio and will share with one
other singer. That other singer will do the claps. The sopranos will always clap the female rhythm and the altos will always clap the male rhythm. We will run it in class tomorrow. (Soloist TBA)

We will hold on Ubi Caritas. Keep your eyes up and out of the score though!

We will not hold on Libiamo, but you are stuck with a binder in one hand so we need to practice the movement and poses with a binder in your hand. Please try to memorize this ASAP.

See you tomorrow.
BL

P.S. How are you doing on tickets? Attire? Remember we have an early call at the church to practice entrances and exits etc. 4:45!

Fall Concert!

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 Study

I. 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/Sponsorship2010

IV. 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. Schedule

Monday: 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 CONCERT

VII. Solos
I 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 study
By 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=6f48GjZKrOY

Take Me to the Water: I think this youtube performance is GREAT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN9kBhWmpSY

Chamber Singers:
Ah El Novio: A good recording of the University Of Utah singing it is posted here:
http://drop.io/AhElNovio

Ubi Caritas: Awesome Luther College performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNTDUIRrV-o

Libiamo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEg7BdnX_Aw
Of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV84o8ofZyU

Advanced Women:
All of your parts are posted here:
http://drop.io/AdvWomensEnsemble

Concert Choir:
Cantate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afiVr3bRFYE&feature=related

Ave 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.html

Babethandaza: Right under Ave Maria at the same link is Babethandaza. Fantastic recording!! http://sbmp.com/DanielHughesSeries.html

Women:
Over the Rainbow/ What a Wonderful World:
Everything you need is posted here: http://drop.io/Rainbow_WonderfulWorld
Including 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.html
Click on “I” and scroll down to find It Takes a Village.


I am looking forward to a great first concert!

Best,
Bill Liberatore