GHC Choir Sectionals Altos & Basses Nov. 28, 29 & Dec. 1
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November 11, 2016 #34
Admin Issue
GHC, HNC, SOUNDINGS & CCLT
Choir Community Newsletter
Quick Reminders!
GHC Potlucks
Thur/Tue/Mon Nov. 10 15 & 21
Details in the GHC News & Business section
GHC Choir Sectionals
Altos & Basses Nov. 28, 29 & Dec. 1
Sopranos & Tenors Dec. 5, 6 & 8
Details in the GHC News & Business Section
Aboriginal Aids Awareness Week Swat
Thursday Dec. 1, 4 pm, Downtown Library Atrium
Repertoire, signup and other details in future newsletter issues
GHC Our Place SWAT
Wednesday, Dec. 14, 5 - 6 pm
Repertoire, signup and other details in future newsletter issues
Holiday Breaks
GHC Dec. 16 - Jan 1 & HNC Dec. 7 - Jan 2
2017 Start-ups: GHC wk of Jan 2, 3 & 5 – HNC Jan 3
For access to all current and archived issues please go to:
Special Notes!!!!!!
Lest we forget!
The Christmas Trucea web article followed by a video of John McCutcheon singing his song “Christmas In The Trenches”
Submitted editorially
(source Upworthy’s “Daily Upworthiest” email)
The Hometown Battlefield By JP Cormier
Submitted by Susan Bates
GHC Monday Tenor
A pittance of time By Newfoundland’s Terry Kelly
Submitted by Patricia Houston
former GHC Alto (in 2009)
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GHC Choir Potlucks
Our potlucks will be a little later this season than usual but they are coming. Good food, good company and a fun sing-along.
Tuesday Nov. 15 “No Nuts” Tuesdays
Monday Nov. 21*
* Note: For Monday night we must all bring our own dishes, cutlery and cups - we can’t use the dishwasher at’ The First Alliance Church
These potlucks, held every season, are a tradition in the choir that allows us to get to know each other a little better.
Please bring a tasty dish to share and your own plate, cup and cutlery. An ingredients sign would be helpful for those with dietary considerations and perhaps a name label in case someone wants to get your recipe from you.
All choir members are welcome at all potlucks. Come and enjoy!
Editor’s Note:
For an advance look at lyrics for the grace(s) we tend to sing at potlucks (plus those for the choir’s birthday song) please click here
*********************** QUOTABLES ***********************
You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills.
Jim Rohn, Self Help Guru
Submitted by: Chris Gower Rees
Former GHC Bass
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An Appreciation
Outstanding Choir Members' Response Inspires Donation.
Thanks to last month's generous participation by over 100 choir members and their friends, to support a young PhD Student’s research project! Your remarkable response and kindness made a huge difference to this young man, who deserved a good break. His wish is that this research will benefit many Seniors in the near future. In gratitude to the choir effort, the family has made a donation to the Power of Hope.
Submitted by Karen Ledger,
Tuesday/Thursday Tenor
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My Schedule
If you have fees to hand in and I am not there you can either hold them until the next time you see me or you can give them to Gloria (or to Shivon if Gloria isn’t there).
My schedule for the next couple of weeks is…
Tuesday Nov 15*
Monday Nov 21*
Thursday Nov 24
* Potluck nights
If you have information to pass on to me or questions to ask feel free to contact me at 250-920-4160 (9 to 9 daily).
~ Bill
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Admin Team Notes
Gloria
Great singing with you all so far - and I’m looking forward to starting a couple of new songs next week.
~ Gloria
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CHOIR GIFT MARKETAfrican Handicrafts Sale At Choir
week of Nov. 21
positively AFRICA’s annual sale of handicrafts will be at all 3 choir practices during the week of November 21st. Come and see bone and horn jewelry and a variety of carved wooden crafts, all at very reasonable prices. 100% of the proceeds go to Soweto Junior School’s feeding program for 150 elementary students in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. For many of the students, this is their only meal of the day.
Submitted by Sabine Laubental,
lapsed GHC Tuesday/Thursday Alto / Gorgeous Guatemalan Scarves
And Shawls For Sale
or
Consider Making A Donation
As A Christmas Gift
Instead of exchanging gifts with family, work or friends
and make a huge difference in a Mayan family’s life.
Thanks to your generous support over the years, most people in the village now have clean burning, fuel efficient stoves that have replaced dangerous open hearth fires, and we will continue to maintain them so they are safe and working well. Input from parents, teachers and community leaders recommend a much needed Learning Centre and Library for San Antonio'schildren, who are falling behind and dropping out of school, as early as Grade 6. We are refocusing our efforts to ensure the next generation will have quality education in their own village. We also plan to continue with our lunch program for the very poor elderly widows .
We will be selling our beautiful scarves at GHC one last time for this season on: Monday Nov. 21st
Submitted by:
Mary Lynch, HNC Soprano,
Linda Stanton, HNCAlto, and
Kathy Coster, Former GHC Soprano.
Gift Cards
Power of Hope and Caia Connection gift cards will be available at all choir nights…until the Christmas break.
Cards are $10 each - with the following text:
A gift has been made on your behalf to support
1. Power of Hope programs, or
2. Kuwangisana Education Programs
Thanks in advance for supporting our two Charities through the purchase of these gift cards.
Submitted by Gloria Hansen,
GHC Admin and Board Member of The Power of Hope and The Caia Connection
Gettin’ Higher Choir Info
GHC News & Business
Choir Potlucks
There will be potluck gatherings from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. on each of the following choir nights:
Thursday Nov. 10Done
Tuesday Nov. 15“No Nuts” Tuesday
Monday Nov. 21*
* Note: For Monday night we must all bring our own dishes, cutlery and cups - we can’t use the dishwasher at’ The First Alliance Church
These potlucks, held every season, are a tradition in the choir that allows us to get to know each other a little better.
Please bring a tasty dish to share and your own plate, cup and cutlery. An ingredients sign would be helpful for those with dietary considerations and perhaps a name label in case someone wants to get your recipe from you.
All choir members are welcome at all potlucks. Come and enjoy!
Editor’s Note:
For an advance look at lyrics for the grace(s) we tend to sing at potlucks (plus those for the choir’s birthday song) please click here.
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GHC Choir Sectional Practice Schedule
There will be Alto and Bass sectionals all three nights in the week of Nov. 28, 29 & Dec. 1 from 6:45 to 7:30. Please be there a bit early so we can warm up and be singing repertoire starting right at 6:45.
The following week Dec. 5, 6 & 8 will be the Soprano and Tenor sections' turns.
Home sectionals & Cross Sectionals can, of course, happen anytime you want to host one.
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Some Mid-Season Reminders!
Please Be Scents-itive!
Please be aware that a number of people in the choir are very sensitive to scents. As we are all breathing deeply in close quarters even those who aren’t “scents-itive” may find various scents hard to take. This includes all perfumes, deodorants, after shave, hair spray, garlic, tobacco, etc.. If you regularly use any of these products a non-scent set of clothing for choir would be a very considerate act. (a shower before choir is also recommended!)
No scents makes sense!
No Nuts Tuesdays & Thursdays!!!
Our Tuesday/Thursday Tenor who is seriously allergic to nuts (all kinds) is with us again this season. As in past seasons she strongly requests no one (in any section) bring anything to choir that contains any type or amount of nuts. Even the smell on someone’s breath can trigger an anaphylactic reaction with drastic negative results.
Please keep this request firmly in mind and make our GHC Tues/Thurs practices an absolutely nut free time zone!
We Welcome Your Feedback Throughout The Season
If you have any “more of this,” “less of that,” “try this” or any other form of feedback for any of us on the Admin team that can help us make the GHC experience better for you, and for us all, please pass it on us.
If you think of something later and you don’t have our contact information with you, it can always be found on our site’s “Choir Life: Contact Us” page.
.
~ Shivon, Denis, Gloria & Bill
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GHC News & Business (cont.)
Singing “Off Book”
Most of you know that we sing “off book” in our concerts.
For any new folks who may have missed hearing about that…we do so because when we sing confidently from our hearts in concert, without our books between us and the audience, we maximize both our joy in singing and our audience’s joy in listening!
As of the coming week we will have passed the half-way point of the season. This is a good time to start weaning ourselves off our sheet music. As we do so we will enable ourselves to focus on the feel and dynamics of our songs so that we get them solidly into our hearts along with the words and notes.
While we haven't learned, let alone memorized, every bit of every song at this point it is a good idea to put our sheet music down periodically to try singing without it.
By doing so we will:
- learn what we don't know so that we can focus our memorization efforts on those bits
- learn our parts more quickly by ear than by staring at the little dots
- free our eyes to focus on Shivon & Denis' directing to get the timing and dynamics of each song
- find that we can often get lyrics we are missing by watching them mouth the words (but sometimes different sections have different words or timing so be careful)
- most importantly the more we can sing without looking at our book for the words or the notes the more joy we will get from the singing from night to night as well as at the concerts!
The above information is an excerpt from a more detailed document that can be opened by clicking on:
How To Make The Most Of Your Concert Experience.
~ Bill
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Other Info About Our
Community Of Choirs
High Noon Choir
News & Business
HIGH NOON CHOIR….
A DAYTIME COMMUNITY CHOIR
Join us for the Fall Session - here’s when, where and how
When: Tuesdays 12 noon – 1:30 pm
Where: Church of Truth 111 Superior St. (James Bay)
Our Fall runs ‘til Dec. 6
New singers always welcome
This is a non-audition choir, all are welcome.
Shivon Robinsong and Gloria Hansen
HNC Director and Registrar
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Soundings News
& Business
Soundings Concerts
Hello Friends of Soundings - I am excited to let you know about our upcoming concerts! We have some new gems and some old favourites for you, as always, and we hope that you will be able to come to one of our concerts. The info is below, and I have attached a copy of our beautiful poster.
“A Soundings West Coast Winter”
In our annual December concert Soundings celebrates the dark time of the year in music ranging from Medieval carols and wassailsto contemporary songs by Pentatonix,The Roches, and Ola Gjeilo. Please join us for a lively anduncommonly diversefeast of Christmas music, and be prepared to sing along a bit!
Saturday Dec.10, 7:30 pm,Oak Bay United Church, 1355 Mitchell St
Sunday Dec.11, 2:30 pm, St Mary's Church, Saanichton, 1973 Cultra
Tickets $20 adults, $15 seniors, students, and unwaged
available now at
I hope you can join us!
Denis
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Admin Team
Special Announcements
From time to time Shivon, Denis, Gloria or Bill will use this section to announce activities and events that they are involved in, or support, outside of their normal work for the choirs and the CCLT.
Hospice Bedside Singers Wanted
Bedside Singers sing gentle songs in pairs to patients in Hospice in the early evenings. Practices are held on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month (except summer) and flu shots are a requirement. Training begins in January 2017.
Actively Recruiting For 4 Positions.
Deadline for applications is November 22.
To learn more about this unique program, please contact Hospice Volunteer Services at or 250.370.8727, and speak to either Sarah or Alex.
~ Bill (since they are still looking, it seems like a worthy project and because the deadline is looming)
The Appreciation Game’s
Fall Series Continues
Do you like free-flowing, wide-ranging, entertaining, enlightening, humorous and satisfying conversations with friends, strangers or both? Check out the Appreciation Game.
If you would like to spend an interesting social evening trying out this very social conversational game, or to play it again, you can find the November game dates and other details, including how to RSVP, in this Open Invitation.
I am developing this unique game with the ultimate goal of making it freely available to anyone anywhere via a supportive membership web site and I am currently in the process of play-testing it with as many people (known and unknown to me) as possible.
~ Bill
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CCLT UPDATES
Community Choir Leadership Trainings
A two week workshop for current and prospective
community choir leaders facilitated annually by Denis & Shivon
Please Pass This On To Potential Singers…Wherever They May Be!
Many of the graduates of the Shivon and Denis’ Community Choir Leadership Training program (CCLT) are involved in choirs of their own across North America as well one each in Malaysia and Australia. The style of these choirs ranges from “influenced by” to “based on” the Gettin’ Higher Choir model.
You can find information about them by clicking on:
If you know someone who might like to sing in a GHC/HNC style environment send them the above link so they can check to see if there is a GHC sister choir in their area.
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======THATS NOT ALL FOLKS ======
Our Community Issue (Part 2) follows next Friday with lots of
interesting submissions from other choir community members
plus some Quote Breaks and the Just For Fun section!
Please submit any items you have for it by midnight
next Wednesday to
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You can always find links to past, as well as current, newsletter issues at:
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