Children's Chorus and Notables this Week

Concert Publicity

• Please watch for 2 postcard type invitations for our concert to come home.  These are to share with your family and friends, and more are available upon request.  
• Also watch for a sample Christmas card for our fundraiser, with information about how you can order those.  
• You will also be given information about ordering your 2 complimentary tickets to our show. 
• Please like us on Facebook, and refer people to vpafoundation.org.  Spread the word, and help us to sell out our 2 shows!  We need everyone to sell tickets and promote the shows, they are going to be very enjoyable, and will really help you get into the "Spirit of Christmas"

The Children's Chorus kids are so awesome!  They sing with enthusiasm, and they are so quick to learn the music.  They are really getting into the choreography, and I think singing "It's the Holiday Season" with Dave Sweeney, our Master of Ceremonies will be very fun.  Here are some choir assignments and decisions for the show that will be fun to know.

Soloists for "The Angels Came to Sing" are:
Rachel, Maya, Alena, Lizzy in that order.  It was really hard to choose the solos, because everyone did such a nice job auditioning.  Over half the choir auditioned--and they were all really strong singers.  WOW! 

Artists
Connie and Lizzy will be providing the art for 2 large pictures postcards we will use in the concert for "The Christmas Tree Feud".  I had the kids draw pictures for memory visual aid for "The Angels Came to Sing".  I chose the artists based on what I saw, and who wanted to do the art-but they all did a nice job making pictures

Actors
There are a few scripted lines before the "Christmas Tree Feud".  I had everyone who wanted to read for me, and then I chose Jacob and Maisie for the parts.

Sign holder Britan will carry one of the postcard signs and have a bit part giving it to the postal woman in the show.



Notables move!  What a happy group!
Most of the kids were off the music this week, and they really began to sound like a real choir, watching me for cut offs, and singing in a unified way.  I'm happy to see the progress that they have made since last week.  Thank you for encouraging practice at home--please continue to encourage it, and I will continue to have candy for those who bring me a note from you saying they practiced.

We are working on a major entrance for "The First Noel/Pachelbel" arrangment.  They are dancing on to stage holding battery operated candles.  It should be pretty effective, but we have a lot of refining to do!  Please encourage your child to head over to the portable as close to 3:00 PM next week as they can.  We are having rehearsal Tuesday Nov. 22 for sure!

Have a great week!

Christmas Concert Coming Soon!

Hello Choir Families--
We have just 3 rehearsals left until we start performing.  The kids should be memorized by the end of rehearsal tomorrow.  Please encourage them to practice at home.  Remember they can easily practice with the computer playing the songs if you go to this webpage:  http://jerryjan.com/sherwoodchorale/mainpage  You can also right click on each song and save them for your ipod or mp3 player.

Please encourage your child to practice at home! 

We have performances for the kids choirs coming up on.

Dec. 2 6:00 PM at Washington Square Mall, call time 5:40 PM.
Dec. 3 4:50 PM at the Sherwood Tree Lighting ceremony, and at the parade at 4:00 PM.  Call time for the parade is 3:30, then we go straight to the Tree Lighting ceremony.  We are FIRST on the program before the lighting.

Notables Girls will have a blouse fitting this Tuesday during and before rehearsal.

Busy Week with Into the Woods Production!

Last week was crazy with choir rehearsals on top of tech week for our VPA production of Into the Woods Junior. The show was a great success, and I'm happy to note that of the 38 cast members, 27 have either been in a VPA choir or are currently in a choir! Considering how strong the ensemble music was in that show, which is a Stephen Sondheim score, I can see why they managed it so well! It was a pleasure to direct such a group! It's very validating to our program to see that kind of continued support as we branch into new performing opportunities for the kids. Thanks to all the parents who supported their children in this project which required 3 afternoons each week in 2 hour rehearsals, on top of our choir rehearsals! It took a lot of effort, but was sooo worth it! I'm still just relishing the memory of the weekend shows!  Here are just a few pictures of choir members.

Lucinda and Cinderella are in Footnotes

Jack is in Notables and one of the boys is in Children's Chorus

Jack's mother is in Notables

Little Red is in Children's Chorus, and 3 Flowers are in Notables, and 1 is in Children's Chorus, and 2 trees are in Notables

The Finale

Singing "Children's Will Listen" a powerful song in the Finale

Good bye October

We had a great week of rehearsal!  I hope all singers will practice at home every week.  The recorded music is available on line, and they can either sit at the computer and sing, or you can download to your preferred device. If you would like a CD, you can e-mail me with the request at cindyachristensen@gmail.com.  Here is the website address and link:     http://jerryjan.com/sherwoodchorale/mainpage

This week quite a few kids from our choirs are involved in the VPA's production of Into the Woods. I hope it's a great experience for them all week.  Please take time to go see the production on Thursday Friday or Saturday!  For cast members who are in the Children's choir--I'd like them to stay for choir until 5:15, and then head over to get ready for the evening rehearsal.  It is slated to start at 6:00 with the 5:00-6:00 hour for getting into costumes, so I think it will be okay to compromise on that last 1/2 hour of practice and split the difference.


Children's Choir
It is so interesting how using spacial movements with the arms helps kids recognize and sing correct pitches.  There is a certain repeating phrase in "The Holiday Season" where the ending note is one pitch higher on the second repeat.  The kids struggle in singing both phrases with the different ending note, but when I go back to the gestures that I used when teaching it initially, they do it accurately!  Now I've got to figure out how to keep them remembering without the gestures, because they really aren't  choreography!  These kids are really singing well, with heart and soul. It's really very fulfilling to me to see them develop confidence in those melodies, and then to sing them like they own them! 

Notables
Singing Jingle Bells in 2 different key signatures simultaneously makes for a very quirky rendition that the kids thing is so fun.  They did a good job this week at holding on to their parts and not getting distracted.  I also had them sing it in 2 groups by starting the song 4 beats apart.  It sounds crazy, but it's so good for them to learn to be independent.  Next week I will try it again, with 3 groups which will be quite a challenge I'm sure.  I love warm ups!  The kids are getting better at solfege, and I'm finding in all the choirs that it clarifies a lot of little issues in the music that come up.  I can quickly explain some interval pattern, and they respond so well correcting misunderstood notes.  Our music is coming along well, but we need some practicing at home to happen in order to have things ready to choreograph in the next week or so.


Footnotes
For only having 8 girls, they are so strong.  I'm very pleased at how well these girls are harmonizing.  They are learning very quickly, and they have a very nice blend.  They love warmups that have a lot of harmony, and are always asking me to repeat things from previous weeks!  I threw in a "name that tune" warm up of "thumpity thump thump" from Frosty the Snowman..  It was a little too slow to recognize at first, but they got the interval so-re, which is a little tricky, and that made my day!  They have quite a lot of music to learn, so memorizing at home is pretty necessary this week.  Please encourage them to use the CD  if they have it, or go online for the recordings there.

We had a great outing to get character shoes at Dance Togs and they are giving us a group discount.  Afterward we took a little side trip to Beaverton Bakery for some delectable treats.  I found it quite amusing that 2 of our little petite girls split a pumpkin pie-and ate the whole thing!  Way to celebrate the season, and take advantage of an opportunity.


Chorale
We have A LOT of music, and with only 12-15 minutes per song in rehearsal that means we've got to work smart!  Our focus from here out should be on blend, tuning, interpretation, dynamics and cleaning/tightening each song.  That means memorization is starting this week, and fishing for notes is over!  Please take time to do a little wood shedding on your parts this week!  Here are some suggested areas to work on to nail down some notes on a few of our songs:
It's Beginning to Look...p. 12 to the end
Jazzy Bell p. 4--especially tenors
Snow Carol--women German from mm5 to mm16
Pata Pan-p. 10 to end

Thanks for your continued enthusiasm and support.  I certainly enjoy working with  you each week!

This Thursday, I will come to rehearsal late, but choir is starting at 7:30 with Russell directing.  Please come review the music, I will have specific things for you to work on with Russell.

NEW SEASON Off to a Great Start!

Hello Choir People-
We began rehearsals for our choirs the 3rd week of September and we have been going strong ever since. We have 3 kids choirs now, and I'm very happy to have Jill Spencer, Shelley Christensen and Samantha Cirilly working with me.  Jill is assisting with the Children's and Notables choirs, Shelley is teaching a dancing segment during the Footnotes rehearsal, and Samantha is teaching a pre-rehearsal, optional dance class for the Notables choir.   Also we appreciate Hannah Simpson and Kristin Chicoski accompanying our choirs.

Here's a little run down for each of the choirs with a few pictures from our first performance just 3 weeks after we started rehearsal! This was a fun way to get us out into the community at the annual Onion Festival sponsored by the Sherwood Chamber of Commerce.  It was a low pressure gig, and I think the kids got the year off to a good start.  Thanks to everyone who came out to support us!

All Choirs at the Onion Festival October 8, 2011

Children's Choir
We started the season by learning a round--I Put Music in My Life.  The added gestures helped the kids gain a sense that the melody for each phrase is in a different register, low, medium and high.  It also helped them see a clear distinction between each phrase and each entrance for the round.  They learned it quickly, and it was enjoyable for them to hear harmony on the first day.

We also learned a partner song, This Little Light of Mine to help them gain some further exposure to harmony.  A partner song presents a melody for a verse, then a different melody for another verse, and then the 2 melodies are sung simultaneously to create harmony.  It's a very simple, and effective way to teach kids to learn and hang onto a voice part.  With the added choreography, it became even more fun and challenging.  The arrangement we worked on is from a book of partner songs entitled "All Aboard the Partner Express" and it includes choreography suggestions, which were very useful for a very busy choir director to grab onto!

The third song we worked on was Kids of the Future from the movie "Meet the Robinsons".  To keep expenses down, I just provided them with a page of lyrics with a few musical hints and notations.  I added some gestures that helped them gain some melodic contour understanding, and I was pleased to discover that some of the words really fit a few solfege signs that were accurate with the actual notes.  It was gratifying to see how easily they picked up the song while using these gestures.  There is a lot of unison or repeated notes  in the song, and the gestures helped them to notice that, as well as the general up and down contour.  I took out some of the gestures for our performance at the Onion Festival, but some where just too fun, so we kept them in!

Children's' Choir singing "Kid's of the Future"

Notables Choir
This choir also learned the round and partner song that the Children's choir learned so that they could perform them jointly at the Onion Festival.  Additionally they learned Into the Light from the movie "Tangled".  This was a big hit as far as choir enthusiasm goes.  They learned this song by wrote with lyric sheets only, and a lot of cues from the director for rhythm and pitch.  I also wrote in many musical hints on and around the lyrics to help them learn the song.  This was a good song to get the ball rolling and work on singing in unison and following the director.

Notables Choir singing "I See the Light"

Footnotes Choir
This group of 8 girls began right off the bat learning a choreography for Hakuna Matata from "The Lion King". They quickly caught on to the group songs for the Onion Festival, and spent most of the rehearsals on Hakuna Matata.  I was pleased with how easily they learned the harmony, and focused on the choreography that Shelley taught to them.  They are really engaging well in rehearsal, and I expect very good things to happen in the weeks to come. 

Footnotes "Hakuna Matata" final pose w/ 7 of our 8 girls!

The Sherwood Chorale is back with 36 voices strong!  We decided to sing at the Onion Festival as well, which enabled us to not sing Christmas songs on Sept. 22 when we started rehearsal! That was just a little too early for "It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas".  Some how I just couldn't do it, so I made some revisions on my arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner, we revived Riversong from our Spring concert 2 years ago, and got our selves ready to sing at the festival.  Now we are at full steam ahead working on our Christmas music--and with the weather change, I think we can handle it!

Sherwood Chorale singing "Riversong"

Robin Hood Festival

First of all, THANKS to everyone who contributed to the float for the parade.  I know the people who decorated it had a good time, and those of us who were in the parade had a lot of fun.  I think we sang "I Put Music in My Life Today" 150 times or so during the parade, and the line from "Tomorrow" certainly fit the weather...(the sun 'll come out, tomorrow...)!  Yes, the weather was cloudy, but the rain subsided right before the parade, and stayed at bay all day.  I was so grateful that it warmed up and we were able to sing on the family stage in very pleasant conditions with NO coats on.  We had a little technical difficulty with the IPOD arrangement for accompaniment, but once we sang, it all went well.  We had about half of our singers there to sing, but they did a fine job.  Thanks to everyone for your support in our last performance of this season.  See you in September!!!

Hello!

Sherwood Children's Chorus

Footnotes Girls Choir

Music Education Beginnings

On Friday my sister invited me to come to the culminating event for Art Literacy at her son's school.  She has been teaching art literacy to the volunteers for 3 or 4 years, and "Culture week" has been a big event which she has been the master mind behind.  This year they studied Egyptian art, and they had a large pyramid built in the gym, a food booth, and several art projects along with all displays of the art they had done in the art lit classes.  It was really fun, and really impressive. 

So interestingly, this school was McKay Elementary in Beaverton--the school I went to in 4th, 5th and 6th grade.  The gym is right inside the main doors, and after I had seen the exhibit, I decided with the encouragement of one of the teachers I had been visiting with, to walk around and see if I could remember anything.  I guess it's been 36 years since I walked those halls, since I don't remember going back after I advanced from 6th grade.  Well, I wondered if anything would trigger any memories.  As I stood in the doorway of the library, gazing around, the librarian saw me and asked if she could help me find something.  As we visited, she took me down stairs to a little office and storage room where there were some boxes stored with all the class pictures from bygone days.  There in the box were pictures from 1972-73, 1974-75, 1976-77 with my class mates and me!  It was fun to know the schools repository still contained a record of little me! 

She mentioned that in this little room, now an office, they had taught beginning strings.  That sent a twinge of memory through me, this is where I began playing the viola.  This is where I gained a little feeling that I was special, and that I had some talent for something.  My teacher was so encouraging, and she gave me special attention because I was the only viola player in a group of violins--and viola was her first love. 

We walked up stairs and my guide took me into the music room, and then left me with my thoughts. Here is where I loved general music from "Miss Morris formerly Mrs. Mouldy".  We did a little production on this stage in 4th grade, something about a rabbit, with music--it was a play.  I remember singing on that stage for class, and feeling bad that I couldn't be in the choir, because I was playing viola instead.

At this window, maybe even on these book cases, I remember the autoharp with song pages and chord changes.  I sang "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", and "The Ink is Black, the Page is White".  She set up little stations around the room where you could do independent music activities sometimes. I remember loving to play the autoharp and singing. I loved music class. 

This is where it all began, at McKay Elementary. This is where I began to learn and love music outside of my home.  Wow.  Somehow going into that room sent a flood of emotion over me.  Feelings of gratitude for a time when music was really valued in the schools, a time when I was the recipient of so much instruction, a time when I was thirsty and ready to learn all that I could.
 I'm so glad I had music class.  I'm so glad I have had music as a major part of my life for all these years.  I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to give back a little something to the music world through the Voices for the Performing Arts foundation.  I'm so glad for an unexpected moment of reflection in a little empty classroom, on a random Friday in June.  Sometimes it's the little things that happen that mean a lot.  Aaahh. Life is sweet.

Memorial Day Service may 30, 2011

Thanks to everyone who sang at the Memorial Day service at the Middleton Pioneer Cemetery.  We had 24 of our 36, and that was great for a holiday I'd say. 

 The choir sang, The Lord is My Shepherd arr. by Howard Goodall, followed by

 The Star Spangled Banner--newly arranged for this event by-- me!  It was hot off the press, or printer at our rehearsal Thursday night.  After a few edits, I think it's set--at least until next year. Fun.

 We concluded with John Rutter's for the Beauty of the Earth.  It was a beautiful morning, and we were so blessed that it didn't rain, and we didn't freeze in our short sleeve shirts!

 I have to say that singing, being outdoors, and listening to the three speakers really had a profound effect on me that day.  I felt grateful for having that time to reflect and feel gratitude for the sacrifices that so many have given in behalf of our freedoms in this great country. Thank you for being there with me.  I hope we can make this an annual even--I'll even select some music just for it.

Thank You for a Wonderful Concert!

Small Town Big Talent Contest

Concert Portion

May 13, 14

Sherwood Children's Choir

 

I was so pleased with the performance to these kids!  They were so cute, and they knew their stuff. The "playing" throughout the song was believable, and fun, and they sounded great.

You've Got a Friend in Me--Friday May 13, 2011

Dream Keeper--Friday May 13, 2011

 Check out those arms--all up on time, and with the same angle. YAE!

Dream Keeper-Friday May 13, 2011

Ordinary Miracle--Friday May 13, 2011

I enjoyed the smiling,  happy faces in this family portrait pose.  They sang with feeling and warmth. good job Children's Choir--you were delightful.

Footnotes

Go the Distance

I was so happy with the tone quality and expression of these girls. 

They blended and sounded beautiful. 

When You Believe

 The dance was executed with finesse.  Way to go!

.

Final Pose--When You Believe

Swingin' With the Saints

 I'm so glad the girls were able to perform this song.
They were under pressure at the end, but they pulled it off.

It was great how the audience joined in with the clapping too!

Swingin' With the Saints

Sherwood Chorale

As always, I love directing the Chorale.  You focus, you give, you respond to me. I love feeling the music right there in my hands as we nuance and shape it. Thanks for being there with me!

Dream a Little Dream

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Don't Rain on My Parade

Not While I'm Around

Lean On Me

Lean on Me

Thank you for your support!

I'd like to especially thank and recognize the following people 

for their commitment to the Chorale:

5+ concert participants received a 16th note pin at our party

• 5 concerts-- Polly D., Timberly M.
• 7 concerts--Lee M., Craig W., John B.
• 8 concerts--Elizabeth E., Corey K., Bill R., Patti B.

10+ Concert Recognition

• 10 concerts--Nathan D.
• 11 concerts--Larry S., Brian W., Lynnette S.
• 12 Concerts--Vicki B., Jan C., Bernie D.,
• Robyn F., Alicia M., George S.

• ALL 13 concerts-- Sarah G., Russell G., Jean S.

SEE YOU IN THE FALL!
Next concert: Dec 9, 10, 2011

Kids Final Rehearsal

Here are a few photos of our final rehearsal before dress rehearsal, and before the concert

Children's choir 

 

Footnotes

 Pre-concert warm up

Accompanist Cindy

Accompanist Jenny

Accompanist Lynette ready to go