Rehearsal for CD (Please note change of date)

Dear Friends,
For those of you who weren't able to attend our Zoom meeting, we had a good time catching up. We also discussed our plan to rehearse for the production of our CD. Originally, I had said we would begin this Wednesday, June 24, but I need to postpone one week. So we will begin, on Wednesday July 1st. Here is the breakdown of the plan:

We will rehearse each section of a piece for 30 minutes as follows (this may rotate over time):

• 6:30 to 7:00 - Soprano part(s)
• 7:00 to 7:30 - Alto part
• 7:30 to 8:00 - Tenor part
• 8:00 to 8:30 - Bass part
• If there is a three-part divisi (SSA or TBB) I will let you know when I will be rehearsing two parts together

5 minutes before your appointed time, sign in using the link that will be provided that week. After a few instructions, each person will mute themselves. I will give instructions and rehearse each part on the piano with individual lines and then eventually with harmony. Each singer will sing along with the piano only hearing him or herself and me. Please have a pencil handy so you can mark breaths, dynamics, tempo changes, and suggestions for mood and tone. I will stop periodically to address questions and repeat sections.

I want to encourage singers to use the entire 2 hours as often as possible and practice their part along with the other parts. For example, after the soprano sectional, sopranos can sing their part opposite the alto line, then with the tenors, then the basses. This will be your opportunity to harmonize and strengthen your independence.

I am going to try to get a good microphone on my end so that you can hear me more clearly. I would suggest your using good speakers or ear buds, but NOT noise cancelling headphones. You want to be able to hear yourself naturally along with the other parts (not what you hear in your head.)

For July 1st, I want to rehearse Beati Quorum Via by Charles Stanford. Divisi will be as follows:

• Soprano I: Suzanne Quinlan, Annie Budash, Melody Neal, Karen May, Carissa Wendt
• Soprano II: Lisa van Stuijvenberg, Eileen Hunt, Hunter Hollingsworth, Joanna Mittman, Wendy Valle
• Alto: Cassi Tynan, Gina De Luca, Michele Conyers, Suzi Gilbert, Cyndi Kasten
• Tenor: Joe Pesch, Chuck Dresel, Dan Bunnell, Berkeley Rousseau
• Bass I: Thom Hinesley, Dana Zaccone, Ovid Ocampo, Andrew Moore
• Bass II: John Kasten, Matthew Gracy, Peter Mellencamp, Ben Schmidt, Robert Mittman

I would also like to rehearse There is a Pleasure. This means that some of the cross-over parts will need to plan to rehearse with both sections.

All of the music is on the Resources Site (Melody, I haven't forgotten you.)

Tentatively, the plan is to rehearse this way and learn the music as well as we can with distance learning, and hopefully by early Spring, we can begin getting together to rehearse as a group, to record in March and to release the CD at our May concert. Fingers crossed.

Also, I'm toying with the idea of doing a virtual recording of one (maybe two) of the songs. It would need to be memorized. In addition to having something out there on social media and/or YouTube, I would really like to use it as a tool for everyone to really work on their facial expressiveness while singing.

Please let me know if you have any questions via email. I look forward to seeing your faces on July 1st.

Ted