Sacramento Valley Chorus had our annual installation celebration via Zoom on Cinco De Mayo. Barb Vander Putten graciously filled the spot of MC as she graciously delighted and entertained us. Our new music and management teams were announced with finesse.
 We recognized Cindy Henry as our "Sweet Adeline of the Year. Cindy has continuously helped with all aspects of SVC's management team responsibilities. She is now in charge of membership for the chorus and shares the spotlight of performing physical warmups and co-hosting the zoom rehearsals. Cindy sings tenor and enjoys making professional greeting cards out of her home. She is the epitome of being a Sweet Adeline.
The month of May showcased three 60 second Sweet Adeline Stories of Sandy Cope, Betty Steinback, and Carol Wharton. As always, the common thread that weaves us all into the Sweet Adeline fold is hearing about our organization from family, friends, or neighbors. The first time we meet a group of like-minded women who enjoy the musical harmonies is like no other earthly experience. We feel an attraction that feeds our soul and nourishes our bodies. Our wheelhouse is in a class all by itself.
We are starting to put our feet in the water, so to speak, as the CDC pandemic restrictions are loosening for in-person gatherings to sing. Currently, our groups of 8-16 ladies forming one to two times per week is magically making us more responsible for nailing and singing our part. Individual practice has fostered more confidence as we leap towards the inevitable "all chorus singing together experience". Without blinking an eye, the mystical magical day is fast approaching to return to the risers. A collective "sigh" will be heard around the world when this joyous event unfolds sometime this summer.
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River Lights Chorus was so excited to begin in-person rehearsals again during the month of May. We began our month with our director, Sally Massen, joining us live and in-person from Arizona to get us back in the swing of things. Following our county guidelines has made rehearsals a little different, but we are so excited to get the opportunity to make music together once more! We even welcomed a couple of guests to our rehearsals this month.
Summer is fast approaching, and we are most excited for our summer event to take place!
In addition to our July event, we will be singing the National Anthem for our hometown baseball team, the Modesto Nuts, on June 19th! This summer is shaping up to be a great time here at River Lights, and we are so grateful and blessed to see 2021 shaping up to be such a wonderful year!
As always, find us on Facebook, Instagram, Meetup, and of course, our website RLC - Home
Sending love to all of our Sweet Adeline Sisters in Harmony!
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After a very long 14 months holding weekly rehearsals on Zoom, High Desert Harmony finally held our first (mostly) all in-person rehearsal on May 24th, in accordance with the latest CDC guidelines. It was glorious to be able to be together once again and harmonize in person!
HDH continued to welcome new members during May -- since our Guest Night in early April, seven talented ladies have joined us. Our most recent newbies are Jess Hinsberg (bass); Pam Lambert (bass); and Laura Morrison (baritone) -- and several others are planning to audition soon. We are so excited to welcome these talented ladies to HDH!
Saturday, May 22nd, was a special day in several ways. HDH members, families and friends met at Mira Loma Park in Reno to participate in a park clean-up with Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful -- and believe it or not, it RAINED, for the first time in months. The very welcome rain made it a bit cool and sloppy, but it also made for a colorful photo with everyone's bright raingear. At the end of our two hours of work, we sang several songs in the parking lot -- it was so fun to sing together again!
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The Oregon Coast Chorus wrapped up an interesting year with our annual Installation Banquet. The banquet was held at the home of Team Coordinator Evelyn Brookhyser. The installation of officers for the coming year included Joyce Mackenroth as Communications Coordinator, Pamela Baechler as Events Coordinator, Sue de Bit as Finance Coordinator, Willa Martin as Membership Coordinator, and Evelyn Brookhyser as Team Coordinator. Along with our Director Kris Pederson, this is the group who will be leading the rest of the chorus to new heights in the coming year.
Like so many other choruses we learned to adapt to Zoom rehearsals. Director, Kris Pederson, became official this month with a new contract, but she has been helping us get through the pandemic by holding weekly rehearsals, providing educational activities from her personal experience, and coaching with Lynne Smith and Ryan Heller. The chorus was invited to a joint rehearsal with Alamo Metro Chorus for an educational session on the new Visual Performance Category presented by Judy Pozsgay. It was a wonderful learning experience. We are very fortunate to have Kris, as she exposes us to opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
Back in December we had a visit from Randy Sahae, who helped us create a virtual Holiday performance.
Randy explained the details of how to make our recordings. When the individual recordings were ready, they were sent to Randy to put together. It was a wonderful production that was shared with the community and the groups that would usually ask us to sing in person at their holiday celebrations.
During the evening we welcomed 4 new members to the chorus. Willa presented them with gifts and their official part pin and membership numbers, along with a few other fun gifts.
Willa, second from the left, is a teacher at Toledo Elementary School and invited some of her fellow teachers to join us on Zoom rehearsals. On the far left is Anna Rodgers, a 5th grade teacher at Toledo Elementary School. To the right of Willa is Sarah Gibbs, the music teacher at Toledo Elementary and in her first year of teaching. On the far right is Stephanie Dodson, an Occupational Therapist who recently moved to the area and found us on Meetup. Their bright and smiling faces are a welcome addition to the chorus. These ladies are joined by Clare Paul who has been a CAL member and sang with High Tide NW Quartet from the chorus. She decided it was time to make the leap to full chorus membership. This is not only 4 new members but a quartet of new members. Anna is a lead, Sarah a tenor, Stephanie a bass and Clare a baritone. Clare was not able to be with us but one thing we learned this past year is that electronics are our friend. You see her here on the phone.
Most of us had not met our newest members in person until the Installation Banquet. It was wonderful to see everyone and be able to give a little hug and personal greeting.
Lastly, we celebrated birthdays for April and June. Sarah was April 30th and Joyce is June 22nd. They are wearing the traditional chorus Birthday hats.
The chorus is looking forward to being able to sing together again sometime in the next few months. There will be small sectional rehearsals but the whole chorus won’t be together until later in the summer. Rehearsing by Zoom has kept us together, but there is still nothing like singing in person.
Oh, and one more thing. A big thank you to Evelyn Brookhyser and the chorus for honoring me (Mary Mamer) as Woman of the Year. I truly appreciate these ladies and enjoy their friendship and the joy of singing.
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Our Chapter Chats are taking a new approach. Beginning with this month, we will introduce our readers to one of our members each time we submit. This month we will begin with featuring our lovely bass, Cindy M-J.
Cindy has been singing with Bella Aappella since 2013 or 14. While waiting for her husband at the Senior Center, where he was taking a fly-tying class, she heard Bella rehearsing. She followed the sound and sat in to listen. Members of the group invited her to return as she liked, and the rest is history.
Cindy has been singing in choruses from the age of 9 through high school and college. She started her college career as a voice major but switched to English Literature to work with high school dropouts. She stopped singing once she started working, then attended grad school, got married and had her family.
Cindy says that joining Bella has greatly improved her singing, and her background in music has helped her be able to explain some challenges the chorus faces at times. Although she does claim that she “can’t read music like an instrumentalist.”
Besides singing, Cindy also spends time with her 2 horses which she loves to ride. She is also an avid flower gardener and has the yard to prove it! At this writing Cindy has 8 grandchildren and one GREAT grandchild! They also fill her life with love and joy.
When asked what aspects of our chorus she enjoys most, Cindy responded: I really love the fact that this is a group of strong, capable women. We are loving, supportive & friendly, full of joy and we all make a sincere effort to achieve excellence.
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We've entered a brand new chorus year! We started off our May with a wonderful celebration. We installed our new Management Team. We also celebrated our new Sweet Adeline of the Year, Jamie Osborn! In addition to being the newest member of the Management Team, she has been invaluable with her leadership of the chorus virtual production team and performances throughout this past year. She has also been instrumental in building our Return to Rehearsal team. Congratulations, Jamie!
We began our foray into in-person rehearsing by starting a series of small in-person workshops as a separate rehearsal opportunity. Small groups are getting together at a local park to work on vocal production and current music, and it's been wonderful to hear four-part harmony in person!
This month, we also had a coaching visit from Lynne Smith. who spoke to us about how our voices change as we age. She emphasized that our best tool is to perform from the heart. Our passion for the performing that we love will shine through as we make the adjustments we need when our voices change.
Late in the month, we started a "Let's Get Moving" challenge designed to help us get back into physical and vocal fitness. We have weekly goals for physical activity and vocal readiness activities. These activities will definitely help us ramp up to a future that includes singing together as a chorus - in person!
We polled the chorus about our goals, and many indicated that an emphasis on vocal production is desired. We are starting a series of classes in chorus to help focus on this. It is exciting to think that it may not be too much longer before we can return to a more normal life - we look forward to that time.
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Click on the pictures below to view individual chapters on Facebook. If you have not already liked their page do so now. Next month we will see the next three chapters.
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Facebook is an excellent way to reach out to your audience. Be sure to post weekly. It can be a recap of your latest rehearsal, the announcement of an upcoming event or share a related musical meme.
Pacific Shores Region 12 has two Facebook pages:
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This is a lovely tag written by Xialong Jenny Liu, a member of our Na Leo Lani chorus and taught by Jen Cooke.
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SWEET ADELINES INTERNATIONAL NEWS!
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Join Region 12's own directors -
Dede Nibler and Kathy Scheel as co-directors on a trip of a lifetime to London.
www.harmony-travel.net for more information.
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MAY ISSUE OF BARBERSHOP NOW!
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BarbershopNOW – May 2021
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On the Road Again…Join the Travel in Tune Journey
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Good News for Directors!
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New Date for 2022 International Convention
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Back to Rehearsals Resources
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Now AvailableLimited SA Strong T-shirts and Masks Available
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See below for the rest of the topics covered in this issue of BarbershopNOW.
- Sweet Adelines International Director Search Advertising Program
- Regional Stipends Renewed
- Nancy Bergman Legacy Society Update
- Quartet Renewal Cost Reduced
- New Information for Arrangers
- Learn Something New! Sweet Adelines Online Education Portal
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HARMONY SITE USE IN THE REGION
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The Regional website is hosted by a company called Harmony Site. Thirteen of the region's twenty-two choruses also use Harmony Site. This allows for calendar integration as well as keeping membership information coordinated between choruses and the Region. The system allows us to organize all the information that we use to run our choruses and region. We appreciate the functionality that Harmony Site provides because it reduces the amount of administrative effort required for the region as well as our choruses!
We encourage all the choruses in the region to have their website hosted on the Harmony Site platform.
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HARMONY COLLEGE NORTHWEST
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This summer, Harmony College Northwest's weekend of barbershop fun and learning is easier and more affordable than ever. While we plan to be back in person next year, this year's online HCNW includes tracks for singers, musical leaders, and administrative leaders. We've even included a virtual "faculty lounge" where you can hang out and talk to some of barbershop's top coaches and experts. Plus, we're offering our usual Arrangers Workshop happening before HCNW, so you can attend one or both.
Harmony College Northwest
Create your own schedule from 30 different sessions.
June 18-19, 2021
$35 (or $60 for both HCNW and the Arrangers Workshop)
Arrangers Workshop
All skill levels welcome.
June 17-18, 2021
$25 (or $60 for both HCNW and the Arrangers Workshop)
Registration and more information: harmonycollege.org
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