Newsletter - August 2002

Welcome back from the long summer break, and a particular welcome to those of you who are singing with us for the first time this term. If you are new, please make yourself known to your part representative. If you don’t know who he or she is, ask the person sitting next to you. Your part rep – or, indeed, any other member of the choir – will answer any questions you have about us.

Thank you to all of you for working so hard to make the summer concert a success. The audience feedback was broadly positive, though there was still some concern about the volume of the band. One member of the audience was very complimentary: "very good – my Dad was best doing the solo" and another commented that the flowers were lovely! It is clear that many of our audience are established regulars, with comments like "another delightful evening – thank you". Several people commented on the abrupt end to the evening – and I think most of the choir was somewhat taken aback when the band disappeared without even giving David a chance to take a bow, never mind speak! Each time, we learn a little more.

We hope you’ve all had a good summer and are refreshed and ready for the new term. Rehearsals start on Tuesday 3^rd September. 10^th September will not be an official open rehearsal this time, because we have our Choral Event 2002 on 21^st. The Autumn concert is on 23^rd November and we plan to do a Christmas concert on 21^st December. Please indicate on the register whether or not you will be able to sing on these two dates. Dates for the entire 2002/03 season are listed below.

Booking forms are now out for our workshop day. The lottery grant means that we are able to offer the day at no cost, but we do need to know numbers so that Lizzy can organise copies of the music for everyone. Please come if you can – apart from it being great fun we always come away from these events with new tips and tricks to improve our singing!

Thank you for returning your summer music. It’s always more difficult to keep track of when there are lots of different pieces and we don’t sing all of them at the concert, but in the end very few copies didn’t make it back.

We are singing JS Bach’s Magnificat and Haydn’s Harmonie Mass in the November concert. As usual, we have copies available for choir members to buy at £5.95 and £6.50 respectively. If you would like your own copy, please let Lizzy know either before 3^rd or at the first rehearsal. When we are a bit clearer about the Christmas music we will give you a chance to buy that too.

The deposit for the November music will be £12.50, and this will need to be topped up when we get the Christmas pieces. If you want to carry over last term’s deposit, speak to Lizzy – she still has your cheques. Of course, if we do have to bank your deposit cheque we will refund the balance left after replacing whatever copies you have lost.

Our AGM will be held at 7.30 pm on 24^th September. We start a bit earlier on our AGM evening in the hope that the business will not eat into too much rehearsal time. We are still looking for new committee members – please talk to your part rep if you think you could help. We desperately need someone to help Chris with publicity. He has done tremendous things for the profile of the choir, and has single-handedly secured our lottery grant, but he needs help with the legwork – taking telephone calls from interested members of the public, putting together packs for new members and so on. We could also do with a couple of general committee members who are willing to pitch in with whatever jobs need to be done. Apart from committee posts, we need a new librarian and someone to take on making the tea and coffee on Tuesday evenings. Please consider hard whether you would be willing to give up a little of your time to support the organisation that allows the rest of us just to turn up on a Tuesday night and sing.

If you haven’t yet checked your details on Peter’s membership list, please do so. This is the list we use to produce the labels for sending out the newsletters, so, if for no other reason, please make sure we have your address to save us having to write envelopes by hand! If you are new, please make sure that you record your name, address and telephone number at the back of the register. We hope to produce a list of members later this term.

We have had some feedback about the changes suggested in the last newsletter, though not a huge amount. Several of you are anxious that we might lose the big November concert. This is not our intention at all. If anything, we would hope to generate a little income from the other concerts to help fund the orchestral concert. Please keep your views coming in – the committee will be discussing this further at its meeting on 5^th September. If we don’t hear from you we will assume you don’t mind either way.

Please remember that communication works both ways. The committee is doing its best to organise the Choral Society the way we think you would like us to. That’s a bit tricky if you don’t speak to us. Some of you are very good about letting us have your views, but we would welcome more. If the committee members are too scary to speak to, use your part rep. (We aren’t in the least scary, by the way, but we know that some of you think we are.) If you’re more comfortable communicating in writing, e-mail one of us. However you do it, we would like to know what you think.

NB On 18^th January 2003 David will be conducting a "Bring it and sing it" Mozart Requiem in Standon Parish Church. Details from David or Caroline.