1. Notes for this week

• Last Monday's rehearsal was well attended. 18 singers!
  • A great afterglow was held back at our usual place: The Corner Tavern. Attendance was great! 12 in attendance: 67% participation, yet another new record.
• Saturday Oct 8 is the next NCSU Home Football game and concession at Carter Finley stadium. Show up time is 5pm. Click on Concession to review what you signed up for.
• Next Monday, October 10, we have our usual rehearsal at Searstone.
  • Special extra section rehearsal for Baritones: show up early at 6:30
  • Risers need to be set up! Please come 15 minutes early to help set them up during the bari section rehearsal
  • Here is what we will be working on:
    • Ova the Wainbow
    • Beh Necessities
    • All I Want for Christmas Is You
    • It's a Hanukkah Song
    • It's the Most Wonderful Time
    • Merry Christmas, Darling
    • Winter Wonderland (Note: Many of us learned a version of this song that began with the verse, "Over the ground lies a mantle of white...". The version this year has a different, shorter introduction line. Check the Chorus Song library and make sure you're learning the right version. Don't run off memory this time.)
• District Contest on October  14-15:
  • Here are all the names of those signed up to participate:
    • Baritones: 
      • John Zweighaft
      • Kenny Bland
      • Gary Thorn
    • Basses:
      • Warren Fuson
      • Mike Muha
      • Michael Field
      • Steve McGehee
      • Tim Kinsey
      • David Seibert
    • Leads:
      • Bob Inskeep
      • Larry Hill
      • Ben Hansen
      • Nic Cols
      • Paul Martin
    • Tenors:
      • Vern Pike
      • Sean Li
      • John Quick
    • Director: Carol Stephenson
  • If you are on the list, please double check and make sure that your BHS/NSC/RTP Registration is paid up and that you have bought a "Full Registration" for the Convention weekend. If you need help determining this, please contact Larry Hill.
  • If you are not on the list and should be; that is, you want to participate in the Fall District Convention and Competition, go to https://www.carolinasdistrict.org/2022/08/28/register-for-the-fall-convention/ to register.
    • Select "Full Registration" as your option.
    • Notify Carol Stephenson and Mike Muha!
  • Quartet Semi-finals: To be held Friday evening at 7pm. Your favorite chapter quartet, 7th Dimension (stately cough here), will be competing! Come and cheer us on!
  • Chorus Song Set: We will compete at the Contest with The Beh Necessities and Ova the Rainbow.
    • Plan for a rehearsal around 9am Saturday morning. Chorus contest will start at 11:30AM and finish at around 12:30pm. There are 6 choruses participating.
  • Chorus Eval Session: You are encouraged to attend the Chorus Evaluation session after the contest. The Session is in reality a very fine coaching session, where we get suggestions for improvement from a judge or two.
  • A special District Hot Dog Night will be our party on Friday evening. Stay tuned for details.
  • Quartet Finals on Saturday night at 7pm, followed by the District Showcase performance.
  • Volunteering: We need some help with the activities below. Can you volunteer??? Let Nic Cols know if you can pitch in for a little bit:
    • Risers: John Zweighaft will drive the riser truck over to the venue on Friday (Oct 14). We need 3 men to unload and place the risers at 1pm.
    • At the end of the quartet finals on Saturday evening around 8pm, we will need three guys with cars to help transport the judges from the venue back to the Marriott (2.5 miles away).
    • After the Saturday night show, around 9:30, we will need 4 men to load the risers back onto the truck. John will drive the truck back to Searstone when convenient.

2. Carol's Korner

• Focal point during performance : Look at my left eye and sing through me to the audience. You will be able to see the area around me in your fuzzy peripheral vision. If you all sing to my left eye, we will have a common place to look and there won't be whites of wandering eyes creating flashes in the stage lights. 
• Mood/motivation for both Ova the Rainbow and Beh Necessities: HOPEFUL. Sing with the idea of looking forward to the good things in life. The things that are on the horizon for you.
• Our performances of Ova the Wainbow and Beh Necessities at Springmoor were good enough that the Music Team has decided to waive any further qualification process for the contest.

3. Future Notes

• October 8 is our next (#4 of 7) football concession session at Carter Finley stadium.  These are our most important fund raiser events of the year.  We need to provide 6 workers for each event.  The signup sheet is available now.
  • Remember that a volunteer does not have to be a chapter members to work the concession. Family and friends can help out, too.
  • Tim will provide more details as we approach each date. Meanwhile, click Concession to sign up as you are able.
  • Here is the entire remaining schedule, as far as we know right now:
    • Oct  8 - Report at 5pm
    • Oct 27 - Report at 5:00pm
    • Nov  5 - time TBA
    • Nov 12 - time TBA

4. Long Range

• Christmas Season:
  • Christmas Vignettes: As part of the Christmas Show, we will again offer our audience personal stories regarding Christmas. This has been well received by both the chorus members AND the audience. Please submit your personal favorite Christmas story to Mike as soon as you can. He might ask for a photo or two to go along with the story. Here's an example of a vignette:
    • Communities of Faith Working for and with Each Other
      In the early 1950s, a new Jewish community was formed in my hometown of Emerson, NJ. The local Catholic priest invited them to use the Church building on Saturdays for their Sabbath services. As a gesture of gratitude, the Jews would offer every year afterwards to babysit the small children of the Catholics who desired to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas night.
  • Dec 1: The possible concert we were hoping to perform in Holly Springs will not happen.
  • Dec 5: Show, Christmas Concert at Searstone.
  • Dec 6: Show, a Tuesday evening. We will put on our Christmas show at the Cary Arts Center theater.   We will need to sell tickets and Ads.  Start thinking NOW about who you might want to invite or sell an Ad to. 
  • Dec 10: The possible cancert we were hoping to perform in Holly Springs will not happen.
  • Dec 12: We're checking with Glenaire, our previous rehearsal location, for a possible concert on this evening.
  • Dec 19:  Christmas Concert at Springmoor Retirement Community in north Raleigh off Creedmoor Rd. This is HUGE. We have performed there soooo many times over the years, and they still invite us back. Around 7pm. Put it on your calendar now. If you are unable to participate, let Mike Muha know ASAP!
  • Community Singouts: Please be on the lookout for possible other places to sing at Christmas time. If they can't come to us, we will come to them! Just to put some context about it: We had 14 singers at our Christmas singouts in North Hills Shopping Center last December while at the same time we were having only 10 or 11 at (Zoom) practice sessions! Everyone likes singouts in the public setting. Note that we will make every effort possible to schedule these for Monday evenings. We know your time during the Holiday season is precious, so to ask for another night is difficult. We hope you can keep your Monday evenings reserved for Oak City Sound throughout that season.

5. Champagne Room

• In addition to John Quick and Steve McGehee having officially joined Oak City Sound, Ben Hansen has also joined! Hooray and Welcome!