The Acorn - Oak City Sound Weekly Newsletter - Oct 11, 2022

Type of post: Chorus news item
Sub-type: No sub-type
Posted By: Nic Cols
Status: Current
Date Posted: Tue, Oct 11 2022

1. Notes for this week

  • Last Monday's rehearsal was well attended. 19 singers!
    • The baritone section rehearsal was well attended and very beneficial.
    • A great afterglow was held at our usual place: The Corner Tavern. 
    • We were delighted to have a new guest, Walter Zalph, visiting us!
  • At long last, our Fall Convention and Contest is finally here, this coming weekend. See https://www.carolinasdistrict.org/spring-convention/ for the complete weekend calendar.
    • Please go to the Registration Desk first to get your name badge and Full Registration ticket. 
      • Friday, 1 - 5 pm at the hotel; or
      • Saturday, 8:30 to 10:30, at Asbury.
    • Check in at the hotel on your own, since it is your own registration, as appropriate.
  • Our own chorus calendar is as follows for Saturday October 15. I suggest you pack yourself a sandwich as we will be busy from 8:45am til perhaps 2pm.
    • 8:45AM at Asbury Church - Rehearsal. Show up already warned up, Full uniform is required: Black sportcoat, blue check shirt, your own medium brown belt, chorus blue jeans, your own medium brown shoes.
    • 10AM - short break, then we enter the pipeline for the chorus contest, We are 5th out of 6 choral contestants.
    • Shortly after the contest, around 1pm, we will have our chorus eval session / coaching session. Precise schedule is TBD.
    • Back in the day, Col. (Ret) Vern Pike was our Sergeant-at-Arms. Kinda similar to being an off-base MP. His job was to make sure we were all at the place where we were supposed to be, at the time we were supposed to be there. With Vern back with us, he has enthusiastically reprised the role for which only he and Adm. (Ret) Sev Severance (if you all remember him) were ideally and uniquely suited. Vern Pike will be sending an email to all of us on Thursday with the latest updates to our Saturday schedule. Pay attention to Vern! 
  • There are many other fun activities for you all to attend, and since you will be holding a "Full Registration" pass to all events, you might as well attend them:
    • Quartet semi-finals will run on Friday from 7pm to 9pm. We have two chapter quartets competing:
      • 7th Dimension (Gary Thorn, Carol Stephenson, and Nic Cols, with bass Fitz Lee from Fayetteville chapter) singing in the 4th position.
      • Impromptu (Tim Kinsey and Paul Martin, with Christiane Newell and Julie Ricciardi) singing in 7th position.
      • Come cheer us on! (We could use it!)
    • The official schedule has a Hot Dog Night scheduled for Friday evening, but that has been changed to a Greek food bash, to be held at the hotel. Look for information later this week as to time and place.
    • Saturday: Quartet Finals, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm to be held at Asbury. If either or both of our quartets qualify, they will be singing. Come cheer us on.
    • Saturday 8:30 - Showcase of Champions concert, at Asbury, follows the Quartet Finals. After the Showcase, please come help load our risers back on to the truck at Asbury before heading back to the hotel.
    • Saturday 10pm - District (and other) hospitality rooms at the hotel. 
  • Weekend Volunteers: We have volunteered to help in some of the work for this weekend. This is the summary of our volunteer activities. We could use more volunteers!
    • Friday 1pm at Asbury: Unload our risers and set them up. (John Zweighaft, Nic Cols, Bob Inskeep, and Paul Martin)
    • Friday 6:30pm to 9pm - At Asbury - Work the Harmony Marketplace to sell CDs, T-shirts, etc. (Sandy Cols)
    • Saturday 8:30pm after the Quartet finals at Asbury - drive the judges back from Asbury to the hotel. (Warren Fuson, Nic Cols, Dave Seibert, and Tim Kinsey)
    • Saturday 10:30pm (or so) - at Asbury - After the showcase, load our risers back into our truck (John Zweighaft, Steve McGehee, Tim Kinsey)
  • Next Monday, October 17, we have our usual rehearsal at Searstone at 7pm.
    • We'll be working both regular rep and Christmas rep.

2. Carol's Korner

  • Focal point during performance:
    • After ascending the stage, face directly to the audience.
    • When I turn from the audience back to you to begin the song, look at either my left eye or my mouth and sing through me to the audience. You will be able to see the area around me in your peripheral vision. If you all look at my mouth, this will greatly increase our chances of staying in sync, regardless of what my hands are doing. Looking at my left eye or mouth will also give us a common place to look and will reduce the amount of wandering eyes on the stage. 
    • At the end of the song, after the final cut off, turn square to the audience to SMILE and accept the applause. Turn back in as I turn back around to you.
  • 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.
  • Leads: Pay special attention to staying on pitch at these critical areas, underlined below, where you are letting the pitch sag:
    • Bare Necessities: Intro: the second phase is very problematic for Leads. "Has worry got you down... Do your troubles...".
    • Over the Rainbow: at "Some day I'll wish upon..." and "Where troubles melt like ...". 
    • Please practice singing these notes higher than what you are used to doing!
 

3. Future Notes

  • October 24: Oak City Sound in concert at Glenaire Retirement Community, our old rehearsal location. Show up time will be 6pm. Concert will start at 7pm. 4000 Glenaire Circle, Cary NC 27511. More details TBD.
  • October 27 is our next (#5 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 27 - Report at 5:00pm
      • Nov  5 - time TBA
      • Nov 12 - time TBA
  • John Adams - We are all saddened to hear that John Adams has passed away in early September this year.  John was a long time member of the RTP Chapter.  We have just learned of John's Funeral arrangements:
    • John Adams Funeral:
      November 12, 2022  @ 11 AM
      University United Methodist Church
      150 E Franklin Ave
      Chapel Hill, NC  27514
    • We have not been asked to sing at his funeral as of yet.  But It would be great if we can get as many RTP members attend that knew John.  

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. 
    • Dec 5: Show, a Monday evening 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 19:  Christmas Concert at Springmoor Retirement Community in north Raleigh off Creedmoor Rd.  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.
  • January - start counting on having a guest night in January.
  • February - plan to run Singing Valentines again this year. February 14 is a Tuesday, so we'll look for opportunities on the previous weekend.

5. Champagne Room

  • It was great to have a new guest last Monday, Walter Zalph. Thanks to Walt for his visit. We hope to have you back again next week.