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February 2009 |
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This newsletter is intended to inform, encourage and inspire you on your journey towards chartering as a Sweet Adelines chorus. We hope you enjoy this issue. |
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Transitions New
Step 1 Prospective Chapters Newly
Named Prospective Chapters New
Step 2 Prospective Chapter Newly
Chartered Chapter Submit Your Stories Prospective
Honolulu Blend Show Chorus
We are now preparing for Singing Valentines and a private function in March. We look forward to an upcoming TV and radio spot to promote singing Valentines and our Guest Night with a local celebrity. We started forming our management team and music team in January and at last we have enough members to pay our director to come weekly. It is still an ongoing struggle with membership, as it is with all choruses, but we are pushing forward. Future members are out there somewhere and if you create it, they will come! Christina
Smith, team
leader Prospective
Belles of Berkeley Chorus
The work has already started on the 2009 show to be held in November. We are borrowing part of the "Rosie the Riveter" theme that was done at IES 2005 by adding several other great songs and expanding the tribute to other women (nurses, WACS) who made contributions to the WWII effort. What fun this is! Brenda
Rahn, director
Prospective
Onkaparinga Harmony Chorus Prospective Onkaparinga Harmony kicked off in July with a Vocal Workshop. Since then we have grown from 12 to 23 members. We were so fortunate to have received a visit from Pat LeVezu, Past International President in September and she was so encouraging. We are finding our vocal levels and learning to tune up our ears, develop our range, match our vowels, develop resonance and, most of all, enjoying our rehearsals. Our rehearsal hall has no air conditioning, yet the girls still show up, even in 40 Centigrade (104 Celcius) degree heat! We look forward to receiving our first administrative and musical visits soon. Margaret
Wong, team
leader Westwind
Harmony Chorus
Our "Friends and Family Night" held this past November was the perfect venue to showcase our chorus and everything we have accomplished. THE MIX quartet consisting of Director Cathie, Marsha Shaw, Linda Myer and Robin McElfresh entertained the audience with their special blend of humor and barbershop excellence. All in all it was a wonderful evening! An Arizona Tradition Expo earlier this year introduced our other quartet GOTTA SING to a broader community base. We have had wonderful responses from visitors and hopefully we will receive new members from this all-day event. We are excited to go forward as a new Sweet Adelines International chorus in Arizona. Hester
Hinkson, public
relations coordinator Prospective
Barberina Chorus Having only recently become a member of the Barberina Chorus in Israel, the trials of being new are still fresh in my mind. While group members were welcoming, it took me a while before I felt comfortable and understood what the chorus was all about. Since then I have seen people come and go and have thought a lot about the process by which new members are oriented. We have to build a program to mentor them, to help them find their voices, overcome self-doubt and create a safe place for them to sing. We can't just sit back, telling ourselves that "we did it without any help." Today I am a full member of the chorus and am committed to improving our orientation program. I look forward to sharing our progress with you in the future. Sharon
Bacher, lead Prospective
Vocal Vibes
We are building a diverse repertoire to prepare us for concerts and sing-outs which we hope we will be ready for soon. We already had our first public outing at the birthday party of one of our members. We are curently working hard on a membership drive which we kick off this month. This will be followed by a six week voice training course for all the new ladies. The marketing for this event is in full swing and we hope to welcome a lot of new members. Annet
Wezenbeek Prospective
A-Cappella Ladies Chorus Prospective A-Cappella Ladies Chorus was recently invited to perform at Horst's 50th birthday party in Stuttgart. With brilliant acoustics, a great audience and a very young-at-heart birthday "child." what more is there to please us? Each lady received a cute primrose to take home as a little foretaste of spring. We are now ready to apply for step two, having 22 singers who are well balanced in each section. We went to a chorus retreat last fall and organized a wonderful Christmas concert and now we know that we are real women, in real harmony, having real fun with barbershop singing! Silke
Rusch, team
leader DaleDiva
Chorus
We also wanted to give something back to our local community at this special time of year so performed a festive "Memory Lane" concert for some elderly residents in a local village, many of whom were in care, seriously ill and not looking forward to Christmas. But it didn't take long to raise a few smiles. We dressed in Santa hats and tinsel to perform our entire repertoire and encouraged our audience to take part in some songs themselves. The response was fantastic and made the evening worthwhile. At the beginning of the year, our chorus traveled to Bedfordshire to take part in a retreat to strengthen our vocal and performance skills, improve our technical knowledge and boost confidence to benefit the whole chorus. It worked so well that we decided to make it an annual event. It really helped with preparation for our first anniversary show held earlier this month. Titled Simply A-cappella the show featured performances by DaleDiva, our wonderful quartet FARENHEIT and current British silver-medalist male quartet EVOLUTION. DaleDiva's reputation is growing as our 200 evening show tickets sold out so quickly we made the decision to stage a matinee which was a sellout too. Both shows went brilliantly and feedback from our audiences has been fantastic! Our sights are now set on chartering in time to compete at Region 31 chorus competition in May. We sense the next couple of months are going to be very busy! Liz
Tomes, public
relations |
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Nashville
welcomes Sweet Adelines International in 2009. The all-events registration
fee now covers admission to the Harmony Classic competitions, quartet
semifinals/finals, chorus semifinals/finals, Harmony Bazaar, and
education classes. Experience barbershop's future stars at the Rising
Star Quartet Competition. Tickets are sold separately for the Rising
Star competition with proceeds benefiting the Young Singers Foundation
and the Young Women in Harmony program. Register online for the Nashville Convention or Download the Registration form here. Please check out these exciting products available through the International Sales department: The Ann Minihane Anthology (songbook plus three learning CDs) - This Certified Music Arranger, who was especially fond of show tunes, had many arrangements published by Sweet Adelines International. Included within this book are three contest ballads, three contest uptunes and four show tunes. A must-have for any Sweet Adeline! "Being Your Own Vocal Teacher" presented by Peggy Gram. This DVD focuses on practical kinesthetic tools to use at home to become a more proficient singer and create more joy in your singing. Gain new insight into learning music and working it into your voice for maximum resonance, breath control, and tone quality. Increase your vocal range, quality of sound, plus much more. $25 (USD), plus shipping and handling. "To Move or Not to Move...That is the Question" presented by Renée Porzel. With this DVD learn techniques for making physical warmups fun and educational, techniques that keep visual elements integrated into the musical rehearsal plan, methods of designing choreography that support the musical plan created by the chorus director and so much more. $25 (USD), plus shipping and handling. Exciting New Material Coming Soon! Sing, Baby Sing! The Book - Keep your collection going with the latest version in the very popular series. "The Perfect Blend" DVD and book by Timothy Seelig. This is a must-have for any choral director. More than 100 choral warmups. $50 (USD), plus shipping and handling. 2008 Hawaii International Competition recordings are being finalized and will ship the second week of February. The International Sales department is offering delivery of music purchased via e-mail as a .pdf attachment. At this time, it is not available as an immediate download when purchased through the International Sales Web site. If you would like this service, please contact a member of the sales department at 877.545.5441. Membership Campaign Bracelets Rubber bracelets embossed with real women. real harmony. real fun. are available for purchase for your next membership drive. These bracelets make a great gift to offer visitors, but most of all they are perfect for each chorus member to wear outside of rehearsal as an easy conversation starter. Buy yours today for $15 (USD) a dozen, or $1.50 (USD) each, plus shipping and handling. Cafepress.com Check out the new Sweet Adelines International Online Store ( http://www.cafepress.com/sweetadelines ) through Cafepress.com for a variety of promotional materials. You can purchase T-shirts, pins, mugs, totes and more with the new membership campaign logo, corporate logo and YWIH logo. New and updated items will be added regularly, so check back often as our selection of promotional items continues to grow. Sweet Adelines on MySpace Music Check out the Sweet Adelines MySpace Music.com page at: www.myspace.com/sweetadelinesintl (http://www.myspace.com/sweetadelinesintl). Listen to champion quartet and chorus performances and find a variety of photos that relay the real harmony and the real fun that members truly enjoy. Sweet Adelines on Facebook.com If you are a member of Facebook.com please check out the new Sweet Adelines International Facebook.com ( http://www.facebook.com/ ) page. Once you log in as a Facebook.com member search for Sweet Adelines International to open our page. Join a forum and chat directly with members to discover the real women within Sweet Adelines International. These pages are a resource tool and they are intended to provide information for women interested in singing. This is a great way to share your stories and photos with Sweet Adelines members and friends. We hope to make many new friends and inspire many new people to experience barbershop harmony. Be sure to spread the word and let your friends know to check us out. Communications Department: |
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From
having International Convention held in our home state to performing
on the New Zealand Cultural Show and receiving a standing ovation
at the Afterglow of the Melodeers, Prospective Honolulu Blend Show
Chorus has had an amazing time in the last few months. For the holidays
we sang at the Tree Lighting Ceremony for Tripler Hospital, shared
some carols with the Veterans Home and performed for a few hundred
people at the Marine Headquarters at Camp Smith. 
Prospective
Belles of Berkeley Chorus is one musical visit away from having
completed everything it needs to charter. Our goal is to charter
by the first week of May. Our first stage show was a huge success.
We sang to an audience of roughly 360 people who laughed, clapped
and joined us in singing Take Me Home, Country Roads (West
Virginia's National Anthem). With just two rehearsals between the
show and the start of our holiday performances, we pushed to revive
our Christmas repertoire and did a great job at two singouts. 
Westwind
Harmony Chorus held its first rehearsal in March 2008 and has just
chartered! We are planning a charter party very soon. What an exciting
year it has been! We now have 23 dedicated members and
several prospective ladies working toward membership auditions.
Our motto of "What we conceive and believe, we will achieve" has
been the rally point for our members. Believe pins are worn at rehearsal
each week by the charter members to remind us of our commitment
to our chorus. Our director, Cathie Sturm, makes our rehearsal atmosphere
relaxed and comfortable and keeps the singing and education coming
at a fast pace. 
After
months of paperwork and brainstorming for a name, we are now proud
to introduce ourselves as Prospective Vocal Vibes. We rehearse under
the inspiring leadership of our director Lorraine Stackpoole, and
although we are still small in numbers, we are working on producing
our best barbershop sound. We are very lucky to have a support group
of many semi-retired Sweet Adelines to propel us forward towards
chartering. 
DaleDiva
has enjoyed a busy few months and a fantastic Christmas and New
Year since we last reported. For our first anniversary in November
we organized a special dinner, presentation evening and dance for
our members and their partners. It was a chance to look back over
an amazing first year and recognize many outstanding achievements
in the chorus including Most Hardworking Diva and Most Supportive
Diva as well as special awards for Diva of the Year and member showing
the best all around improvement. Of course the evening ended up with
a song or two - a fitting way to mark our anniversary and get us
in the mood for our Christmas celebrations. Each section had prepared
a variety of party pieces resulting in a fantastic evening of music
and laughter. 
International Convention and Competition