Envelope Stuffing Party!

Thank you everyone for the MANY ways that you have helped support VocalEssence the last weeks. Thank you for your support in the singer giving campaign, helping us reach 78% participation! Thank you for joining our singer calling party last night helping to make 201 phone calls to supporters, including other singers like you!

Envelope Stuffing Party!

If you love these little Tuesday night gatherings and free food, we’ll have another opportunity with an envelope stuffing and calling party on Tuesday, December 2nd before rehearsal, starting at 5:30p! Something for extroverts and introverts! Amy or Azure will send more information on this soon including how to RSVP.

Give to the Max Day!

Finally, this Thursday is Give to the Max Day in Minnesota! We would so appreciate your help in spreading the word about this day and the ways in which people can support VocalEssence and the impact that that support has for our organization. You may have seen that Amy on Monday sent out a Singer Toolkit for Give to the Max day yesterday. It’s also linked here. As we often say, you are some of the best advocates for our organization that we could ask for, because you know firsthand the impact that this support has. Thank you in advance for spreading the good word and being an ambassador for VocalEssence!

Welcome Christmas Note:

You’ll see at the bottom of the Singer Portal that the order for Welcome Christmas is posted in the Music tab. You’ll also notice that The Sussex Carol is not included there. We are holding that for next year’s program to ensure we keep the program nice and zippy!

Welcome Christmas Dress Rehearsal Call Time

On Thursday, December 11, the Chorus call time will be 6:30pm at Northrop. You will be finished at 9p. This helps us make sure the puzzle of a schedule all fits together with the various choirs, instrumentalists, and combinations thereof! Thank you for your assistance with this change.

Friday Volunteers Needed:

This Friday night is our concert with the Ensemble Singers and Roderick Williams! We’ve had a few volunteers that have had to back out due to last-minute conflicts for the concert and would be grateful to have 1 or 2 more folks that would be available and interested in helping. Let me know if you’re interested!

Singer Calling Party

Every year, hundreds of donors come forward with their support of VocalEssence. These funds – including your donations during the Singer Giving Campaign – help support all our community programs and keep participation in everything, from our WITNESS school programs to singing with the Chorus, free of charge. We’d love your help in thanking these generous donors for their support!

So, we’re organizing a Thank You Calling Party before rehearsal on Tuesday, November 18. Join us between 5p and 7p up in the VocalEssence office. We’ll provide the phones, call lists, talking points, scripts and PIZZA – you bring your enthusiasm, gratitude and love of VocalEssence. Calling will happen in shifts – so even if you can’t make the full block of time, we’d love to have you!

Just let Azure know by 9am on Monday, Nov 17 that you’ll be joining us (so we can plan the pizza order) and we’ll send you all the details by that Monday afternoon.

Attendance Policy

Moving forward, we wanted to share two things about the attendance policy that are good to know. First, is that we (I) will endeavor as much as possible to ensure you are well aware of your attendance as we move through concert cycles week-to-week. I can’t promise to be perfect, but I will endeavor to warn those of you who have hit two absences for a concert cycle that you are at your limit, and to share as quickly as possible to those who hit the third absence, that you are no longer able to participate in the concert. I do ask that you do your best to keep account of your own attendance yourself as much as you are able to do so, but I hope to make sure that you won’t be taken by surprise should you be asked to sit out a concert.

Secondly, we want to clarify and reiterate that while you are able to miss one dress rehearsal per concert this year, it is important that these absences are for immovable conflicts: emergency/urgent family conflicts, illness, work events. They are vitally important rehearsals for all singers to attend, and we want to make sure as many people as possible are there.

Concert Reminders

Call time is 3:00pm for both choirs. Chorus, your room will be Room 90, the choir room. Ensemble Singers, you are in Room 95, the band room. Both doors will have signs labeling them accordingly!

Concert order is: 

• Indra
• Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Set 3
• Good Friday
• Nunc Dimittis
• Jayjaykar!
• She Will Transform You
• Intermission
• Welcome & Musical Prelude from our Soloists
• Sarojini

Sarojini Concert Week

It’s concert week next week! Woohoo! A few important reminders below:

• Next week Tuesday & Thurs everyone called at 7pm at Ted Mann! Make sure you do not go to PCC! Please be on time and ready to line up at 7pm. Come ready to sing as well — we will not have warm-ups on Tuesday or Thurdsay.
  • When you arrive on Tuesday and Thursday enter the stage door and then go right into the hall. We will have directional arrows up.
  • We will rehearse Sarojini first both nights
  • Then we will take a break. On Tuesday night the ES will then rehearse on stage and the Chorus will rehearse in one of the rehearsal rooms in the school of music
  • On Thursday it will be the reverse.
• We will send a seating riser chart out in the coming few days so you know your formation. We will be in five rows behind the orchestra.
• You do not need to wear concert attire at the rehearsals but do come dressed on concert day!
• Call time is 3pm on Saturday for warm-ups.

Parking

Below you will find a map of the west bank campus of the U of M. circled are the three lots nearest to Ted Mann. The lot in red is the 21^st Ave ramp. The two in yellow are Lot #94 and the 19^th Ave ramp. You are able to park wherever you can in these lots on Tuesday and Thursday. On Saturday however, we ask that you please avoid parking in the 21^st Ave Ramp if you can afford to walk a bit further, to allow that ramp to be used by our patrons.

(I will also add that Saturday the 21^st Ave and Lot #94 will be event rate parking, whereas as of right now the 19^th Ave ramp should not be.)

Finally, I would also encourage everyone to consider using the WhatsApp groups to make carpool arrangements! I have just started a carpool thread that you can use to make other arrangements. If you’d like to join just navigate to the group on your phone, click the thread that says “Carpooling!” and you should have an option to join that thread.

How to Hold On CDs

If you are still interested (or know someone who would be interested!) in purchasing a physical CD of How to Hold On our new album with Melanie DeMore, you can purchase these to have shipped on our Bandcamp page here, at the concert next week (or future concerts!), and at rehearsals once we’re back at Plymouth in two weeks. AND, I’m happy to say that we’ll be announcing pre-sales for a special vinyl edition… more to come very soon on that!

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Thanks again to everyone who came early to help Amy stuff envelopes — we really appreciate the extra hands on a big project like that! As always, all of these announcements are on the singer portal and the archive is available too. We’ll see you all next week at Ted Mann Concert Hall!

Sarojini Notes

Melanie, Sound Baths, & Album!

• How to Hold On, our new album with Melanie and the Ensemble Singers releases on Friday! It will be available on all major streaming services, for purchase digitally, and CDs will be available for sale at all our upcoming events (including Saturday’s Sound Baths).
• We have an additional opportunity to sing/be with Melanie — this Saturday, 9/27 at 1pm we’ve added a third sound bath for folks close to the organization — you all our singers, WITNESS teachers, VV and SOTA singers, etc. The event will last no more than an hour — probably more like 45-50 minutes in fact! It will be a space to come and bring your whole self and interact with the music in a new way. You are welcome to bring photos or small objects of loved ones, wear comfortable clothing, and sit in the space as feels right for you. Please visit to https://www.tfaforms.com/5195494 register for this event asap! Space will fill up!

If you’re a Spotify user, you can pre-save the album here and we would be so grateful to you if you did!

Sarojini Concert Order: 

We have a set concert order now for Sarojini — the concert will be:

• Indra – Gustav Holst (Orchestra)
• Movements from Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda – Gustav Holst (ES sopranos & altos)
• Good Friday – Gustav Holst (ES tenors & basses)
• Nunc dimittis – Gustav Holst (ES)
• Jayjaykar! – Shruthi Rajasekar (Chorus)
• She Will Transform You – Reena Esmail (Chorus)
• Intermission
• Sarojini – Shruthi Rajasekar (Chorus + ES)

Tuesday Night Snacks!

Do consider signing up for a future week of snacks at the link here or the sidebar to the right!

WhatsApp Group

Tuesday Night Snacks!

WhatsApp Group

How to Hold On: New album out September 26

As we’ve announced the past few days in our emails, socials, and last night — we are releasing a new album, recorded with Melanie DeMore and the Ensemble Singers in January. The album comes out in just 9 days on September 26, and we are so excited for you to hear it! It will be available on all major streaming platforms and CDs will be available for purchase as well. Melanie will be with us all of next week/weekend and we are excited for her to be at rehearsal on Tuesday night, where she will see all of you! There will be more excitement around the album to share soon, but if you’re a Spotify user, you can pre-save the album here and we would be so grateful to you if you did!

Retreat

A reminder that our fall retreat is in a week and a half on Saturday, September 13 at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church! You are all called at 9:30a and we will begin with our Chorus photo! We ask that you please come wearing your concert black attire, and please do not arrive earlier than 9:15a in the building, as we will be taking the Ensemble Singers photos at 9:00a in the entry way to the church.

We will have lunch for you at noon and the retreat will wrap up by 4p! If you have a conflict with this date, please make sure to submit the attendance form right away so we have an accurate lunch count. Please also note that for this fall, we will only count the retreat as one absence. In the past we have counted the day as two absences because it is the length of two rehearsals, but consider this a grace period as we transition into the firmer two rehearsal attendance policy.

Preparation Files:

Further down this page in the Music section you will be able to find study resources for scores (we have files up for Jayjaykar! and Sarojini with more study resources coming for the latter) as well as rehearsal recordings for each week. The rehearsal recordings can be accessed using the button below!

Rehearsal Notes: 

Last night, Philip ran quickly through his score edits, so we want to make sure that everyone has them here in writing to ensure you caught everything and for those who were not with us. Those score notes are below:

• Mvmt III, M.21.  tenor 1, ‘soon’ not ‘mm’
• Mvmt III, M.48.  alto 1, first word should be ‘rise’
• Mvmt III, m.80.  tenor 1, change to ‘O’ (not ‘mm’)
• Mvmt III, m.93.  alto 1, add ‘heart’ – like alto 2
• Mvmt IV, m.21.  all, ‘prayer’ is sung as one syllable
• Mvmt IV, m.37.  ‘patriotism’ is a 4-syllable word.  Make it 4 8th notes with the last tied to the quarter following
• Mvmt IV, m.97.  everyone sing the pickup ‘our’ on E (tenor on E4)
• Mvmt IV, m.158. All sopranos on S1, all altos on S2 to the end of the movement.  Bass II join bass I from m.169.  Bass II tacet from middle of m187 to prepare for low E.
• Mvmt V, m.17-19.  Tenor 2 sing upper E.  Basses do a 3-way split on E F G.

Next Rehearsal: 

We’ll see you again next week on Tuesday night — and we’ll be welcoming our new members with us then, so I invite you to say hello to a new face and welcome them with open arms, as I know you will.

We start 7p in Guild Hall!