Lins Emails

Fw: Rehearsal 21 Sept

Lins Emails
Good afternoon to you all,
Here is a message from Lillian regarding this week’s rehearsal:-

Hello all,
This coming Thursday, we will rehearse in sectionals. There’s a lot to cover so I’d like to start separately with a quick warm-up with either Lillian (Women) or Chris (Men).
Women’s sectional:
Christmas Shopping Blues
Wexford Carol
Gabriel’s Message
Let it Go
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
This Christmas
Brazilian Christmas
From a Distance – Gloria section only
Last Christmas page 8-end
Men’s sectional:
Wexford Carol
Gabriel’s Message
Let it Go
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
This Christmas
Brazilian Christmas
From a Distance – Gloria section only
Last Christmas page 8-end
We only have three sectionals scheduled so I would like to focus on learning the pitches and rhythms within the next three rehearsals, and then we’re be back together again to sharpen up our timing, vowels, and expression!
Looking forward to it,
Lillian
As you will see, we are having 3 sectionals over the next three weeks, and we have managed to get a second pianist, who is a member of Chris’s church to come and play for us.  She will also be playing for us when Chris is away next month for one of our rehearsals. The person concerned originates from Hong Kong and she has been accompanying a choir of more than two thousand people, and she has already been to one of our rehearsals to see what we are about.
Just to remind those of you who would like to do a solo, duet, or a group number at our Christmas concerts that we need to know as soon as possible what you would like to do so that we can arrange an audition and subsequently get the programme together early.
Well, that’s all for now.
Regards
Eric

Rehearsal 14 Sept

Lins Emails
Good afternoon,
Here is a message from Lillian concerning our rehearsal on the 14th September:-

This week, I’d like to rehearse the following:
From a Distance
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
The First Noel
Merry Christmas Everyone
Mary Did You Know
Let it Go
This Christmas
Brazilian Christmas
Grown-Up Christmas List
Looking forward to Thursday,
Lillian
Just to remind those of you who would like to do a solo, duet etc for our Christmas concert that we want to know as soon as possible what you would like to sing and start practicing it so that we can get the auditions finished as early as possible.
Well, that’s all for now, so enjoy the rest of this nice weather we are having, and I will see you at either the Local Vocals on Tuesday at Snowdrop Place, Botley, or at the rehearsal on Thursday.
Bye for now.
Eric

Rehearsal 7 September 2023

Lins Emails
Good afternoon to you all,
I hope you have had a good rest from all the singing that we were doing towards the end of last term, and managed to get away somewhere nice during the summer break.
Well, its back to the grindstone ready to rehearse for our Christmas Concerts on the 9th December at the Hedge End Village Hall.
We will also be leading the Carol Service at Royal Victoria country Park, in the chapel, on the 16th December.
Another date for your diary is the 4th November, where we will be holding a Skittles Evening at the Hedge End Village Hall. More details for this will follow later nearer the time, but put the date in your diary.
Here is a message from Lillian concerning this coming week’s rehearsal:-

I’m looking forward to being back this Thursday for our first rehearsal for the Christmas concert 2023!
This week, I’d like to rehearse the following:
Believe
Brazilian Christmas
Tidings of Comfort
Let It Go
White Winter Hymnal
Merry Christmas Everyone
Wonderful Christmastime
First Noel/Pachelbel
From A Distance
I’d also like to rehearse in the same seating order we just did for our last concert in Hedge End Village Hall.
Thank you,
Lillian
The Local Vocals are performing again on Tuesday, at Netley Court, at 1.45pm, and we are short of ladies, so if you are available please let Eunice know.
We are still considering a venue for next year’s Summer Concert, but we have agreed that we will doing only one concert next year, not two like we have done in the past two years.
Once the minutes of our Committee Meeting have been agreed, they will be put onto the website under the member section, so that you can see what we are doing on your behalf.
Well, that’s about all for now.
See you sometime next week.
Bye for now.
Eric

Newsletter

Lins Emails
Good afternoon to you all,
I thought I had better touch base with you all to let you know what happened at the AGM if you were not able to make it to the meeting.
The main topic of conversation was the proposal from the Committee that we increase our subscriptions from £16 per month to £20.  You would have noticed from the accounts that had been circulated before the AGM, that we made a loss of £1857.24 this past year, and although we have a bank balance of £3650.88, it was felt that we cannot continue to make a loss on the general running of the choir with the shortfall being made up from the profit we have from our concerts, otherwise we will not have anything left to spend on music and costumes in the future.  It was agreed unanimously that we would increase the subs to £20 per month as from the 1st September, so can you all make sure that you reset your standing orders.
The existing Officers and Committee were re-elected, with the exception of Ellie Best, who is leaving the choir to move to Australia.  We accepted a late nomination on the night and Gen Marsh was elected to take Ellie’s place.  The make up of the Committee is as follows:
Chair  – Eric Gerrey
Vice Chair  – Sarah Turl
Secretary – Maureen Pay
Treasurer – Sharon Thomas
Committee Members:
Margaret Ballard – Minute Secretary
Eunice Deuchar – Local Vocal Rep
Louise Staniforth – Archivist
Jerry Gamble
Gen Marsh
Music Committee:
Music Librarian – Tony Jardine
Sop Rep – Hilary Green
Alto Rep – Maggie Jacobs
Tenor Rep – Percy Knight
Bass Rep  – Eric Gerrey
Musical Director – Lillian Sediles
Assist MD – Chris Allison
There was a discussion about our uniform and what we should wear in the future, and the Committee will look into this and report back to the choir.
One thing that was also discussed was the use of Zoom, as it is costing us £144 per year to use it, and it was felt that although it had been very useful during the pandemic, no one was using it now unless they were not able to come to the rehearsals.  It was suggested that we could use WhatsApp in future, and if we see a spike in infections over the winter period, we would then look at re-instating the zoom.
We are also looking at using a different venue than KCC for next year’s Summer Concert, as we only made approximately £150 profit from this year’s.  Again the Committee will look at what options there are and will report back.
Future Dates:
7th September – Return to rehearsals
9th December – Christmas Concerts
16th December – Carol Concert RVCP
25th April – Private Concert – Bitterne URC
1st June  – Summer Concert
20th July – Summer Spectacular
As some of you may be aware, Hedge End Methodist Church is celebrating their centenary next year, and we have agree to perform a concert for them as part of their celebrations, as we are the longest running group that uses their hall. We are in the process of agreeing a date and once we have it I will let you know.
Well, that’s all for now, so I will sign off, and hope you enjoy the rest of your summer break.
Regards
Eric

Well Done – Top Hits!

Lins Emails
Good morning to you all,
Well, what a day we had yesterday.
From the start when we arrived at the hall at 10am, there was a buz in the air, and suddenly there were all the members running around and setting up the tables and chairs, sorting out the crockery, putting together the cake stands and getting the cakes ready.  Even when most of you went home to change, there was still a charge in the air, and in the end, what a show we put on.
Here’s a message I received from Lillian –

“Well Done – Top Hits!”
Hello Choir!
I must say you’ve really blown me away this concert. I had to reflect after our performance today on all our previous performances and I can honestly say that this was the best performance I have experienced with this choir! You really made the top of my charts. I am so proud of all of you today—your hard work really paid off and I think your intonation was EXCELLENT, never been better. You were so expressive with your faces, engaging, and knew the music inside and out. I look forward to more of this as we resume in September 🙂
You’ve made me so proud and I hope you are proud of yourselves. Have a wonderful holiday, and once again—fantastic performance today! The best ever.
All the best,
Lillian
I even had one of the audience who had never been to one of our concerts before phone me up last night to thank the choir for an excellent afternoon.  She lives near in St Johns Road, and had decided to come see what we were about.  She has sung in a choir for 20 years, and although she had heard most of the songs before and even sung some of them, she had never heard such good arrangements before, and even wants to come and join our choir as we seem to have something different to what she has now.  She also runs her own support group for Alzheimer’s and when she looked at our website and saw that we had the Local Vocals, she is very interested in joining in with that. she had brought her auntie with her and her auntie has dementia, but she was joining with all the songs and thoroughly enjoyed herself.
Well, not much more I can say, but a big thank you to all help set up and then stayed to help clear up, and will be there this morning to get the equipment back to the lockup.
So I will end and remind you of the AGM on Thursday, and if you cannot make it then, I will see September 7th.
Bye for now.
Eric

Programme for Summer Spectacular

Lins Emails
Good evening,
As promised, here is a copy of the programme for Saturday.
Also, it has been agreed that we will not need to memorise any of the songs, but if you are confident enough to sing a song without the music, still use your folders as if you were using them ,then we will all look the same.
Again, many thanks to all that responded to our plea for raffle prizes and cakes, it seems that we now have enough.
See you all on Saturday.
Regards
Eric
pdf icon Programme-2023-Spectacular-1.pdf