Choral Essence Newsletter

April 2010

CHORAL ESSENCE NEWSLETTER

Mission Outreach : The Many Faces of Love
In our last newsletter I quoted a poet who said, “The love we give away is the only love we keep.” That sentiment was explored in our concert theme “Celebrate Love”. Since Choral Essence donates its proceeds to community service organizations, many faces of love were reflected in several touching thank you notes. Here’s a quote from Beth Daniels, who runs the concert series at Peace Memorial Church in Clearwater.
“Hi, Arthur. I just wanted to drop you a line and ask that you share my thanks from Peace Memorial with all your members of Choral Essence. We had a great and appreciative crowd and I have heard nothing but compliments about the excellent singing and wonderful variety of the show. Our church is also very appreciative of the support for our new mission, the Peace Cafe. Lots of our neighbors are hurting for food and a little TLC in these tough economic times. Your group's donation of their fee was a big boost.”
Here is what that mission does: Every Wednesday and Thursday at 6 pm Peace Memorial church volunteers provide sandwiches, snacks and fruit to people in the community who are hungry. A hot meal is served once a month. This mission, called Peace Café, serves 80-100 people and is expanding. We feel blessed that our concert donated $700 to help support this worthy cause. This season our outreach ministry also included (RCS) Religious Community Services, (CCO) Church and Community Outreach and a brand new organization (UMCM)United Methodist Cooperative Ministries. Indeed, the love we give away is the only love we keep.

Music: The Great Extractor
Recently a Choral Essence member, Walt Freytag, said to me: “We’ve got the great extractor that lets feelings surface and we often don’t know how we touch people.” How right he is! We know that music touches the soul and is the great extractor of feelings, but we were still taken by surprise this season when several people stepped forward and offered their expertise to further our cause. These extractions started last fall when Jeff Wilde set up our top notch website and Walt Freytag worked tirelessly to help coordinate and design the site. Then returning from last season, Wayne Kosfeld came with a huge array of sound equipment, dedication and patience as he offered to record two concerts and a recording session. Then joining the extractor’s club were Herb Weed and his son Stephen, professional videographers, who offered to make upscale videos of our concert and update our video web site. Extractions also happened within our ranks as Sherril Claus revealed her business skills and guided us through a new marketing scenario. Together with our costume coordinator extraordinaire, Cheryl Abernathy, our music mission has been affirmed in so many beautiful ways. And behind the scenes, our advisor and helper, Karol Freytag, has whopped me good when I needed some real “extractulations” from choral conundrums. [and don’t waste your time looking this up!]
Speaking for all the members of Choral Essence, we thank our audience for your wonderful support this year. It is inspiring to see so many new and familiar faces out there.

Seasonal Wrap-up
At our seasonal wrap-up, here are some reflections:
Our new members are a huge asset and our ensemble size is ideal.
Include more antiphonal singing [surrounding our audience in mixed sections]
Include additional sing-a-longs and audience participation.
The comic skit was great fun and humor should be encouraged.
Add variety to our many concerts by splitting solos among different venues.
Keep evolving with new ideas and styles for ensemble and soloists.
Include more theater musicals, ethnic, contemporary styles and original music.
Showcase our accompanist whenever possible and involve more instrumentalists.
At concerts refer to our website, which builds community awareness and attendance.
Include our comment and e-mail request inserts in all programs.
Develop our e-mail list, which has helped us reach the 300 attendance mark at two of our five venues.
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Check out our new group photos and new sample selections of this season’s music available on our website. If you haven’t enlisted, we’d love to include you on our e-mail list so we can send you new updates.

Visit Our Website!

Check out our new photos and remember our repertoire, concert schedule and sample selections of last year’s music are available on this website. We also have an active e-mail list and would love to include you in our updates.