[HANASHIR:10730] Re: roll of the volunteer choir

[ItaSara <ItaSara...>]

In a message dated 1/28/02 10:18:47 AM, lyndaC (at) enteract(dot)com writes:

<< I believe that

there is room for everything and we can not afford to forget our traditional

nusach. This is an important issue to discuss, thank you for bringing this up!

Lynda Casden >>


I am glad you are interested. One of the reasons I bring this up not only as 
a soloist, but as a volunteer choir member. I quote for you here from a 
fellow singer in the temple choir:

<<they want a congregation to be interested and participate fully in the 
service. It is a good idea in theory, but it won't ever happen in practice 
because people are pretty bored with the service and the music.>> 

I want to be honest here....I myself used to enjoy coming to services a lot 
more. My husband won’t hardly come anymore...he’d rather do something else 
Not everyone want s to participate in every thing.  Things are becoming very 
mundane and uninteresting and uninspiring. The volunteers and the temple 
members who do not show up any more feel differently that the clergy and 
board members who seem to be on another plane. How are things really going 
everywhere else? I’m not talking about going back to the days of formal 4 
part paid choirs and a service of totally upscale music, but if the choir is 
there for support only and doesn’t get to do much different on it’s own, 
the 
message we choir members are getting is that there is no real reason to have 
a choir lead services. Afterall, the choir members are temple congregants and 
members too who want to help and support the congregation but also want to 
feel like they are contributing a little extra also.  I know that all 
congregations are different, but we do still have to be sensitive to various 
generations that attend services whose needs could be met by compromise. That 
is my extra 2¢, What is yours? 

Sincerely, 
Ellen Lerner
Temple B’rith Kodesh member, 1350 families
Temple Eitz Chaim, canorial soloist, 85 families
Rochester, NY 

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