[HANASHIR:10748] Re: roll of the volunteer choir

[ilana axel <iaxel...>]

Hi all, I've been following this discussion closely.
We recently did a members survey at my synagogue,
where I am the Music Director, and found that over 85%
of the membership love the music at services, some
even come because of the music.
I believe our success (the synagogue's, not just mine)
comes from a very open, mixed, and eclectic approach
to the programming of music in the worship service. We
have a lot of participatory singing, with one or two
performed "presentations" at each service.
Kathy Gohr, from Michcigan  and I have been having
this ongoing discussion privately (we are both music
directors) and were wondering - are any of you
interested in getting together at Hava Nashira or at
CAJE to see how we can help each other in our worship
music - congregational issues and struggles? And how
could or should we arrange this?
Ilana Axel
--- ItaSara (at) aol(dot)com wrote:
> 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 wonâ??t hardly come
> anymore...heâ??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? Iâ??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 doesnâ??t get to do much
> different on itâ??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 Bâ??rith Kodesh member, 1350 families
> Temple Eitz Chaim, canorial soloist, 85 families
> Rochester, NY 
> 
> ------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
> -----------------------+
>