Gospel Chorus Invitation.docDescription: MS-Word document
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Hey, everyone! I'm pleased to announce that tonight the Twin Cities Gospel
Chorus is hosting our first of four choral workshops. Some of you have
asked me for details so I'm posting it to the list. Here is my process and
description of the group.
In the attachments you will find my invitation and bibliography. I began
sending the invitation via email three weeks ago and encouraging people to
spread it around. I have at least 25-30 people confirmed and I'm hoping for
more. The response was immediate and quite positive. I have at least 6
young people from ages 11-18 coming, too, and one of the 16 year olds wants
to teach them a song to lead and the grownups will sing the small backup.
I secured Shir Tikvah synagogue because I love the accoustics and setting..
I could have had free space somewhere else but preferred the good ambiance
and location. There is a $350 charge and so I'm charging a sliding fee of
$25-100. People are invited to figure out how much they can pay and I'll
never know what they paid. I have several friends who are just scraping by
and they are there as my guests and I tried hard to figure out how to not
embarass them about it, so the greeter has their name on a list and will
welcome them fully. I also let people know that the money goes for space
rental and music supplies and resources. I didn't know how to also say that
I get a fee from it, too, so any guidance here would be appreciated.
We are meeting four times and I ran into trouble around tisha b'av (often
called the camp holiday). I wanted to rehearse only on Wed. to make things
simple, but decided that trying to rehearse while trying to get to hear
Aichah would be bad, so we're singing on Tisha B'av itself, and I'll have
refreshments for the folks fasting and we'll do all of the slow, numbers
that evening.
I have a music director who can play anything on the guitar and found a
klezmer clarinetist and saxophone player who are eager, so the "pit
orchestra" is set, plus I'm bringing two guitars and my basket of
tamborines, etc. (and of course my "billy jonas" bucket and mallet. I've
told everyone who is coming to expect to be out of their seats and out
there, so I think people know what they are in for, and I'm hoping magical
music happens.
I cut a CD with my own vocals singing the parts of "or Zarua" and Craig's
"Ein Keiloheinu" so that people can hear the various parts. There are
tracks of HN 2002, and three tracks from real CDs. I pondered this greatly,
since I know "we" are against copying CDs, but I really wanted to have
everyone in the group be able to practice our music, since it is a short
workshop, and I also wanted to introduce them to some of our wonderful
musicians. I solved the philosophical problem in this way:
1. I am including a detailed bibliography and how they can get ALL of
our
music on real CDs.
2. The CDs got mangled in the copying and skip tracks in the middle, so
in
the end, it is a pleasant "teaser" and no one would listen to it in the long
run, I'm convinced.
You are all invited to have a lengthy discussion of the pros and cons of how
I handled that :)
The final rehearsal will include a parlor concert to which our friends and
family will be invited to listen to our music, whether it is in rough form
or polished. We'll just see...
I recruited many people to help me out. There were a lot of eager
volunteers to assist me, and on my invitation I solicited assistants, too.
Here are the roles people are playing:
1. My dad is handling the money and is under strict orders that I am not to
get involved with it (except for accepting the funds later:)
2. Registration will be on computer so we have an immediate roster and
future correspondance possibilities.
3. My mom (the piano teacher) is greeting people and helping them figure
out what part they sing, SATB, and sending them to the corner with the
others in that range. She is also baking cookies (and probably bringing me
something new to wear so that I won't look like a shlep. Who knows.)
4. The door watcher will keep an eye out for late comers, since the
building must be locked at all times.
5. The "kvetch-catcher" a.k.a. Steve Greenberg will take any complaints,
strangeness, out in the hall and either rough the person up or tickle
her/him, as long as I don't have to hear about it. I'm just not interested
in reacting defensively about and parts of this event...
6. The Hava Nashirite replacement is being handled by Diane, who is
planning on beaming at me and encouraging me throughout, so that if at any
time I feel that this is a little too "out there" or anything, she'll just
remind me how much I like making music with people like all of you and we'll
get back to the fun.
7. We'll solicit people to clean up and set up next time.
I have a bunch of signs made to help people know what to do:
1. "Please sing in unison the first three times through and then add
harmony upon harmony."
2. "You are cordially invited not to talk about work here, and if someone
asks you "what do you do?" feel free to respond, "I sing in a Jewish Gospel
Choir!" (who knows, maybe hugging or halleluyah's will happen, too).
3. "Ooh, ooh, I have an idea" with ample room for suggestions, to get away
from having discussions about every detail as we go, but to see what people
come up with.
There will likely be more signs up by tonight. We'll see.
The only other thing that came up is that a few people are questioning
calling this a "gospel" choir, and I had anticipated it and brainstormed
with my acapella group about it. I think if I went with "spiritual" choir,
enough people would be turned off by the feeling of "well, I'm not
spiritual" or whatever other baggage comes with any term in that genre. I
also wanted people to expect that we would be up and moving and getting our
hands in the air. The best I can think of is to explain how I want to honor
the wonderful tradition of gospel music, which has many spiritual songs
based on Hebrew texts. Any suggestions will be happily appreciated. Any
criticisms may go directly to Steve, who will either rough you up or tickle
you via email.
If you have read this far, thanks and I look forward to sharing more with
you and hearing your feedback.
Thank you all so much for inspiring me in so many ways and so deeply. It's
really a credit to HN that I'm trying this at all and it is all of you who
guide me.
If any of you on the bibliography don't want me to use your music, please
let me know. I checked it out with many of you and probably overlooked
someone.
B'shira,
Wendy Goldberg
Minneapolis
Gospel Chorus Invitation.doc
Description: MS-Word document
Gospel Chorus Bibliography.doc
Description: MS-Word document
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