[HANASHIR:12017] Jewish Gospel Choir

[Wendy Goldberg <wendy.goldberg...>]

Hello, everyone.  It sounds like CAJE was wonderful and I missed being with
you there.

The Gospel Choir was great.  We had three rehearsal sessions and then a
concert "in the rough" on Sunday, August 4.
Roughly 35 people participated and we had a pit orchestra of a piano,
clarinet, bass, and my guitar.  We sang about 9 songs and I thought it would
take about 30-40 minutes, but I recorded 70 minutes (okay, so I talk a bit)!
It sounds pretty good and we enjoyed it immensely.  We even got
midwesterners up out of their seats for a song or two, which was prety
exciting in this part of the country.

Most of the participants are interested in participating again next summer,
and we all agreed that having more male voices was a must.  We had about 10
males and 20+ females, three of whom sang tenor, but it didn't balance out
so well, so we'll work on that for next year.

We projected the words to the songs on the wall across from the bimah so
that we didn't have to hold music, although we put it a littel too high so
it looked kind of funny that people were looking up during the performance.
I saw audience members looking up and back, too.

The only glitch was on my part.  I made a practice CD for the group to use
so that we could maximize our efforts, and I did not get permission for one
song, Debbie's Ha-Zorim, which was not meant to be shared publicly yet.  Had
I realized that ahead of time, I never would have put it on the CD.  I also
had drafted my song list well ahead of time and tried to send it to the list
twice before doing the CD, but both times my computer crashed and I didn't
manage to pull that off before creating the CD. Randee Friedman of
Soundswrite was helpful and patient with me as we straightened out my faux
pas, which was publicizing it on the CD.  She saw my posting on this list
and did not want to embarrass me publicly, so called me directly to advise
me on the legalities and ethics of using copyrighted music.  I was very
impressed with her knowledge and kindness towards me.  Even though the CD is
terrible and unworthy of listening to beyond using it for the choir,
nonetheless, I went outside the boundaries, however well-intentioned.  As
you have questions along this line, I   recommend using Randee as a
resource.

This is all to say that once again I/we need to get permission from
artists/composers before going public with their work, using it for our
concerts.  My apologies to all of you for messing up here.

The other piece I had not mentioned is that I hoped to send some honorarium
to each of the artists whose music I used.  I didn't include that in my
first letter because I didn't  know if I would collect enough fees to pay
for space rental and have enough to send, and I was a little embarassed
about publicizing my intent.  However, I spoke with my group at length about
supporting artists who share their wonders with us, and included a
bibliography so that my participants could get the music from the "real"
CDs.

Thanks again for inspiring me.  I loved creating an experience that moved
people and couldn't have done it without all of you.

wendy

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