[HANASHIR:16087] RE: Starting a new Jewish Community Choir

[Carol Boyd Leon <cbleon...>]

Roz, my choir experience is somewhat related as one of my Jewish youth 
choirs is a community choir and last year I founded an adult 
choir...although that one is affiliated with a Conservative synagogue.    As 
it hasn't been all that long since I went through those initial 
organizational meetings, here are some of my memories and insights:

As I recall, the major decision to be made at our first organizational 
meetings had to do with what kind of music we should sing.  Be prepared -- 
the people involved in getting your group started may be like mine with 
diverse visions of what the choir should focus on musically.  Contemporary 
or traditional liturgical music, Israeli music, show tunes, etc. There was 
no consensus.

So once they drafted me to direct the group, they left it up to me to give 
it a focus and to choose all their music.  Of course, I'm open to 
suggestions, but I think it's important to have an overall vision of what 
would serve the group best.  I also determined the rehearsal schedule, 
performance schedule and performance attire because, once again, there were 
diverse ideas regarding each of these issues.  While I surveyed all the 
potential members to find out their preferences, ultimately I had to make 
the decisions.  I think it's difficult to determine these things by 
committee.

Honestly, coming up with the rehearsal day is likely to be the biggest 
roadblock you first come up against.  There may be someone who wants to be 
involved but absolutely can't make it, say, on Tuesdays.  Be prepared for 
how you'll handle that if it turns out Tuesday is the best day for everyone 
else.  Are you willing to hold rehearsals on a day when you know from the 
beginning that several members can never be there because you want to make 
sure that everyone who is interested in joining can do so?  (I ultimately 
went with once-a-week rehearsals, always the same day and time.)

Yes, the repertoire and teaching style need to take into account the 
abilities of the group.  You may find you've got several people who can 
sightread music as well as several who can't read a note.  (My own group is 
like that; it's got some people who sing in top-rate choirs and some who are 
stretching musically to sing with this choir.)  You may like the idea of 
4-part harmony but end up with only 1 tenor and have to have the men share 
one voice part.  You may need a cappella music for singing in the Orthodox 
shul.  What will you do when the group sings in the Reform synagogue to make 
it comfortable for the choir members?

This Friday, my Conservative adult choir will be singing throughout an 
entire Reform Shabbat service to help dedicate a new sanctuary for a large 
retirement community.  There's a lot of give-and-take involved, but it's all 
working out fine and there's plenty of learning going on.

The requirement of learning at home may not be a realistic one for a 
volunteer choir unless you provide learning tapes to aid those who don't 
read music.

Do you really want choir members with stage fright?  Most choirs are 
performing groups.

Will you be able to afford a paid accompanist for every rehearsal?  Can you 
draft a volunteer rehearsal pianist?  If you're mainly singing a cappella, 
perhaps you can get by with the director or another member pinch-hitting at 
piano.

Also, what's comfortable for the choir members may not be comfortable for 
the congregations at which they sing.  My choir enjoys instrumental 
accompaniment.  Their shu, however, only permits me to use a tuning fork on 
Shabbat; even a pitch pipe is a problem there.

Where will your funding come from?  My group started with no budget and had 
to scramble for donations, particularly the first year.  We make sure to 
sing at events which help support our donors (Men's Club, Sisterhood, etc).  
In fact, we've got a concert tonight at a Men's Club-sponsored event whose 
goal is to raise money for youth programs.

Ultimately, all the hard work is worth it.  Several of the group's members 
tell me our rehearsals are a high point of their week.  They've melded 
together to be a concerned and caring community that's a pleasure to work 
with and they've grown musically, too.  I wish you the best of luck in 
getting your community choir off the ground because I know the rewards, 
particularly for the group's own members, can be very great.

Now I'll go see if the snow has melted enough to let me drive to this 
evening's performance!

-- Carol




Carol Boyd Leon
Songwriter/Cantorial Soloist/Music Educator
E-mail:  CBLeon (at) hotmail(dot)com
Phone:  703-250-0554
Web page:  http://www.geocities.com/CBoydLeon



----Original Message Follows----
From: Ros Schwartz <ros (at) hn(dot)dancinginthewind(dot)ca>
Reply-To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
Subject: [HANASHIR:16084] Starting a new Jewish Community Choir
Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 11:41:14 -0500

There is an exciting initiative in our community, to start a Jewish 
Community Choir.  I'm setting the agenda for our first organizational 
meeting, and I would appreciate any comments/suggestions on
{a) the content of the agenda - attached below - anything I should change or 
add? and
(b) any roadblocks/difficulties that I should anticipate, and suggestions as 
to how to deal with them.

We have one Orthodox and one Reform congregation here (in Kingston, Ontario, 
Canada) with a reasonably good relationship between them - a number of 
people (including me) belong to both synagogues, and this is considered 
quite acceptable.  Also there are many non-affiliated Jews in the community. 
  So we plan to do this under the auspices of the Jewish Community Council, 
so that membership is open to all.

Later, if this works out, I will likely be writing for your repertoire 
suggestions! :-)

Thanks for your help,

- Ros

=======================================================================

Agenda for organizational meeting for Jewish Community Choir

Goals
- have fun!
- develop musical abilities
- give back to the community by way of performances & songleading

Members
- no prior training required;  no audition
- commitment to attend rehearsals, learn music between rehearsals,
attend performances (some people may not perform initially if stage
fright ... but this would be an eventual goal for all)
- find out individual experience - e.g. who has had voice training? can
read music? play an instrument? learn music easily by ear? help others?
- and adjust repertoire accordingly

Choir rehearsals:
- where?
- how often? (weekly / every 2 weeks)
- what day? (could vary eg Thurs / Sun)
- what time? (start & stop?)

Musical accompaniment
- piano or keyboard essential at the beginning for learning 4 part harmony

Rehearsal structure
- warm-ups
- ?soul food? (brief inspirational reading)
- study material - rounds, 4 part harmony pieces
- announcements
- fun material (easy unison "singalong" pieces)
- options for music teaching: sheet music - purchase, borrow, or rent
(not photocopy); lyric sheets; rote learning; charts; overhead
projector; - at discretion of person teaching that particular song

Repertoire
- Jewish music
- world folk music

Musical leadership
- director - harmony pieces
- assistant director(s) - warmups, unison pieces, rounds
- others?
- section leaders to help out in smaller groups

Costs
- sheet music
- accompanist
- rehearsal space
- choir members to contribute as they can, no one to be excluded bec
they can?t pay

Performances
- for the synagogues
- for the community
- could include solos, harmony arrangements, rounds, & unison pieces for
songleading
- audition in April 2004 for the local ?Revue? in December 2004

Need volunteers
- to do admin work - contact people as needed, arrange venues, publicity
for meetings & concerts, manage finances, etc.
- to do musical work - choose repertoire, order music, help choir
members musically, etc.

Under the auspices of the Jewish Community Council - open to members of 
either congregation & unaffiliated persons as well

Name for choir!
Vision statement!


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