July 25, 1994
Dear Friends,
I'd like to start off by offering my congratulations for an outstanding performance at Summerfest last month. It was a fitting conclusion to a fine season of concerts that has solidified our standing as one of the area's finest choruses. Maestro Zimmermann asked me to make sure that I let you know that he was extremely pleased. I can honestly say that the manner that expressed it to me indicated that he was extremely pleased.
There are a number of topics that I need to cover in this letter that deal with the 1994-95 season, a year that I believe will be our most pivotal. Here goes...
AUDITIONS - at our June meeting, the Board of Directors approved my request for a change in our audition policy. We will no longer require every singer to reaudition every summer. The enclosed sheet spells out the new format. Our membership committee has generated a list of those who will need to reaudition. We will notify you of a suggested day and time if you need to reaudition. Call David Lindquist (380-7137) if you need to work out a different time. We are assigning dates and times this year in an effort to eliminate the mob scene and long waits that we experienced last year. Auditions are scheduled for Monday, August 22 and Monday, August 29 from 6:30-9:30 in the choir room at White Plains United Methodist Church on 313 E.E. Maynard Rd in Cary.
CONCERT DRESS - this is an issue that we have dealt with gradually over our short history. We are now entering our fourth season. We will be performing for the first time at Memorial Auditorium and we need to appear in full formal concert dress. We will outfit ourselves in the following way:
MEN - the men will wear black tuxes. The red ties that we bought last year will be included in the color scheme. If you already own a black tux, you will only need to coordinate tie and cummerbund. We will have options for both purchase and rental with purchase price being about $110 for the jacket, trousers, short, tie and cummerbund.
WOMEN - we are assembling a group of women of all ages, shapes and sizes to recommend a uniform dress that will look good on all of our women singers. Cost is still to be determined, but we will not exceed the $110 that the men will be paying. We will try to work lower.
We hope that by letting you know about this now, you can cushion the financial impact by planning ahead. We want to work with you any way that we can so please let us know if there is a hardship. If it's at all possible, we want to eliminate the chance of losing anyone over this issue.
THE 1994-95 SEASON - We will perform at Memorial Auditorium on Thanksgiving weekend (see enclosed schedule) with The North Carolina Symphony under the direction of Jackson Parkhurst for their annual Holiday Pops performances. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to perform indoors in the resident concert hall of the Symphony, if... we can supply the needed forces. Indoor symphonic concerts are acoustical in nature, so there will be no sound system like the one used at Regency Park. In order to properly balance with the orchestra, we need to supply a minimum of 100 singers. If we cannot do this, I will have to tell the Symphony that they will need to invite additional singers from another source. You can well imagine how little interest I have in doing that, but it is a better choice than being drowned out by the orchestra. I know that being here for the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend is a real sacrifice for some of you, but these concerts are crucial for us and we need you. I'm asking all of you to make that sacrifice for this first year. I normally visit my family in Pennsylvania during that time period, but they are coming here this year and will attend the concert. You might consider this possibility when making your plans.
Our annual Christmas concert will be on Sunday night, December 18 and we will return to the sanctuary of White Plains United Methodist Church for this performance. This concert and The Holiday Pops will be one project with one schedule and one absentee policy. Since the Holiday Pops concerts and our own concert are only three weeks apart, there are no rehearsal scenarios that I'm comfortable enough with that will allow us to separate the concerts into two projects.
On January 6 and 7, we will assemble to make our first commercial recording of Christmas music drawn from both concert programs just concluded. This recording is being backed by our Advisory Board which is made up of members of the business community. These businesses will supply us with funding and retail outlets to sell the album (CD and tapes). Our goal is an initial sale of 500 tapes and 1000 compact disks. We can do reorders for up to 5000. We will take a photo of the group at The Holiday Pops concert and list each singer's name in the booklet that comes with the recording. Each singer who participates in the recording will receive one free copy. Singers who wish to participate in the recording project are required to have performed in both Holiday Pops concerts and our own Christmas concert. You are permitted to participate in both Christmas concert projects and skip the recording project if necessary.
Our spring concert will take place on Sunday, April 2 and feature the music of Randall Thompson. This will be a mostly a cappella concert and will take place in a new concert setting, Resurrection Lutheran Church on Kildaire Farm Rd. and Lochmere Drive in Cary.
We will again appear at Summerfest at Regency Park in June of 1995 with The North Carolina Symphony. The date and program has not yet been determined by the symphony as of this writing. You will be notified as soon as plans are finalized.
Whew! As you can see, we have an opportunity to experience our most exciting year yet. But we need you to make it happen. All of our work is dependent upon outstanding performances that require a talented and dedicated group of singers. Sign up now and tell a friend about our plans. We're counting on you.
See you soon!
Larry
Updated 16 July 2003 |