July 12, 2004

Dear Choir,

I hope that you are having a restful summer and enjoying what so far has been a mild North Carolina summer. As I do each year at this time, I wanted to writeam writing to tell you of our exciting plans for the 2004–2005 season of concerts, which will be our fourteenth season year of music making.

These are exciting times for the Concert Singers. We just completed an excitinga memorable season that culminated with in a wonderful appearance in Duke Chapel, and we will be expanding our children’s choir program by adding a choir for grades 7–9. Thanks to the fine work of our board, under the leadership of Bob Macdonald, Diane Villwock, and David Lindquist, the organization continues to grow, develop, and become more professional. We will be spending the next year making adjustments to the structure of our board of directors that will make the board a fund-raising body instead of a managerial body, with other committees assuming the managerial work. Although we finished this past year with a small deficit, the group is financially healthy and has been given a strong vote of confidence with healthy substantial increases in government and foundation support. We are continuing to By building our financial base in this way, so that we can continue to add wonderful musical offerings for our members and the community at large.

One of the our offerings that we will implement this fall is to build on the will be an expanded role for the Chamber Choir that debuted so successfully during the spring season. This group provides a small-ensemble opportunity for active sSymphonic cChoir members and enables us to explore repertoire that is better suited to smaller ensembles. One aspect in of the spring season that I did feel needed refinement was the Monday schedule. By trying to accomplish both the objectives of both choirs in the existing two-hour block, I think that we squeezed both groups for adequate rehearsal time. In order to insureTo ensure that we will have enough rehearsal time for everyone, the Symphonic Choir will begin rehearsing at rehearse from 7:15 and will end atto 8:40 and the Chamber Choir will rehearse from 8:45– to 9:45. Membership for the Chamber Choir will be announced at the end of the summer and will vary some from concert to concert, depending on the needs of the music.

We are also trying hope to do some other innovative things with the rehearsal block, including a few sectionals rehearsals as well asand two nights in January when we will work with the Chamber Choir exclusively. Enclosed with this letter are a complete season schedule is included with this letter. Also included with the letter isand a list of the three concert projects for next seasonthe coming year. As our projects usually do, these three programs vary considerably in scope and style. The first concert in November will feature the music of living 21st twenty-first-century American composers and will utilizeing an orchestra of 30 thirty players from the Raleigh Symphony. For the first time ever, we will be doing an all-pops holiday program, combining forces with the Triangle Wind Ensemble. Our spring concert will include three works by Bach and Handel using an orchestra of authentic performed on period instruments. These players will come from the faculties of Duke, UNC, and ECU, and the instruments from Colonial Williamsburg and Old Salem.

This next year will be an exciting and challenging time for me personally and professionally. Most of you know that I began work this past year on a master’s degree in choral conducting at East CarolinaECU. In order To complete the degree by next May, I will be a full-time student, splitting me my residency residence between my home in Cary and an apartment in Greenville, NC. It will be challenging, both physically and intellectually, but exciting andgreatly rewarding. One of the major requirements of my degree is to do a high-level performance that includes a major research component. This is usually done with the University Chorale at ECU, but Dr. Daniel Bara, my conducting professor, asked if I would like to do this projectit with the Concert Singers instead. Our Bach and Handel performance in April will serve as my recital, so I thought you all might like to know that you will be a key player in my education!. I was am proud that Dr. Bara had has the confidence in you to do this project, and I am pleased to have you play a role in such a key component of my degree.

I hope that you enjoy the rest of the summer, and I can’t wait to see you in September!

Beautiful music awaits!