Date sent: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 19:47:39 EST
Subject: Please Read! Many great things, etc =-)
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Hello all! I am writing to comment on my weekend. I wrote about the chorus
that I was in, called the "All Catholic Chorus," from the Archdiocese of
Philadelphia. Well anyway, this was an incredible weekend! I participated
in many activities. We had a stressful schedule...

Thursday: singing from about 7-10pm.

Friday and Saturday: Singing from 8am-3pm, with about 2 hours of break all
together, then from 6-8:30 on Friday, and 6-9 on Saturday.

Well we came together on Thursday evening, from up to 2 hours away, and 23
high schools, knowing our music ONLY from a tape in which we had been given,
and had re-auditions. We didn't have the correct breathing written in,
corrected notes, etc... That was learned through the weekend... Well, we all
made it, as a 119 voice choir (one young man couldn't make it). I placed 7/15
in the alto 2's (I've been sick this whole weekend, and can't seem to get
better=* ( at all!)... Anyway, we had 2 days of singing, and fun, with
extremely fun breaks, a dance, parties, etc... =-)

If you know of ANY workshops, or ANYTHING involving Ms. Buchanan, PLEASE
e-mail me!!! She was phenomenal!!! I learned how to read most music this
weekend, how to breathe, the importance of breathing together, how to be part
of an amazing choir, how to bond with people from all over the county, and
just how to improve sound quality, etc... We were also her first High School
American Choir, so we touched her in a special way also =-)

We had one bad moment, when the choir was cued in one measure early, and had
two false starts all together... We restarted the other piece, but with the
"Hallelujah" chorus, we re-sung 2 pages, so it would be recorded better.
Well, all in all, I am SO happy that I participated in this event, even
though we had to drive home in the snowy, icey weather... (It snowed 3
inches+ during the preformance!!)

The songs that we did, were hard, and some are songs that most HS, and some
college choirs won't even attempt! Well, here is a list of the songs in which
we performed (The 2nd to last one we learned THAT morning--of the
performance!):

"Notre Pere (The Lord's Prayer)"(sung in French) --Maurice DURUFLE
"Hallelujah (from "Mount of Olives")"--BEETHOVEN
"He, Watching over Israel"--Felix MENDELSSOHN
"Antiphon (No. 5 of Five Mystical songs)"-- Ralph Vaughan WILLIAMS
"Praise Ye the Lord (Laudate Dominum)"(sung in Latin)--W.A. MOZART (with
soloist)
"The Lord is my shepard"--(Psalm 23) --John RUTTER
"ALLELUIA"--sung a cappella --Randall THOMPSON
"The Cloths of Heaven"--Z. Randall STROOPE
"Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair"--Appalachian Folk Song
--arr. Stuart CHURCHILL
"Here's One"--Traditional Tune --Arr. Mark HAYES
"Ain'-A That Good News!"--William L. DAWSON
and a surprise ending:
"A Gaelic Blessing"--John RUTTER

--Sara Ellzey--
--West Chester--
--Pennsylvania--
--Voice: Alto--

--StarryEyedWonder-at-aol.com--

"You've got to dance like nobody else is watching, Dream like you will live
forever, Live like you're going to die tomorrow, and Love like it's never
going to hurt."