Tag: singing

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Weekly Update, July 24

Our annual Family Picnic is this Sunday, July 29. All are invited! Please see the story below for details.

Family Picnic / Potluck is this Sunday, July 28 –

  • When: Sunday, July 28
  • Where: Ellis Park, Harborview Pavilion
  • Time: 4:00 – 8:00 (or so). Arrive any time
  • Social “hour” starting around 4:30
  • Dinner time: 5:30
  • Plan on singing, playing games, etc.

Children and guests are welcome.

This will be a potluck, so bring your meat, a dish to share and table service. The Harmony Hawks will provide water and pop. Alcoholic beverages are permitted, so if you want beer, wine, etc, you will need to bring your own. You should also bring chairs and games.

We will have ice in coolers as well. Grills are available. Restrooms are nearby, but not in the pavilion.

President’s Report

Enjoy your rehearsal night off, work on your music at home instead.

NO REHEARSAL THIS THURSDAY, JULY 25!

Thursday, August 1

Normal rehearsal night. We will work on “Get Happy” and Daydream, along with other HH songs. If we have learning tracks we will have sectionals on “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago”.

Thursday, August 8 and August 15

We will be holding combined rehearsals with Old Capital Chorus at Prairie Point, on the College Community School District campus. Everyone will be learning “From the First Hello” as a common song. Then…Iowa City would learn “Daydream”, (that we know) and we will learn “Get Happy” (That OCC knows).   In addition, there will be some time for vocal craft in warm ups, some tag time, and perhaps some breakout impromptu quartet opportunities.  We will also probably combine for some pole cat singing to help everyone get comfortable with the sound that is happening.

Here are directions to get to the Point Choir room (6:30 – 7:15)

  • Prairie Point is the building next to the Kirkwood Hotel/Convention Center on Kirkwood Blvd SW.  Here are directions to get to the choir room (the building doors will NOT be unlocked—singers MUST come to the door described to be able to enter!)
    • Drive around to the back of the school and park in the east lot.  The Kirkwood horse barn and Prairie Point football field are visible from this lot.
    • Enter using the door to the left of the basketball hoops (there is a door to the right, but it is not as obvious as the door on the left)
    • Kelly Truax will sit near this door to open for people.
  • Instructions for before 6:30 pm (or after 7:15 pm)
    • Park in the same lot OR park in the access driveway that is to the left of the door described above. 
    • Walk up the access driveway (as if you were going to the greenhouse.)
    • The choir room is the 3rd door—the window is very big; you’ll be able to see the group inside.  Knock on the window, and we’ll let you in!

New t-shirts order form

Gary Lindsay has submitted the order for the new tee shirts and they will be available for pickup at rehearsals starting August 15. After getting a final price quote, they will cost $13, not the $12 previously quoted. Please have cash or a check made out to Gary Lindsay for &13 times the number of shirts you ordered.

If you’d like to order additional shirts for a chorus supporter or family member you can still do so using the form below.

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Weekly Update, April 1, 2019

from President Larry Hlavacek

Proud Image Chorus is holding their 40th Anniversary show with guest quartet Boom Town on May 4th at 2p.m.and 6 p.m. The show will be held at Central Middle School. Tickets are $12.50 for adults and $8.00 for students.

Sean Devine from the Harmony Foundation will be at rehearsal this week.

Marty Monson, CEO of Barbershop Harmony Society, will be at Spring Contest. He will be attending the first part of our rehearsal. We will be going out for dinner with him, 5 p.m. at the Black Sheep Social Club, prior to our rehearsal on April 25. If you are interested in eating with Marty, please let me know so I can make sure we reserve enough space for us.

See the detailed information below on helping Iowa City with the Spring Contest. They still need many people! Monday night we were contacted by BHS about warming up the mics Saturday at the contest. I have reached back to them to get more information. I should have more to share at Thursday’s rehearsal.

Thursday’s Rehearsal Schedule

  • 7:00 Vamp Ups
  • 7:20 “Love Letters,” “Isn’t She Lovely,” “God Bless America”
  • 7:40 Business and Break
  • 7:55 “Daydream,” “Can You Feel the Love Tonight “
  • 8:20 Business and Break
  • 8:25 “Down on the Corner (soloists),” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “I Believe”
  • 9:00  KTWWS

Upcoming Events

  • April 26– Spring Contest in Iowa City. (See Below)
  • May 2 – Cookie Festival in Iowa City. We will sing “Love Letters” and “Isn’t She Lovely”
  • June 20 – Tribute to Heroes performance
  • August 27 – Sing National Anthem at the Kernel’s game

Profound Sound wows Prairie Middle kids

Thank you to Profound Sound quartet for continuing our youth outreach mission with their visit last week to Prairie Middle School.

Profound Sound sings for Kelly Truax’s seventh graders at Prairie Point Middle school.
Kelly Truax’s students listen intently to Profound Sound’s performance at Prairie Point Middle School last week.
Kelly Truax’s students listen intently to Profound Sound’s performance at Prairie Point Middle School last week.

Speaking of Youth Outreach

The March issue of Sounding Board, a publication of the Iowa Choral Director’s Association ran our article on the Youth In Harmony event we help at Prairie Point Middle last October. You can look at the article here:

Article_March ICDA Sounding BoardDownload

What you missed last week

As always, last Thursday’s rehearsal was full of fun moments. In one, director John Hayden mentioned a This America Life program about pirates, one in particular who became a pirate to avoid a nagging wife. Why John found this especially relatable was not explored. It’s a fun program and if you’d like to give it a listen, you can find it here https://www.thisamericanlife.org/616/i-am-not-a-pirate. When we discussed adding a whistling chorus to “Daydream” Gary Lindsay mentioned once whistling with professional whistler Fred Lowery at a school assembly. Lowery whistled the theme to the Andy Griffith Show and had a billboard top ten hit. If you’re curious, see the Wikipedia article here and check on YouTube for his recordings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Lowery

Repertoire update

The music team under the direction of Greg Koenigs has begun the process of paring down our repertoire with the purposes of making the songs that remain performance ready. Here is the list so far. Please send your comments to Greg at [email protected]

HH-Repertoire-2019Download
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Weekly Update, Jan. 14, 2019

Customers can order Singing Valentines at this link.

Schedule for Thursday

  • 6:30 Singing Valentine Quartets. Time for all valentine quartets to come and work on your songs.
  • 7:00 Chorus Rehearsal
  • 7:15 Rep Work
    • I Feel A Song Coming On
    • I Believe
    • Isn’t She Lovely
    • I Wish You Lov

8:00 Business Meeting & Break

  • 8:20 Rep Work
    • Things Are Looking Up
    • Bright Was The Night
  • 8:50 Performance
  • 9:00 KTWWS

Note from the president

Next week we will schedule also the 6:30 – 7:00 rehearsal time for the quartets who will be delivering Singing Valentines. There will be more of these scheduled prior to February 14. We are looking for one more quartet to sing. If you are willing to sing in a quartet, please let Greg know.
For the last couple weeks, I have noticed that not all attending chorus members are at rehearsal at 7:00. People have been trickling in until about 7:15. Warm-up time is important for preparing to sing and for learning to be a better singer. You might even learn something about another chorus member! I realize that there are reasons why you may not always be there at 7 but please make an effort to be ready to get on the risers at 7. If you are purposefully arriving late to skip the warm-ups, please let me know the reason so we can look at making changes to the warm-up routine.

Invitation from the River City Chorus

Welcome from the River City Chorus in Mason City. As president of the chorus I would like to announce that our chorus will be sponsoring a Harmony College Midwest on August 2th,3th,4th . The event will be held at NIACC community college in Mason City. Our guest quartet and coaches will be Instant Classic along with other professional coaches. So if your chorus ,quartets or individuals are looking for a chorus retreat,a coaching session before contest or just to improve your singing. Consider this college for yourselves!
The event will include an afterglow before the college, yes I know we are starting with the best part ,on Friday night. Breakfast on Saturday followed by coaching sessions , a noon meal and more sessions in the afternoon. Then a show Saturday evening starring Instant Classic. Sunday morning will include a breakfast and a group sing church service where each chorus or individual who have pre registered will receive four newly arranged gospel songs by River City Chorus director Jayson Ryner to keep and take home to their home choruses. Therewill also be an opportunity to participate in just the Saturday event if a chorus, quartet or individual are interested.
The housing will be at the new air conditioned dormitory at NIACC and will be included in the registration fee. The pre registration fee will be $125 per person which will include everything listed above . If you can’t make the whole weekend, join us Saturday for a day of coaching , noon meal and Saturdays show for $80. So please consider joining us at our first Harmony College Midwest to improve and enjoy singing with other barbershop singers in the area. We would like to have the preregistration done by March 9th. A flier will be sent to each chapter with a registration and additional info. For more information contact myself at [email protected] or Stan Zinnel at (641)380-0406. Thank you.

Tony Poppens, President River City Chorus

Upcoming Events

  • January 17 – Rehearsal
  • January 21 – Board meeting at the Hlavacek home starting at 7:00
  • January 24 – Rehearsal
  • January 25 – Naturalization Ceremony
  • February 14 – Singing Valentines
  • February 22 – Naturalization Ceremony