Greetings and Happy December!
There’s a chill in the air!
THIS SUNDAY: Novices and Juniors REQUIRED – singing the service and sitting in the choir stalls while the seniors have the Sunday off for tech weekend.
Call is 9:45 a.m. in the Music Room, enter 802 Broadway.
Service is 11:00 a.m. finished around 12:20 p.m.
THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY in the GCS Dining Room.
See your invitation for details. It starts at 5:30 p.m.
and here is the link for sign up…….Ho Ho Ho! Annual Choir Christmas Party
THIS COMING WEDNESDAY: THE COMMUNITY CAROL SING
Led by all the choristers with the Rector in the Church – 12:15 – 12:45 p.m.
Bring family, friends and colleagues and sing along with the choristers – it’s fun!
WE FEED the choristers special pizza lunch prior to the sing.
Please let me know if there are any special allergies that I need to be aware of in ordering the “PIE”
Any Pizza allergies to be aware of for Wednesday?
THIS IS A SPECIAL WEEK IN THE FALL TERM – HERE WE GO:
All Novice and Junior Rehearsals/Services for 2016 end with the service on Sunday 4 December
…….until GCS begins again in January!……and except for the…….
Wednesday 7 December 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. The Community Carol Sing in the
Church led by the entire choir community.
Sunday 11 December 4:00 p.m. Special Advent Evensong featuring Britten’s
A CEREMONY OF CAROLS sung by the Girls’ Choir with ladies from the
adult and parish choirs – Required for all girl choristers.
A NEW FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITY! Thank you Cara Wall. Cara has offered the Choir Community a new long term fundraising opportunity through her store Clementine Consignment. A letter from her is attached with the details of how it works. She will have a fill in the blank tax donation letter for you to receive and fill in the amount you think the clothes are worth for your tax purposes. You receive the letter when you drop off the donations at the store. Again Thank you Cara for suggesting this great opportunity for the choir community. The choir will receive money from the store based on a percentage of what the clothes sell for. These monies will go into the Choir Special Projects Fund.
WHAT IS THE CHOIR SPECIAL PROJECTS FUND? This fund was established when the choir began preparing for it’s first international trip – to Bristol England as choir in residence for the Cathedral of Bristol during one week of the summer of 2004. The monies in the fund help cover the costs of tours, recordings and many other opportunities for the choristers beyond what the regular church operating budget can provide. It impacts the life of every choir family over the time that your family participates in the program and provides seed monies for future projects.
AFTER SCHOOL VOCAL COACHING – for some seniors Wednesday and Thursday don’t work, there will be several Saturday early afternoon sessions organized this fall for choristers who might be able to attend. If you are interested speak with Patrick.
Thank you for all you do! Have a wonderful weekend, travel safely and enjoy.
Love, Patrick
The Choir Family News!
Friday 4 December 2016
THIS SUNDAY: Novices and Juniors REQUIRED – singing the service and sitting in the choir stalls while the seniors have the Sunday off for tech weekend.
Call is 9:45 a.m. in the Music Room, enter 802 Broadway.
Service is 11:00 a.m. finished around 12:20 p.m.
THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY in the GCS Dining Room.
See your invitation for details. It starts at 5:30 p.m.
THIS COMING WEDNESDAY: THE COMMUNITY CAROL SING
Led by all the choristers with the Rector in the Church – 12:15 – 12:45 p.m.
Bring family, friends and colleagues and sing along with the choristers – it’s fun!
WE FEED the choristers special pizza lunch prior to the sing.
Please let me know if there are any special allergies that I need to be aware of in ordering the “PIE”
Any Pizza allergies to be aware of for Wednesday?
THIS IS A SPECIAL WEEK IN THE FALL TERM – HERE WE GO:
All Novice and Junior Rehearsals end with the service on Sunday 4 December
until GCS begins again in January!
Wednesday 7 December 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. The Community Carol Sing in the
Church led by the entire choir community.
Sunday 11 December 4:00 p.m. Special Advent Evensong featuring Britten’s
A CEREMONY OF CAROLS sung by the Girls’ Choir with ladies from the
adult and parish choirs – Required for all girl choristers.
If your chorister has not been vested yet please bring them 10 minutes early so we have a little extra time to assign them a vestment.
FACE BOOK: Did you know there is a Music at Grace Church Facebook page?
There is. We use it to get the word out about all the musical offerings that take place at the Church especially those of the choirs!
HELP US build the community of followers and listeners to the choirs – FRIEND THE Music at Grace Church page and let the word spread
RECRUITING is never over!
We have an amazing group of novice choristers for the fall term but…
If anyone asks, it is never too late to join the choir and they should reach out to me at: helfensteinch@yahoo.com.
For entering 4th graders it is also not too late to join as novices, we have had good luck at getting them up to speed quickly as your children are the best teachers. What schedule a
4th grader might follow would depend on the child and their family.
SIGN UP GENIUS: Melinda Weir has organized our sign up for helping with choristers activities through sign up genius. She does an amazing job at this, make sure you say Thank you! Sign up Genius has been very practical in making the sign to help as a choir parent helper easy and efficient. Here is the LINK:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/9040B4CA9A72DA64-choir1
WEBSITE: www.gracechurchnyc.org
CLICK: MUSIC
CLICK: login
User Name: helfenstein
Password: Stanfordlives1894
CHOIR SCHEDULES 2016 – 2017: REMEMBER Kathy’s Link to our Goggle Doc Schedules, they are ready to go for 2016-2017:
http://www.gchoirsched.info/schedules.html
HOMEWORK FOR SENIOR CHORISTERS:
Please locate a recording with your parents approval and listen to:
1. BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS: Bernstein, Chichester Psalms
NEXT WEEKS SCHEDULE:
• December
• December 6 (Tuesday) –Senior Boys, 7:00 – 8:10 a.m.
• December 7 (Wednesday) –Senior Girls, 7:00 – 8:10 a.m.
• December 7 (Wednesday) After School Vocal Coaching.
Sign up in advance for each session.
• December 8 (Thursday) –Senior Boy Choristers
7:00 – 8:10 a.m.
• December 7 (Thursday) After School Vocal Coaching.
Sign up in advance for each session. FINAL FOR 2016
• December 9 (Friday) –Senior Girl Choristers 7:00 – 8:10 a.m.
• December 10 (Saturday) – Senior Girls – REQUIRED DRESS REHEARSAL for
Britten’s A CEREMONY OF CAROLS in the church, enter at 802 Broadway
9:45 a.m. until noon.
December 11 (Sunday) – The Choir of Men and Boys
SENIOR CHORISTERS TODAY – REQUIRED
Novices and Juniors – OPTIONAL
Call is 9:45 a.m. for Seniors
Call is 10;15 a.m. for Novices and Juniors
No lunch or afternoon rehearsal
December 11 (Sunday) – The Girls’ Choir
All Girl Choristers- REQUIRED
Call is 2:15 p.m. for Seniors
Call is 3:30 p.m. for Novices and Juniors
Service begins at 4:00 p.m. over around 5:00 p.m.
SPECIAL LISTENING PROJECT:
Please find a time to watch and listen to these YouTube excerpts. They are from some of our fellow choirs around the world and are lovely and fun. They can help give us all a better idea of our tradition and celebrate the 1000 year old heritage that we participate in. I was in Wells this week and really, the church and choral tradition is just shy of it’s 1000th birthday! This year is the 120th birthday for our choir foundation.
King’s College Cambridge
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=kings+college+all+bells&vid=902f93ee8b3b28415cae01da013ce611&l=4%3A45&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608020223790746048%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DP8TyKNycHes&tit=John+Rutter%3A+All+Bells+In+Paradise+-+Official+Video&c=1&sigr=11aoutisl&sigt=11jh9sqci&ct=p&age=0&fr=yfp-t-901&tt=b
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=king%27s+college+choir&vid=110003f8b24834b111ae4be397650d76&l=5%3A08&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608026301171238103%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dq5n6X9sUznI&tit=O+Holy+Night+%3A+Kings+College%2C+Cambridge&c=2&sigr=11arr3iog&sigt=117mk8a8i&ct=p&age=0&fr=yfp-t-901&tt=b
FIN – THE END
Please forgive the length of this newsletter. You all have lots of wonderful questions and this is my attempt to get us organized and put as much information as you have asked about in one place.
ONGOING INFORMATION SOURCES:
*Like us on FACEBOOK! Music at Grace Church in New York
*The Goggle Choir Schedule Calendar Link: http://gchoirsched.info/home.html
*Sign Up Genius for Choir Parent Volunteer Sign Link:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/9040B4CA9A72DA64-choir1
*Accessing the Secure Choir Family Area of the Music Website:
www.gracechurchnyc.org
CLICK: MUSIC
CLICK: login
User Name: helfenstein
Password: Stanfordlives1894
*REMEMBER: If your contact information changes or you notice a typo in a communication don’t hesitate to let PA (P. Allen, not the Parents Association) know. “If you see something, say something”
*REMEMBER…please keep an eye out around the house and make sure you cash all choir checks you have received. When the books are closed at the audit for each operating budget year checks can no longer be redeemed or replaced.