Dear Readers,May I be the first to wish you a merry Christmas!

Hasn’t this been a difficult and most unusual year for all of us, not only as choristers but just living day by day in the midst of COVID-19 threats? The temporary shutdown of many choirs or the challenge of rehearsing virtually has made a huge impact on the choral activities that we love so much. As BCCF Choir members, we have had the opportunity to be part of online Townhall meetings, Roundtable sessions and workshops over the past few months. Some of you were involved in the Roundtable meeting specifically for seniors’ choirs and witnessed the wide range of responses to this pandemic.

The word that comes from all of these communications with our Lifelong Singers is TENACITY — “persistence” and “determination”. One of our largest seniors’ choirs is not rehearsing but learning about each other through regular newsletters. Other groups have picked up on that idea and have followed through for their choirs. Another choir is regularly rehearsing on Zoom with great success. Others were excited to try rehearsing on Zoom and joined the Zoom 101 and 201 workshops for further help. Do you see the wide range we have? Think about your choir and, if you are not meeting in any way right now, can you start some form of communication? We need to keep our physical and mental health in tiptop shape! I encourage you to be creative and connect your choir members together in some format.

In this issue, I have chosen the theme of Connecting through sharing what some of our choirs are doing in NEWS FROM OUR MEMBER CHOIRS and in another section called KEEPING IN TOUCH where you can gather a host of suggestions to maintain connections with your group.

As we head into this special season of the year around Christmas and reminisce on years gone by with concerts and sharing the gift of music with others, I hope that you are singing the old familiar Christmas songs and carols and keeping your spirits high. Your Christmas festivities may be greatly reduced but I wish you joy in your daily activities. So… Merry Christmas!

Janette Walker

BCCF Past PresidentProgram Chair, BCCF Lifelong Singers

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BCCF Newsletter

Brevis Edition

FALL/WINTER 2020 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 1

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News from our Member Choirs

FALL/WINTER 2020

Here is a report of what some of our BC Lifelong Singers are up to during this season.

CRAIG BAY CHORISTERSThe Craig Bay Choristers have been rehearsing this fall using Zoom. We gather on Zoom, have a little social time, and then our Director, Lonnie Moddle, mutes us all and takes us through warmups and rehearsals, so each of us is rehearsing our part while listening to her sing and play the piano. She does separate sessions with the women and the men. We are putting together a virtual Christmas concert... each member of the choir is completing video recordings of his or her parts to a repertoire of seven seasonal songs, and we have a great technical team stitching the concert together. We expect to be able to share the concert with friends and neighbours by mid-December.

Submitted by Jim Reid

EnCHOR, VANCOUVERAt this point in a normal choral season, Vancouver's EnChor Choir would have performed its annual Fall concert and been in rehearsal for its annual performances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's Traditional Christmas Concert series. Alas, that could not be. However, we have been rehearsing weekly using Zoom, with everyone muted of course, and utilizing the "breakout room" feature to rehearse in sections. We have also kept ourselves entertained by contributing to a "Members' Only" page on our website entitled "Turning the Corona". Choir members have made over 300 submissions that include humour about our pandemic predicament as well as uplifting images and videos, including "parodies" of famous songs that reference the Covid crisis. Check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DwlnT3WxrI for one of the best, a parody of One Day More from Les Mis. Our last rehearsal before Christmas is on December 18th. We will sing along with some traditional Christmas carols using soundtracks created by our wonderful pianist, Ken Cormier. We will also play some games such as "Guess whose baby picture is this?" Surprisingly, the Covid crisis has brought us even closer together. Typically at least 90% of choir members participate in our weekly rehearsals.

Submitted by Donald Blake

THE JEWELTONES, KAMLOOPSWhen the weather was warmer, The Jeweltones, a women’s ensemble of 15 choristers, met at a local park regularly and got caught up on news about each other. It was a wonderful distancing visit which changed to online news as the weather turned cooler. Now, we are regularly publishing the JEWELTOMES for our members, with special thanks to Karen McClelland who collects our photos and news and puts it together in an attractive format for all of us to enjoy. We want to wish all the readers a season of joy and peace accompanied by the beautiful songs of Christmas that you can continue to sing in your homes and online.

Submitted by Janette Walker

PALS CHORUS, VANCOUVER Yesterday (Nov. 23), our Director emailed a detailed tutorial to our members, instructing them in how to record and video themselves singing their part in the song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. We're hoping that sufficient members will come on board to make this a viable project. We'll keep y'all posted! Ciao for now...stay well and safe!

Submitted by Barb Brolly

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News continued...

FALL/WINTER 2020

PENTICTON TUNE-AGERSPenticton Tune-Agers Choir and Orchestra are doing what they can to keep the music flowing through COVID. Up until the most recent directions from Dr. Bonnie Henry, limiting any visiting in homes, most of our choir members had been taking part in weekly Zoom practices. We had a few members gathering—wearing singing masks and social distancing—in one room in the home of our accompanist. The rest of us could all hear the piano and individual parts for each song, and we could follow our Director Nick Kelly conducting as we sang in the safety of our own homes. We’re hoping we can return to this practice in the New Year. Nick plans to guide us through the recording of a few of the pieces to produce a virtual performance sometime in January, and some of the members of our orchestra—violin, flute, and cello—will be joining us in that venture. There is a small group of Tune-Agers who got together and did a virtual recording earlier this year, but for most of us this will be a brand new experience. We’ll let you know when it’s available for viewing.

Submitted by Peggy Whitley

RICHMOND SINGERS ENSEMBLEWe are not singing together anymore but we do gather for a one hour Zoom meeting on Wednesday morning, our regular rehearsal day. We are working on the format which is getting easier and more fun as we experiment. We did toy with trying to produce a presentation but felt we did not give ourselves enough time... maybe in the new year. Our Accompanist, Cindy McPherson, is our Zoom Director. She makes sure we are all “muted” and plays along for us: sometimes the full accompaniment, sometimes parts only and sometimes just our separate lines. We are a small enough group that most feel they can add a comment (or two) as we go along. It does keep us in touch. We also gathered about once a month times during the good weather in members’ big yards. We each brought our chair, which we placed 2 metres apart, and our lunch and had a good visit. We’ll probably resume these gatherings once it warms up a bit. Thanks you for keeping us “lifelong singers” in the loop.

Submitted by Mary Schmok

VANCOUVER ORPHEUS MALE CHOIRWe have been holding rehearsals on Zoom every Tuesday in the Fall so we are familiar with the technology now! During our last rehearsal on December 15th, we will be hosting a carolling event. Twelve to fourteen members will be leading a dozen or so carols either a cappella with one unmuted at a time, or using an accompaniment from people at home with them who are in their bubble, or we will share a recording they make in advance collaborating with others. We will also share our Virtual Recordings and some past recordings of our choir singing some of our favourites. Participants will sing along to the carols following screen shares of the musical scores or lyrics while being able to view our members singing along.

Submitted by Alan Sanderson and Liana Savard

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Keeping in TouchAre you finding that you are unable to get Zoom choir rehearsals off the ground? Choir fulfills our desires to sing. Just as importantly, however, it also serves to create social connections. We are all feeling the loss of these connections due to this pandemic. But our seniors communities are perhaps most heavily impacted of all. If Zoom technology feels like an insurmountable challenge to musical rehearsals, know that there are other ways to keep social cohesion through these times. Here is a list of some ideas that you might want to try. Perhaps they will inspire you to think of other ways to stay connected. Share your ideas with us and we’ll pass them along to others.

Many thanks to the wonderful and creative ideas put forth by the panelists at the BCCF Round Table #5 for Seniors’ Choirs.

Phone TreeIt’s important to keep our social connections alive during these challenging, isolating times. Some of your members may not have much connectivity to the internet or email. Reaching out with a phone call can be so meaningful and help to keep your social cohesion strong even when not meeting in person. Ask for a few volunteers to help out in doing this to help spread the load.

E-NewsletterThere are so many ideas for content that could be included in an e-newsletter—the sky is the limit! Consider some of the following:

• create playlists of YouTubes, could be subject-related or member-created or both! Subjects could include favourite choirs, helpful vocal technique, favourite recipes, places you have travelled, sing-along opportunities (see Music in Motion livestream on Facebook every Tuesday)• create lists of favourite movies to watch and a chance/place to weigh in after to compare thoughts• personal stories—ask for member-input. Topics could be:

o why I sing in a choiro most memorable choral experienceo most memorable travel experienceo best job/worst jobo something no one else knows about meo how we celebrated holidays when I was a child

• post a song and dedicate a time/day for everyone to sing it at home (ask for requests on this, too), you may not be able to hear each other but knowing you are all doing this activity at the same time will help foster a communal bond• encourage members to write about these (or other) songs, why do they like them? What meaning do they hold for them?• games:

o musical crosswords—look online for pre-made puzzles, there are lots aroundo www.musicnotes.com/now/omg/musical-crossword-puzzles-with-free-printableso “Who Sang That?” include a list of your favourite song titles and see if people can name the singero Write the opening lyrics to a song and see who can correctly identify the song

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• contests:o best alternate lyrics to any song of choice (come up with a fun theme)o best lyrics for any made-up melody/best melody for any made-up lyrico best poem on a given theme

Submitted by Anita Comba and Lise Coppin

Keep in touch with the BCCF online: www.bcchoralfed.com

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BCCF BOARD LIFELONG SINGERS COMMITTEE

Anita Comba BCCF Vice President

Lise Coppin BCCF Secretary

Ron Hagerman BCCF Treasurer

Mary Weber BCCF Board Director

Janette Walker BCCF Past President

Keeping in Touch