<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c">Welcome Donia!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c">Thank you so much for all you have shared. It was truly wonderful to meet with you here last week to reflect and talk about ideas together! It seems like the venues you have in mind would be well suited for our rehearsals, though I will miss seeing your faces on Thursdays. That was easy to get used to, and I hope you will all feel welcome to pop by and visit - anytime!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c">I also want to appreciate Tom S. for his help with Kellie's media during our rehearsals this past year, Tom and Brenda who were part of the hiring committee, Fran for being our choir "elder" bravely facing learning so many new things with a willing spirit, Vicky and Nancy who are new to the choir and added so much to our rehearsals, Vic and his family for bringing us to a multi-generation choir for some of the rehearsals and pieces of music, AND ALL OF YOU for keeping up the spirit we built with Dick, and helping us to get through the pandemic together through music.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c">It's so exciting to learn more about you Donia, your music background, and music leadership over the years. I can't wait for us to sing together again and your plans for the coming year help me feel both encouraged, and the courage to keep trying to sing, through whatever may befall us!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c">Looking forward to seeing you all very soon!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#134f5c"><br></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="text-align:left"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" color="#134f5c" face="arial, sans-serif">With gratitude,</font></div></div></div></div><i><font color="#990000" size="6" face="garamond, times new roman, serif">B</font><font color="#990000" face="times new roman, serif" size="4">eth</font></i></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="text-align:left"><font color="#cc0000" face="times new roman, serif" size="4"><b><i><img src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=14SIDuOcTwTEwuEWBFDuL30jdd1npqFjz&revid=0B6sEPJDuZVrDSGZXY3c1WTg5VVBNZ0g0bnptTm5PSzU0WTNzPQ" width="96" height="71"></i></b></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="text-align:left"><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font color="#990000"><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"><font size="4">Beth Damon</font></span><br></font></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2" color="#134f5c" face="times new roman, serif">Educator | Designer | Facilitator</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div><div><div><div><div><div><font color="#134f5c" face="times new roman, serif">80 College Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div><font color="#134f5c" face="times new roman, serif">802 . 272 . 3108 txt | cell</font></div></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jun 30, 2021 at 1:43 PM Donia Prince via Choir <<a href="mailto:choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org">choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hello old friends and new!<div><br></div><div>As of tomorrow, I will be the new Acting Music Director for UCM. I feel so honored to have this position, to lead and support such a wonderful group of singers as we continue this transition,towards (hopefully) the end of the pandemic, and through what has been a time of so much change for the choir. This email is to say hi!, to let you know what we are planning for this summer, and to express some thoughts about our choir community. </div><div><br></div><div>I am also very aware that while nearly all of you know me as a choir member and fill-in for Dick, you might not be aware of what otherwise makes me qualified for this position! At the end of this letter, I will include a section of the bio that will be on the UCM website.</div><div><br></div><div><b>The plan</b></div><div>The plan is to begin outdoor rehearsals starting July 8th, for most weeks this summer
at our usual time: Thursdays at 6:30. (We will not meet July 22nd) We'll start with an hour-long rehearsal and see if we want to extend that for subsequent rehearsals. Eliza has generously agreed to accompany us most weeks! Yay Eliza! I understand that people have a lot of plans during the summer and there's no expectation for<span style="font-size:large"> </span>attendance. But I also know that people are eager to sing together in person, and that many are feeling vocally out of shape. I hope with these rehearsals to address both of those issues. </div><div>Location to be determined--I'll send out another notice next week.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Covid precautions</b></div><div>In order to be safe and inclusive, we will be following the UUA guidelines for singing. Specifically this will mean: There will be no vaccination requirement in order to sing. For the first part of each rehearsal, we will wear masks. But for the last half hour of each<font size="4"> </font>rehearsal all who wish to can take their masks off, while still remaining distanced. As the summer progresses, I will be watching conditions and communicating with UCM's covid task force, making adjustments as possible in order to make our singing experience as satisfying and "natural" as we can. </div><div><br></div><div><b>And...</b></div><div>We will also explore forming some smaller groups within the choir. As for what choir offerings will look like next year, we still just don't know exactly. Probably at the start of the church year there won't be in-person choral offerings. My thinking now is that we will try to record/film the choir and/or smaller groups singing together, with these video recordings shown at in-person services.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Thoughts on our choir moving forward</b></div><div>I don't need to tell you that this has been a really difficult year in so many ways for our choir, beginning with the loss of Dick and in-person singing over a year ago. And I think it's been felt not just in<font size="4"> </font>the loss of singing together but in the loss to some degree of the cohesive, caring community that the choir had been. I invite each of you to think about what you might need-- from me, from each other, from our rehearsal time or possible other organized time together--in order to help rebuild not just our voices and skills, but also our sense of community. Feel free to reply to me personally with any thoughts, concerns or questions. I'm happy to meet with anyone one-on-one as well, and might be reaching out to some of you directly in the coming weeks.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Thank you</b></div><div>Finally, I want to extend a huge thank you and acknowledgement to those who kept alive a choir presence with Kellie and zoom choir this past year. Special thanks to Beth Damon and others for all you did to hold the community together, ending with the series of in-person sings at Beth's house at the end of the year. It took a lot of<font size="4"> </font>commitment to show up week after week on zoom, and to wrestle with the challenges of making recordings at home throughout the year. We all owe you our gratitude. For those who didn't participate (including me), I know that we each had hard choices to make, and realities to accept, as we struggled not only with the changes the pandemic triggered in the choir but also in our personal lives. We each did what felt necessary and right for us. We all deserve kudos for making it through! </div><div><br></div><div>I am so looking forward to what we can create together as we move into our next year, hopefully with fewer masks, fewer zoom meetings, and much more basking in the live vibration of each other's voices and presence.</div><div><br></div><div>Donia</div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Donia received her formal music training at Northwestern
University's School of Music, with a specialization in French Horn
performance, studying with members of the Chicago Symphony.
Realizing after a few years that there was more she wanted to learn and experience
than could be found in a practice room, she ended up putting aside
music for other pursuits for a number of years. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Music found her again, however, when she joined an
intentional community in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, where she lived
for 17 years. She became the music teacher for the community's
registered home school, the director of musical theater productions, and the
organizer of musical activities for the community as a whole. There
she first developed the creative and collaborative approach, and eclectic
musical sensibility which she now brings to UCM.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Following that experience, Donia has taught choral music in
public schools, co-founded and directed a hospice choir, been music
director and coach for the annual variety show at Montpelier's Westview
Meadows Senior Residence, and filled in as director for a number of area
choral groups. </span></p></div></div>
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