[Choir] Greetings from the new Acting Music Director

[Beth Damon]

Welcome Donia!

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!

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.

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!

Looking forward to seeing you all very soon!

With gratitude,
*Beth*

Beth Damon

Educator | Designer | Facilitator

80 College Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602

802 . 272 . 3108  txt | cell





On Wed, Jun 30, 2021 at 1:43 PM Donia Prince via Choir <
choir at unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org> wrote:

> Hello old friends and new!
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> *The plan*
> 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 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.
> Location to be determined--I'll send out another notice next week.
>
> *Covid precautions*
> 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 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.
>
> *And...*
> 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.
>
> *Thoughts on our choir moving forward*
> 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 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.
>
> *Thank you*
> 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 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!
>
> 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.
>
> Donia
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
> Unitarian Church of Montpelier
> Choir email list
> unsubscribe at www.unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org
>
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