[Choir] Greetings from the new Acting Music Director

[Donia Prince]

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.
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