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Sweet Adelines Lake Ontario Region 16 Newsletter
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Happy New Year! I know we're already a few weeks into 2017, and I must apologize for the delay in getting the first issue of our newsletter to you. There is a lot of exciting things going on in our region, and this is a very busy time of year for everyone as we prepare for our 42nd Regional Convention in May! Watch for e-blasts from the Convention Team, as well as updates in future Sixteenth Notes so you keep yourself "in the know". Keep sending the names of your new members also so that they can see their names in the right hand column!
Below is the schedule for article submissions for 2017. I have extended the deadline each month to the 7th of the month (except for May) which will give you a bit of time to let us know what has happen at your chorus for the previous month. Publication dates are approximate so please be patient if you don't receive a newsletter by the 15th.
Here are a few guidelines to follow when submitting your articles to me:
- Keep your submissions to approximately 500 words. We all have a lot of great news to share and I encourage you to submit monthly so articles could be kept to a reasonable length.
- Send your articles either in a Word document, or in the body of an email. Please do not send via PDF
- Send your articles to [email protected]
And that's it! I'm looking forward to 2017 and for the opportunity to continue to communicate with each and every one of you!
In Harmony,
Sue Heighway
Region 16 Communications Coordinator
2017 Convention Team Communications Manager
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| Regional Website Login Information |
Just a reminder that our Region 16 website does not have a member specific login. In order to get to the Regional Songs, enter the userID and Password below in the
"Members Only" area.
UserID: member16
Password:
singalong
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Click on the link below to see past issues of the Sixteenth Notes
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North Metro Welcomes
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Julie Faux-Newman
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Lindsay Farquhar
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Let us know who your new members are and they can see their name
here too!
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Regional Assessments
Each chapter Finance Coordinator, Treasurer, Team Leader / President and Membership Coordinator should have received their regional assessments via email the first week of January. Just a reminder that the due date for this payment is February 15th, 2017.
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2017 Regional Convention
The first 2017 Convention e-blast was sent on January 18th.
I
f you missed it, click here to view it!
The Convention Handbook and all forms are also on the Region 16 Website
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Turning the corner into a new year means "gearing up to contest" for many quartets. But my missive this month is to those foursomes who do not compete regularly. And no, this is not my push to get you on that stage, if that is not helpful or exciting for you. There are 28 registered quartets in Region 16. Not nearly that many choose to compete, so my thoughts are for the other 8 - 10. (I will publicize a new rule for competing quartets at the end of this article...)
Apparently the RED HAT SOCIETY's mandate is to meet regularly solely to enjoy each other's company. Does that sound like your quartet 'rehearsal', but with singing included? Or... do you also sing at chorus performances, or make yourselves available to sing at a local retirement home or an anniversary or retirement party? If so, thank you for spreading the word to the public about how much fun it is to sing 4-part harmony! Your joy might touch some woman's heart to want to do the same. She might just show up at your chorus' next rehearsal.
Once we go beyond singing at rehearsals, we represent all Sweet Adelines. That's where the responsibility aspect creeps in. It is important that we perform at an acceptable level, that is, at least at the minimum standard, so that the audience is left with a positive impression. If someone leaves with a high cringe factor though, you probably will not hear about it yourself. We can't all be as good as Spritzer or perhaps it is not your choice to work as diligently as their goals direct them, but we all need to take responsibility for the product we put out there. My encouragement here is to have someone you trust musically (someone recommended by the Regional Education Coordinator or your chorus director or one from a nearby chorus) spend a few hours with your quartet. If you don't want to go so far as to consider her a 'coach', call her a 'fifth ear'. She can help by identifying major areas for your focus or specific 'fixes'. It is easy to wallow inside a chord or hold notes because they might sound good to the singers, but to someone listening, that ballad might just be dragged out beyond enjoyment. Alternately, have you ever thought "there is always something wonky about that chord but let's just get past it and get to the part that tunes well"? Perhaps a fifth ear can give you some tools about fixing those OOT (out of tune) spots. I am sure that if you each put $10 - $20 in an envelope for her, it would be a well-spent afternoon. (Establish that part beforehand because she may already have a set fee.) Just because we might not see you on contest stage, it does not mean we don't care about you. You are an important part of Region 16 and have resources available to you.
Enjoy 2017 together. Haaaarmonize thuuuuuuhhh World....
Paula Allen
Region 16 Quartet Coordinator
NEW
competition rule for 2017! Here is the exact quote from International:
"Starting in 2017, members may now compete in up to two different quartets during the same regional contest, as long as they are in different competition divisions (e.g. one quartet in the International Division and one in the Open Division). No more than two members per quartet may compete in the second quartet in the same regional contest.
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We are excited to announce that Durham Shores Chorus will be starting 2017 with the musical leadership of Diane Warner and Rob Snoulten as Co-Directors!
Diane joined Durham Shores back in 2005 eager to learn about Barbershop harmony. She loved the welcoming atmosphere of Durham Shores and with her willingness to help, and her need-to-know attitude, she quickly worked her way thru various positions within Durham Shores, including Chorus Convention Liaison, Treasurer, Tenor Section Lead and then Assistant Director, where she also studied and received her Director Certification.
Her strive for excellence and continual-learning attitude make her a valuable asset to Durham Shores.
Diane is one of many who joined Durham Shores later in life, and always says "I wish I had found this sooner!"
 Rob is no stranger to Region 16 or to the hobby of Barbershop. He is what is known in the barbershop community as a "Barbershop Brat". Both his parents sing as does his wife, along with 7 other relatives. It is truly in his blood. He has been a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) for over 26 years, has sung in 4 choruses, 3 quartets and has directed a chorus in both the BHS and Sweet Adelines International (SAI). He has competed at the BHS International chorus contest 6 times and garnered 1 Bronze medal. His love for the barbershop style runs deep and he loves the many, many friends you can make in this hobby along with the brother and sisterhood it creates.
Rob looks forward to the new friends he will make in Durham Shores, making great music together, and spreading the barbershop sound throughout the community
We are confident that this dynamic duo and the experience, knowledge, energy and excitement they bring to us will only help us to continue our path of success
Please join us in congratulating Diane and Rob!
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'HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR SISTERS IN HARMONY OF SWEET ADELINES INTERNATIONAL!
2017 HERE WE COME...May our art of singing continue to bring much joy to our communities, friends and families. We are very excited about the year ahead. York Harmony Chorus committees are busy making plans for various community events, fundraising, coaching opportunities and our retreat weekend. To kick off our 2017, we performed at the Mayor's Levee, which took place on Sunday January 8th at downtown Newmarket's newly renovated Old Town Hall. Due a smaller stage, our entire chorus could not be present. The 25 members, who did perform, sang 6 favourites, which were very well received by the Mayor, his family and constituents. It was a fun afternoon!
New for this year is an enchanting song that we are going to begin learning and perfecting. It's a song that takes you thinking "outside the box", it makes you stop and think about "possibilities" and being innovative. Its innocence is quite fitting for our times of constant change and adaptation that we all must embrace for continuous growth and learning. We are ramping up for" Death By Chocolate", YHC's upcoming event led by our most wonderful Linda Morrison. It will be taking place on Saturday March 25th at the Newmarket Community Centre. More information and details will be shared with you and our community in the coming weeks.
Lastly, the planning committee for a YUK YUK's Comedy night has begun their work and has met on two occasions. Thank you to Judith McCann who has stepped up to chair the group to keep us focused and on track. The date and location have been confirmed (June 24th in Newmarket), and now it's time for those great little details to be put together. Ticket sales for this event will begin late April. We will be sure to give you lots of notice.
To stay in the York Harmony Chorus loop, friend us on Facebook, visit us at www.yorkharmonychorus.ca, and watch out for our advertising in local publications or online through York Region Event websites which include:
YHC is excited for 2017! Bring it on. May the force be with us all!
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Yes! We're still singing!
There has been plenty going on since our last entry, but apologies to our chorus and the readers of 16th Notes for not updating our news sooner because of an on-going health issue (fortunately now pretty much resolved.)
On May 26th
2016 the chorus held our annual "Spring Sing 'n Fashions event at the Thurlow Community Centre near Belleville, Ontario. It was a great evening of music interspersed with fashions, food and fun. There were 2 sets by the chorus, as well as performances by our quartets '4Fun' and 'Melange .'
Julia's Women's Wear of Stirling, Ontario provided the delightful fashions and lovely models. The Interlink Choir of Belleville assisted with ticket sales, serving beverages and goodies donated by the members of the chorus.
There were many door prizes, and also some fantastic gift baskets distributed by ticket auction, and also donated by chorus members. We had a fantastic turnout, with members of the Northumberland Chorus joining us in the piece 'How We Sang Today.'
At the end of the evening, all the former Sweet Adelines in the audience sang 'Harmonize The World' with us.
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| Chorus presents donation to Interlink Choir of Belleville |
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| Lunch with Coach Martha DeClerq on September 15th 2016 |
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This past September, our chorus had a wonderful day of fun and informative coaching with
Martha DeClerq, Director of the York Harmony Chorus, and we are all hoping to benefit from a further session or two in the New Year, before we depart for Syracuse and the Region 16 competition and convention in the Spring of 2017.
Every year The Bay of Quinte Chorus invites women in the area who love to sing to come out and join us for our Christmas chorus rehearsals and performances. The turn-out this year has been terrific; the chorus was delighted to blend our voices with former members and new visitors, and we hope some of them may to join us as regular members in the New Year. 
We had a fun time at Hallowe'en, which fell on our last rehearsal night of October, with several members in costume for the event.
Over the run-up to the Holiday season, the Chorus entertained a number of local organizations for their Christmas celebrations and concerts, including our annual Christmas Caravan day-long Singout in conjunction with our local men's barbershop group, A Cappella Quinte. In all, we visited 5 retirement, long term care and nursing homes, taking a lunch break at a local Chinese buffet restaurant. Our singing was well received by all, with many in the audience joining in to sing familiar carols along with us.
2016 Quartet School Report by Dale Lehtila
It's been a while since we attended the Quartet School in Oshawa in June of 2016. Perhaps now is a good time to recall some of the things we learned.
Diane Porsch provided us with some excellent tips in her session on
"How to Proritize Your Quartet's Skill To Do List" - Learn techniques to get the sound you want!
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Notes & Words, Vocal Production:
- Posture
- Breathing (pretend you have a foot of exercise band)
- Phonation
- Resonation (ngooh -pinch nose (in the mask) sing with lift & ring
- Articulation (stable jaw, use your tongue, lifted face to a pre yawn, opening our jaw/mouth doen't get us more speed
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- Accuracy
- Synchronization
- Energy
- Characterization
- Sing for the hearts of your audience (emotionally)
- Interpretation only comes from the heart
- Artistry & finesse
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| The Bay Of Quinte newest quartet Wii4 |
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If you want to get rid of stage fright, think about what you can do for this audience. Don't focus on yourself and your technique!
Finally, sing songs that showcase your strengths and not just things you love to sing.
Happy quarteting!
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As we brushed the sand out of our toes after our summer holidays and the silly season that accompanies the summer months, our new year began formally on September 14 with our New Members Night. We had 25 ladies come out to see us and participate in an open rehearsal and get to know a little bit about the Circle of Harmony. Some of our members were so enthusiastic (Heidi!) that there were
 a couple of ladies who came to our rehearsal hall, Queen Elizabeth Community and Cultural Centre, looking for a sewing group and spent the evening with us instead! It was all a lot of fun and as the rehearsal came to a close, mingling continued with coffee, tea and endless plates of goodies as we got to know some of these women a little better!
Our Christmas Choir programme has been very effective over the last few years in gaining new members. Ladies are invited to come out to rehearsal, from September to December, learn a few Christmas songs, and sing on our shows, all for free. Following our shows in November, they are then invited to audition and become official members of the Circle of Harmony. It is a wonderful way to get to know about our art, so that when they make the decision to join, they have already learned songs, choreo, and performed in public without paying anything at all! We were delighted that 15 ladies became members of the Christmas Choir and performed with us on our shows, and 9 became fully fledged members of the Circle of Harmony and will be continuing with us in January! Welcome to the Circle, ladies!
On September 19, our first coaching of the new year was with the always dazzling and delightful Diane Porsch! Diane has such a divine way of bringing
 things out of us and taking us to new heights of vocal mastery with her devilish sense of humour and dynamic energy! We love her!
On Tuesday, October 18, the Circle of Harmony, directed by our wonderfully talented Assistant Director, Margaret Fielding, participated in Choirfest in Burlington. This annual gathering of choirs has been hosted for the past few years by the Canadian Male Orpheus Choir, and there were several choirs in attendance. The Circle of Harmony was the only barbershop chorus to sing, and we rocked the house! It was a great evening of music, with a huge variety of songs, and it is always so much fun singing for an appreciative audience! We made a quick change to our programme on the fly when we discovered that a group was going to be singing one of the songs we had chosen! Talk about changing mid-flight!
Way to go Margaret Fielding and
the Circle of Harmony!
Sunday October 30 was a very special day for the Circle of Harmony. We had planned an extra special rehearsal in the afternoon to catch up on everything in preparation for our shows at the end of November. Our esteemed Master Director, Barb Hodge had been away competing and also at International, and we all were looking forward to having a great afternoon to do some fine tuning! Margaret Fielding came up with the idea that we always
 give thanks and appreciation at the appropriate times, but what about just saying thanks when it is not necessarily expected? So midway through this special rehearsal, where we worked hard but also were having a lot of fun, we stopped and presented Barb with a huge cake and all had coffee and tea and said THANK YOU! She was surprised and delighted and we returned to singing with happy hearts and smiles on our faces! I don't remember how much work we got done after that, but we all had so much fun!
The always effervescent and energetic Erin Howden kick-started our performance month on November 7.
We polished choreo and she created some special stylings for some of our Christmas numbers which added so much to our presentation. She is such a darling to sing for and we adore her!
A number of us, including our director and assistant director attended Fall Music School in Buffalo, NY, on the second weekend of November. We loved every minute of it! The open table discussions on Friday night were terrific and I wished I could have attended all of them! What a choice!
Sandra Nason's discussion "Telling the Story" was mesmerizing and Diane Porsch's discussion of "Riser Placement" was fascinating! I could have spent all night visiting every table! Tori Postma held us spellbound on Saturday and we loved her sense of humour. She has so much experience to draw on and it was a delight to listen to her stories! The award presentation was done so very beautifully on Saturday evening. Congratulations to all who received special recognition.The Sweet Adeline of the Year pin presentation was personally a moment I will never forget as long as I live and I will treasure my pin as a very special keepsake! My wonderful chorus members took me to dinner before which was so much fun, although it's quite a challenge finding anything vegan on a menu in Buffalo!
 On Saturday, November 19, a number of gals from our chorus promoted our show at Oakville Place and "manned" a booth with our huge display, and gave brochures to those who requested them. In addition to these lovely ladies pictured below, our wonderful resident quartet, YES! performed as wandering minstrels throughout the mall with some of the ladies following behind helping to promote the show to passers by! What a great job they did! Thank you ladies!
This year our shows were held on Saturday, November 26 at Clearview Christian Reformed Church in Oakville. Our Christmas Choir really added to our day and performed in the Christmas half of our shows! Before our closing song, "It Is Well With My Soul", we invited alumni members of the Circle of Harmony to come on stage and sing with us and it was a really amazing experience, since there were several in attendance!
A number of us had wet cheeks during that song, that is for sure!
 This year we added a bit of humour to our shows, with a couple of funny stories, and the addition of three special songs sung by smaller groups of the Circle of Harmony, which were a lot of fun to present and were very well received. One group sang "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" complete with an elaborate set including a huge door for the Grinch, as well as a complete story line and costumes! Another group sang "Chopsticks" with all the words changed, all dressed in Christmas aprons, and if you can believe it, created a Christmas tree with strategically held pieces of blue tinsel! The third group sang "My Favourite Things" with the words humorously changed by Margaret Fielding which included shopping challenges (can shop and drink wine on line!) and baking challenges (no dairy, no wheat)! For the first time, we had the shows filmed and a DVD made. What a wonderful keepsake it is!
Our day ended perfectly with our afterglow held in the beautiful home of one of our members. It is always amazing and funny to me how we all squeeze into her den with the bar and the fireplace, nestled on chairs, the floor, the hearth, any space available even though she has a massive kitchen and great room and open plan living room area! We enjoyed singing and laughing into the wee hours!
On Friday, December 2, a group from the Circle of Harmony braved the snow and wind and sang for the Christmas Tree Lighting in Oakville. What an intrepid group they were!Singing in the open air is always challenging, but in sleet and snow and freezing temperatures, it is even more so! The audience really appreciated every song they sang, and that is always warming!
Our year came to a close with our annual Christmas Party held in the beautiful home of one of our members. This is the third year we have held the party in her home and we hope she will continue to host this party because it is so beautiful! A small army of our members cut and chopped for most of the afternoon to create an amazing spread, and all their work was greatly appreciated from each and every one of us.
We gathered around the grand piano and sang lots of Christmas carols and songs, and if you can believe it, as we sang "White Christmas", we were treated to a gentle snowfall!
This party was made extra special by the attendance of many of the Christmas Choir and we also took the opportunity to officially welcome in those who have chosen to become members of the Circle of Harmony. It was a lovely setting and quite magical!
The Circle of Harmony wishes all good things for 2017 to our Sisters of Harmony throughout Region 16.
We would like to extend the gifts of "warm hearts, loving kindness, and the stretched out hand of tolerance......all the shining gifts that make peace here on earth"!
Happy New Year!
Susan Mander
Circle of Harmony
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STILL SEARCHING!
Bytown Beat Chorus, Ottawa ON, Region 16 Sweet Adelines Intl. ,is a small chorus of enthusiastic, performance oriented, fun loving women who are serious about their musical goals. We are seeking a musical director with experience in directing and who has strong and positive teaching skills. Applicants will have, preferably, a knowledge of women,s 4 part barbershop harmony or a willingness to learn this a cappella style.
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Eastside Harmony presents Road Trip to Harmony!
February 9th, 2017
St. Francis Cultural Centre
78 Church Street South
Ajax, ON
For tickets call Marian Krauss
905-885-8389
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Save The Date for North Metro!
Saturday September 19,2017
Global Kingdom Ministries
401 & Markham Road, Scarborough, ON
Watch for more details!
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Sweet Adelines Region 16
Sue Heighway - Communications Coordinator
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