The Choral Fabric of the Stuttgart Chamber Choir

Greetings readers!

Posted below is a concert review I covered for Sound and Noise:

The Stuttgart Chamber Choir was so good that, frankly, it makes me sick. How can a choir be that good? Recognition must be given to the Richard Eaton Singers for bringing in the Stuttgart Chamber Choir; a stellar addition in celebration of their 60^th anniversary season. Conducted by Frieder Bernius, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir was joined by TorQ Percussion Quartet from Toronto this past Wednesday evening.

The program began and ended with what I would expect a German choir to sing best, repertoire by German composers. In this case, it was Bach and Mendelssohn. As far as I’m concerned, the choir provided the model choral sound for these composers. Listening to Bach’s “Singet dem Herrn” was like hearing the aural construction of a luxury fabric. Only the finest vocal threads were chosen and interwoven into a sound textile that was uniform, seamless, and impenetrable. I would expect no less of German workmanship. The musical lines within the Bach were sung with such motile precision. If I wanted to acoustically parse each of the notes in the running lines, they would all have been equally balanced and resonant. As well, their German diction was so clean; I could have easily transcribed every phoneme that they were singing, further demonstrating how they have the prototype choral sound for Bach. The collective choral voice was clean, crisp and pliable. Mendelssohn’s “Te Deum” was sung with the same precision and the text stanza’s were interspersed with lyrical lines sung by a quartet of singers. They had an amazing bass singer in the quartet, who just so happened to be featured in every soloistic combination during the concert. I developed a choir girl crush on him. The “Te Deum” also featured the solo work of a full-bodied mezzo-soprano; a refreshing change from the crisp choral texture. My highlight moment within the “Te Deum” was the pleading echos of “Miserere nostri/have mercy on us” from individual voices within the choir. The overlapping and weaving laments produced collective sentiments that were hauntingly helpless.

 

The Stuttart Chamber Choir rearranged themselves in order to perform Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna,” decreasing their choir size of 27 to 16 in order to have an individual voice on each part. I have sung Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna” before. It is not easy. It made me want to clutch helplessly onto my tuning fork, but I knew, deep down, that it wasn't going to help me. The strings of sound dissonance were sung with an unwavering confidence. The chromatic tones emerged from the individual parts to compose an impermeable core sound. The chords would miraculously lock after all of the individual chromatic movements and eventual decrescendo to a low F drone in the alto voices. Their performance made Ligeti’s piece sound easy. At points, I was quietly laughing to myself, in disbelief, in response to how they were able to carry off that piece.

The words within Pärt’s “Nunc dimittis” are taken from the book of Luke and details Simeon words to the baby Jesus in Jerusalem. Simeon does not wish to die until he has seen, with his own eyes, his Saviour. As an audience member, I expected an epiphanal moment within the piece. However, during “Nunc dimittis,” I felt Stuttgart’s performance had a restrained energy. Though the performance of any piece is up to artistic interpretation, I just felt like the choir could have stretched their emotional limits in this one. Personally, I prefer choirs that take a risk. I like choirs that sound almost overwhelmed, brimming with passionate intensity in response to the text and music. At the climax of “Nunc dimittis,” when the choir sings of the revelatory light and calls out to the people of Israel, I just felt like they could have given more. I wanted more. Sure, that might mean that they could potentially sound sloppy from all that unbridled emotion (I don’t think that’s possible) but I just wanted to hear an eruption of sound. Instead, their sound just felt contained.

The showcase work, by Montreal composer, Paul Frehner, “Corpus,” incorporated the talents of the TorQ Percussion Quartet. According to Frehner’s program notes, he wished to create a piece that explored the “mystical, religious and metaphysical writings on the universal topics of the human body…. in its various states of life, death, oblivion, and afterlife.” That’s all very nice and well, but how does that translate to a performance? Overall, this work sounded like an epic play to me. The vocal components played individual characters, working together to tell the story in solo and chorus combinations, and the percussion created the sound environment. Frehner’s piece has such a dense network of concepts and lends itself well to continuous musical analysis. The piece began with a monotone solo with an eerie suspension in the soprano section paired with the ominous bass voices. There were also two superimposed chant lines within the piece. The power of the TorQ Percussion Quartet did have the tendency to overwhelm Stuttgart’s sound and it was apparent that TorQ had to restrain themselves in order to achieve balance. Which is a shame because they were brilliant. This was especially apparent when the canon of drums percolated throughout the church and cascaded into a vibrant cacophony. They also had such a diverse array of percussion instruments and techniques to create sounds from the resonant metallic echos to the tensile tones created when bowing a cymbal. TorQ created sound textures that evoked strong images and emotional reactions from the audience. I especially enjoyed the end of the piece where the atonal modern chant line in the choir was paired with the tribal groove of the percussion. The resulting effect was quite remarkable.

Being able to witness choral performances, such as this concert with the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, reminded me of the expansive range of choral talent in the world. It's easy to forget when you're tucked away in a wintery Canadian city. Though I am an avid chorister, it is rare for me to hear a professional ensemble. It is difficult to have opportunities to hear what the best sounds like, but when it is in your neighborhood, you would be doing yourself a disservice not to take a listen.

Until next time readers, take care!

What Do Choristers Do?

Greetings readers!

You may be interested to know that I am now a guest blogger on the Sound and Noise Music Blog. Pretty cool, am I right? I will be cross-posting any entries I write for their site on this blog as well. I will also continue composing my own exclusive entries for this blog. I encourage you to visit their site and see what articles they have to offer from their passionate and diverse team of writers. Now, may I present, my premiere post for Sound and Noise:

 

Lately, the internet has been filled with variants of these enlightening photo memes which attempt to educate the naïve public on the perspectives surrounding different roles in our society. Drawing from my own personal experiences, I’ve decided to construct my own. I will discuss the following six views and the multifaceted role of the chorister.

1. What my friends think I do

I am sorry to disappoint… but I do not spend my rehearsals flirting with cute choir boys. As a choir girl who takes herself way too seriously and is terrible at emotional multi-tasking, my attention is focused on the musical task at hand. I am often oblivious to the fact that people join choir expand their pool of suitable mates. Don’t we all just want to make music together?

2. What my mom thinks I do

She’s not entirely wrong on this one.

3. What society thinks I do

First question I get when I tell people I sing in a choir is “Do you sing in a church choir?” To which I provide my default response of “No, not a church choir.” It makes sense; chorister roles began in the church to deliver the religious message of God. Thus, it is not surprising that the prototype chorister image still engrained into society is that of the church chorister. However, there is such a wide array of choristers in the world: professional, community, chamber, show… it’s important to recognize the diverse role of the chorister and how it suits the musical construct of each group.

4. What my dates think I do

Once on a date, I attempted to describe what I meant when I said I sang in a choir. When I started with outlining the basic choral components such as, “There’s a group of people and we sing music together”--- those semantic cues led him to respond with “Oh, like Glee!” Since I did not want to crush his enthusiastic self-generated response, I responded with “Kind of like Glee, but without the dancing… or the show tunes.”

5. What I think I do

Confession time: I love black gospel choirs. They are my choral rock stars. I wish I was black. I wish I could belt solos. And I wish I could uninhibitedly emerge from the choir with my arms above my head, gesticulate to an invisible overhead entity, and praise the lord in a Q&A format with the rest of the choir.

6. What I actually do

Black gospel choir dreams aside, what I actually do as a chorister in my choir is sing early, classical, romantic, folk, and contemporary repertoire, tour to national and international music festivals, record diverse repertoire, and rehearse weekly with a dedicated group of singers. No matter what construct choristers find themselves in, we are all united with a common passion and a collective voice. As a result, I think that what we do, as choristers, is pretty awesome.   

Until next time readers, take care!

My SLP-Conducting Debut

Greetings readers!

On Friday, I fortunate enough to have the opportunity to lead my very own choir. Not just any choir, but choir made up of persons with Parkinson's Disease (PPD). This is a population close to my heart since my Master's thesis was analyzing data collected from PPD undergoing a Voice Choral Singing Treatment program (if you want to learn more, I'll refer you back to this post for more information). Even though I was petrified at the prospect of leading a rehearsal, I didn't delay in providing my consent to substitute for Merrill, their resident conductor and speech pathologist.

The first thing that I needed to do, in order to mentally prepare for the session, was acknowledge the fact that I am not a conductor. Therefore, I decided to structure my style more like a vocal coaching session. I tried to experiment with some of the techniques which I appreciate when I am under the leadership of a conductor. I attempted to learn the names of my 12 choristers and use them throughout the rehearsal when I was providing positive feedback. I provided a ton of vocal models to illustrate what I wanted. I demanded more from my choristers each time when I could hear they were responsive to my instructions. Even when I felt like they gave me what I wanted, I would ask for more to see if they could do it. I often interrupted them when they did something wrong and made them do it again. Maybe these weren't characteristics that everybody appreciated, but since I had no style, it was important for me to experiment and figure out what my style might be.

In preparation for the rehearsal,  I began by brainstorming all my favorite vocal warm-ups. Then I went through each exercise, thought about the rationale for each of them, and eliminated any redundant exercises. As well, I looked through Merrill's old lesson plans and decided to include some familiar elements but incorporate my own as well. I grouped my exercises by target area: resonant voice, respiratory support, vocal flexibility, speech articulation etc. A major symptom of Parkinson's is muscular rigidity. That includes rigidity of the diaphragmatic muscles all the way to muscles needed for facial expression. I wanted to choose exercises which would be most beneficial for PPD.

Something that I did find challenging was working with a pianist. I am not used to giving instructions to a pianist. I also wasn't used to cueing the pianist to stop playing when I wanted to re-run something immediately or finish off the last run of a vocal exercise. I'm guessing it probably didn't help that the pianist's back was towards me (mental note: fix positioning). Another thing that was challenge was that I couldn't hear my choristers very well. It was because I did something that's not the preferred norm for a conductor, and that was that I was singing while my choristers were singing. It's a tough balance because PPD need a high amount of vocal models. There are studies confirming that there's a change in their perception abilities in themselves as well as others, therefore, all modeling needs to be plentiful and exaggerated. However, next time (if there is one) I would need to find a better balance in providing voice models but allowing opportunities for independent production. Only then can I actually hear what they are doing. One of the most important roles that a conductor plays during a rehearsal is listening. I definitely didn't do a great job of that. This is probably where actual conducting skills would help me because I would be able to visually cue this instead of relying tandem vocal models to achieve my aural vision. Furthermore, it's vocally tiring to be working that hard in a session, which definitely isn't a viable option if I were to pursue more work like this in the future.

My conducting experience aside, the feedback I got from the session seemed positive. At least, the comments to my face were :) Comments spanned from compliments about my outfit to my energy and enthusiasm as I tried to engage them while moving throughout the rehearsal space. One of the choristers asked me if I would record all my voice warm-ups and upload them to Youtube so that he would be able to practice. Perhaps I can be as cool as Ken Tamplin?

I'm just thankful for this opportunity since the Parkinson's choir session allowed me to geek-out pretty hard in terms of merging my choral and speech interests. Also, since I just received my SLP license on Tuesday, my session with the Parkinson's choir was my inaugural debut as an official Speech Pathologist. I think that's a very good sign for things to come.

Until next time readers, take care!

Another Broadway Gala Down

Backstage

Greetings readers!

Another Broadway Gala has come and past. This year Cantilon put on a concert version of "Oliver!" I don't have too much about it other than the fact that it felt like controlled chaos. The music was straightforward enough. The Belles were only singing 3 songs. Choreography learning went smoothly. The most tricky part was that we had to sing "Consider Yourself" three times and each time required slightly modified choreography so it was difficult trying to keep them as distinct routines in my mind. By far, the children had the most work in it since there are a ton of children choruses. The Belles and the men's chorus (recruited from family and friends) joined the rest of the children for three songs. Of course, the most fun for the adults was "Oom Papa". I think it was because that even if we screwed up, it didn't matter because we were supposed to be inebriated anyway. For the most part, I think a lack of inhibition provides adults with the confidence to perform their best. The Edmonton Journal even came and took a video clip of us during rehearsal.

I think the Broadway Gala highlight for me were the fantastic soloists drawn from the pool of Cantilon singers as well as the male soloists which we recruited from our assembled men's chorus. We had a Fagin with a twisted swagger, a hysterically hilarious Mrs. Corney, a booming Mr. Bumble, and a wide-eyed Oliver. As well, during the intermission there was a lovely Victorian style market which was set up by Belle Canto members. There was gruel (a.k.a. dry soup) mix, baked goods, flowers, ring toss, photobooth and other goods for sale. 'Twas a fundraising event after all.

I think the experience can be better shared via the pictures posted below:

Food, Glorius Food, Photo credit: Erin F-W.

Mr. Bumble, Mrs. Corney and the kids, Photo credit: Erin F-W. 

Pick a pocket with Fagin, Photo credit: Erin F-W.

Consider Yourself, Photo credit: Erin F-W.

Adorable orphans, Photo credit: Erin F-W.

 Broadway Gala cast minus principals, Photo credit: Erin F-W.

Until next time readers, take care!

The Face of an Angel

Greetings readers!

I should really start this post off with a disclaimer because, for those who don't know me in person, I have this tendency to state my blunt observations with a dead-pan delivery. For some reason, I think people find it humorous, as a result, I've slowly embraced it as my comedic style. If you aren't used to my tone, you might think I'm being condescending. However, I'm merely just stating a neutral comment. I do not mean for it to be taken as fact. I do not mean to generate or perpetuate stereotypes. I simply feel like stating it because it's something I've observed. In this case, my sample size (n=4) does not generalize to the population at large, but rather, it serves as a mere scientific observation from my limited experience. They're observations I would freely share with my friends; I feel that if you're reading my blog, you're a friend to me.

Due to my inquisitive scientific nature, I've always enjoyed visualizing trends. I did this in my biology courses in University when I began to notice that all of my ecology teaching assistants looked like the animals that they studied. One of my biology TA's studied bugs... he had this angular exoskeleton facial structure. Another TA studied polar bears, she had pale white blond hair with light blue eyes. Another one of my friends had a ecology TA that studied river otters. He was a scruffy looking brunette. I could not deny this observational trend.

I have begun to notice a similar trend in conductors. Have you ever noticed conductors that look like... cherubs?

Putti

Is it just me or has anyone else come across a cherub-conductor in their musical experiences? You may simply state that there are many baby-faced people in the adult-world. Yet, I believe there is a higher concentration of them in the musical realm. Do I have any scientific proof to support my observations? Absolutely not! It's just a series of observations that have led me to form a subjective hypothesis. Personally, I think that cherub-conductors have a wonderfully loving and warm look to them. Who wouldn't want to look into the face of an angel during rehearsals?

Until next time readers, take care, and take the time to notice the cherubs that walk amongst us :)

Heart Meditations

On the way to Camrose

Greetings readers,

It's been a busy week of Pro Coroness since we had a concert on Sunday and another on Wednesday evening where we went out to Camrose to sing at the Augstana Campus. It was a unique set of concerts since we were premiering a work by David Mott entitled, "Heart Meditations," under the direction of Erik Westberg. You may have read in my previous post that I was really struggling to understand the work during the rehearsal process. It was a challenging piece to rehearse and to sing. 

It was more than just the fact that it was a contemporary and atonal piece--- ultimately, I didn't understand the piece. I felt like I had periods of disconnect during my performance on Sunday afternoon; however, the Wednesday evening performance was much more effective in a darkened & intimate concert setting. To best honest though, as a solid 90 minute work, with no intermission, my hands going numb from hanging at my sides, my knees stiffening by verse 23/49, and my superior pharyngeal constrictor fatiguing from keeping a high palate and singing with continuous straight tone... it wasn't the most comfortable physical circumstances to be in. Actually, I'm not convinced it was a piece designed with singing comfort in mind. I applaud the audience for their auditory stamina. Don't get me wrong, there are absolutely gorgeous musical segments in the piece. There are glorious chords in which I wish I could acoustically swim in them and a hypnotic chanting portion done by the tenors and basses at a midpoint in the piece. There were also absolutely stunning bartione saxophone solos by Mott in between the verses. Frankly, I would have happily listened to Mott play for a longer period of time in order to have a physical rest break.

As well, working with Erik Westberg was also quite an experience. He is absolutely lovely. He expresses himself with quirky English phrases which, I think, is a result of him mentally translating Swedish to English in his mind. His cue for pure sound was "sound like virgins." Awesome. He is extremely 3-dimensional as a conductor. He takes up his entire space, there are some moments where his gestures looks like he is dancing and stepping into the sound with his hands and feet as we're producing it. It's quite cool to watch. I also like his lip smacking sounds as if he is kissing the beauty of the sound we're creating. It was a pleasure to watch him interact with the music, bask in the sound, and show his appreciation.

Overall, it was quite the experience premiering Mott's work. I enjoyed having the opportunity to head out to sing at the Augustana campus and meet some of the music students there. They were full of excitement and passion. By no means do I consider myself an unenthused chorister, but my energy was no parallel to those buzzing to show us to our green room. I kind of felt like the cool kid, or chorister, I should say, on the block. I think I'll blog on this in another post :)

Until next time readers, take care!

An Unexpected Choir Girl Opportunity

Greetings readers!

I thought I would take the time to inform you of a recent development in my social media life --- I'm now helping run the Pro Coro Canada Twitter and Pro Coro Canada Facebook accounts! (feel free to "follow" and "like" them both). It's both unexpected, yet, logical at the same time. I never expected my role within Pro Coro to move beyond the level of chorister; however, assisting with Pro Coro's social media is a natural extension of what I already do for this blog. 

My initial intent in starting this blog and getting involved in the social media world was not for any personal glorification. Shocking, I know. World-wide domination does not begin with blogging... unless you're Dr. Horrible :) Previous to this blog, I had a private one for friends, but I wanted to expand into the public blogging domain. I knew that, in order to do so, I had to write about something I was passionate about. Choir was a natural choice. 

Blogging is not about any form of compensation for me. I blog because I want to. I like writing about my choral experiences and thoughts. It's quite cathartic. As a result of having this blog and connecting to social media, I have been driven to seek out singing opportunities and challenge myself as a musician. At the same time, my experiences provide content for my posts. Social media actually provided me with the nudge I needed to audition for Pro Coro in the first place, such as this reply tweet from @convohall:

It still amazes me when people tell me that they read the blog. I give my hearty thanks but brush it off with an air of flustered modesty so that I draw attention away from myself. It's a fine balance in regards to how I receive compliments because, due to my cultural Chinese upbringing, self-deprecation is the only socially appropriate response, however, Western culture acknowledges and expresses gratitude for compliments paid. What is a Chinese-Canadian choir girl to do? Overall, I'm just not used to positive verbal feedback. I have not been raised to expect it and it's not something that I actively seek from others. However, I do have to say, it feels fantastic to receive. A positive comment from a reader can fuel me for weeks. If you ever pay me a compliment in person, you will most likely see me awkwardly fumble with my words as I attempt to compose a response that is grateful, yet, deflective. Clearly, I have not mastered the process of composing a socially appropriate response that respects two cultural norms.

Thus, the fact that I was recognized for my blogging by the new Pro Coro Artistic Director and the Pro Coro Executive Director astounded me. While I do recognize that it makes logical sense for me to utilize the skills I've developed from blogging to assist with Pro Coro's social media presence, it's another thing entirely for this opportunity to be presented to me. 'Tis a big deal to be a social media co-administrator for a professional Arts organization! That's a huge amount of support and trust in my abilities. A specific thank-you needs to be given to the new Artistic Director of Pro Coro, Michael Zaugg, who saw my work on this blog, recognized its potential, and made this opportunity available. While I may not be verbally eloquent in-person to display my thanks, I have composed it in the way I know best--- via blog post ;)

Therefore, to all of my readers who read my posts, I leave you with a simple and genuine thank-you for all of your continued support by reading my posts.

Until next time readers, take care!

Understanding the Heart

Greetings readers!

Wow, it has been a busy weekend! In conjunction with the announcement of the new Pro Coro Artistic Director, Michael Zaugg, the next set of rehearsals have begun with Erik Westberg for the premiere performance for David Mott's "Heart Meditations." Mott will also be joining Pro Coro on saxophone for the concert. There will be a concert this Sunday, February 12, 2012 in Edmonton (which will be recorded for CBC radio) as well as one in Camrose, Alberta next Wednesday, February 15, 2012.

On Friday, I felt a bit mentally displaced since we found out Zaugg was the new artistic director, performed with him, then we went straight into rehearsal with Westberg. Initially, it was difficult for me to understand the "Heart Meditations" work as a whole. The piece consists of 49 verses which are repetitions of the Buddhist Heart Sutra text: "form is emptiness, emptiness is form." I felt like I didn't have much thematic context for the work. The 49 verses began to sound like an amorphous musical entity to me after the first rehearsal. However, I was granted some fresh perspective to consider the piece within the performance space and with the addition of saxophone accompaniment. It's hard to keep the overall musical vision in mind when you're invested in small musical details... like fixing wrong notes. It's so easy to focus on the immediate feelings being generated in a particular moment; it's also a part of the artistic process to be that absorbed before having the luxury to take a step back and evaluate the work. Thus, in keeping an open mind and hearing an enlightening description by Mott, I now have a better understanding of the musical intent of Mott's "Heart Meditations." He explained how the piece was composed in response to the passing of his mother. Each of the verses take on various moods and correspond to the emotional highs and lows of the grief cycle. Of course, there are still many facets of the piece open to musical interpretation, but it was helpful to have some framework to understand the work.

If you're interested in attending the concert, feel free to consult the following poster for more information:

 

Until next time readers, take care!

Pro Coro's new Artistic Director: Michael Zaugg

Greetings readers!

If you've been disconnected to the social media world this evening, you may like to know that the new Artistic Director of Pro Coro is: Michael Zaugg!

Most media outlets were blitzed tonight with the news. Edmonton Journal has a nice and comprehensive entry. Zaugg's personal webpage has been updated with the news. As well, a Sound and Noise article.

When did I officially find out? This evening... like everybody else. I know, right? You would think I would have find out earlier since I'm a chorister, but the selection committee a did a pretty good job of keeping it under wraps.

It's strange since the marriage metaphor that Zaugg offered in his initial rehearsal held true even today. Since I had no confirmation on who was the new conductor was--- I felt like I was like bracing myself for an arranged marriage. A bit of apprehension with a touch of fear but, overall, a neutral acceptance with whatever the outcome since all three candidates were fantastic. However, Pro Coro singing "Lux Aeterna" with Zaugg again just felt... right. It was a musical teaser for the audience as well as the choir to have that short performance opportunity with Zaugg during the media event. The Pro Coro 2012/2013 season cannot come soon enough. That is, if I'm accepted into the choir again upon re-audition :)

At the media event, Zaugg elaborated on his vision for Pro Coro's future: more touring opportunities, being present in the local, national and international music scene, collaborating with other artists for choral projects whether it be with dancers or painters, and singing an appetizing array of repertoire. I'm so buzzed for the potential the future holds! Take a look at a video from the event with Zaugg detailing his vision. At the end of the video is also a clip from Pro Coro singing "Lux Aeterna."

Until next time, take care readers!

Farewell?

Greetings readers,

This week is a time of great choral change for Edmonton. In addition to the news of Pro Coro's new artistic director this Friday, it was officially announced today that the conductor of Belle Canto and Chamber Choir as well as artistic director of Cantilon Choirs, Heather Johnson, will be seeking a replacement for her position. She will stay on as a co-conductor of Belle Canto but there will be an opening for the position of artistic director and conductor of the Chamber Choir. What does this mean for Belle Canto? We would have somebody leading local rehearsals but Heather would join us a few times of the year for intense blocks of rehearsals. That's not bad at all. It's how Pro Coro functions, as well as many other professional ensembles and it's a working model. I was expecting more of a "Farewell! I'll never see you again!" rather than a "Farewell! See you again in two months!" 

By the time I officially heard the news on Monday, I had reached the point of acceptance in regards to this potential news. I think everybody in the choir knew at the beginning of the season that this was a realistic possibility since her husband was accepted for a University teaching position in Ottawa. Collectively, we knew that a move to join him would be in the not-so-distant future especially since they have a young daughter and the east-west commute for family time looked hectic to say the least. It's not a matter of where they should live but more a question of what makes sense as a family.

I can only imagine the emotional backlash Heather received from some of her younger singers: anger, shock, abandonment, jealously... If I was 15, I'd probably feel the same way. Choir was my life. It gave me purpose, confidence, community---taking away the core of that would have had a destabilizing effect upon anybody. The egocentric worldview of a teenager can easily disregard the complexity of adult decisions. It's hard to predict how we will respond to substantial life decisions when we are greeted with them. While I can't even imagine how I would respond in a similar situation, I seek solace in the fact that my future self would be able to make the best decision for myself at that point in time.

At rehearsal on Monday, Heather asked us if we had any questions or thoughts about the proposed arrangements. I was trying to compose a mental discourse of my feelings to share with the group, but I realized that I didn't have anything to add. I knew that this announcement has been coming for a while and that she has already considered every possibility. It's really time to stop thinking and time to start moving on. Which is exactly what Cantilon is doing by seeking a replacement.

While I don't know what the future will bring, let this post be my personal proclamation of support for Heather. I know this decision was not an easy one but having Belle Canto as a stabilizing unit in a time of great change is of great comfort to me, the choir as a whole, and, I think, Heather as well. Therefore Heather, if you are reading this: Go to Ottawa! Unite your family! Start a choir in Ottawa! If life ever brings you back to Edmonton, we'll be here.