FROM MORNA
My thanks to our Board of Directors who put so much time and thought into planning EnChor’s journey. We are in really good hands.
Next up, of course, is “An EnChor Christmas” on Sunday afternoon, December 17. At this concert, every penny given by audience members is donated to the Food Bank. We can be really proud of this ongoing project.
The Christmas concert committee is meeting tomorrow and we will share all plans for December 17 with you soon. Sweet Scarlet are our special guests. Also, there will be a reception across in the East/West Hall following for the whole choir and audience. We’ll be putting our a call for “seasonal sweets” to the choir for those who like to contribute in this way. Details next week.
Hearing Aid Survey
For any EnChor members who wear hearing aids, whether in rehearsal or not, we’d like some information from you through this survey: https://forms.gle/wpzjzE1X2Qg94vsCA
Please complete this now while you are thinking about it. The information gathered will be used to share experiences between singers and for Morna planning seating arrangements. It is optional whether you provide your name.
If you do not wear hearing aids, please do not answer the survey.
CANDID PHOTOS FOR ENCHOR CHRISTMAS CARD
Don Blake is still looking for photos of choir members/small groups decked out in reindeer horns, Christmas hats, whatever, to adorn a Christmas card for our December concert patrons. Please do this on or at Friday’s rehearsal. Send the results directly to Don (dblake@telus.net)
FROM VALERIE
We have an interesting roster of outreach concerts coming up, including some new venues for us south of the Fraser! Friday afternoon is still the preferred time slot. However you will notice two exceptions to this for the New Year.
We are going to sing for a Parc residence in White Rock on Friday March 1st- Oceana Parc. It is a stunning 20 plus storey independent living building right opposite the Semiahmoo Mall. In consideration of the distance, and difficulty in getting back through tunnels and over bridges during Friday afternoon rush hour, we have come up with a novel approach for this concert. They are able to have us perform in the late morning-11:00- and Morna has agreed to drop that rehearsal in order to facilitate this adventure! They can’t accommodate all of our numbers, so we only need about 30 singers to come south that day. Those that don’t come will have the Friday off! If people would like, I can arrange for a group lunch (self paying) at a Brown’s just opposite the Parc after the concert. There would still be time for a walk on the pier before heading home if you wanted.
The other exceptional date is Saturday May 11th, a 7:00 pm concert at the Oasis at Elim Village. We sang here once before a few years ago, and this is a beautiful octagonal wooden domed hall used for concerts and community events in the retirement village. These folks love music, and most have grown up singing hymns, they will really appreciate our music making. I’m hoping for a big turnout from the choir to this one. Elim Village is about a 30-35 minute drive from Vancouver, off 160th in Surrey.
The other two concerts are in North Van and Delta. Unfortunately, the North Van concert needed to be scheduled on the day of our dress rehearsal for our spring concert. We will start our rehearsal at 9:30 that day, (Friday April 26) and end at 12:00. This should give sufficient time to make it to North Van for the concert. If you find this combination too taxing, please don’t feel you need to volunteer. This venue can only take about 20 singers.
All information about the concerts is being put in the calendar section of our secure member website, so that you don’t have to try to remember which weekly email it might have been in! Click on the event and all the information will pop up about who is singing, location, time, repertoire, dress, parking etc.
To assist in planning these concerts we need to know who can participate. Please click HERE to answer a poll on availability.
Encouraging Friends to Attend our December 17 Concert
The very best way for any choir to have a big audience is for its members to encourage their friends and family to come. For those who use Facebook, there is a very simple tool to do this.
- Open Facebook
- Type “EnChor Christmas” in the search bar. Scroll down to the “Event” and click on it
- Under the poster on the right, mark yourself as “Going”
- To the right of the Going button, click “Invite”. All your friends’ names will pop up. Scroll down and select people who might be interested. At the bottom, press “Invite”. They will get a message in Messenger that says your name and that you are inviting them to the concert. If some names are greyed out (not available to be selected), that means someone else has already invited them through this Facebook function. This prevents people receiving too many invitations to the same event.
Silent Auction Items for EnChor’s Social Evening
EnChor will again be hosting a social evening for members, family and friends, on Feb 10, 2024. If you were at the fabulously entertaining event held at the Alpen Club in 2020 then you will recall what a fun evening it was, and what a great fundraiser it was for EnChor.
For the 2024 event we are planning more of the same, with lots of amazing talent from your fellow singers, plus a silent auction (which was hugely popular at our last event!), plus more more and more, stay
For the silent auction we need items, so are asking for your ideas and donations. We are happy to accept your contributions individually, or perhaps you could coordinate with your section buddies to contribute as a group! Here are a few suggestions for donations:
– Any items that we can use to create some gift baskets, (the organizing team will put these together), examples:
o Wine!
o Food, nuts, cheeses, coffee, tea, nuts, cookies, anything packaged (ie. not needing refrigeration)
o Chocolate (gourmet of course)
o Candles, lotions and potions, coffee mugs, wine glasses, or anything else that might be great in a gift basket
– Gift certificates to restaurants, stores, attractions
– Tickets to concerts (ours and others)
– Music CDs
– A gift of your time….
o 1 or 2-hour lesson with you (instrument or vocal or some other talent)
o prepare a meal in the winner’s kitchen (are you a great chef?)
– Homemade gifts, craft items, knitting, artwork etc
– Lunch with an EnChorister
– Anything goes!
If you can provide/donate a silent auction item, please contact me for further details.
Thanks for your contributions!
Kathie Marteinsson
kathiemart@shaw.ca
IMPORTANT DATES FOR SPRING 2024
IMPORTANT DATES:
· Please check the EnChor calendar for more details.
· Addresses, exact times, wardrobe and singers will be listed in the calendar for each event
| DATE | TIME (check calendar for exact times) | TYPE OF EVENT | VENUE | CITY (check calendar for exact address) |
| Friday, Dec. 8th | 2:00-3:30pm | Outreach Concert | Westerleigh PARC | West Vancouver |
| Sunday, Dec. 17 | 3:00-4:30pm | EnChor Christmas Concert | Pacific Spirit United Church | Vancouver |
| Friday, Jan, 26 | 2:00-3:30pm | Outreach Concert | Augustine House | Ladner |
| Saturday, February 10 | 7:00-10:30pm | EnChor Social | Polish Hall | Vancouver |
| Friday, April 19th | Later afternoon sound check, concert in the evening | Concert with Vancouver Chamber Choir | St. Andrew’s Wesley | Vancouver |
| Friday, April 26th | 2:00-3:30pm | Outreach Concert | Cedar Springs PARC | North Vancouver |
| Sunday, April 28th | 3:00-4:30 | EnChor Spring Concert | Pacific Spirit United Church | Vancouver |
| Saturday, May 11 | 6:00-8:00pm | Outreach Concert | Elim Village | Surrey |
Vancouver Youth Choir Free Tickets
I have 2 free tickets for the first person to contact me at cathybayley55@gmail.com for the Vancouver Youth Choir Concert on December 16th at 7:30 at the Chan Centre.