SENIOR CHOIR
Who can join the Senior Choir?The Senior Choir is open to adults high-school age and above. It is a volunteer choir and there are no paid section leaders. You do not have to audition in order to participate, though eventually we will probably ask you to sing for us privately so we can determine your range and make sure you are in the right section.
When does the Senior Choir rehearse?We rehearse every Thursday evening from 7pm (sharp!) to 9pm (equally sharp!) from about the last week in August through mid-June. There is usually a week or two off at the end of December.
There are typically two additional rehearsals directly after the two Sunday services immediately preceding the Christmas Concert (first and second Sundays of December).
How often do we sing?The Senior Choir expects to sing one anthem every Sunday beginning on Rally Day (the first Sunday after Labor Day) and ending in mid June (the week before the annual end-of-year Sunday School program). But we do get two or three Sundays off each year when other groups are contributing enough music to carry the service. In recent years, the Senior Choir anthem has been sung during the offering.
What if you can't commit to an entire year?While of course we're always greedy for more full-time choir members, we do accept part-timers. Talk to Charles or Nancy to see what might work for your particular situation.
Do we present any concerts or other special events?Along with all the other musical groups in the church, the Senior Choir prepares several pieces for the annual Christmas Concert, which is typically scheduled for the second Sunday in December at 5pm. This is the only regularly scheduled concert.
Some choir members enjoy participating in the Annual Choir Festival at Gordon College, which usually happens in October. Click here for full information.
What kind of musical standards do we try to meet?We sing for the glory of God and to assist the congregation in worship. That means we aim for the highest standard we can possibly attain given the available skills and the rehearsal time available. We do not expect the kind of vocal perfection that requires trained singers, but we DO expect the choir to pay attention to diction, cut-offs, shaping the line through gradations of dynamics and, most of all, to the meaning of the words we are singing.
Do you have to read music to participate?No, but we admit that it helps a lot. If you don't read music, we advise that you join the choir in January, when rehearsals are quite a bit more relaxed. The season from September through December is extremely busy as we prepare extra music for the Christmas concert and it can be hard for a complete beginner to keep up. However, we leave that decision to the individual. We have plenty of people in this choir who would probably say they don't really read music, but they've picked up a lot over the years by being in choir. We try to include enough repetition so that everybody who shows up at all the rehearsals is able to learn all the notes.
What is the "corporate culture" of the Senior ChoirWe try to embody the relational covenant adopted by Holy Trinity in 2007. That means we acknowledge that we're each different, and that most of the time one or another of us is going through a hard patch and needs a little flexibility. We try very hard not to engage in negative gossip or to complain about how other people are doing their work in the church. We may not know what hurdles they have to deal with.
While we understand that some people truly cannot get to rehearsal by 7pm because of work schedules, we expect everyone else to arrive on time. To come late without real cause implies that you think other people's time is less important than your own comfort and convenience. Most of us, when we really think about it, don't want to be that kind of person. Coming late also means that you miss the warm-ups, which is when we try to develop vocal skills.
We try to create an atmosphere of encouragement, not criticism. Having high standards does not require criticizing the effort everyone just made. It means preparing everybody to take the next step in making the music first correct, and then expressive.
We end each rehearsal in a circle with a prayer. It's a time to thank God for the fellowship we enjoy in this choir, to hold up personal concerns and share personal celebrations and to ask for help on tough pieces!
A good rehearsal is one that starts on time, ends on time, has a full house for the full two hours, begins with an energetic warm-up, includes a lot of laughter with a lot of productive work and ends with a sense of fellowship.
