Week 16 Newsletter

February 9, 2024

A Message from Tyler…

I love the collaborative feeling in our rehearsals on Tuesdays. Every voice is bringing a special and unique energy to who and what we are as a choir. It’s awesome! Let’s keep it rollin’.

-Tyler

Announcements

  • We are performing in collaboration and as a part of the Songs for Peace - Interfaith Concert this Sunday, February 11th. Please see details below.

  • Moving forward, the email for OOTB is: info@ootbchorus.ca. Please use this for ALL communications and disregard the ootbchorus@gmail.com we previously used as it is not longer being monitored.

  • The March Winter Social has been scheduled, so please mark your calendars.

    • Date: Saturday, March 2nd
      10:30am - 1:30pm

    • Location: Highland Park Community Centre (3716 2 St NW, Calgary, AB T2K 0Y4)

    • Details: The social will be $5/member. A sign-up sheet will be at the welcome table on Tuesday with info on what you plan to bring for the potluck. Please see Ashley or Christine and they will collect your cash starting next week. 

      Join us for some games, food, and great company! It's a great opportunity to mingle and make new connections within our choir community, pot-luck style. Share what yummy treats you might be bringing with our team so we can all coordinate.

Next Rehearsal - February 13th

  • New Song: We will start learning the Dolly Parton classic, ‘Nine to Five’. This is going to be a fun one!
    The sheet music for this will be available Saturday afternoon for you to print out with the audio coming soon.

    As always, we will have a few extra copies of the music for those that aren’t able to get to printing it off in time, but please don’t count on this. It’s every members responsibility to print their music from the Members Area for rehearsal.

  • We will also continue to sing our other songs that we’ve been learning.

February, 11th - Concert Details

Songs for Peace - an Interfaith Concert 

When: Sunday, February 11th, 2:00 pm -3:30 pm
Where: McDougall United Church (8516 Athabasca St SE, Calgary, AB T2H 1S1)

Members Arrival: Please arrive at 1:00 pm to give us time to get organized. We will not get much time to warm-up, so please get the engine running, as they say, in the car before you get there!

Belongings: There WILL NOT be a protected green room space for us to put our things in during the concert, which obviously isn’t ideal. We will have to put our things in the pews where we will sit to watch the other performers during the concert until it’s our turn to sing. I will be doing a walk-through tomorrow to figure when we are singing on the program. Please plan for this accordingly.

Dress: All black (no tee-shirts) You will get your coloured scarf at the concert. Please return it to Ashley after performance.

Parking: There is a fairly large parking lot at McDougall Church, so we’ll be able to park there.

Inviting Friends and Family: Feel free to invite people to come and hear us and other great groups in the city. We made a post on our public Facebook page that you are able to share.

Songs: ‘The Storm is Passing Over’ and ‘Sounds of Silence.’

In OOTB style, let's ensure we are flexible, kind, and understanding. We do not have all the answers for this performance, but we are excited to join this celebration!

Musical Moment

‘Hallelujah’ - Leonard Cohen

By, Brent Moore

After OOTB sang Hallelujah last week so well, it seemed a good idea to take a closer look at this tune. It may be iconic now, but it was no overnight success.  It was originally recorded in 1984, the same year that Bruce Springsteen and Prince ruled the charts with “Born in the U.S.A.,” and “Purple Rain”.  However, Hallelujah did not see the light of day then, as it was rejected by the head of CBS records, who felt it wasn’t commercial enough. He famously said, ‘Leonard, we know you’re great, but we don’t know if you’re any good.’

So the song languished.  Bob Dylan played it a few times.  Then, a few years later, singer John Cale (of Velvet Underground fame) asked if he could record a cover of it.  So Leonard sent him 15 pages of additional verses, as he had written over eighty verses in the FIVE YEARS it took to write it.  Cale used some of these extra lyrics to spice it up. However, it still didn’t get much attention. Not until 2001, when it was used in the movie Shrek.  It then took off like gangbusters! 

A couple of hundred artists have since recorded it, including k.d. lang, who performed it for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.  She did an incredible job. Here is the performance, have a watch!

The song had another resurgence in 2016, after Leonard Cohen died, and it actually made the charts for the first time. Considered one of music’s greatest poets, he wrote exquisitely about the human condition, including love and sadness, remorse and hope, submission and defiance.  Coupling these themes with that lovely waltzing melody, the song has become timeless.

OOTB Chorus