Week 17 Newsletter

February 16, 2024

A Message from Tyler…

I hope you’re all feeling fantastic on this beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon.

Kyla and I are finishing the renovation of our master bedroom this weekend, so wish us luck :)

Looking forward to seeing and making music with you all Tuesday! Let’s bring it.

Announcements

  • Printing Music: It'd be awesome if you could print out the music beforehand. We've got a limited stash of binders, and we want to make sure there's enough for everyone, especially any new faces who might join us. If printing the music is an issue for you, let us know, and we'll figure something out together.

  • OOTB Social - Saturday, March 2nd: Big shoutout to Dot, for a beautiful $100 donation to OOTB on behalf of Katy and Greg! We'll be putting it towards stocking up beverages for the social March 2nd.

    Speaking of which, mark your calendars for March 2nd from 10:30 to 1:30 at Highland Park Community Centre. We're talking mingling, games (with prizes!), music, laughs, and of course, food. Sign-up with Ashley and Christine at the welcome table starting Tuesday, February 20th.

    We will be having a pizza party! Thanks to Papa Johns, we're snagging a 30% discount, but with venue and pizza costs, it's a tad more than we anticipated. So, to keep things smooth and affordable for everyone, we're kindly asking for $15 per person. This covers venue expenses and a few slices of pizza each. You can give your cash to Christine or Ashley.

    But, if you're feeling generous or just wanna mix it up, feel free to bring a little something extra to share - like a salad or appetizer. This is completely optional, but we won't say no to more goodies :)

    See you there! 🍕🎶

    -Christine and Ashley

Next Rehearsal - February 20th

  • Peter Exner will be leading a portion of our warmup!

  • Bring your copies of ‘Lean on Me’ as I have a couple fun ideas to try with this song :)

  • Continue learning ‘Nine to Five’. Well done last week! Recordings are now available in the Members Area.

  • Do a good review of ‘Down to the River’ - there are some tricky sections that we’ll polish and have fun with.

  • Sing ‘Roar’. I’d love our newer members to get a chance to sing this one as it’s such a great song and anthem for our choir.

Musical Moment

‘Give Peace a Chance’

By, Brent Moore

As part of World Interfaith Harmony Week, OOTB Chorus sang at an enjoyable concert at McDougall Church on Sunday.  Other choirs from different cultures and faiths also produced great harmonies of their own. The best part was when all the choirs sang TOGETHER!  One was a sweet song about peace, compassion and building bridges between our divisions. We even sang a song together in Hebrew. It really showed how music has the power to unite, peacefully.

Going back in time to 1971, a great tune about peace is John Lennon’s ‘Give Peace a Chance.’  Fun fact – it was actually recorded in Montreal!  

John’s peace efforts didn’t endear him to Richard Nixon, however. He had the FBI put Lennon under surveillance, and tried very hard to deport him from the States.

In 1991, John’s iconic tune was revisited by Yoko Ono and the Peace Choir - an all-star collective including everyone from Peter Gabriel to Iggy Pop, Cyndi Lauper to Tom Petty, and Alannah Myles to Lenny Kravitz.  The coolest part in the video is at the end with Sean Ono, who is the spitting image of his dad.  Have a look!

OOTB Chorus