Dear friends,

Chor Leoni fans in the Lower Mainland know it's December - we've officially survived our first major snowfall followed by the drenching of a Pineapple Express. This month finds Chor Leoni in extended rehearsals for our upcoming PEACE concerts, plus preparations (mainly the setting of alarm clocks) for our annual appearance on CBC Radio One's Food Bank Day, Friday December 7. We invite you to set your alarms (we're on between 6 am and 8 am), have a listen, and call in to support the Food Bank.

In this issue you will find:

1. Chor Leoni's Recipe For Christmas
2. Go Ahead, Feed the Lions
3. CBC Radio Orchestra's Upcoming Baroque By Request Concert
4. Chor Leoni Cabaret at the River Rock Casino

1. Chor Leoni's Recipe For Christmas

and add some seasonal joy:

and you have a terrific recipe for a Chor Leoni Christmas! Chor Leoni's Yuletide Fires is the perfect soundtrack to your holiday preparations and it makes a terrific stocking stuffer. Order copies for your friends and tick one more thing off of your holiday "To Do" list. So the tree’s up, some of the shopping is done, the house is full of delicious aromas from holiday baking – and you are already feeling decidedly run off your feet. Who knew having a good time could be so exhausting, and more importantly, what can you do to fight the urge to throw up your hands in despair? Chor Leoni’s PEACE concerts are just the antidote to all this pre-Christmas stress.  Featuring carols by some of Vancouver’s favourite composers and readings from beloved Canadian writers, PEACE is Chor Leoni’s Christmas offering in the tradition of their popular Yuletide Fires concerts. Many of these carols have a distinctly Chor Leoni connection, in that their composers are either members, past-members, or accompanists of the choir. Tickets for our Vancouver performances (Dec 17 & 18 at Ryerson) are selling very quickly, but there are plenty of seats available for our performance in Burnaby/New Westminster on Dec 16. Don't wait - order your tickets now!

2. Go Ahead, Feed the Lions

Your gift to the Chor Leoni Endowment Fund will help the Lions roar for generations to come.
The Endowment Fund serves the future of the choir. Every gift – large or small – is appreciated.

Donations received by December 31, 2007 will be matched four times over by members of the
choir and two government programs. Please take advantage of these incentives and give today.
Your gift is fully tax-deductible.

We have ambitious plans to share our music widely, to commission new Canadian songs, and to
mentor a new generation of young singers. Reliable annual interest from the Chor Leoni
Endowment Fund can make it all possible.

Join the Chor Leoni family! Giving is a wonderful way to make a personal connection with Chor
Leoni today and forever into the future. Make a donation online now or contact us to discuss the options.

Thank you for supporting future generations of singers and music lovers.

3. CBC Radio Orchestra's Upcoming Baroque By Request Concert

CBC Radio One has partnered with Chor Leoni to help promote the choir's PEACE concerts. In return we'd like to share with you news of their upcoming Baroque By Request concert on Sunday January 6 (3 pm) at the Chan Centre, featuring the CBC Radio Orchestra under the direction of principal conductor Alain Trudel.
Thousands entered the CBC's annual Concert By Request contest and chose the best works from one of the greatest periods in all of classical music. The verdict? J.S. Bach's brilliant Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Handel's heavenly Water Music, Vivaldi's vivacious Four Seasons with the spectacular Mayumi Seiler, violin, and Marcello's marvellous Concerto for Oboe in C minor featuring the orchestra's very own principal oboe, Roger Cole.

Call Ticketmaster at 604-280-3311 and start the new year with the CBC Radio Orchestra and the Best of the Baroque.

4. Chor Leoni Cabaret at the River Rock Casino

Chor Leoni is pleased to partner with the Richmond Sunrise Rotary to present Chor Leoni Cabaret at the River Rock Show Theatre on Sunday, March 9, 2008. An evening of fun, frivolity, and fundraising, Chor Leoni Cabaret features the choir on stage at the River Rock Show Theatre in a lighthearted program of folksongs and selections from Broadway. This being a Show Theatre, one can also expect reprises of some of Chor Leoni’s crowd-pleasing (and somewhat terror-inducing for some choir members) choreographic numbers. Drawing on the choir’s eclectic repertoire, director Diane Loomer, C.M., is sure to bring the choir’s trademark humour and sense of fun – along with great stage presence and singing – to the River Rock. Take a gamble and come out to the River Rock for an evening of fun and frivolity in support of two great causes.

Proceeds from the evening support Chor Leoni's tour fund and Rotary Foundation.

Rotary is a worldwide organization of more than 1.2 million business, professional, and community leaders. Members of Rotary clubs, known as Rotarians, provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.