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Dear friends,
Out here in Vancouver the cherry trees are in bloom, early bulbs are open, and robins are chattering at each other as they work out nesting territories. It's Spring and we welcome it! In this issue you will find: 1. LOVE - Chor Leoni's Next Main Series Concert 2. Sun LOVE Contest - Win LOVE Tickets and a CD! 3. Chor Leoni Advances to Finals of CBC Choral Competition in Contemporary Category 4. Feedback from ACDA 1. LOVE - Chor Leoni's Next Main Series Concert Chor Leoni's LOVE concerts (April 4, 5, & 6) are fast approaching. Diane has gone through her stacks of favourites both old and new and come up with a roster of great music for male choir. Works by Tormis, Sledd, Wikander, Sibelius - to name just a few - are on the LOVE program and the lions can't wait to sing it for you! Tickets available for our April 5 and 6 shows. Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 pm Shaughnessy Heights United Church 1550 W. 33rd Ave, Vancouver, BC Tickets through Ticketmaster 604.280.3311 (Service charges apply.) Adults $28 | Seniors & Students $23 Sunday, April 6 at 3 pm Evergreen Cultural Centre 1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam, BC Tickets through Evergreen box office 604.927.6555  . . . . because one can never get enough! 2. Sun LOVE Contest - Win Tickets and a CD! The Vancouver Sun, Chor Leoni's newspaper sponsor, will be running a contest featuring tickets to Chor Leoni's LOVE concert and copies of our newest CD, Circle of Compassion! The contest opens on March 21 and runs until March 30. Watch for the ads or enter online. 3. Chor Leoni Advances to Finals of CBC Choral Competition in Contemporary Category It's official! Chor Leoni is in the national finals in the competition-wide Contemporary category of the CBC/Radio-Canada National Competition for Amateur Choirs 2008. We'll sing "live to air" from Ryerson United Church on either April 29 or 30 (final details are still being worked out.) It will be free and open to the public and we invite as many fans as possible to come out and support the lions. We'll post furhter detail on our website as soon as it is finalized. 4. Feedback from ACDA Singing for a convention of the American Choral Conductors is a somewhat daunting task. You know as a choral singer (or conductor!) that your audience is finely tuned to the nuances of musical phrasing, tuning, dynamics and that ineffable "something" that lifts music from the page and makes it live and breath. It was an honour for Chor Leoni to sing for not one but two such august audiences over two past weekends. Here's just a few of the comments that flooded in after: From the February 22 performance in Vancouver for the Northwestern Convention: Diane, I want to tell you how impressed I was with Chor Leoni’s performance last Friday evening at the ACDA convention in Vancouver. The sound of the choir is so polished – I have never heard them sing with such beautiful tone and great vocal energy. The performance was totally engaging, musical, and tight. Way to go! - Eric Hannan Dear Diane, What a lesson for us all! Thank you, Diane and Chor Leoni! Lars Kaario Dear Diane, You and your group continue to be an incredible inspiration to the next generation of Men's Choirs. Paul Grindley Recordings don’t do you justice! I was especially impressed that along with your really fine singing that you were such great people as well. ______________________________ Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your fantastic concert. I am a barbershopper (and a bit biased) but I can tell you without hesitation that you are without a doubt the best men's choir I have ever heard. Thank you for an outstanding evening of song. Lucky are the people who will hear you in Disneyland on Sunday! _______________ Thank you again for your wonderful presentation at ACDA. What a great and supportive group of men. My high school guys saw your workshop and I know they will carry their inspiration back to the larger chorus at their school. I hope we can someday do a workshop together. My men would learn so much from singing with Chor Leoni! There is an uncommon warmth and unpretentious directness that I feel from Chor Leoni - in concert and also off stage. It seems to me that the Chor Leoni members (and their conductor) have advanced far beyond a 'mission' or a 'cause', to merely live and perform in accordance with your convictions, whatever they may be, and to make the best music possible together. The sense of being addressed directly is so strong in your performances and it is immensely appealing! Thinking that a choir is like a thin slice of the society in which we live, it is so liberating that no mission or cause guide the performances. It is all for the music in our lives! Warmest regards, Gunilla Luboff, publisher Walton Music Please, please come see us again. It was such a pleasure and honor to have you here. I have been going to concerts all my life (I’m 83) and was a music major in college and have never heard a men’s choral group to compare with yours. We have a wonderful choir of 50 voices and felt we did Amazing Grace quite well- until we heard you. ____________ And finally, a woman at our Carlsbad concert handed a little note to Elfrieda Rohloff and said “Please give this to the choir”. The note, written on the back of a church envelope, read as follows: As smooth as cream; As rich as beef gravy; As sweet as honeycomb; As colorful as red beans and rice – A complete feast for the ears and nourishment for the soul of anyone blessed with hearing. Thank you. |