Category: Music and Choir

News related to music within or outside of UCV

Singalong with Patrick

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Two of the songs in this Sunday’s service will be singalongs! Here are the words which are also in this week’s order of service. You can print the order of service (or this), bring it up on your screen, or just make up any words you’re not sure of.

The Rainbow Connection

Williams, Ascher

Why are there so many songs about rainbows

And what’s on the other side?

Rainbows are visions, but only illusions

And rainbows have nothing to hide

So we’ve been told, and some choose to believe it

I know they’re wrong, wait and see

Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection

The lovers, the dreamers, and me

 

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered

When wished on the morning star?

Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it

Look what it’s done so far

What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing

And what do we think we might see?

Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection

The lovers, the dreamers, and me

All of us under its spell

We know that it’s probably magic

Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices?

I’ve heard them calling my name

Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?

The voice might be one and the same

I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it

It’s something that I’m supposed to be

Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection

The lovers, the dreamers, and me

La-da-da, de-da-da-do

La-da-da-da-da-de-da-do

 

We’ll Meet Again

Parker, Charles

We’ll meet again

Don’t know where, don’t know when

But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day

Keep smiling through

Just like you always do

‘Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away

 

So will you please say “Hello” to the folks that I know

Tell them I won’t be long

They’ll be happy to know that as you saw me go

I was singing this song

 

We’ll meet again

Don’t know where, don’t know when

But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day

CUC May 2020 National Conference & AGM Highlights

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Featured image – Susanne Maziarz, Music Director at Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Toronto; co-leader with Rev Wayne Walder of a cross-Canada ceremony of remembrance, We are together, at the national gathering on 17 May 2020.

*12 more photos at the end of this post!

CUC eNews Coverage here.

CUC May 2020 National Conference Highlights

  • Video of the CUC Cross Canada Sunday Service One Storm, Many Ships
    (edited video, 90 minutes). The wonderful story for children of all ages read by Kiersten Moore has been deleted from the saved video pending copyright approvals from Disney.
  • CUC 2019 Annual Report (pdf document, 56 pages)
    The annual report is full of information about CUC’s work and how you might participate. It’s very worthwhile reading!
  • Attendance at 4 meetings via Zoom & YouTube: 150, 170, 200, 1,000
    (Numbers are approximate because more than one person may have been on one connection and some people had more than one connection!) Details of events follow.
  • If you’re interested in participating in these events in the future, contact the UCV UU Connections Committee – currently Keith Wilkinson, Lynn Armstrong, Kiersten Moore, & Emilie Adin. Text or phone Keith at 604-838-5643 or Lynn at 778-835-2546 or watch for a newly updated UCV Directory of Small Groups, Committees, and Teams, anticipated soon!

Plenary session – Thurs 14 May 2020, 150 participants; informal discussion of the resolutions being presented at the Sat AGM.

Gathering Ceremony – Fri, 15 May 2020, 170 participants, virtual banner parade with photos sent from many congregations across Canada, with music added, assembled by Amber Bellemare in Montreal.

Cross Canada Service – Sun, 17 May 2020, 1,000 participants, four ministers, many musicians and singers
Video available on CUC’s YouTube channel.

Annual General Meeting – Sat, 16 May 2020, 200 participants (97 delegates, 100 observers, 45 congregations)
See the CUC Annual Report for details.

  • Reviewed CUC’s expected investment performance with the investments manager;
    (investments at the end of Dec 2019 were valued at $6.1 million);
  • Approved an operating budget of $812,000 (compare this to UCV at $600,000);
  • Approved changes in procedures for electing board members;
  • Elected new board members;
  • Approved 2020-21 goals and strategic priorities;
  • Responded to questions about the International Council of Unitarians and Univeralists (ICUU) conference still scheduled for Montreal in October 2020;
  • Received reports regarding a few of the many initiatives outlined in the Annual Report:
    • Youth and Young Adults (Annual Report, pp 23-26)
      plus CazUUm – CUC youth zoom conference (34 participants)
    • Truth Healing and Reconciliation Initiative (Annual Report, pp 29-31)
    • Social Justice Action (Annual Report, pp 26-28)
    • Dismantling Racism (Annual Report, p 35)
    • Polyamory Task Force (Annual Report, pp 36-55 – the full 19-page report from the task force on this complex subject, including recommendations for the CUC.)
  • Celebration of special awards:
    • Sharing our Faith Awards – Awards to support emerging programs in several congregations (Durham, Mississauga, Edmonton)
    • Northern Lights Award – support for a major initiative, this year for Northwest Toronto Co-housing Project (involving Unitarian fellowship of Northwest Toronto)
    • Shining Lights Award – for new innovative programs (see CUC website for details)
    • Theological Education Fund Award – Co-sponsored by CUC and UUMOC (UU Ministers of Canada) for support of ministerial students (grants made to two ministerial students ths year)
    • Knight Award – Awarded to Rev Frances Deverell for dedicated service on social justice issues including work with the Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice CUSJ
    • See the above links or email the CUC office for more details about any of the CUC award programs.

 

Some screen shots from the CUC Canada-wide Virtual Service, Sun 17 May 2020  

(Google the congregational web sites for more images and information!)

Sunday Service Leaders:

Rev Norm Horofker, Halifax Universalist Unitarians

Rev Karen Fraser Gitlitz, Saskatoon Unitarians

Rev Meghann Robern, Winnipeg Unitarian Universalists

Rev Wayne Walder, Neighbourhood Unitarian Fellowship, Toronto

Rev Samaya Oakley, South Fraser Unitarians, Surrey BC

Spoken Word

Taz Trefzger, Hamilton Unitarians & 2020 CazUUm Co-Dean

Carter Mahoney, Peterborough Unitarians, Young Adults Ensemble

Wonderful singers and musicians from across the country

– Halifax, Peterborough, Toronto, Vancouver…

James Morris (guitar), Halifax, playing Making Waves, composed for the occasion.

Peterborough Unitarians – Spirit of Life (Mark, Julie, Katherine, Stephira, Ben, Linda)

Vancouver Unitarians Elliott and Edgar playing work by Cape Breton’s Allistair MacGillivray

James Hill teaching us the ukulele “peace chord”.

Vancouver Unitarians Choir Leads: Beth, Erin, Bryan, Gavin
leading Canadian Unitarians in Blue Boat Home.

 

Coffeehouse Connections

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Every Saturday in April at 3 pm Pacific, CUC is hosting Coffeehouse Connections.
Details and register here: https://cuc.ca/events/cuc-coffee-house-connections/1586628000/1586633400/
Join the events on Zoom:  https://bit.ly/39WqDOj
April 18 – Music circle
April 25 – Storytelling
Here’s a description of the first one.
Join Tony Turner for a UU Music Circle: a way to connect and spend some time together on Sunday, Mar 29 at 3 p.m. (Pacific); we’ll gather for about an hour to an hour and a half via Zoom.

Listeners and musicians are welcome. To contribute your musical skills, please fill in this short survey so that the co-hosts (CUC staff and Tony Turner) have an idea of who’s appearing. There will be about 8-10 performances/songs/numbers. Those who don’t get a slot this time to appear for the next Music Circle.
If you can’t be part of our circle, but know someone else who’d like to contribute please forward this link, https://forms.gle/g3KSRddAGAfMnnb9A, so they can sign up. 
Spread the word, and we’ll see you on Sunday with your instrument, or favourite beverage and snack!
Facilitated by CUC Staff.
View other CUC events here: https://cuc.ca/events-calendar/

Blog: Donna Brown, Choir Director

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Why I Do What I Do (or Musings of a Mu-U)

I think most members of the congregation would be surprised to find out how much time the choir spends learning and perfecting our music.  In fact, it is a little scary to do the math.

(from 2018) as an example.. On Thursday, Jan. 10, we started practising the Faure Requiem, which is the main piece for our April concert.  The Requiem is about 35 minutes long and we spent about 45 minutes working on the first of the seven movements. Between that rehearsal and our concert, we have approximately 18 rehearsals and we will spend between 30 and 60 minutes of each rehearsal working on the Faure. That’s a total of about 15 hours. If you count person-hours you will have to multiply by the 45 members of the choir. And that doesn’t count all of the time that each of us will spend working on the music independently!  

What takes so long? 

Well, first of all we have to learn the notes. In some places, the choir sings in unison (everyone on the same note, an octave apart for the men and women), but in many places there are at least four different notes and sometimes each part splits and there can be as many as eight notes. Then there is the rhythm and the language. The Requiem is in Latin, which is not a first language for anyone any more. Add to that the articulation (starting and ending together, or at least in the right place), the phrasing (musical sentences) and the dynamics (volume). There is lots to learn. And all of those things must be in place for us to make music – to express the emotion that is inherent in the music, to move beyond the technical.

But the big question is why?

Why do we put so much time and effort into something so ephemeral, so fleeting as a musical performance?  I have pondered that question often and there are many possible answers. First of all, it feels good when we get it right. The music is incredibly beautiful. It is also fun to do. The choir members enjoy each other’s company. And of course, we enjoy sharing our music with the congregation. But it is more than that. I believe that making music together is a spiritual experience. For me, it is one version of prayer or meditation and helps me to be a better person.  

I met an American minister during the UUMN conference that was held at UCV in 2002.  She explained to me that she and many others call themselves Bu-U’s because they are Unitarian Universalists whose primary spiritual path is Buddhism. Well, I guess I’m a Mu-U, a Unitarian whose primary spiritual path is music. And I would guess that many in the choir would feel the same way.

When I first started conducting the Chalice Choir in 1999, I struggled a bit in justifying how much time and energy I was spending on my work with the choir. I have organizational ability and I worried that I should be spending my time doing something more directly beneficial to others, like volunteering in the DTES. 

A very wise man – Rev. Phillip Hewett – helped me to find peace with my calling. He shared a quote with me, and although I’ve lost the exact words, the gist has stayed with me. Art and music exist to show the beauty that is possible in the world. And I would take it one step further – a choir helps us to experience the beauty that can be created by a group of people working together. That is why I do what I do.

I hope that you enjoy sharing that beauty with us on Sunday mornings and I invite you to join us in experiencing our upcoming concerts.

Donna Brown

Director, Chalice Choir

Unitarian Church of Vancouver

February 2014

 

Jason Shelton Singing Workshop Cancelled

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I have just learned that Jason Shelton has had to cancel all of his fall obligations due to personal/family issues so the workshop planned for Sept. 27 – 29 has been cancelled.  I know that we are all disappointed and send our good wishes to Jason.  Thanks to everyone who registered – I am so pleased that so many of you wanted to come and sing with us!
Donna Brown, Director
Chalice Choir
Unitarian Church of Vancouver

New Singing Group starts Sunday, September 15

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Do you like to sing? Would you like to sing once a month in a small group that doesn’t judge or perform? We will meet for the first time at 12:45 pm on September 15 and gather on the third Sunday every month until April. You’re invited!

My name’s Glenn Deefholts. I’ve been playing the piano and hosting singalongs for years. I’ll play while we sing, sharing my five copies of the Vancouver Ukulele Circle Songbook. Three people can gather around one book. There are songs from about 1910 to 2010 in various genres. The group is limited to a maximum of about 12 people, unless more songbooks are purchased.

We will sing after lunch, from about 12:30 to 1:15, taking turns choosing songs. No pre-registration is required; just come to the Lindsey-Priestley Room at 12:30 each third Sunday, after love soup and lunch. Questions? Contact Glenn

approved by Music Committee and Connect & Engage team

A Mass for Peace – Join North Shore Unitarians on May 11th

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The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace was commissioned for the millennium by the U.K. Royal Armouries and had its premiere in London. The CD was released on September 10, 2001.

North Shore Unitarian Music Director, Alison Nixon, has chosen this work intentionally. Unitarian Sources and Principles are congruent with the intentions within this work, and will be included in the program itself. This promises to be a wonderful community event, and an opportunity for us to show the wider community our dedication to peace and justice.

Alison asks Unitarians to attend this concert personally and also to bring a friend from the wider community. Proceeds from this event will be donated to Amnesty International, and the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture.

  • Saturday, May 11 7 pm
  • Highlands United Church, North Vancouver

On May 11th, our church community will join many other singers from the wider community to make a strong, collective statement as to the folly of war. A choir of over 100 singers will perform this powerful and intensely moving work as a concert at Highlands United Church.

The human longing for peace is a visceral presence in this mass, as each movement adds to the larger story of war’s devastating impact. The various texts, as well as the music itself, embrace time periods from the first millennium B.C. to modern times, incorporating the poetic beauty of Islamic, Hindu, and Christian cultures.

ALISON NIXON, MUSIC DIRECTOR

Alison was appointed Music Director in September 2003. She conducts several other choral groups in the area including the Douglas College Choral Society, Note Bene Women’s Choir and SummerChor.

Alison is an accomplished violinist and has performed with orchestras in Britain, Switzerland and Vancouver. She is responsible for the church’s music program, which includes a 40-member adult choir, classical ensemble, folk choir and children’s choir. Alison also coordinates the musical component of the weekly Sunday services.

 

Chalice Choir in Bellingham

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Notes by Leslie Hill, Pictures by Keith Wilkinson

On Sunday, February 24, 2019, Choir Director Donna Brown and twenty members of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver’s Chalice Choir met at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship at the invitation of BUF’s choir director, Kevin Allen-Schmid. During the service we sang ‘I Dreamed of Rain’ and with the BUF choir sang ‘One Day’, an anthem to peace. In the afternoon we attended an Interfaith Coalition Music Festival. We joined choirs from eleven other faith communities, from Jewish to Catholic, Methodist to Muslim. The UCV Chalice Choir’s reprise of ‘I Dreamed of Rain’ was sandwiched between singers from the Unity Spiritual Center and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The Interfaith Coalition Music Festival was raising money to help house the homeless in Bellingham. After every group had sung, we had a rousing sing-along with the audience, a brief and stirring address by Rev. Seth Thomas of St. James Presbyterian Church and concluded with a grand massed choir plus audience finale of ‘One Day’, featuring solos in Hebrew and Arabic.

It was an inspiring musical day and with any luck the UCV congregation will notice an additional spiritual shine on the faces of the Chalice Choir the next time we sing.

Massed choir and guests, First Congregational Church, Bellingham, WA

Chalice Choir on deck

Market Green, Fairhaven, WA

Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship Sanctuary

“It’s happening @ BUF”

How Sweet the Singing – Twenty Years with Donna Brown

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“The choir is singing this Sunday? Oh good, I’ll be there for sure.”

You hear this often enough to appreciate that for many people, music is a vital part of any Sunday Service. In the Unitarian Church of Vancouver the choir sings two Sundays a month, on average, although it practises every week. And the face of the choir is the inimitable Donna Brown, currently celebrating her twentieth year as Director of UCV’s Chalice Choir.

Donna eased into the choir a few years after she joined the church in 1989. The previous director, Sallie Novinger, encouraged her to join as a soprano. Whenever Sallie was ill she asked Donna to direct and when she decided to retire, she suggested Donna take over. The first few years were tumultuous, with many guest ministers, a huge range in the organization of services and a never-ending need to check, coordinate and adjust. Things settled down when Steven Epperson arrived; he, Donna and Elliott Dainow formed a seamless, cooperative team. She credits Rob Taylor, Connie Wigmore and the late Donna Cook, for their support in the early days. Gavin Grandish and Nicola Hamilton fill in whenever Donna can’t be there.

Donna still quotes her mentor, Harold Brown, when the choir struggles to master a piece: ‘Perfection is an abstraction, one we must strive to reach though it will always be beyond our grasp.’

Donna’s patience in dealing with forty or so Unitarians, not unlike herding cats, has been honed by twenty-five years as an elementary school teacher. She remains pleasant and smiling even as she pushes singers to be better. Her determination to keep trained and talented section leads enables the rank and file members to ‘sing up’ a level so the choir can work on music that would otherwise be too difficult for many. As concert dates approach, she may have sleepless nights but she never panics. She will listen to everyone once and then make hard decisions when necessary. Although she never singles anyone out for blame, her bionic hearing for faulty timing and sagging pitch means the choir improves year by year. If the abstract of perfection is occasionally too far out of reach, Donna changes the program.

Over the last twenty years, the choir has performed a wide range of pieces at its two annual concerts. Proceeds from concerts (and choir-run church lunches in lean years) have funded the music library. Donna has a passion for requiems but the music varies from Bach, Rutter, Faure and Stravinsky to medleys from Queen, Gershwin, Village People and West Side Story. The choir has sung for the wedding of choir member Catherine Ponsford and the funerals of Harold Brown and Phillip Hewett. Last year at the Vancouver Push Festival, the choir even sang in the role of Community Choir for the play, ‘The Events’ starring UCV’s own Douglas Ennenberg. This past February Donna took the choir across the border to sing at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship service and at an interfaith concert to raise money for housing the homeless in the Bellingham area.

This year’s spring concert is titled ‘Donna’s Favourites’, pieces culled from her twenty years as Chalice Choir director. Mark your calendars, Sunday May 5 at 7:30. Come celebrate her stellar career with the choir here at UCV.

Choir Advent Concerts 1999-2018

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Here are the major works sung by the Chalice Choir over the past 20 years.

Chalice Choir Advent Concert Featured Major Works

1999 J.S. Bach Cantata #140:  Wachet Auf

2000 Britten  Ceremony of Carols

2001 J.S. Bach  Christmas Oratorio, Part 1

2002 Haydn  Missa Sancti Nicolai

2003 Dvorak  Mass in D

2004 J.S. Bach  Christmas Oratorio, Part 2

2005 Poulenc  Gloria

2006 Mozart  Vespers K.339

2007 Handel  Coronation Anthems

2008 Vivaldi  Gloria

2009 J.S. Bach  Magnificat

2010 Schubert  Mass #6 in Eb

2011 Vivaldi  Magnificat 710a

2012 J.S. Bach  Cantata #63:  Christet, ätzet diesen Tag

2013 Britten  Ceremony of Carols

2014 Collection of Kyries (Josquin, Bach, Mozart, Dvorak, Stokes)

2015 Dvorak  Mass in D

2016 J.S. Bach  Cantata #140:  Wachet Auf

2017 Gounod  St. Cecilia Mass

2018  Gjeilo  Dark Night of the Soul & Luminous Night of the Soul