Bay Area Showcase Chorus

January 14 Rehearsal Highlights! It was a delightful evening listening to 3-time quartet champion Kim Vaughn share stories from her journey as a quartet singer. We listened to clips from each of her 3 winning quartets to hear how her sound evolved over the years. She paralleled her evolution as a singer with the evolution of Sweet Adelines. It was interesting to hear about... - the 1970's focus on "tuning to the Lead" and the bright, highly focused sound that resulted - with the strain that it sometimes placed on the Lead voice - the 1980's focus on "tuning to the Bass" and opening up a lot more back space for a darker resonance - the sound by 2000 focused on "tuning to the key" so everyone had responsibility for tuning! She managed to combine what she had learned about back space resonance with her naturally bright and forward sound, to create a fully resonated and beautiful, complete sound in her last winning quartet. She also explained the need for quartet members to have a deep understanding of all four voice parts, and the importance of singing every single day, even for just a little bit, to keep our voices in good shape.

January 7 Rehearsal Highlights! - It was great to see each other after our 2-week holiday break. We welcomed TEN guests! Several returned from last year, and three were brand-new visitors! It’s a pleasure to share singing and companionship with new friends. - After some social time in breakout rooms to catch up on what we did during the holidays, we congratulated the four chorus members who have received their first dose of the COVID vaccine. Yay!... - Our new year started with back to basics including exercises to improve our alignment, breathing, and lung capacity. We use the bubble water technique, with the added benefit that blowing through a straw into water makes the spread of aerosolized particles in the air less likely. - We finished our skill-building distinguishing between whole and half steps, an important skill for our newest song. - Always trying something new, we broke into rooms of just 2 people, to bubble and sing scales to each other. - We launched a new song, talking about the character of the person singing it and breaking into sections to work on our parts. Thank you to our Section Leaders who were ready to point out specific areas to focus on. - Our Member Spotlight at Zoom rehearsal was Fran Tucker, who was also celebrating her birthday and her Sweet Adelines anniversary. Fran is a long-time chorus member whom we all dearly adore.

Monday Member Spotlight We are thrilled to introduce our brand new member, Diana Nakano! Diana, who sings lead, found our chorus on NextDoor and joined after attending several Zoom rehearsals. She's a homeschooling mom of three boys, a beginning real estate entrepreneur, and an ardent gardener (who will be happy to find that several of us love to garden). Diana says joining the chorus has brought much joy and a feeling of community into her life. ... We look forward to the day when we can meet Diana "in real life" and sing with her on the risers! Please join us in welcoming Diana to Bay Area Showcase Chorus!

Wishing everyone a healthy, bright, and happy 2021! Like many choruses, Zoom became our lifeline in 2020 and we made good use of it: - Ten months (and counting) of Zoom REHEARSALS, led by our capable director Julie Starr, who used breakout rooms, polls, and every Zoom feature to keep us singing, engaged, and moving forward... - Zoom COACHING with all-stars that included Elizabeth Davies, Jan Carley, Jana Gutenson, Kathleen Hanson, Kim Vaughn, Lynne Smith, Ryan Heller, and Sandy Marron - Zoom GUEST NIGHT attended by a dozen visitors, many of whom have continued to join us weekly. We even have a NEW MEMBER! (more about her on Monday) - Weekday morning Zoom COFFEE HOUR hosted by Teri Minnis, enjoyed by many and especially appreciated by members who live alone - Delightful Zoom PARTIES hosted by our own comedic bari, Jackie Levy. Themes included Project Runway, Sing/Talk/Learn, Cocktails and Travel Tales, Favorite Local Outdoor Places, Talent Show, Back To School, and a Halloween Party - A Zoom THANKSGIVING GAME NIGHT hosted by Julie Starr and Laura Bode, where we played Scattergories, Scavenger Hunt, and Whiteboard Pictionary - Our first ever Zoom HOLIDAY PARTY, hosted by Teri Minnis and Debra Ramirez, featuring a Secret Santa Gift Exchange, Scavenger Hunt, premiere showing of quartet holiday videos, and lots of singing together - Two VIRTUAL CHORUS VIDEOS, "Brand New Shoes" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and several holiday quartet videos - An unexpected blessing of 2020 was our chorus members had so many opportunities to spend TIME TOGETHER-WHILE-APART. We made it through the year together and the bonds of friendship and sisterhood have never been stronger. Happy 2021 to all!

From our chorus family to yours, we wish you love and harmony during the holidays and in the New Year! https://youtu.be/Lr5h5xowNYQ

Congratulations to our Music Director, Julie Starr, on being elected to the Sweet Adelines International Board of Directors! Julie is a voice teacher and a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the American Choral Directors Association, and the Barbershop Harmony Society. She joined Sweet Adelines in 1989 and served as Bass section leader and Assistant Director before being named Chorus Director. She is an arranger and composer, and a well-respected coach for quartets and choruses. Congrats Julie! We know you will be a real asset to the International Board of Directors.

Rehearsal Highlights! - how appropriate that we explored ways to maximize the characterization of our songs while dressed in Halloween costumes - Ryan Heller explored some basic principles and shared clips of YouTube videos that illustrate outstanding characterization (Anne Hathaway in Les Mis, Kristin Chenoweth, several SAI chorus and quartet performances) - physical warmups included dancing along to songs from The Addams Family and Ghostbusters - special recognition and tha...nks to member Laura Schultz for writing a grant proposal that resulted in funding from the City of San Jose - we welcomed 4 guests (all in costume!) to our Zoom rehearsal Wishing a safe and Happy Halloween to all!

We'll have fun at rehearsal tonight and you are invited! - come in costume! - our special Halloween treat is a visit from vocal coach Ryan Heller! - social time begins at 7pm, rehearsal is at 7:30pm - contact Julie Starr at [email protected] for the Zoom link... - guests are always welcome, hope to see you there! See more

The irrepressible Ryan Heller will bring his high-energy style of coaching to our Zoom rehearsal on Thursday, October 29. If you are thinking about visiting a Zoom rehearsal of Bay Area Showcase Chorus, you won’t want to miss this! We'll be dressed for Halloween so come join the fun. Ryan is an accomplished music director in many musical genres. Currently he is music director for Alamo Metro Chorus (a chapter of Sweet Adelines International) and Chorus Austin (a classical music ensemble).

Rehearsal Highlights: - thanks to Zoom, our director, Julie Starr, can take a well-deserved vacation, hiking through Yellowstone during the day, and conducting rehearsal in the evening! - many of us had watched the first day of Sweet Adelines International virtual international convention; a highlight was seeing our own Joyce Falger being honored for her 50 years as a Sweet Adeline. - member Jamie Osborn was recognized for the amazing job she did learning new video editing tools and masterminding our first virtual chorus video! - we sang our tag of the month, reviewed some choreo, and went into breakout rooms for sectionals, and sang our closing song together.

Rehearsal Highlights: - 21 visitors came to our Zoom Rehearsal Guest Night! Some found us on NextDoor, Meetup, and through friends - 6 of our guests were from Mele O Kona, a prospective Sweet Adelines chorus in Kona on the big island of Hawaii - we also enjoyed the company of a few former members and a few visitors from Region 12 - activities included a fun warm-up to 60's music, learning the tag " Then I Found You," unveiling our "Brand New Shoes" virtual chorus video, and t...alking about future virtual video projects in small group breakout rooms Thank you to all who helped organize and to our valued guests!

Presenting our first virtual chorus video! We learned this song during shelter-in-place, and are thrilled to present "Brand New Shoes"! Special thanks to Jamie Osborn, production manager, and Donya Metzger, who wrote the music and lyrics.

Tonight is our Zoom Rehearsal Guest Night! If you like to sing and are looking for something new and fun to do while stuck at home, come visit! By the end of the evening, you'll have a song in your heart, new friends, and a smile on your face. Plus tonight is the debut of our first ever "virtual video" performance! ... Looking forward to seeing you on Zoom tonight!

Our "Zoom Rehearsal Guest Night" is on October 8 and the RSVPs are starting to come in. Please join us! Contact our director Julie Starr at [email protected] for the link and more info. We've continued to meet every Thursday on Zoom since March 2020 and do nearly everything we did in person - singing, dancing, learning, sharing, supporting each other, and always ending the evening feeling renewed and uplifted. We'd love for you to join us.

One advantage of Zoom rehearsals is how easily we can spend an hour with esteemed chorus coaches from afar. This week our guest is Jan Carley, who has worked extensively with Sweet Adelines members and choruses. Jan will speak about "a Mental Reset for the COVID Detour" to help us reframe our obstacles into opportunities. She'll speak from 7:30 to 8:30 and guests are always welcome. Learn more at her website: https://creativecoachinggroup.com/ Contact our director, Julie Starr, at [email protected] for the Zoom link. Hope you can join us.

Love to sing? Feeling a little bored and restless? Looking for fun and friendship? Come to our Zoom Rehearsal Guest Night! - Thursday, October 8 at 7pm - we'll do a little dancing along to music, some vocal skill building, learn and sing a tag together, and have some fun social time!... - contact [email protected] for the Zoom link Being together online is *almost* as good as being together on the risers. Our Zoom rehearsals are a great example of doing the best you can with what you have, and Bay Area Showcase Chorus has a "can do" attitude. We hope to see you there!

Please join us this Thursday Aug 27

Rehearsal highlights! Kim Vaughn, sound judge extraordinaire, listened to our 2019 international performance and shared advice on how to take our vocal production to the next level. Some of the many key concepts she addressed were: - Taking our pitch in the quality of the song - Differentating between an uptune or ballad voice and knowing when to use which one... - Increasing awareness of section interrelationships (duets, trios, embellishments) - Maintaining free, open, supported vocal quality regardless of dynamic level - Understanding Intonation (individual vocal production) vs tuning (ensemble awareness) Julie encouraged us to take advantage of the wonderful online warmups by Kathleen Hansen or Anna-Lisa Glad, available on YouTube. Several members joined Jackie Levy in a breakout room to finish a lesson on Beginning Music Reading. Jackie even created handouts, cheat sheets, and homework for us. Teri Minnis was in the Member Spotlight this week. Teri spent many years playing flute, ukulele, and guitar before joining her church choir and our chorus. She is our new Events Coordinators and Weekday (Zoom) Coffee Hostess, and we are so glad to call her our sister.