Greetings

by JoAn Segal, President

Another way of looking at money

I was recently reviewing my finances for my 2006 taxes and something struck me – how much I pay for “entertainment” and “personal” items. For instance, my tap dancing classes cost $16 each session. A yoga class was $20 per hour. A Rec Center pass for a few months cost $75. A voice lesson was $35. A music class was $145 for 6 or 7 sessions. A friend is taking marimba lessons at $15 per hour.

Chorale dues were $80 for the Chorale and $40 for the Chamber Chorale, each meeting weekly for over 30 sessions. Looks to me like a bargain! Of course, there is the matter of paying for the music, but I had to invest in tap shoes for the dance class, a mat for the yoga, and music for the voice lessons and the music class.

We calculated the "cost per singer." The total budget, less pass-throughs such as the cost of the scrip we sell, is about $85,000. That, divided by the number of singers in all groups (about 155) yielded a figure of about $550 per singer.

Of course, we have revenue from ticket sales and honoraria for our concerts. This year we have budgeted $31,000 for that revenue. If we also remove that from the total budget, that leaves $54,000, which, divided by the number of singers, gives a figure of about $350 per singer.

As a percentage of total revenue, dues are $15,000, or 12%, performance revenue at $31,000, about 25%.

Another way to look at things is that we now pay $80 to belong to the Chorale, which brings the cost per week to about $3. A Board sub-committee is looking into the question of what the dues should be for the upcoming year. Please don’t be surprised if there is a change in the amount we’ll be paying next year. Please keep some of these comparisons in mind!

Social Event

The Chorale will have another Boulder Dinner Theatre outing on Sunday, March 11, to see Ragtime, a musical based on E. L. Doctorow’s novel about characters in a racially-divided America. See Esri Albritten in the narthex over the next few weeks and pick your seats when you sign up.

With all the storms we’ve been having, we decided to have a back-up rehearsal date for the spring in case we have to cancel any rehearsals for snow!  The date will be Saturday March 3 from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm.  If any rehearsal is canceled due to snow, we will send out a group e-mail, update the Chorale office phone message (303-554-7692) and will put a notice on the web site.

How Easy Can It Be?

We are eligible to apply for another Precision Plumbing $1000 Award and it's so easy to win! Go to www.precisionplumbing.com and click on "here" to nominate the Boulder Chorale for their $12,000 give away at the top of their home page, then fill out the info. The organization who receives the most nominations for the month wins!! How easy is that! Please help us out and nominate the Boulder Chorale today!

Chorale Tour to Greece

Erin Christensen-Mandel, Coordinator

Four months to go! The next tour payment will be due by Tuesday, February 20. Please get your passport NOW if you don’t have one yet! It takes a while to get them and I will need a photocopy of everyone’s passports by April 12. I will be sending out information on shore excursions shortly. Please also think of any dietary needs you have; I’ll be asking for those as well. In the meantime, if you have any questions, contact me at: 303-554-7692 / boulderchorale@yahoo.com

Using Chorale MIDI Files–a Step-By-Step Primer by Esri Allbritten

How do most of us learn a piece of music? By hearing it over and over again. That’s why the MIDI files on the Chorale web site are so useful. Here’s how to use them. (These instructions are for PC users. I don’t know if they’ll work for the Mac crowd.)

First of all, MIDI files are small. It doesn’t take a lot of time to download them, even if you have a dial-up connection. So save the files to your computer. That way, if your online service or the site goes down temporarily, you’ll still be able to listen to the piece. If a piece isn’t listed yet, Joe Frank is still working on getting it up. If you find errors in your part or have a problem, feel free to email him at joe@bugev.com.

Our starting point is http://www.boulderchorale.org. On the brown stripe that runs below the photos, click on Members. A

menu will drop down. Click on MIDI Files. On the new page, scroll down to see that the pieces are grouped according to whether the big group or one of the small groups is singing them. Text that is colored blue is a link, and can be clicked on. If you want your part to be loudest, click on the name of your part. If you want to hear all the parts weighted the same, click on the name of the piece. If you don’t see all these options at first, click on whatever blue text is available. Eventually you’ll get there.

As an example, let’s say you click on the Sop I part for Go Where I Send Thee. Windows Media Player will open in a separate window, and the piece will start to play. Go to the top left corner and click on File. Now click on Save As. Click on the My Documents picture of a file folder, to the left. Now, in the main section to the right, find My Music and double-click on it. Click the Save button. The file is now saved as garden-Sop1, and you don’t have to go online to play it. You just pull up Windows Media Player in your programs list, hit File, Open, go to My Documents, My Music, and double click on the file name. The piece will start to play.

Let’s say that you want to change the speed of the piece. Find the Now Playing tab. It’s on the left, the fourth line of text down from the top. Click on it, then go back up two lines and click on View. Scroll down the menu that pops up and put your mouse on Enhancements. A menu will pop up on the side. Click Show Enhancements. Now click View again, put your mouse on Enhancements, and this time, go below Show Enhancements, which now has a check on it, and click Play Speed Settings. A slider bar will appear at the bottom of the page. You can move the pointer in the middle of the bar to the left, for slower, or to the right, for faster. If the pointer doesn’t show up immediately, click on the bar at the 1.0 marking. It will appear.

Another neat trick is to choose Repeat, so the song plays over and over until you tell it to stop. This way, you can listen to your part while you’re cleaning house or filing (bring headphones to work!). You don’t even have to pay attention. It will sink in, believe me. To get the song to repeat, go to the fifth line of text from the top, on the right, and click on Now Playing List. On the menu that pops up, click Repeat. The song, once started, will play over and over. To stop it, click on Now Playing List and click Repeat again. It’s a toggle. If it has a check next to it, it’s repeating. If it doesn’t, it plays once and stops. And by the way, the stop and start buttons are at the very bottom of the screen, and look just like they do on a tape or CD player. Hold your mouse over the buttons if you’re not sure, and a little text box will come up telling you what the button does. Also, you’ll notice that while the piece is playing, a little pointer moves along a bar that runs across the bottom of the screen. You can move this pointer. So if there’s a particularly tricky section you want to hear over and over, pay attention to where the pointer is when that part starts. Put your mouse on the bar at that point and click. The piece will start up again right there. Keep your mouse at that spot and click it as many times as you want. Change the speed to slow, find the part again, and play it over and over slowly. This is extremely helpful for learning fast, tricky parts.

An exciting opportunity for 2008!

by JoAn Segal, President

Tim and the Boulder Chorale have been invited to be a part of the Colorado Mahlerfest 2008. (Probably Jan. 9 – 13). This annual event is a fantastic achievement, for which the group won the International Mahler Award in 2005. The choral work to be performed is Das Klagende Lied, not as well-known as some of Mahler’s other works. It is a great honor that Tim will be the choral conductor and we will be the major participants. The work isn’t easy, and we will have to spend a lot of time on it in the fall, so much that we probably won’t have a fall concert in 2007, though we shall Make Joy at the holidays! We are really coming up in the world to receive such an invitation – we can look forward to it with pride and enthusiasm, but also with a resolve to work hard! More information as it becomes available!

Giving to Others

The Boulder Chorale will participate in a benefit concert, Boulder Sings for Dushanbe, on April 1, 2007. We have begun to work with the planning committee for the event and it looks very exciting. Save the date. Details about dress rehearsal will come soon in the weekly announcements. Our plan is to use some of the repertoire for the American Tapestry concert. Also on the program will be the Jubilate Sacred Singers and the Kutandara Marimba Ensemble.

All Boulder Chorale members are welcome to attend Board of Directors meetings, or talk with any board member about an issue that we should discuss at the meetings.

Contact the Board Members

JoAn Segal Jack Biddle

President Vice President/Pres. Elect

303-541-1065 720-304-2178

jsegalvv@earthlink.net jackbcmt@aol.com

Christine Evenson Wren Fritzlan

Graphics/Website Membership Assistant

303-774-9301 Assistant Registrar

christie_evenson@hotmail.com 303-651-9318

wfritzlan@coloradorecovery.com

Peg Gorce Karen Haimes

Membership Liaison Ticket Manager

303-447-8720 Concert Dress Chair

puritanprop@earthlink.net 303-442-7370

haimes1@aol.com

Jeff Hale Julie Hale

Treasurer Graphics

303-494-1836 303-494-1836

jeffhale58@msn.com juliehale1@msn.com

Paul Haynes Greg Herring

Music Librarian Asst. Concert Manager

303-494-9154 303-440-6920

prhaynes@comcast.net gherring@us.ibm.com

Diane LaTourrette Miriam Lindahl

Secretary Concert Manager

303-494-4177 303-530-2077

sjlatourrette@att.net miriam.lindahl@comcast.net

Sam Richman Sharon Soderlund

Assistant Librarian Marketing/Publicity

303-494-2253 303-494-9459

samrichman@comcast.net sksoderlund@yahoo.com

Calendar of Events

Tuesday Evening Rehearsals—

Women’s Chorale 6:00-6:50 p.m.

Chamber Chorale 6:30-8:15 p.m.

Full Chorale 7:00-9:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 10—Women’s Chorale Retreat

9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. followed by a potluck. Atonement Lutheran Church

Monday, February 12—Board of Directors Meeting

7:00 p.m.

Atonement Lutheran Church

Please let JoAn know if you plan to attend.

Tuesday, February 20—Greece Tour Payment Due

Friday, February 23—Newsletter Deadline

Please submit articles to boulderchorale@yahoo.com or leave a copy in the Chorale office.

Saturday, March 3—Possible Make-Up Rehearsal for any rehearsals cancelled due to snow.

9:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Atonement Lutheran Church

Monday, March 12— Board of Directors Meeting

7:00 p.m.

Atonement Lutheran Church

Please let JoAn know if you plan to attend.

Thursday, March 15—Dress Rehearsal

6:00-10:00 p.m.

First United Methodist Church (1421 Spruce Street)

You do not need to wear concert attire to this rehearsal.

Saturday, March 17—Americana Concert

6:00 p.m. Call Time

7:30 p.m. Concert

First United Methodist Church (1421 Spruce Street)

Sunday, March 18—American Concert

3:00 p.m. Call Time

4:00 p.m. Concert

First United Methodist Church (1421 Spruce Street)

Looking Ahead...

Saturday, March 31—Dushanbe Dress Rehearsal

Two hour rehersal. Time TBA. Please hold the evening after 5:00 p.m.

Macky Auditorium

Sunday, April 1— Boulder Sings for Dushanbe

4:00 p.m.

Macky Auditorium

Thursday, April 26—Beethoven Rehearsal

6:00-8:30 p.m.

Macky Auditorium

Friday, April 27—Beethoven Rehearsal

No chorus rehearsal is currently scheduled, BUT please hold the date!

Saturday, April 28—Beethoven Rehearsal

10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Macky Auditorium

Sunday, May 6—Mini-Gala

An elegant cocktail dance!

Tuesday, May 8—Annual meeting

Lots of business, but some entertainment, too.

6:00 p.m.

Sacred Heart of Jesus Church

Greece Tour Ensemble Rehearsals—Tuesdays:

May 22, May 29, June 5, June 12, June 19.

7:00-9:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 27—Tour Potluck Social and Information Meeting 5:30 p.m. Followed by rehearsal from 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 21—Bon Voyage Dress Rehearsal

7:00-9:30 p.m.

Sunday, June 24—Bon Voyage Concert

4:00 p.m

Thursday, June 28 through Saturday, July 7—

Boulder Chorale tour of Greece