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Dear Spirit Song,

Here it is. . Thursday evening, and time for rehearsal! I’m hoping that by next week we will have figured out how to gather on-line for rehearsal, but for tonight, here’s what we can each do on our own.

Let’s begin!

Warm ups: find a space where you can reach your arms out and have your computer handy to pull up recordings and tracks. . .

Stretch, Yawn, sunshine and prune. . yawn again and take a huge, full body stretch. .

Deep breaths with arms. . . three times . . . or maybe 4. . .nice deep breaths, then out on sh. . .

I Love to Sing! Many times with alternating arms😊

Zinga Zinga Zoo. . . up and down the scale. . .full choreography. . .(careful of your knees)

Hello ! (Hello!) How AH You? (How AH YOU?) Very Fine Thank you!, . (very fine thank you), so lovely to see you today. . . )So lovely to see you today!)

Make sure to use your very best Julia Child impersonation😊

Opening Songs:

Bambalela # 755

He’s Got the Whole World. . . (really.. we need this reminder right now!)

You are Mine . . . . 721 (David Haas. . .lots of youtube versions of this available)

Line up:

1. Be Not Afraid: Beautiful, legato line. . . (audio available at JWpepper. . .)

who needs to hear this tonight?

Tall vowels throughout. . sing along with recording and dropped jaw.

Lean into “you are precious in my sight. . .”

2. Caritas et Amor. . . . (rehearsal tracks on the Spirit Song website)

Review distinctly separate sections, then put together. .

Work your individual line. . . with the tracks. . .

Watch out for that tricky 1 beat measure. . . Remember that Gaudium means JOY!!!

Sing through , paying attention to transitions between sections!

3. **This Little Light of Mine! (new last week. . .keep on with this one!)

Tracks are ready to go, so give it a run, then work it through with your own part. . .

Enjoy the recording (JWPepper website. . . Mark Hayes, arr. )

4. You Do Not Walk Alone. . . .( check out the rehearsal tracks on our website)

Enjoy the beautiful melody line. . . Tall vowels and light tone. . .

Who needs this song tonight? Sing and pray it for them. . .

5. Dereva Ni Mungu. . . Did you memorize this one last week? Here’s your chance!

Stand up and go for the movement, as well! Youtube is your friend on this one!

6. What a Wonderful World—tracks are ready!

Enjoy singing this one. . . We all need a bit of the optimism of this beautiful song today!

Closing prayer: Watch, O Lord. . . 860

Let us especially remember all those who are sick, all who care for them, and especially our friends at Stonecrest, St. Therese and Woodbury Health Care. . .

Peace and Blessings,
Mary

Thanks Mary!! Missing everyone!!

Dear Spirit Song,

Oh how I have missed singing with all of you, as well as with our friends at Woodbury Estates!

So much has changed in our world and in our daily lives in just a few short days. As we each do our part to “flatten the curve” through social distancing, let’s make sure we continue to connect with one another, with our loved ones, with our neighbors—reach out with a phone call or note, especially to those who are alone, or who may need support.

One way we can send some love to our friends at St Therese and Stonecrest would be by writing letters. St. Therese reached out this week:

“Residents are missing visits from their family, friends and volunteers. Here is an old-fashioned way you can help – write letters. Residents will surely love to hear from you!
If you have children (or grandchildren) home from school – how about making cards, drawing pictures and writing fun letters to residents? Can you imagine how much fun it will be for the seniors to open their mail? Letters and cards of encouragement to the staff members would be welcome too!” (Stonecrest loved this idea, and would welcome any and all cards and letters)

Letters and cards can be mailed to:

Saint Therese of Woodbury
7555 Bailey Road
Woodbury, MN 55129

Stonecrest

8725 Promenade Lane

Woodbury, MN 55125

And let’s make sure to keep on singing!!

Here are a couple of ways I’m hoping to help keep the singing going, and our community connected:

1. Today, with the excellent help of my daughter Julia and her friend Mary Perez, I was able to send Chaplain Basil and our Woodbury Estates friends a video of one of their favorite sing along songs: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, complete with actions and accompanied by guitar. Basil was thrilled and excited to share it with the residents, and is ready for more! We are now working on setting up a you tube channel so these can be posted there, and easily accessed. It would be great to have a variety of folks “lead” a song or two there, once we get it set up.

2. Taking the lead of the Italians, our household started our first 6:00 p.m. community sing: We stood on our front steps and sang that very same song! In future days, we’d love to propose the idea of a song of the day. . . at 6:00 every night, everyone go outside and sing that song at the same time, and invite others to do the same thing. Thursday’s song: You Are My Sunshine! Go for it! I’d love to crowdsource song ideas. . let me know your ideas!

3. Of course Thursday night is Rehearsal night, so get ready! I’ll be sending out rehearsal notes, and while I don’t think we will be quite ready to roll with a virtual rehearsal tomorrow, we are working out the details of using Zoom for weekly virtual rehearsals. Stand by for the details coming soon! Jerry has posted additional individual tracks on the website,(Thank you Jerry!!!) and a number of you have mentioned how much you are enjoying practicing with the support of those tracks. Keep it up!!!

Finally, I was blessed this morning to be able to listen to the following reflection. . . I highly recommend it.. . . https://memorialchurch.harvard.edu/blog/things-unseen

Peace and Blessings,

Mary

Dear Spirit Song,

I am so incredibly sad to do this, but we have decided to cancel tonight’s rehearsal, out of an abundance of caution. We have a number of people who are sick with various maladies, coughs, colds, etc, who are unable to attend, and many others who simply need to be especially careful, are not able to attend, as they are more vulnerable.

In the past 24 hours I’ve learned more that has convinced me that it is better to be wise and cautious, and not gather (even though we love to do that!) We are so grateful to Sharon and St. Pascal’s for their willingness to host us, but sad that now we must decline.

The best way to slow the spread of this virus is to not gather in groups, so we are doing our part.

I would like to propose the following:

If some of our tech savvy members are up for helping me, I’d love to figure out a way to do some sort of virtual rehearsals, or some additional helps so we can . . . for starters, I’ll scan and send out the new piece we were going to start tonight, along with a recording. . . stand by for that. . .

Just as importantly, let’s pray for all for all who are sick, all caregivers, and those who are especially vulnerable. . .

Peace and Blessings and good health. .

Mary

Dear Spirit Song!

It has been too long since we’ve all been together! After attending both a community singing workshop, and the American Choral Directors Conference, I’m especially excited to get back to singing with all of you! Both events were incredibly inspiring, and reminded me of the amazing, vast, worldwide community of singers of which we are a part. . . I was able to share our story with many people I encountered, and the consistent response was one of wonder and excitement😊

I need to share with you that, as of today, Woodbury Health Care Center/Estates, and Stonecrest

are not able to have volunteers and visitors, as the risk of infection to their residents is simply too high.

So, the short story is that until the Covid-19 crisis is passed, we will not be able to share our music with our community partners. Once we get the all clear, we will be ready to start up once again.

Meanwhile, please keep all of these dear friends, residents and staff members, alike, in your prayers.

St. Therese has also just implemented a 100% screening protocol for all visitors and volunteers.

I am not comfortable bringing our large group into that space at this time.

However, . . .

We have been offered a back up space for this week’s rehearsal. . .

St. Pascal’s Church has graciously offered their space to us.

St. Pascal’s is located at 1757 Conway St., St. Paul, MN 55106

Please park in the large lot on Flandrau St., and enter by the main entrance.

We will rehearse at the usual time: 7:00!

Please be mindful of the following:

1. If you are experiencing any symptoms. . . cough, runny nose, fever, not feeling well, etc.

Stay home and get better!!!! (If you have sickness in your house, please stay home, as well)

2. Please wash /sanitize your hands both coming to rehearsal and leaving
3. While we still want to meet a new friend, we won’t be shaking hands for a while!

Let’s experiment with all of the other fun ways to greet one another:

Wave, wink, peace signs, jazz hands. . . you get the idea. . .

4. Don’t touch your face —I won’t ask you to, either!!
5. We will plan to spread out a bit more than usual at rehearsal. . . choral distancing?

Many choirs sing spread out quite a bit, and this will be a great chance to try that out.

6. Some of us may be more vulnerable than others, and just need to stay home.

Please know that while of course we will miss you, we honor that and want you to be both comfortable and safe. We trust you to make the decision that is right for you.

Finally, please check your email before coming to rehearsal, in case there is an update in status.

Peace and Blessings,

Mary