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Happy New
Year, Hawks! The new year is a great time to take a fresh look to how we do things. Our chorus has been around for well over a half of a century and there is a lot of inertia in the organization. When I agreed to become your president I took a hard look at where we are and where we should go. In the way of a New Year’s Resolution, we need to set a goal for ourselves. So here is one that I think we will achieve "We will work together to make the Harmony Hawks THE place for men to sing and perform in Eastern Iowa" The first order of business in making this goal happen is to make better use of the time we spend together in rehearsals. Time is lost looking for music so you will soon have your own music binder. We would like you to leave the binder at the church. There will be a cart with all of the binders on it close to where you sign the attendance sheet. The binders will be identified with your name and you will be responsible for the binder and the music in it. If you loose it, you buy it. The binder will contain show music, contest music, performance music, and the polecat songs. Bob Kerdus has issued a monthly riser and setup assignment schedule. Leads will set up and take down risers and chairs for January, basses handle the chore in February, tenors and baris take March and so forth. Chairs will be set up because we will no longer learn music standing on the risers. We will sit in sections and John will be using the piano for learning notes. You should all have a pencil handy to make notations in your music. The next week we can read the notations and make the corresponding interpretation. If we do this we will make progress in stead of having John repeat the same lesson over and over again. The second area of improvement we need to address is public performance. The music team is currently creating a canned performance package. This package will not change much for several years. It will constitute the show that we do for paid singouts and other performance opportunities. The music committee will be charged with critiquing every performance we do.
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We need to plan and execute the plan even for informal singing events like Christmas caroling. When you stand in front of an audience you are representing this organization and you are in "Performance Mode". Conversations end, you are not distracted. Your attention is on John and John only. We will also explore the whole concept of what "Performance" means. We will look at great performances and try to understand what it is to be a performer. We will continue the learning CD program and they will be produced for the new performance package and the polecat songs. We are going to have Bev Hamilton come periodically to give us coaching along with Larry Munson from Decorah. Larry will also serve as director when John is absent. The music committee intends to enforce some attendance standards prior to contest and show. We intend to compete in the Central States District Chorus Competition and leave the attendees with a favorable impression of the Cedar Rapids Harmony Hawks. It was wonderful to see so many men on the risers on Thursday. The Board and the Music Committee are agreed on a new agenda for the chorus and with your help you will see a new and revitalized Harmony Hawks in 2007!
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