Singing with the Georgetown Chorale
The Georgetown Chorale is a community choir. We strive to maintain a welcoming, communal spirit while also setting high musical standards for ourselves. Key to our success is a clear shared understanding of what goes into being a successful member of the Chorale.
The music. The Chorale sings a wide range of material that is within the loose category of “classical.” Our repertoire has included long works such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Beethoven’s Mass in C, as well as shorter pieces. Working with a professional orchestra or accompanists, and sometimes vocal soloists, we sing in multiple languages and are prepared to tackle complex and challenging material.
We rehearse most weeks between early September and early December, and between early January and early May, from 7:15 to 9:30. The expectation is that you will be there almost every week. You may have trouble keeping up if you miss more than a handful of rehearsals, and it’s also important for all voices to be heard as we learn the material and refine our sound. Please remember to sign in! If you do miss a rehearsal, use the recording to catch up. It is possible to participate by Zoom if you are ill or out of town, but this is not recommended except when necessary. If you find that you may need to miss more than three in-person rehearsals, please get in touch with your section leader as soon as you see the issue.
Rehearsals are fun, but also focused and professional. Heather prepares carefully for every minute of rehearsal time and relies on the Chorale to save conversation for break time and save most questions for section leaders so we can accomplish all of her objectives. Questions to ask in rehearsal should generally be limited to those that pertain to the entire group in the moment.
Between rehearsals. Near the beginning of each term, Heather marks the scores for all of the concert pieces to clarify or modify various aspects of what is printed and posts the marked scores on the Chorale website. Please take the time to transfer these markings to your own scores as soon as possible after they become available, so that Heather does not need to spend rehearsal time going over them and correcting errors from not following the markings.
Most Chorale singers find that they need to work on their own between rehearsals to learn their parts well enough to sing accurately and with confidence. The Chorale provides numerous resources to assist in this self-teaching, including practice tracks (often several different versions) and recordings. Recordings of rehearsals are also useful for this purpose. Singers are expected to use their own judgment and spend as much time as needed outside of rehearsal to learn their parts. Please spread this work reasonably over the course of the term – don’t wait until concert week to try to cram in the learning.
Section leaders usually provide detailed summaries of markings and guidance given during rehearsals; singers are expected to keep track of those as well so that they don’t need to be repeated. Once each semester, each section will have an extra rehearsal on their own (or S+A and T+B)—these are typically on a weekend day. Attendance at these sectional rehearsals is strongly encouraged.
Section leaders are first resources for questions you may have about the music, markings, and sections you are struggling with, and also key sources of Chorale information. It is important to read all messages from them, David, and Heather promptly and carefully. Occasionally, these communications contain a link to a short survey. Most of these surveys are important to the management of the Chorale, so please take the time to respond. Of particular importance are surveys relating to your intent to participate in upcoming concerts and rehearsals. If you do not respond, you run the risk that you will be counted as not intending to participate.
Concert week is busy. Typically we have a regular Wednesday rehearsal and a dress rehearsal on Friday night. Often there is an extra rehearsal on Thursday night that week, and call time for the concert is usually 2 hours ahead of performance start time. Full attendance at all of these rehearsals is critical to the quality of the performance—not just for you but for your fellow singers and for Heather—and is expected. If you are not certain you can attend all of them, get in touch with your section leader ASAP.