Chorister News

It’s official—we’re now in concert countdown! As we near our concert date, there’s not only an emphasis on polishing our musical presentation but also a great deal of activity around producing the concert. Our concert team, headed up by Laura Jackson, oversees a complex and well-organized system so everything gets done. But we also ask for the help of each chorister. We need everyone to “talk up” the concert and look for ways to let people know where and how to get tickets; we need you to sell tickets to your friends, families, neighbors and co-workers; we need you to purchase and sell ads in our concert program; and we need you to look for ways you can help—it might be something as simple as leaving a few handbills in your wake on counters, coffee tables and in waiting rooms as you go about your errands and appointments. We will give you the tools you need, so if you are unsure of how to help, ask us.

Dates to know:
April 23^rd         Early order ticket sales begin
May 7^th            Early order ticket sales close
May 10^th          Concert program ad deadline
May 14^th          Ticket sales open to the public, early order tickets distributed, and direct ticket sales at rehearsal. Handbills available to choristers for distribution. Concert posters placed. Digital posters available to choristers.

Early Order Ticket Form: You can order concert tickets starting April 23 by completing your early order form and turning it in at the table in the lobby with full payment. Click here for a form to print and use—please print this form! You can specify tickets and any special needs on the form and the orders will be filled by Gaby Wicklow, our volunteer Ticket Coordinator, on a first com /first served basis. Only orders with full payment will be processed, so please include your check or cash for payment with your form. Gaby will have a receptacle on the table for your completed orders.

Early order ticket deadline is May 7^th; on May 14^th we will move into direct sales of tickets prior to every rehearsal as long as we have tickets. Depending on the number of early orders, we will likely have some tickets available for consignment sales starting on May 7^th. We are staying with the same spring ticket pricing as 2011: General Admission $15; Side Reserve Seating $22; and Center Reserve Seating $30. Your early order form gives you four weeks lead time before tickets go on sale to the general public. You can place more than one early order if needed. Your tickets will be available for pickup on May 14^th.

Practice CDs: Everyone who ordered a practice CD for $10 may now pick up a second CD with tracks that were added or amended after your original CD was made. There will be an index with your CD and you will notice that we decided to include all voice tracks for Wana Baraka since they may be reconfigured and assigned differently by Mimi. This second CD includes Gabriel’s Oboe. This Monday closes out all order for practice CDs. Our wikispaces site continues to offer the same tracks available for free to listen to at your computer or download yourself.

Concert Program Ads: Our ad campaign has been off to a strong start—THANK YOU! That said, we can’t let up as we try to meet our goals. All covers (back, inside front and inside back) are sold at this time but we have plenty of pages for a variety of sized ads from business card size to full page. If you can help Cindy make a few calls to past advertisers, or plan to contact someone who has not advertised with us in the past, please see her in the lobby so we can coordinate our efforts.

Concert Dress: We will be wearing our “spring colors” again for this year’s June concert. All choristers will need to wear a long-sleeved, solid color top in either blue, purple or green. The shade should fall in the “jewel tone” range—which means not pastel, not neon, and not dark (like navy blue) but pleasantly bright and rich in color. No patterns or figures are allowed and all tops must be long-sleeved. Please wear black from the waist down: black skirt or pants, black socks or tights, and black shoes. The three colors blend beautifully on stage (check out past pictures on our website) so everyone needs to adhere to this dress code!

About our concert beneficiary: Why Restorative Justice?
The predominant response to crime and other offenses within the criminal/juvenile justice systems and schools has been punitive. The results have been catastrophic: victim’s needs have been largely unattended, rehabilitation has been rare, recidivism rates have soared, crime has continued unabated, and financial resources have been funneled into imprisonment rather than to meeting critical needs such as health care, education, and affordable housing.

If all the prisoners and offenders under correctional supervision in America were to assemble in one place, they would become the second-largest community in the country at more than 6 million strong. The U.S. incarceration rate is by far the highest in the world. For the first time since 2008, more than 1 in 100 adults are confined in an American jail or prison. Spending to support the corrections system has risen six times faster than for higher education over the past 20 years. Currently, the federal government spends 6 billion dollars each year on its prison population, most of which are low-level, non-violent offenders. In Maine, the prison population has increased 36% (’98 -’08) with a total cost of over $132 million dollars to the state budget, and average annual cost per inmate at $56,269. These trends are not sustainable, financially or morally, and the Restorative Justice movement is dedicated to bringing them under control.

Solo Auditions: Mimi will be holding auditions for solos for Hope and Ubi Caritas on Monday, April 30th  from 5:15 – 5:45 in the Chapel.  The solo for Hope is the opening line in the piece (m.1 – m. 8).  This solo may be sung by either a male or a female voice, and can be sung an octave below what is written or at pitch (the notes as written on the staff). The solo for Ubi Caritas  is the opening measures on page 1.  Anyone auditioning for this solo will be asked to sing the entire first page. This solo can be sung by a male or a female, but needs to be sung at pitch (in the bass clef). Those auditioning will be heard on a first come first served basis. If you are interested in auditioning and know that you will not be at rehearsal on April 30, please let Mimi know by sending an e-mail to info@mccsings.org.
*Any other solo auditions will be announced in the future.

Some Important Rehearsal Dates: Please make sure to check your Semester Schedule as we move into May for some very important dates. We will not hold a Memorial Day rehearsal this year but instead will rehearse on Tuesday, May 29^th. Please plan to be at the Tuesday rehearsal in lieu of one on  Memorial Day.
We will be rehearsing with the band on Monday, June 11^th and then our dress rehearsal will be held on Friday, June 15^th from 5:00-9:30 pm at the Strom. Dress rehearsal attendance is mandatory. And, of course, our concert is on June 16^th with an arrival time at the Strom of 3:00 pm for our 7:00 pm concert (do not plan to leave the Strom between arrival and concert start time).

Reminders:
April 23  Bass Sectional at 5:55 to 6:25 pm in Fellowship Hall
April 30  Soprano Sectional at 5:55 to 6:25 pm in Fellowship Hall
May 7     MCC Potluck Dinnerstarting at 5:00 pm

We are now at the halfway point in the semester and beginning to move into our concert production mode over the next two weeks—full speed ahead!

Early Order Ticket Forms: Early order ticket forms will be sent with the next set of announcements on April 22^nd and we will begin collecting early orders on Monday April 23^rd. You can get ahead of the curve by using the time between now and then to gather your ticket orders for family, friends and co-workers. As you may know, the center reserve seats go quickly as well as the aisle seats in the side reserve areas so it’s not too early to be thinking about what you will need. We are keeping the same pricing for our spring concert as in the past: Center Reserve seating will be $30, Side Reserve will be $22 and General Admission will be $15. We are very fortunate to have Gaby Wicklow returning this semester as our ticket coordinator. Starting April 23^rd, she will have a table set up in the lobby to collect your early orders with payments as well as answer any questions.

You are receiving a “Save the Date” email for sending out to your email list separate from this email. This is just what it sounds like and is an easy way to let everyone on your contact list know our concert date. All you need to do is hit “Forward” and paste in your address book or targeted addresses. We will send a second detailed note out once tickets go on direct sale to the public in mid-May. Please help us get the save the date information out. If you choose, you can even add you own personal note or offer to take early ticket orders.

Concert Program Ads: We’re off to a great start for ad sales! Ad forms are now available in the lobby and Cindy Anderson is charting our progress. Our concert programs have proven to be a popular place for businesses and individuals in our community to advertise. The rates are reasonable and 900 programs are placed in the hands of our community for some excellent exposure. We need everyone to help sell ads. Our program produces significant income as part of our concert budget and enables us to make a substantial donation to our beneficiary. We still have the back inside cover space available as well as all sizes for interior pages. The ad form is posted on our website at www.mccsings.org

Wikispaces updates: Gabriel’s Oboe as well as a corrected track for sopranos 2s on Take Me to the Water are now posted on our wikispaces site. We do not plan to post any more new tracks for this semester. For those that purchased practice CDs—we will be copying your updated replacement versions and will distribute those by late April once some final voicing decisions are made for Wana Baraka. We will announce when those are available for pickup. A big thanks goes to our volunteer CD copiers: Alexandra Martin, Emma Beaudry, and Leela Singer.

Volunteer Job Board: We are looking for a volunteer to help refresh our Job Board. There will be new job descriptions ready for posting and we have pictures of our key volunteers but the board itself is looking a bit tired and ratty and needs refreshing! This is a one-time task needed immediately. Please see Shelley if you can help. Thanks.

Purchasing Music: Just a reminder that you may purchase your music for the semester for $20. Otherwise, all music is turned in following the concert. Unless you have purchased your music, you may only mark scores lightly with pencil—no tape or highlighting is allowed. There are Post It notes provided in your folders which are great for marking troublesome spots in the scores and then easily removed once these are smoothed out. Please, take good care of your music. If you would like to purchase your music, please see Lyn Donovan, our Music Librarian or Shelley.

The Restorative Justice Project of the Midcoast: Continuing our “factoids” about our concert beneficiary, we offer this information about one of the programs offered by RJP: Juvenile and Adult Court Diversion

Nationally, law enforcement agencies made 1.9 million arrests of persons under the age of 18 in 2009. In 2007, 6% of Maine’s teens were not in school and not working. Disengaged youth are at higher risk of entering the justice systems – 54% of all adult prisoners had less than a high school education.

Since FY 2002, federal investments in programs that prevent and reduce delinquency have decreased by 50%. Over that same period, federal spending on policing, prosecution and incarceration has increased by more than 60%. Unsurprisingly, states are feeling the effects, particularly in a time when local resources are scarce to make up the difference. It’s critical to invest in programs that address and prevent delinquency: doing so pays off later on. In fact, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice puts a number on it: For every $1 invested in prevention and family and community based interventions, taxpayers save up to $8 in immediate and future juvenile and criminal justice costs.

With its Juvenile Court Diversion program, RJP coordinates with juvenile probation to provide young offenders an alternative to adjudication, court, probation and residential detention. A Community Resolution Team (CRT) brings all stakeholders together to understand what happened, hold the offender accountable and provide restitution to the victim. Youth referred to RJP participate in a circle with their families, the victims, community members and RJP facilitators. During this process, victims are supported as they explain how the crime affected them personally as well as the impact of the crime on the family and community members. Offenders are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions and sign a detailed agreement worked out with all involved to repair the harm with guidance of a RJP trained mentor. Once the youth fulfills the requirements of the agreement within the specified time, the court ordinarily accepts that as resolution and the offense is not part of the youth’s record.

Since the beginning of the CRT program in 2005, over 150 juvenile offenders have participated in a conference and been matched with mentors. As part of their agreements to repair the harm, juvenile offenders have contributed over 2,200 hours of community service and paid over $8,000 in restitution. In addition, 90% have had the victim or person harmed present for the conference; 90% successfully completed their agreements and had their charges dismissed and the recidivism rate dropped by nearly 10% below the statewide average. RJP also works with first-time adult offenders ages 18 – 24, providing court diversion. Over 90% completed their conditions of the court and only 10 percent re-offended after working with RJP. That’s a significant drop from the statewide average.

Notes: Some items were found following the potluck dinner last week. These are now cleaned and on the table by the outer door in Fellowship Hall.

Reminders:
Alto Sectional April 9^th 5:55-6:25 pm in Fellowship Hall
Tenor Sectional April 16^th 5:55-6:25 pm in Fellowship Hall
Small Ensemble Rehearsal April 16^th 8:30-9:00 pm in Fellowship Hall

We are now in week seven of our eighteen week spring semester and are on the cusp of cranking up the concert production machinery—there is something of the lull before the storm about this time each semester!

One thing we will be kicking off this week is our concert program ad sales campaign. Our concert program is a vital part of our concert production and raises substantial income to offset concert expenses. The ad revenue helps underwrite MCC’s donation to our concert beneficiary and also serves as a direct link to our business partners in the community.

We have revamped our ad sales campaign this semester and need your help:

Cindy Anderson, our ad sales coordinator, is looking to form a strong team of folks that will help her systematically contact and follow-up with past advertisers. She has everything organized and is supported by MCC staff to make sure everyone’s time is used efficiently and effectively. Each team member will be given a manageable list of advertisers to contact and all the tools needed for an effective sales call whether it is by email, phone or in person. We will provide past programs as examples of the high quality promotion businesses can expect from us. If you can help Cindy with this important job, please see her before or after rehearsal, or contact her at: ads@mccsings.org

An MCC Concert Program Ad: Each ad is an opportunity to reach 900+ people in our community with information about a given business or organization.  The rates are very reasonable. We need everyone’s help to sell ads. Many of our own choristers advertise their businesses and services through our program and are willing to approach their employers about ads. If there’s someone you would like to see us contact, please let us know. We also encourage folks to consider placing an ad as a means of celebration or commemoration of someone or the chorus as a whole. You can design your own message and share it within the MCC community and with our audience.

Ad forms are attached to this email and available on the website and hard copies are available in the lobby. If you know you will be committing to an ad or able to secure one, please let Cindy know as soon as possible so we do not duplicate our efforts. Ad deadline is May 28!

Laura Jackson, our Concert Program Coordinator, and Cindy are available for questions or for collecting ad monies each Monday or by email at ads@mccsings.org.

Our Concert Beneficiary:  This is the second in a series of short blurbs about Restorative Justice Project of the Midcoast (RJP), our Spring 2012 concert beneficiary. Our first two provided an overview of RJP. This next “factoid” will provide a look at a specific RJP program:

Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center (MCRRC)

Imagine sitting in a jail cell for years and then re-emerging into society with $50 and a bus ticket. With the problems that led to criminal behavior unaddressed and without a job, transportation, a constructive social circle and, often, a family, the odds of recidivating are enormous.

Working under a contract with Volunteers of America, RJP provides trained volunteers that mentor and support residents at the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center (MCRRC) in Belfast to prepare residents for release, facilitating their healthy and productive return to a six county area of the Midcoast. In the past year alone, RJP volunteers have provided and participated in 2,700 hours of mentoring and training associated with MCRRC.

RJP staff provides a 4-week Introduction to Restorative Justice class that is required for all residents. It emphasizes accountability and the benefits of having a mentor in the transition back to their home communities. To date, over 90% have completed the class and those that request one are matched with a trained RJP mentor. To date, over half of the men have had a mentor since the Reentry Center began two years ago and of those men mentored and released, only 10% have recidivated (the national average is closer to 50%).

We will learn about other RJP programs in subsequent announcements!

MCC Potluck Dinner: Our next MCC potluck dinner will be next Monday, April 2^nd starting at 5:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall. Please join us for some fantastic food and conversation prior to rehearsal. As always, please bring a dish to share if possible and all of your own utensils including plates and cups (we urge everyone to minimize waste by bringing reusable utensils from home). We do not have access to the church kitchen so please do not plan on reheating or preparing anything at the church. We had a great turnout last time and hope to repeat! We ask all attendees to contribute $2 to help cover the rental cost for the hall that evening.

Hope you can join us! 

Reminders:                

• Bass Sectional at 5:55 pm March 26^th in Fellowship Hall
• Soprano Sectional at 5:55 pm April 2^nd in Sanctuary 
• Small Ensemble rehearsal Sunday, April 1^st 1:00-2:30 pm at St. Peter’S
•  Small Ensemble rehearsal April 2^nd 8:30-9:00 pm                                  

? Questions:  You can always reach us at info@mccsings.org or leave a voicemail at 975-0582.

You should have received your letter from Mimi Tuesday evening. This is also posted on our wikispaces site. Many thanks in advance to Sean for leading the alto sectional and first half of rehearsal this coming Monday.  Mimi has a family obligation that runs from 6:00 pm until 7:15 pm.  She will be here to lead the second half of rehearsal.

Wikispaces page: We have been getting great feedback on our wikispaces site which is continually updated as new information or tracks become available. We will be posting updates to the soprano splits on Take Me to the Water soon (Mimi has addressed these specifics in her letter). Over time, new tracks will be added and we’ll give you a heads up each time. Your access to wikispaces site is free of charge and always available to you. On the site you may listen to all tracks for all of the sections, view past announcements and letters from Mimi, and read helpful articles and guides that have been provided by Mimi for our additional training and interest. You may also choose to download any tracks to a CD or any electronic device you choose to use when listening to the posted material.

Over the course of the semester you may notice cosmetic changes to the wikispaces.com home page. We have no control over this, so what you see when you arrive may not match what shows on your instructions for login. However, you will always find the “Sign In” command at the upper right hand corner. Click on that and you can proceed to login as usual. Our own wiki will continue to look the same.

Practice CD Orders: We now offer a service to those that prefer not to download practice tracks but would like to capture them on an audio CD. This service costs $10 and includes one copy of all existing songs for your sub-section (Soprano 1 or Alto 2, for example) and, as long as there is room on the CD, those same tracks at a 30% slower speed when available. Once all additional tracks are posted to the wikispaces site, we will automatically provide you with a replacement CD that has been updated with these changes. This will only be done once and will occur later in the semester. You will not automatically receive a new CD for minor changes in voicing or other changes of this nature.

If you’d like to order this service, please complete the form and attach your payment (cash or check) and leave in the basket marked for this purpose on table in the lobby. Please provide your section and subsection (for example, T2 or S1) information on the form.

YouTube Recording of Ubi Caritas
From Mimi: For whatever reason, the original link to this piece on YouTube is no longer in service.  There is another recording available on YouTube at the following link, however, it is pretty poor both in terms of the quality of the recording and the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoGVuHsvMDE

There is  a MUCH better recording available for purchase on iTunes.  It is a great recording, and is much more like the one we will be singing (in terms of instrumentation) and only costs   .99 cents.  A bargain!  Go to the iTunes store and to a search or “Ubi Caritas Paul Winter” and select the Ubi Caritas track from the album “Anthems – 10 Years of Living Music”.  You’ll be glad you got it!  It is stunning….

Purchasing Music: We have received requests about purchasing music for this semester. You are welcome to purchase all of the music in your packet for the semester (more is still to come) for the price of $20. Please see Lyn Donovan, MCC Music Librarian, or Shelley to do this. Unless you purchase your music, you may not alter or make any marks on the music sheets with anything other than a #2 pencil (and please do so lightly). Please do not use any staples or tape (except removable highlighter tape) on your music. Thank you.

Potluck: What a wonderful turnout and great food we had for our first potluck of the semester! Thanks to Ginger Lane and her crew for readying the tables and clean-up afterwards. Several dishes and utensils were left in the hall following the potluck. These can now be found on the table in the fellowship hall closest to the outer doors. Please note: please do not disturb the dishes and such on the table closest to the chairs—these all belong to church members. We also want to clarify that we do not have access to the kitchen and must ask all MCC singers to not use these facilities at any point on Monday nights. Please respect the property of John Street United Methodist Church and help us be good tenants.

Potlucks are held the first Monday night of each month from 5:00-6:15;  these dates are also on your semester calendar.

Lost and Found: Any items found following rehearsal (except for wallets and dishes) will be deposited in the lost and found crate to the right of the doors as you enter the building. Please check there if you’ve left something behind. Wallets, purses and other more valuable items like cameras will normally be held by either Shelley or Karen. For information on any such lost items, please call our chorus phone: 975-0582 or email us.

Our Concert Beneficiary: Restorative Justice Project History and Overview

In each set of announcements we will provide a snippet of information on our concert beneficiary RJP

A small steering committee comprised of individuals from around Waldo County interested in Restorative Justice worked for more than a year to create the Restorative Justice Project of the Midcoast (RJP). Then, in 2005 a part-time coordinator was hired and work began with inmates at the Waldo County Jail, juvenile offenders awaiting court hearings, and students at the Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast. In 2007, RJP expanded into Knox County and then in 2010 was instrumental in the state’s transformation of the Waldo County Jail into a six-county Coastal Reentry Facility for male prisoners. 

RJP is built upon solid practices, at the heart of which is mentoring and restorative processes that include as many involved parties as possible. In this way RJP engages the community as partners in restorative responses to crime and wrongdoing. Mentoring is one of the most significant factors in helping people to turn their lives around. The presence of caring relationships in offenders’ lives helps to sustain motivation, build self-esteem, and encourage the development of new behaviors and attitudes. The success of the RJP is attributable to comprehensive mentoring support provided by its trained volunteer mentors from around Midcoast Maine. In the past seven years, RJP has trained several hundred volunteer mentors, who have contributed well over 15,000 volunteer hours working with jail and prison inmates and young offenders. 

Thank you to: Emma Beaudry, Alix Martin, and Leela Singer for creating practice CDs to fill our orders. Thank you to MCC Administrative Assistant, Annie Brown, for her work getting practice tracks uploaded and the wikispaces site updated for the semester.

Reminders:
Alto sectional: 5:55-6:25 pm March 12^th in Fellowship Hall
Tenor sectional: 5:55-6:25 pm March 19^th in Fellowship Hall