WAIHEKE CHORAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER FEB.2006



Hi everyone,

Welcome back to the choir. The first meeting of the year was held at Palm Beach on Jan. 31st. We had a lovely evening of meet and greet, catching up on the events of the holidays and meeting new friends. We had drinks and nibbles then did a bit of singing. The wine having lubricated our throats, we soared into the weather with “You’ll never walk alone”, holding our heads very high, then into Ave Verum. The choir is in very good voice.

Just a brief mention of the last few weeks of 2005. The show was a huge success and people are still talking about it. We made a handsome profit which will help this years expenses. To the people who had solos, duets and the threesome plus the play, thankyou very much for all the hard work and extra practise you put in on top of normal rehearsal times. The play was hilarious and there are some very funny moments at “normal” rehearsal with the in house jokes pertaining to page numbers. To the great guy who finally put the production numbers together with many suggestions coming right, left and centre, you did a magnificent job, and to Marion aka Joyce, thank you. Committee wear many hats and as well as performing in the show, selling tickets and organising the venues, they were also organising the Carol Concert. This was held at Palm Beach hall on Dec. 18th. We joined with Sister Shout for a concert of Christmas music and songs. The hall was full, and the sun was shining. People were at the beach with their families and they all came in, all in summer gear and beach wear, celebrating the holidays in a special New Zealand way. It was decided to donate the koha to charity and Sister Shouts’ half went to the Budget Service and our half went to the Hospice.

At our first committee meeting for the year, we discussed plans for the year informally. As you know , with our choir nothing is set in stone. Things happen which cause all sorts of changes (particularly date changes) to occur. So all events are loosely in place with final dates to be advised closer to their time.

NOTICE OF AGM.

The AGM will be on March 14th.which is a rehearsal night. This date and time will not change .Usually the AGM does not take very long and we hope to rehearse as well. Subs will be set and also fall due at this time, the committee and executive selected, and small changes to update the constitution to be passed Hey Presto, all done.

This year is a very special year for the choir as we are thirty years old and the choir has never been in recess. To my knowledge we have only had three conductors. But I could be wrong We might have lurched a bit over the years but we have always recovered There is always a loyal core of members keeping our numbers around an average of thirty five people. We lose a few and gain a few. Acapella was formed a few years ago and is a special part of the choir. We have sung everything from The Beatles to Bach, in Latin, German, English and Maori. We have performed musicals, especially Gilbert and Sullivan, commissioned a special work by Edwin Carr for our twenty fifth anniversary and sung with an orchestra and a piano. We have performed at the Cathedral in Auckland , small and large venues in Waiheke and Great Barrier Island. There are no boundaries for what we sing or where we sing This year we are hoping to perform our first concert at St. Peters Church April/May. August we hope to do a show or concert similar to Last Tango and in Nov/Dec. a special Anniversary concert. We are hoping to invite other choirs to join with us for a special weekend with a formal dinner to mark our thirty years. A BBQ is being planned after the AGM on a Saturday late afternoon, at Palm Beach while we still have some Summer left. This is a rough outline of what we have planned for the year and there could be more events in the pipeline. Please understand that no firm dates can be set at the moment.

You will be very happy to know that Artworks is now up and running. It has been closed for such a long time and we now have the theatre back. Philip has been a very hard worker in the long saga and when he has asked for help from the choral society, we have responded.

The Rogues and Vagabonds will be performing “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Rocky Bay Hall for three weekends starting Feb.17th. at 7.30pm. cost $15.00. This is one of Shakespeares funniest plays . Mark and Philip both have robust parts and you can rely on anything happening with the above company. Do go along and see it

Congratulations to Kit Nelson who played with Rosemary Adler, Bachs’ Prelude Fugue No.12 in A minor and several movements from Schuman’s Piano concerto in A minor Opus 54, at Whittakers on their beautiful pianos.It was a wonderful musical experience.

Happy birthday to Rosemary Burns for February, I hope you had a great day. Two other special dates have occurred in February also and on the same day.Congratulations to Marie and Jack Watson who have been married for forty seven years, and to Mark and Marie James who have been married for twenty four years, a wonderful achievement in this day and age.

Finally, I’d like to share this little piece of advice that I received.

The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you’ve started. So I looked around the house to see all the things I’d started and had’nt finished and before leaving the house this morning ,I finished off a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, the Baileys, the Kahlua,and Wild Turkey the Prozak, some Valium, some cheesecake and a box of chocolates. You have absolutely no idea how wonderful I feel. Please pass this on to those you feel are in need of “inner peace”.

Well that’s it for the first newsletter of the year and I’d like to thank Harveys who sponsor this newsletter

Jeanne Mellamphy.


This newsletter has been proudly sponsored by Harveys Park City Realty MREINZ ,ph 3725276