Trinity Newmarket Singers

Our theme was Winter, and we started with a bunch of York Region Community Choir songs. Robin and I knew them well, but maybe they were new to the others. The YRCC December concert is always a Winter Concert, and the choir represents the community, so it has got to be more than just Christmas. Therefore, I always got lots of other seasonal songs to offer. (btw, the YRCC winter concert is this Sunday, December 1st, 2024) Something that we noticed was how many winter songs are about loneliness. There are big expectations for family and friends to gather, for love to be all over the place for the holidays. And, there are always thoughts of people who are missing from the gatherings. Sigh. The darkness of winter. We need lots of lights and lots of singing. Luckily, Main Street is bright and festive and we do lots of singing.  We had some fun listening to older songs and realizing how our culture has changed for the better regarding women. One very clear example is the old Frank Sinatra...

Our singing night was short but sweet and fun. We had to go home early so that the crew of folks who were moving furniture to set up Saturday's Christmas Bazaar wouldn't have to stay too late. The Bazaar is being set up this morning (Friday22nd) and it's a pretty big deal. The people who run and help to run the bazaar are Angels Among Us.  Our theme was Angels and Heaven in songs. It's interesting that many of the songs were bittersweet. Angels Among Us was heartwarming and hopeful, but it made us sad. A lot of angel and heaven activity happens at night and in darkness, and the angels and heaven are light, beacons of goodness and hope. I expected more happy and magical angel stuff, like Heaven Must be Missing an Angel ('cause you're here with me right now. Your love is heavenly.) and Bryan Adams' Heaven (when you're lying here in my arms,...we're in heaven). Then, there were things I couldn't quite understand, like Pennies from Heaven (?), and Sa...

Thank you for your patience. I'm late with this review.  I've been feeling a bit under the weather these past few days. I'm a little slow and generally out of sorts, not my usual self. This was already the case on Thursday evening, and so the theme was perfect. Our theme was Songs with Flying or Sailing, and escaping in music. So, I was taken out of my funk for a couple hours. Music is like that anyway, it can take you someplace else when you need to steal away from unhappiness or stress or boredom, ennui. Robin was saying that it's sometimes a struggle to come, to get out of the house to come to our singing night, but, once the music starts, her body relaxes and her spirit lifts, lightens and brightens. For sure, that's what I feel too.  I'm also lifted up and comforted by the easy and gentle kindness of the lovely people that sing and talk and sip tea and share my banana bread, or whatever I happen to have, on Thursday nights. The Fellowship Room at Trinity is...

November 17th at 3:00 is the Covenanting Service with Rev. Sydney. The choir and praise team will offer a music ministry song: Oh a Song Must Rise (MV 142). Please wear a uniform of black on the bottom (dress, skirt, or pants) and white or black on top (blouse, sweater, shirt...).  We will be meeting 4 times to rehearse. You don't have to come to every rehearsal. Even if you arrive at 2:30 on Sunday the 17th, we welcome you to sing with us.  Kevin is away but we'll have a supply ministry musician to accompany us at the service. For rehearsals, we have a recorded piano accompaniment. We'll see how we can make this hymn into a performance piece (anthem-ish). It might be as simple as having a solo or a section on one verse and a different section on another. We'll be sure to have a rousing chorus. We can adapt the arrangement to have two or three parts for harmonies and fun.  Listen to this church choir sing it. I love what they've done to jazz it up.  Singing out God...

This week, we had the best theme of all: Singing!  Songs about singing and singers was a fun theme-lots of great songs to sing- and they led to lots of interesting conversations.  We ended up spending some time listening to songs that were not in the theme because we wanted to hear more of a certain singer’s voice. I guess that was on-theme. Singers voices can be so attractive that we are mesmerized or amazed, moved by the sound of their voice as much as by the songs they sing. Two of the singers with outstanding voices were Enya and Ellie Goulding.  We had a laugh listening to Leonard Cohen sing about singing with his rough voice and barely-singing style, but loved his song and appreciated his offering of it, remembering that one of my Big Beliefs is that everyone can and should sing and that no voice is bad.  I shared pumpkin muffins that I had baked and made myself a cup of ginger peach tea. It was a lovely evening in lovely company. Here is a selection of the son...

Trinity Choir and Praise Team will join together again to sing I Worship You, Almighty God on Sunday, November 24th.  We're singing in parts so Kevin has made recordings to help us. While Kevin is away, Praise Team is meeting as usual, working together with the recordings (and Kathryn on piano helping find our notes).  You can work on this at home. Here is a link to those recordings, in case the email from Kevin is lost in a sea of things in your inbox.  The video is to help inspire you, get you in the mood for the song.