Welcome, new members, to Ithaca Community Chorus, and welcome back to returning members!  I’m guessing people came away from our first rehearsal feeling somewhere on the spectrum between “This is really hard -- I don’t know if I can do this,” to “I remember singing this before, and it’s coming back to me.”

Wherever you are on this continuum, YOU ABSOLUTELY BELONG in our chorus.  If you feel challenged and do not have much experience with choral singing, help is all around you in our chorus.  We are a COMMUNITY chorus, and we help each other.  I can say right off the bat that I find the practice links provided on the website to be extremely helpful when I am learning new music, because I can hear and practice my own part without trying to pick out the tenor line from a full four-part recording. 

As your president, I want to facilitate each and every chorus member to have the best possible experience singing in our chorus.  How are rehearsals going for you?  Please either email me (iccpres@acithaca.org) or reach out to me directly before or after rehearsal and I will bring your questions, concerns or suggestions to the attention of our Steering Committee.  Since most weeks we have very little time to get to know one another at rehearsals, I am making a commitment to arrive at rehearsals by 6:30 pm each week.  If you can ever arrive early, even a few minutes early, that will give us a chance to get to know more about one another.

When Gerald was introducing the Verdi Requiem to us, he mentioned that the concept of vulnerability is central to this piece of music.  We are all human, we are all mortal, and we live in a constant state of vulnerability, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

“There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.”  -M. Scott Peck

Luckily for us, we have each opted into a new community together:  a singing community :-).

Have a great week!