Summer newsletter

AUGUST 2017

Chairman’s report

Welcome to the 2017 newsletter.   Another year of changes, but firstly there are three people I must thank for their work over the past year.   Andrew left us after six great years of wonderful music and we wish him well in the future. Ed stepped into place brilliantly – we could hardly see the join – and took us through two concerts despite having no spare time at all.   Lastly, but certainly not least, Caroline who has been a wonderful constant for us – we are really lucky that she’s happy to stay.

As you will all probably know by now, we have a new Director of Music starting in September. Exciting times ahead!  His name is Alex Hodgkinson and he joins us from Marlborough College.   We had a brief meeting with him and he is excited about both his new jobs – at CH and with us and is looking forward to putting us through our paces in September.    We will be meeting with him again once he has found his feet so that we can discuss his ideas for the forthcoming singing year.  Your suggestions are welcome and will be duly considered, with Alex having the final say.   With our programme in mind, we will be putting forward a questionnaire concerning the Summer concert, as there was a very poor attendance both from the members and audience this year – perhaps you could all have a think about how to redress this situation.

We are very lucky that we have had three new committee members volunteer this year and they are already playing their part.  All the existing committee members are prepared to carry on, but if anyone else would like to join us, please contact me.  Esther has taken over publicity and if you have any ideas or anything interesting to report feel free to contact her.   I would like to thank all the members who help out in their teams, whether it is meeting & greeting, rubbing out, or doing the chairs – every little helps and is much appreciated.

I would like to ask for your help with one point – name badges!  We are very privileged to have the use of School premises for our rehearsals and concerts without signing in at Reception each time.   This concession is subject to our wearing our CHCS name badges visibly whilst we are on site.  This is a very simple request from the School, so please ensure that you bring your badge (and wear it) every week.   If you could also make sure they are visible during rehearsals it will help new members (and both Katie and myself!) with names.     If you need a new one, just let Katie know.  Thank you.

Finally (sigh of relief from everyone), the first rehearsal of our singing year is on Thursday, 7^th September at 7.30pm in the Court Room and there will be the usual refreshments whilst music is being distributed.  It will be a chance to catch up with friends before we get down to business.  If you haven’t renewed/paid your membership beforehand, that will be the perfect time to do so.   I hope you have all had a wonderful summer and are raring to go (this is being written whilst the rain falls and the wind blows in early August!).

Liz Lancaster – Chairman CHCS

 

Dates for this year

1^st rehearsal                                                             Thursday 7th September

No rehearsal for half term                                   Thursday   19^th October

Rehearsal at St. Mary’s                                          Thursday 2^nd November

Concert (and afternoon rehearsal)                       Saturday 4th November

Carol Concert                                                        Thursday 14th December

1^st rehearsal and drinks 2018                               Thursday 11th January 2018

No rehearsal for half term                                   Thursday 15th February

Workshop                                                              Saturday 10^th March

Rehearsal in Big School                                       Thursday 15^th March

Angus Ross Concert                                             Sunday 18th March

1^st rehearsal summer term                                    Thursday 19^th April

No rehearsal for half term                                   Thursday 31^st May

Summer Concert                                                   Friday, 15th June

 

Committee

The Committee and their responsibilities are:

Chairman                      Liz Lancaster                753279 & 07428 911081   lizlox@lancasi.plus.com          

Membership Secretary      Katie Callas                  258403 & 07866 647525                                                                                                                         jandkcallas@btinternet.com

Secretary                       Mike Cade

Treasurer                       Robyn Page                                                                      

Music Librarian             Rosemary Chapman       753150  rosemary.chapman416@gmail.com        

Publicity                        Esther Clark                  272978   esthervanoostrum@aol.com

Workshop                    Mike Cade        

                                    Mike Roberts                

                                    Joan Pye                        823412   jepye36@yahoo.co.uk

 

Treasurer’s Report

I find it hard to believe that I am already writing another newsletter after another year – and what a year it has been!  In regards to our financial position, this year proved to be another successful one.  We can owe our successes to another terrific Christmas concert and a wonderful workshop with Brian Kay.

Due to the support we have from friends and families at our Christmas concerts, we decided to donate half of the profits that we made to a charity of your choice.  This year we donated £1150.00 to Macmillan Cancer Support, which I think you will agree is a fantastic sum of money for a very worthy cause.

Once again we were able to offer two bursary awards of £300 to Christ’s Hospital students and also made a donation of £3000 to the Christ’s Hospital Music school to show our appreciation for the marvellous facilities that we have the privilege to use each year.

At the end of the financial year, we have a very healthy bank balance, which means that membership fees will remain the same for another year.  Copies of the finalised accounts will be made available at the beginning of next term.  Until then, have a delightful summer and I look forward to seeing you all in September for another year of singing!

Robyn Page

 Treasurer

 

Membership Secretary’s Report

Many thanks to all the ‘teams’ this year for their help. It lightens the load of the committee and gets the jobs done quicker! We are very grateful for all your help and so I am asking again this year.  I have outlined the basic jobs below, but even if you can only do one or two aspects of the team job, it all helps. You might like to help in a different area this year.  Please have a look through the list below to see if there is something you could do. The most important is for the librarian, membership and ‘room set
up teams; help with tickets and programmes would, I’m sure, be appreciated by Liz (the Chairman) who does it all currently, but is not so necessary as making new members feel welcome and included at our rehearsals.   Please contact Rosemary Chapman (Chief Librarian) directly if you would like to be in the library team on rosemary.chapman416@gmail.com    If you can help with the other teams this year, please let me know. I would especially like to make new people feel welcome so ‘buddies’ are really
important – the more offers the better please.

Committee Teams
Librarian team             minimum 3 people
Help Chief librarian deliver books to first rehearsal.
To distribute books to voice parts at first rehearsal.
Help librarian with book collection after concert and return to car.
Help with rubbing out copies.

Membership team          minimum 4 people
Liaise with membership secretary about new members and look out for new
member when they arrive.
Meet and greet new members and introduce to ‘buddy’ in their voice part.
Be a buddy in voice part. Sit next to them and introduce to others in the
voice part. Answer any queries or direct back to membership secretary.

Room set up team           minimum 3 people
Helping set up for rehearsals and concerts and tidying up afterwards i.e.
staying a short time to help move chairs back etc.
Moving piano at beginning and end of rehearsal
Helping serve drinks at the ‘socials’

Ticket team       minimum 1 person
Collect printed tickets from Katie Callas.
Promote ticket sales to choir at rehearsals.
Sell tickets to members at rehearsals. Pass monies to treasurer.
Sell tickets on door at concerts (Not Angus Ross concert)

Programme team       minimum 1 person
Liaise with Director of Music for concert running order.
Create programme and email out to committee for proof reading.
Arrange for professional printing.
Arrange for FOH handing out programmes.

Choir liaison
Someone to check with all other choirs/choral societies in the area re
forthcoming concerts – dates, programme, etc., perhaps on an annual basis,
Liaising with charities re refreshments for concerts and further publicity
Booking and liaising with St. Mary’s Church

As you are aware, our privileged association with Christ’s Hospital School means that we can keep our annual subscription low by sharing concerts with the pupils, publicity and ticket sales through the theatre box office and using school rehearsal spaces. But with this, we sometimes may not be able to use the Court Room, or our Director of Music may be called away for a school commitment. If this is the case, I will endeavour to email you in advance, or put a notice up by the cloisters, but sometimes I don’t know
ahead of time either!

Payment of subscriptions and membership forms
I have attached the membership form for 2017-2018. Please could you fill this in clearly (so there are no potential errors with transcribing telephone numbers or email addresses) and return with your cheque or BACS payment for £55.   The treasurer and I would like to make a plea….there are approximately 100
members in the choir and membership renewals take time to process (and both Robyn and I work). Please could you pay your subscriptions and return your 2017-18 membership form promptly and certainly by the end of the first rehearsal. If you are able to pay your subscription by BACS it is much
quicker for Robyn and it saves a trip to the bank to pay a cheque in.

Finally, if you know if anyone who would like to ‘give us a try’, please bring them along – we always welcome new members.

Enjoy the rest of the summer,

Katie Callas

Membership Secretary

 

Librarian’s Report – Joan

This is my last report as Librarian after about 12 years in the job.   My thanks once again to everyone who makes an effort to clean up their copies on receiving them and thence making the task of the music team much easier when they come to erase the markings before returning to the hirers.   Please try not to make too many marks especially crossings out and use a light pencil only.   Thank you also to members who make a real effort to return copies if they cannot be present at the concert, this does save me having to make a lot of phone calls chasing up missing music.   I know that you will give Rosemary Chapman the same support that you have given me and make her task as easy as possible.   Let’s hope she won’t have to “nag” you as much as I have done!

The music for next term is “Messe Solennelle” by Rossini, also known as Petite Messe Solennelle.  Ricordi edition.   Copies will be available for hire without charge at the first rehearsal.

Happy singing, 

Joan Pye

 

Librarian’s Report – Rosemary

Your committee has entrusted me with a rather responsible job and I do hope in due course to match the very high standard Joan has set!  I’m pleased and relieved that Joan will be hovering on the side to give me a steer when I need it, and I do hope that I can have the continuing support of those of you who have helped to hand out copies at the start of the term and those of you who sportingly get together to do the rubbing out at the end.  It will be so much appreciated!

I look forward to getting to know you all better as I put faces to names.   As Joan has said, the music is Rossini and at the moment that is the only piece we have confirmed – copies will be available at the first and subsequent few rehearsals.    Alex may bring in other pieces as we move into the term, which I will order up for you as soon as I can.

Very best

Rosemary Chapman

 

CHRIST’S HOSPITAL CHORAL SOCIETY

Membership Form 2017-18

NAME:

ADDRESS: (inc. postcode)

 

TELEPHONE:

EMAIL:

 

Voice (please circle): … Soprano 1 or 2 … Contralto 1 or 2 … Tenor 1 or 2 … Bass  1 or 2 

 

Subscription (please circle):     Full: £55 ……  CH Staff:  £40 …… Under 25 years old:  £10…..

                                                 (Please give date of birth if under 25 years:…………………………….)

Please tick one option:

? I enclose a cheque made payable to CHCS,  

? I have made my payment by BACS:  09-01-55,     17206188

I have read the CHCS Safeguarding Policy.   (The policy is on https://www.chchoralsoc.org/policies/)

 

Signature:……………………………………………. Date……………………………..

 

Please complete and return this form to:

Katie Callas, 1 The Avenue, Christ’s Hospital, Horsham, RH13 0LU or deliver it by hand at a rehearsal  

The information which you supply is for CHCS use only.

Angus Ross and Autumn (St. Mary’s) concerts

Gentlemen – black dinner jacket and trousers, white shirt, black bow tie.

Ladies – plain, full length black skirt and plain, long sleeved black top.

Other concerts

Dress to be advised at rehearsals.