Page 16 - PowerPoint Presentation

Tags and Swipes, Spring 2021

Royal River Chorus

Hope and connection…these are the two essentials that have kept Royal River Chorus together and
consistently chugging along throughout this remarkable pandemic year. This week brings us to the one-year
anniversary of our last regular shoulder-to-shoulder rehearsal. Though we’ve had no performances and no
audiences to give our love and energy to through song, we’ve been meeting on Zoom, learning, laughing or
getting coaching every single week.

We may be small but we’re mighty, and our core is strong. Our strengths of caring and supporting one
another, along with our love of creating music together are an important piece of our story. While each of us
has had an individual journey during the last year, we have still maintained a collective consciousness
towards our chorus and our goals. We eagerly look forward to “the other side.”

Even though we haven’t been able to sing or meet in person, we’ve been very fortunate these past few
months to have two great coaches join us on Zoom. In January, our special friend International Faculty
member Debra Lynn stopped by to help us brush up on our Bel Canto technique. Debra has been working
with our chorus for the past several years. Once again, she delivered a fun, educational and informative
lesson full of reminders about Bel Canto breathing mechanics, all intended to help each of us become
acoustic resonating instruments that amplify sound without the need for propulsion or outward force.

Another high point of these past few months was our coaching session in March with the inimitable Lynne
Smith. A member of Harborlites Chorus, Region 21, Lynne is a full-time International Showmanship coach
and a proud member of the International Faculty. Lynne joined our Zoom rehearsal, leading us through an
inspirational class that focused on the newly renamed Visual Communication (formerly Showmanship)
judging category. Her lively delivery helped us understand that to visually communicate the story of the
music, we need to develop unity of storytelling throughout the chorus. And she shared that we can achieve
that through our physical and vocal energy, paired with how we authentically characterize the person in our
song’s story. We came away from our time with Lynne refreshed and ready to move forward.

Debra Lynn’s Bel Canto Refresher

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North Atlantic Region 1 Sweet Adelines