Page 20 - Winter 2024 Tags and Swipes Newsletter

Tags and Swipes, Winter 2024

Farmington Valley Chorus

Congratulations to us! We hit 50!

Not 50 YEARS but 50 MEMBERS! For years we have come soooo close – 49…47…43...48… and
finally with the singing in of Shahira (lead) and Amy (bass) we hit 50 performing members. Wahoo!
We had a 50 celebration at our International Quartet Competition watch party. Congratulations to
VOCE, Saffron and Illuminate. All of us together cheering you on as we watched you perform on the
big screen at our rehearsal site was so fun. Congrats to Millennium Magic and HOTS as well for their
th
th
16 and 18 places respectfully (with lots of respect).
Congrats to us again as we survived and thrived through another holiday season. The merriment
started with a coaching visit from THE barbershop “rockstar” Britt-Helene Bonnedahl. She is amazing
and we learned so much about thinking positive – we appreciate us.

Up next was performing with the Hartford Men In Harmony at their annual show in late November.
We got the opportunity to sing on their show with Saffron, and BHS Award winning quartets Three &
A Half Men and Greenlight. What a fun night that was. Saffron was so entertaining.

We then performed in early December at “Simsbury Celebrates” serenading festival goers with carols
as they strolled through the Gingerbread House competition. We were supposed to sing some carols
the next weekend at the luminaria festival called “United By Light” in Simsbury but that got cancelled
two weekends in a row because of rain. It’s hard to have outdoor candle lighting in the rain.

Happiness and merriment rained down on us as we held our annual holiday show in mid- December.
This year’s show was titled “Home for the Holidays”. Our main character was stuck at the airport in a
snow storm and only had the TV at the bar to entertain herself. The chorus was her entertainment. We
utilized the technical set-up at the church using their screens on each side of the altar for logos and
pictures and funny ads, and their sound system for airport background noises, announcements and
sound effects. It was fabulous and quite an undertaking for someone to gather and organize all that
and make sure it all worked. Melissa stepped way out of her comfort zone and did it, helping us have
our most successful show yet. For her amazingness she was awarded the “FVC You Are Awesome”
award only given to someone who truly goes above and beyond the call of duty. Congrats Melissa.

The next Saturday in December we sang at the McLean Retirement Community at their brand new
beautiful auditorium. There was a large crowd in attendance and quite a few former Sweet Adelines in
that audience. It was really heartwarming and emotional and the crowd loved us so they’ve already
booked us for next year. Wahoo! Congrats to us for snagging another sing-out.

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North Atlantic Region 1 Sweet Adelines