Page 25 - Fall 2022 Tags and Swipes

Tags and Swipes, Fall 2022

Royal River Chorus

Whew, what a busy few months! Royal River has been learning, rehearsing, competing and performing
our way through a wonderful summer in Maine. Amazingly in this post-pandemic period, we’ve had
several guests stopping by; and we hope to audition someone in the next few weeks.

Starting back in April, we had the opportunity to continue sharpening our bel canto skills with another
coaching session from the incomparable Debra Lynn. During her visit, many of us enjoyed special PVIs
with Debra as we prepared for regional contest. She always challenges each of us to stand stronger in our
individual singing effort, which ultimately helps us grow and achieve more as a chorus.

Closing out April, we entertained a supportive audience at our annual Friends and Family concert.
Consistently well attended, this performance is our chance to pull everything together—music, makeup,
costume—and present our contest package, all while working out some final kinks, especially in visual
presentation!

With all this planning in place, we went into May confident for the upcoming competition. At contest, we
were thrilled to be back with so many Region 1 friends and missed those of you who couldn’t make it. It
might have been a shorter stay, a shorter pattern, and a shorter show overall, but we absorbed every
second with unbridled excitement. We worked really hard and were rewarded with two medals; and our
director, Rhonda Williams, was delighted to receive the novice director award.

June brought the first of our summer performances. In past years, our calendars have been chock full
throughout the summer; so having marched on through the pandemic with no audiences to perform for,
we were really excited to start filling out our schedule and singing in public once again. A small group of
appreciative listeners helped us get our season underway as we opened in June with a fun local show at
the Cumberland Fairgrounds for the 150th Cumberland Fair Celebration kickoff.

July’s schedule was jam-packed. Historically, our largest annual fundraiser has been in July at the
Yarmouth Clam Festival where we could be found “slinging clams and singing jams” in our fried clam
booth. This year, we voted to give up the grueling undertaking of setting up, running and breaking down
the booth. We sold all our fryolators and other booth supplies to an area Lions Club, got rid of our
longterm storage unit, and banked that money. Then we paired up with a men’s barbershop chorus, the
Downeasters, volunteering our time and efforts in their booth, selling their famous Lime Rickey drink.
This turned out to be a solid budgeting decision as (even though we still worked really hard for our
money) we were very satisfied with our cut of the profits.

Later in July, we had a much smaller, but very tasty fundraiser at an area pizza restaurant. A percentage
of the proceeds from that night was earmarked for our chorus. These are just a couple of examples of how
we all need to keep thinking and changing with the times to keep this wonderful pastime going. Also in
July, Director Rhonda traveled to San Antonio for the International Education Symposium. Taking full
advantage of the offerings and being a newer director, Rhonda immersed herself in the curriculum.

(continued on next page)
25

North Atlantic Region 1 Sweet Adelines