Let's Create a Ceremony for Tokitae for Earth Day

 Hi BUFsters of a musical bent,

What a lovely Easter service! Thanks to Jayme Curley, Ann Stevenson, Lisa Heezen, Al Heezen and Barbara Gilday for joining me in the first ensemble to sing in the BUF sanctuary in over a year.

Lummi Nation is asking for support in their efforts to free the orca Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut (aka Tokitae) from the Miami Seaquarium. They are encouraging people to hold a ceremony on her behalf.  

Rev. Paul and I would like us at BUF to create a "Bring Tokitae Home" ceremony, to be the focus of the BUF Earth Day service on Sunday, April 18. As a choir, I'd like us to sing Whitacre's SATB version of "Seal Lullaby," in the same way that we sang the "Hallelujah Chorus" over Zoom in December.  We'll have sectionals on this song in the next two Wednesday rehearsals. You can find links to YouTube "Seal Lullaby" learning tracks posted in the choir blog. 

Before Wednesday, please watch this one-minute video to learn more and see excerpts of others performing ceremonies around the world:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjeFrvloko0

and read this announcement: 

   https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwLswMrxJRqvKdSgsqhStRCJqrW

Also, please put on your creativity caps to offer suggestions for other elements, musical or otherwise, that might be included in the Earth Day/Tokitae service.

See ya,

Kevin

We Shall Be Known VIRTUAL Choir to be Unveiled Wednesday

 Dear BUF Choir,

At this Wednesday's rehearsal, we will get the first view of our virtual choir video of "We Shall Be Known," and it is wonderful!  Its public premiere will be for the BUF Easter Sunday service, and it will be featured at Interfaith's 7pm online spring fundraiser event on Saturday, April 10 entitled "Sanctuary: Calm in Chaos." You may register for the Interfaith event thru their website:       

https://www.interfaith-coalition.org/

I am so pleased that 35 of the 57 singers in the virtual choir are BUFsters!

Love,

Kevin

Lovely choir plan for Wednesday March 24

Dear BUF Choir,

This Wednesday we'll celebrate our "Spring Equinox Love Song Fest" singers from last Sunday and we'll practice the hymns and special music for next Sunday, March 28 and for Easter, April 4.

We'll hear about the resumption of in-person singing at BUF, following guidelines being set by the BUF Covid Task Force.

We'll review how to find and view resources and videos on our choir blog site, including the Martin Luther quotes video and the Rick Hermann birthday video that are now posted there.

We'll remember our choir member Ernie Hinds, who passed away peacefully on Sunday evening, March 21, by singing selections from some beautiful classical music that Ernie loved.

It is so lovely to be together, even by Zoom.

See ya,

Kevin

Rick Herman's 70th Birthday

Hi BUFsters,

For our March 10th BUF Choir Rehearsal, we are sharing songs and poems in honor of Rick Herman's 70th birthday. I encouraging everybody to come prepared with a song or poem to share. You may invite others to attend, even if they are not usually with us on Wednesdays. If you have a song request that you'd like me or somebody else to sing, let us know. If you have something to be screen shared (like a printed poem or piece of art), please email it to me in advance.

The choir Zoom link is  https://zoom.us/j/203732613 

and the password is BUF

This is gonna be fun! 

See ya,

Kevin

Wednesday is a songfest!

Hi BUF Choir,

At this Wednesday's BUF choir rehearsal, we'll have a singalong song fest. Please be prepared to present or request your favorite hymns from either hymnbook.  

Zoom link:   https://zoom.us/j/203732613  

password: BUF. 

See ya, 

Kevin

It Is Time Now

February 23, 2021

Dear BUF Choristers,

Today is exactly one year since our last Interfaith Music Festival, on February 23, 2020, and what a year it has been! Watching the videos from that day, of BUF singing "Baba Yetu" with Unati Machyo on the solo, and of the festival choir singing "Bright Morning Stars" makes me cry. How did we do that? When will we be able to sing like that again?

I'll show you those videos during our Zoom rehearsal tomorrow (Wednesday , Feb 24 - use the regular link:   https://zoom.us/s/203732613     password: BUF).  and then I want to just look at you and celebrate that at least we're still here! And not only that, but we ARE having an Interfaith Music Festival this year, albeit a virtual one.

As of Monday afternoon, these six intrepid singers submitted videos of themselves singing "We Shall Be Known" : Lawrence Allen, Lisa Heezen, Tessie Mandeville, Cindy Pfeiffer-Hoyt, Melanie Rieck and Jane Ronca-Washburn.  Kudos to them!

It is time now for THEM to encourage the rest of us, to answer our questions and quicken our resolve. Our videos are due March 5, and I heartily hope that the rest of us will join the celebrated six above in the virtuous ranks of the virtual heavenly choir, who know that:

     We shall be known by the company we keep, by the ones who circle round to tend these fires.

     We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap the seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth

     It is time now, it is time now that we thrive, it is time we lead ourselves into the well

     It is time now, and what a time to be alive, in this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love.

See ya Wednesday,

Love,

Kevin

Let's Do It

VIRTUAL CHOIR

It's time to be filming ourselves singing "We Shall Be Known" for the 2021 Interfaith Music Festival VIRTUAL CHOIR. I hope everyone in the BUF choir will do this. Learning this song and videoing ourselves singing it is what we are doing in BUF choir this month.

We are here to help each other, and to help Interfaith assist those experiencing homelessness. Our virtual choir will draw county-wide attention and prompt new fundraising for Interfaith.

If you can do Zoom on a computer and have a smartphone that can take videos, I think you can do this.

There are two processes: 1) master the part, 2) film yourself.  All the instructions and materials are posted on the choir blog. bufchoir.blogspot.com

Here is my first humble request, please: before Wednesday's rehearsal, practice singing your part along with both Al's rehearsal track and my click-track recording video. It would be best to memorize the song, so we're not fumbling with music. If we have practiced it by ourselves, we will be better able to understand the instructions and ask the right questions.

Here is my humble second request, please: try making your individual video before Wednesday, if you can, even a draft one, so that you can tell us what challenges you are facing and how you may have solved them. I just made a video myself, and was surprised at how many attempts it took me to set it up and get it right. You can watch my sample, labeled "We Shall Be Known Baritone sample Kevin Allen-Schmid.mp4" in the We Shall Be Known folder in our blog.

The deadline for submitting a video is March 5, so we have plenty of time, but if a few of us get started making our videos by Wednesday and share our experience with the group, it will be empowering for sure.

LIAISONS

During the last part of the rehearsal, I will ask those who are liaisons with the Interfaith member congregations to stay on and discuss our approach to getting 2 photos and 1 music video from each congregation. Patricia Conover wrote out the request in her own gracious words. Perhaps she'll share her letter with us.