Blogs

Barbershopper of the year - Frank!

0

A huge congratulations to Frank Gregory for being chosen as this year's Barbershopper of the Year! For years, Frank has led the charge to apply for grants to support chorus activities and outreach. COVID has had a big impact on our ability to raise money. But we still do have bills to pay -- storage for our music and risers, plus rehearsal space at the Queen Anne Baptist Church, and we pay our directors!

As we've lost a bit of our revenue stream, Frank's grant writing endeavors have been even more important than usual, and he's made a huge difference to the chorus.

A peak behind the curtain...

0

Our directors go to great lengths to make our rehearsals effective, efficient, and fun. It's a tall order, but they're up to the challenge. What did we do this week at rehearsal?

We had sectional time to work on our Valentines songs (hopefully if you're reading this, you're planning to purchase one!), we did physical and vocal warmups, of course. Then we worked on multiple songs -- one for our competition later this year, some for our Singing Valentines next month, and a few for our upcoming pirate-themed Road Show. We did a quarteting activity to give folks a chance to practice those Valentines songs singing in a quartet; you can tell from the photo above that we had lots of fun doing that.

Will you be our valentine?

0

The November through January holiday season is officially over, and it's time to look forward into the new year! That means that it's time for...

SINGING VALENTINES.

Mark your calendars now -- information will be coming soon about ordering one of our 2023 Singing Valentines. We'll have both our super popular Zoom Singing Valentines, which we pioneered last year to international fanfare, along with traditional in-person Singing Valentines.

Song choices this year will include a platonic option, so think big about who you'd like to send a little message of appreciation to. It doesn't have to be romantic!

Brookdale West Seattle - our first performance of 2023!

0

Woohoo! Our first official performance for 2023 was a success! We entertained the masses at Brookdale Senior Living with our world famous road show, and made a few dozen seniors and friends very happy.

Here's our director Melanie posing for a selfie with the chorus:

Top of the Hill Quartet gave a bonus performance that was a huge hit. As the chorus left a resident said "Well, that’s the best way to start the year." (Check out a snippet of that video here.)

Support the Seattle SeaChordsmen!

0

Happy New Year! The Seattle SeaChordsmen has had its last board meeting of the year and we were happy to get some loose ends tied up. One of the things we finalized was dispersing our last charitable donations for the year. We decided on directly donating to three organizations: Mary's Place, the Ballard High School Performing Arts Foundation, and the Phinney Ridge Food Bank. During our season of volunteering to do cashier duty at a Christmas tree lot run by two Queen Anne scout troops, we also ask for donations, and this year we helped facilitate over $11k for the Queen Anne Food Bank, too.

Fun with the SeaChordsmen - Where's Waldo edition

0

We had a busy December! Here's a fun puzzle for you -- look through these photos of our performances and see if you can find any chorus members who performed at EVERY event!

Friday, December 2 - Figgy Pudding

Friday, December 9 - Queen Anne tree lighting

Saturday, December 10 - Lithuanian community Christmas party

Caroling at... a Climbing Gym?

0

What were the SeaChordsmen doing last night? Some of us were singing holiday songs in an exciting and UNIQUE location -- Vertical World North in Lynnwood. This was our first time caroling in a climbing gym, and it was a ton of fun.

Here we are singing Feast of Lights:

And here's Saul up in the air!

Christmas tree sales to benefit the community

0

Still hoping to buy a Christmas tree? Have we got a recommendation for you! Members of the chorus volunteer each year to do cashier duty at the tree lot run by Queen Anne scout troops. The proceeds benefit the scouts, and also the Queen Anne Food Bank. (As a matter of fact, we ask during each tree sale if the buyer would like to donate extra to the food bank, and most everybody says yes. We got an extra ~15k for them last year, just by asking!) The SeaChordsmen also get a small donation from the scout troops to thank us for our assistance.

There are so many great reasons to buy your Christmas tree from this lot, but the scouts also have a hookup for some great trees. They're incredibly fresh and look great.

We're Back for the Holidays!

1

Our 2022 Holiday Show, We're Back for the Holidays!, was a smashing success! Congratulations to the Ballard Chamber Choir, the Ballard Tenor / Bass Ensemble, the Sound Harmony Chorus, and the SeaChordsmen - including holiday guest singers, and participating quartets for a great show. It truly was quite the day. Here's our recap:

For a little while there, we thought the show may not happen. A not-strategically-placed bean bag chair caught fire, creating quite a bit of smoke and triggering the fire alarm. With an hour left to go before the show started, choruses headed outside and waited for the fire department:

Queen Anne - tree lighting

0

A small but mighty contingent from the chorus came to help celebrate the tree lighting in Queen Anne last night. We love supporting the community where we rehearse, and we're always excited to sing, period, and especially when we get a chance to practice our holiday songs right before our Christmas show. Speaking of which -- join us tomorrow (December 11) at 2pm at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church to hear our full holiday show, We're Back for the Holidays!

Info available here: https://seachordsmen.org/2022holidayconcert