Artistic Director Chosen

Message from Jo Ann Bardeen

Hello Singers (and a few others who will be interested in this message),

First, I want to thank many of you for your attendance and your comments at the meeting last Tuesday and also for the thoughtful emails I have received recently.  This Chorale belongs to all of us, so it remains important to have your input.

I am pleased to report that the board reached a decision on Saturday morning. Mary Fran Lyons, our board member who is an executive search professional (translation head hunter), did the communicating with our candidates.

Based on his robust plan for the chorale's future, his general enthusiasm for choral music and his acceptance of us as an inclusive community chorale, Gary Cannon is in the process of accepting a one year contract with us. The details of his contract will likely be finalized before I leave on vacation on Thursday night.

While we all agree that we made fabulous music with Anthony Spain and that the concerts were a joy, the Board was concerned about a longer-term commitment on his part, based on his expressed preference for an auditioned chorale. When Bainbridge Island hired him, they had just decided to be an auditioned group. He went there after that fact, and has been key in their achievements, so our chorale was his first foray into the non-auditioned world. Hence his hesitancy about his interest level in us, given our status at present. With all that, things were left on an extremely positive footing with Anthony, as we never know what the future holds.

Our planning with Gary Cannon and our firm direction to him will be that he must stretch our abilities and make us work hard. The board will be meeting with Gary on June 24 to discuss music for the next two sessions. We will begin working toward policies governing attendance and other issues indicating commitment to excellence by participating singers.

Also on June 24, Gary is hoping to audition potential accompanists (auditions not yet arranged), so there will be many things to report to you all after that date.

In the next several months, Jeanne Dougherty will be heading up a strategic planning group which will do research then report some revenue raising possibilities to the board.

I am very excited about our future and look forward to working with all of you toward making fabulous concerts again on Dec. 6 & 7.

If you want to check up on Gary's current happenings, go to www.garydcannon.net.

Jo Ann

Preregistration

By all accounts, the preregistration process we tried was a great success.  No lines last Tuesday!  If you have any suggestions for improvement, please talk to one of the Board members.  And thanks for preregistering!

A request for you all....

The time has come for organized fund raising and the Chorale board is hoping that you will each provide us with at least 3 names and mailing addresses of people to whom we can send a fund raising letter. That campaign will likely take place in September.

Since the Chorale will be celebrating its 20th year in 2009, we are planning a benefit concert and special fund raising event perhaps in February. That is another reason why we need to develop a "Friends of the Vashon Island Chorale" list.

Please help by sending names and mailing addresses directly to our Chorale Treasurer Karen Baer who will construct the database for us. Her email address is: vashonbaer@gmail.com.

Thanks for your help,

Jo Ann

Chichester Hebrew pronunciation (MP3 format):

Section I
Section II (men)
Section II (women)
Section III