Chorus News

March 29, 2019 By Ruth

NGCC Performs with UNG singers at homecoming concert

Dahlonega United Methodist Church, March 25, 2019

Director Ruth Purcell traveled and sang with the UNG Singers on their recent concert tour in south Georgia and Florida. At the Homecoming Concert, NGCC made a cameo appearance, singing two numbers from our upcoming spring concert, and an additional piece, an arrangement of “Shall We Gather at the River” for treble choir and SATB choir. Ten students who were on the choir tour learned the piece and performed it with our young singers. What a wonderful sound! It was warmly received by the audience, and was a good learning experience for the singers.

February 11, 2019 By Ruth

Chorister’s Guild Children’s Choir Festival

Marietta United Methodist Church, February 9, 2019

Members of NGCC traveled to Marietta on Saturday morning, practicing our songs while driving down 400, then enjoying viewing the beautiful landscaping and massive houses on Abernathy Road and Terrill Mill Road en route! After lunch on the playground at the church then registration, the children were led through effective singing tutorials and warmups with Dr. Martha Shaw, followed by several rehearsals, as well as enjoying short recreation and snack breaks. Dr. Shaw has conducted the Spivey Hall Children’s Chorus of national fame for many years, created an astounding choral program at Shorter College, and is now teaching at Reinhart College. She makes great use of her work with elementary school age children for her college students, and vice versa! A music educator for 38 years, Dr. Shaw is a master teacher and brought out the best from the 100+ singers working with her on Saturday.

At 4:30 a concert/worship service was offered to the public, and many proud parents were able to witness what their children accomplished in an afternoon, fine tuning the work of several months with their choir directors. All four anthems were performed beautifully from memory. Directors Ruth Purcell and Julia Morang learned plenty of teaching tips and hope that their singers will remember this experience for many years!

December 16, 2018 By Ruth

Christmas 2018

NGCC spent several weeks preparing Christmas music for the CASA Live Nativity outside Dahlonega Methodist Church, slated for December 14. We also made arrangements to have our second annual Community Carol Sing directly afterwards, from the Chamber of Commerce balcony. Unfortunately, the threat of rain, and the actual manifestation of it right at the time the Live Nativity was to begin, resulted in the cancellation of that part of the evening.

Nevertheless, we met at the Chamber at 7:00, warmed up our voices, and sang our entire program outside on the balcony. There were still plenty of people on the streets despite the weather! Next year if the children sing alone, we need to do it on the patio where the folks are – too hard to see and hear us upstairs.

After briefly warming up inside, we carried on with the Carol Sing, which this year was mostly only NGCC. We were happy for the few friends who joined their voices to ours! Christmas joy was flowing from the voices and faces of the singers, and was mirrored by the faces of family and Dahlonega residents and visitors on the plaza below. This is an event we intend to polish and continue from year to year!

November 13, 2018 By Ruth

The Best of NGCC

“It was a dark and stormy night…” is an accurate description of our concert day and evening! Along with flood warnings, a burst hydrant a block from our rehearsal and performance location, blue lights flashing for hours, wet feet, wet hair, wet music, over-excited singers, worried parents, a thermostat that refused to work and a reception area that never got above 58 degrees. Thankfully the performance area warmed up, eventually! And so did the singers. Although our audience numbers were small because of the inclement weather, those who were there were treated to a lively and enjoyable performance. Both the separate choirs and the combined group did an excellent job. Conductors, accompanists, and guest artists did well too – many thanks to Gabrielle Willet, Rebekah Mildenhall, and John Day. The only member who didn’t perform well was our recording device. Alas, the disc was blank at concert end!