AWESOME CONCERT EVERYBODY! Thank you and well done to every single one of you. We sang to our largest audience ever - around 630 people - and raised a massive amount of money towards our target. Our original fundraising target for this year was $15,000 but we’ve now passed that and want to see if we can get to $18,000, which would mean we had donated over $30,000 to the Auckland City Mission in our 2 years of massed concert and busking fundraising.
So please keep on turning up to our busking dates….
Christmas Busking Schedule
This is now our completed schedule. Changes are unlikely but I will email them if they happen. Please don’t rely on emails for information, though, as I’m trying to keep those to a minimum.
There is no dress code for busking but we hope you’ll wear your Everybody Sings polo shirts if you have one! And you are welcome to wear antlers, halos, wings, jingly earrings, tinsel etc.
Saturday 30 November 10am - 12 noon Ponsonby Countdown (Steven) You can park in the carpark underneath the supermarket. This was originally going to be Mt Eden Countdown, but they have decided they can’t accommodate us in the space they have, and Ponsonby has a large area just inside the doors.
Saturday 30 November 10am - 11.30am Hobsonville Point Market followed by half an hour at the Sunderland Lounge, between noon and 1pm (Kate)
Sunday 1 December 11am-12.30pm Meadowbank Shopping Centre (Kate)
Monday 2 December 12 noon - 2pm Auckland City Hospital Reception on Level 5 (Kate) NB: No donation collection here
Wednesday 4 December 11am to 1pm Auckland City Hospital Reception on Level 5(Jo) NB: No donation collection here
Friday 6 December 8.30pm Franklin Road (Kate) - Driveway of 22 Franklin Road
Saturday 7 December 10am - 12 noon Ponsonby Countdown (Steven)
Sunday 8 December 10am - 12 noon Titirangi Market (Jo) 500 South Titirangi Road - just around the corner from the village, in the carpark of the Community House. We’d love some extra basses for this one please!
Monday 9 December 12noon to 2pm Pakuranga Mall (Sarah)
Wednesday 11 December noon to approx 1.30/1.45pm at the latest - THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED because the hospital is extremely busy with patients from the White Island eruption.
Thursday 12 December 6.30pm West Harbour Rest Home (Kate) 315 Hobsonville Road. This will be a short performance (until 7pm) for the residents, before our combined rehearsal at Hobsonville (see concert information below). All welcome to attend both.
Monday 16 December 5-7pm Stonefields New World Supermarket (Kate) …and then the pub?
Tuesday 17 December 2.30pm-4pm Pakuranga Mall (Sarah)
Wednesday 18 December 12-2pm Auckland City Hospital Reception on Level 5 (Jo) NB: No donation collection here
Friday 20 December 8.30pm Franklin Road (Jo)
Saturday 21 December 9am-10am Oratia Market (Jo)
Saturday 21 December 11am-12.30am Hobsonville Point Market (Kate)
Saturday 21 December 2pm-3.30pm Meadowbank Shopping Centre (Kate)
Sunday 22 December 11am-12.30pm Pakuranga Mall (Sarah & Rebecca)
Monday 23 December 8.30pm Franklin Road (Sarah) - Driveway of 22 Franklin Road
Christmas Concert
Extra rehearsals in Concert Week
All rehearsals will be open for all members in the week of the concert. All rehearsals, with the exception of Howick run from 7.15pm to 9.15pm. See our homepage for rehearsal venues.
Monday 9 December: Stonefields (Kate) or Waitakere (Jo). If you’re coming to Stonefields, please arrive promptly at 7.15pm, already warmed up. But be aware that a rehearsal will already be in progress, so come in quietly and sit down. The combined rehearsal will run until 8.45pm, at which point Stonefields will stay for an extra 30 minutes.
Wednesday 11 December: She Sings (Kate & Jo) or Howick (Sarah)
Thursday 12 December: Hobsonville (Kate) - singing at the resthome first (details below) or Mt Eden (Steven)
Friday 13 December: Combined Dress Rehearsal, Stonefields School Hall, Tihi Street, Stonefields. 7.15-9.30pm. There’ll be no break mid-rehearsal this time, so please make sure you bring your own water bottle. There’ll be opportunities for everyone to move around quietly when some of the choirs are running their pieces.
Chamber Choir begins 6.45pm
Massed choir please arrive promptly at 7.15pm, already warmed up. But be aware that a rehearsal will already be in progress, so come in quietly and sit down.
Main rehearsal will run until 9pm. (Please note this is 15 minutes later than I indicated previously, to allow some individual choirs a chance to run their songs).
Stonefields only 9 to 9.20pm, SFX 9.20 to 9.30pm
PARKING FOR CHOIR MEMBERS:
Address - Auckland Girl's Grammer School 16 Howe Street Freeman's Bay Auckland 1011
There are 3 carparks off Howe Street.
Gate 4 entrance: THIS IS THE MAIN CARPARK WHICH YOU SHOULD USE. It is a short distance to walk up the hill to Gate 2. If you have any mobility issues and can’t be dropped at the main entrance, talk to us about using the Gate 3 parking.
Gate 3 entrance: These spaces will be allocated for set-up team and those with limited mobility, so please only use these if you have checked with us first.
Gate 2 entrance: Please do not use this carpark except to drop off passengers, and then take your car for parking down to Gate 4
Concert day schedule
WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU LEAVE VALUABLES - PHONES, PURSES ETC - WITH FAMILY MEMBERS FOR THE DURATION OF THE CONCERT. THERE WILL BE ONE LOCKED ROOM DOWNSTAIRS BUT PLACING VALUABLES THERE WILL MEAN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO RELEASE THEM AFTER THE CONCERT. IF YOU MUST HAVE YOUR PHONE WITH YOU, PLEASE ENSURE THAT IT DOES NOT RING OR PING DURING THE CONCERT!
For all rehearsal times, please arrive 10 minutes early and wait quietly in the auditorium.
12 noon: Chamber Choir (yes, at the same time) - so set up people need to be not in the chamber choir.
12.30ish: Setting up risers - (yes, at the same time) - so set up people need to be not in the chamber choir. Anyone who can please (it’s quite physical and involves heavy lifting)
1.20pm: SFX (Kate)
1.30pm: Stonefields (Kate)
1.45pm: Hobsonville (Kate)
1.55pm Waitakere (Jo) - Hobsonville will stay and rehearse Rise Up Shepherd
2.05pm She Sings (Jo/Kate)
2.15pm Mt Eden (Steven)
2.30pm Howick (Sarah)
2.40pm Massed Choir rehearsal - all singers and Choir Leaders. This will include rehearsing getting on and off stage, and bowing. There’ll be a 10 minute break at 3.20pm.
4.10pm Clear stage, audience comes in
4.30pm Concert begins
AFTER THE CONCERT, WE WILL NEED AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO HELP US CLEAR THE RISERS FROM THE STAGE PLEASE
During the concert
We are going to try something different this year, since there is such a large choir and it gets a little warm on stage. Rather than keep you all onstage through the concert, we have a massed choir bracket at the beginning and end, and the rest of the time you will offstage.
After the massed choir sings the first 3 songs, we will ask you all to move downstairs to the green room unless you are in Waitakere or Hobsonville. Howick will remain onstage, then go down to the green room as soon as they have sung Minoi Minoi.
After that, we will bring choirs up to the supper room one by one in advance of their performance, and then ask them to return to the green room immediately after singing.
Finally, everyone will assemble either in the supper room or in the wings opposite (altos only) before the Chamber Choir sings, ready to return for the final bracket of massed items.
If you would like to hear the other choirs, please come early enough in the afternoon to sit in on rehearsals, as we can’t promise you’ll be able to hear everyone during the concert.
Some tips
…about eating and drinking during the afternoon: I recommend that you bring water or herb tea, and stay away from alcoholic, sweet or milky drinks - for no other reason than that the latter will mess with your singing. Alcohol is drying, and you need to be well hydrated; sweet drinks will give you spikes and subsequent lows in energy which will affect your concentration; milky drinks have been shown to increase mucus production and interfere with singing. Similarly, savoury low-GI snacks are recommended.
And you might want to consider bringing a sponge bag with toothpaste, toothbrush and hand towel - this is something I always do when singing in a concert…I always bring deodorant, too.
What to wear
After careful consideration, we have decided to go with basic black again for this concert. But you can choose whether you wear formal or casual black clothing, as long as it is smart. And then you can decorate with tinsel, earrings, antlers, santa hats…go nuts! Probably not flashing lights, though. We plan to give you small battery-operated lights for the beginning of the concert, so black will provide a good background for this, as well as creating a uniform look for such a huge choir.
Make sure that your shoes are comfortable, as you will be on your feet for a while. Please don’t wear very high heels, as these throw the body out of alignment and make it difficult to sing well. It might also make standing on the risers somewhat precarious!
Music folders
As much as possible, it would be wonderful if we could sing without music copies in our hands. This always leads, oddly enough, to a more relaxed performance. But if you really feel you need your folder, please place yourself behind people who aren’t using their music folders. This just looks better because people who aren’t looking down into their music are looking up and out at the audience. In particular, Africa will need to be sung with nobody in the front row with a folder. I suggest that if you have a problem remembering words, you put them on a small piece of paper that you can manage more subtly than a big folder. Otherwise, please just place yourself further back in the choir. If you are in the front row of the massed choir and holding a folder, please don’t be offended if we ask you to move back a row.
Choir Leaders of the individual choirs will discuss with you what they want you to do in your separate items.
Christmas Lights Concert 4.30pm 14 December 2019
NOTE THAT THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR WHERE TO GO WHEN OFFSTAGE HAVE BEEN UPDATED FRIDAY MORNING, due to high ticket sales (yay!):
Massed Choir
Light of Lights - JO
Joy to the World - adapted Pentatonix - KATE
Near Bethlehem SARAH (Steven on piano)
Howick and Sarah remain onstage
Waitakere and Hobsonville also remain onstage, behind Howick.
She Sings and Mt Eden up the aisle to allocated seating at the back.
Stonefields to the Supper Room (through the double doors to the right as you face the audience).
Howick - Minoi minoi
Howick up the aisle to the back
Waitakere -
Let It Be
Rise Up Shepherd - with Hobsonville
Waitakere out through supper room doors (to the right of the stage as you face the audience). If supper room is full, please proceed up the stairs to the foyer and wait until Stonefields leave the supper room.
Hobsonville
Ka Waiata
Wairua o te puna aroha
Hobsonville out through supper room doors (to the right of the stage as you face the audience). If supper room is full, please proceed up the stairs to the foyer and wait until Stonefields leave the supper room.
Mt Eden
Marie te pō
Homeward Bound
Mt Eden back up the aisle to their seats.
She Sings
Russian Carol
Away in a manger
She Sings back up the aisle to their seats.
ALL OF STONEFIELDS ONTO THE STAGE. Main choir stand behind SFX until time to sing.
SFX:
The Sound of Silence
Stonefields
Last Christmas
Caravan of Love
Stonefields remain onstage, Chamber Choir come forward - other CC members come from wherever you are.
Chamber Choir
Underneath the Stars
All choirs to the stage quietly as Paul speaks
Massed Choir:
Africa KATE
Happy Xmas STEVEN
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - SFX and Choir Leaders forward, in front of your sections. KATE
Encore: Summer Wonderland SARAH