President

Bill Bliss818-618 2462

Administrative Section Leaders: Georgia Treharne, Soprano

818-841-9735 Laurel Fest, Alto 818-951-6876

Tom Safer, Tenor/Bass 818-763-5825

IMPORTANT DATES

All Day Rehearsal Saturday November 18 10:00 – 4:00

Holiday ConcertSt. Mark’s Episcopal Church1020 North Brand Blvd., Glendale

Saturday December 16, 7:30 pmSunday December 17, 4:00 pm

Bill Bliss

Even though we’ve had a break over the summer, some members have been working for the Chorale. Silvia Pompei and Kyrian Corona, along with a website designer, have put in many hours to get our new website up and running. Please take a look at www.burbankchorale.org. We are all inspired by their efforts. In July, Mark Kennedy designed and printed the custom labels for the Requiem CDs, which were sent to each person who sang in that concert. In August, Nina took care of scheduling new member auditions. Steve Freudenberg worked throughout the summer seeking publicity, and as a result there was an article in the Burbank Leader on August 12th. Bonita has been ordering and compiling our new music. And as always, Marguerite Flick has been paying our bills.

Silvia Pompei Website Project Manager

www.burbankchorale.org, same name, brand new website!

We are extremely grateful to Meredith Mitchell, honorary Chorale member, for designing and acting as webmaster over the past few years, and continuing to do so after moving to Texas. Our website is our introduction to the world, and our public relations and recruiting tool. Hence the board decided that it was time for a more active "hands on" approach, so we chose a local designer, followed the site's rebuilding from the bottom up and plan on managing it ourselves, once it is completed.

Jeremy Jackson, a very talented young designer, son of veteran animator Jay Jackson, has been working all through the summer to re-design, update and launch our new website. He has done a fantastic job, masterfully balancing aesthetics and function. It truly was a team effort: Kyrian Corona was responsible for writing and updating most of the text, while Steve Freudenberg and Nina Trentham provided input and advice for some of the pages and links. I supervised Jeremy and we are currently still working on several aspects of the site. We launched on August 7th, to coincide with the banner going up on Olive and Alameda.

Amongst the many features we are currently working on, there is, of course, going to be a newsletter link up in the members’ area (as it used to be in the previous site). You will still be able to visit the members’ area, using the same password. We would also like to include links to member's websites, if they so wish, by clicking on the individual names on the list. We will be setting up an online shopping basket for purchase of tickets and CDs, and.more to come!

We encourage everyone to take the site for a "test-ride", hoping you enjoy what you see and feel inspired to email the link to your friends and families. We welcome any comments or suggestions, especially the reporting of any "bugs" or malfunctions you may encounter. Please include details of operating system and browser used to view the site. You can email your comments to:

webmaster@burbankchorale.org.

A last word of praise to Jeremy: he worked extremely hard within a very tight schedule and heroically so, in the past few weeks, as he had to undergo emergency surgery. He is out of danger and recovering, just in time for the start of his new college life. Thank you Jeremy!

Happy surfing everybody!

Website Makeover

Over the summer, Silvia Pompei and I worked with a talented young web developer to create an elegant new look and updated verbiage for the Burbank Chorale website. The new website marks a tremendous milestone for the Chorale in terms of image building, and will serve as an invaluable tool to attract new singers, increase our audience, and augment our fundraising efforts. The Internet offers many opportunities for creating new revenue streams, which we are currently exploring.

Holiday Performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

The Burbank Chorale has been chosen to perform at the 47th Annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration to be held on December 24, 2006 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The six hour Holiday Celebration will be televised live on KCET and selections will be broadcast nationally on PBS. The Burbank Chorale will perform approximately 6 minutes. The Chorale will be compensated $650 for their guest appearance. More details to come.

Sales / Marketing Ramp Up

Thanks to the efforts of Mark Kennedy, the Burbank Chorale now has top notch print materials including concert program, tickets, and flyers. For the Holiday Concert, we are launching a new advertising sales campaign for our concert program. Stay tuned for details. Inspired by the success of our Mozart Requiem Memorial Ticket sales, we will be unveiling a unique and fun ticket concept for our Holiday Concert. We will keep you posted.

Corporate Matching Gifts Programs

Attention returning and new members! Many corporations offer corporate matching gift programs to join with employees in supporting their local community organizations. Grants are usually matched dollar-for-dollar, based on the number of hours the volunteer donates. Steve Freudenberg and Heather Lynne Coston, who work for Medtronic, Inc., received corporate grants through their company¹s Time-N-Talent Program for the hours they sing with the Burbank Chorale. Please ask your human resources manager about corporate grant opportunities that your company may offer and pass the contact information on to Bill Bliss.

Grants

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission has declined our funding for the year 2006 / 2007. However, they have invited us to apply for the year 2007 / 2008, which we will execute to comply with their December 2006 deadline. Other grant requests in the works include the Weingart Foundation and the Surdna Foundation.

Steve Freudenberg Publicity Director

Even though the Chorale has been on vacation, the PR desk was still in gear. Perhaps you saw the article on upcoming Chorale opportunities and adventures in the Aug 12^th Burbank Leader. WOW!

I hope everyone has had a chance to listen to the Requiem CD. We have been getting incredible and sincere feedback, from how “professional” the recording sounds to “everything came together for the Chorale that night – and it was captured on CD!”

A personal thanks from me for culminating my first PR drive for the Chorale in such a rousing success. Great things are in store in the upcoming months – STAY TUNED!

Misha Shtangrud Artistic Director

The Burbank Chorale's 2006 Holiday Concert, "Echoes of Joy" will open with Giovanni Gabrieli's (1557-1612) majestic "In Ecclesiis", scored for eight-part choir, seven brass instruments, and organ. Gabrieli wrote "In Ecclesiis" for religious celebrations at St. Mark's church in Venice, where he served as an organist. St. Mark's rich acoustical properties and opposing choir galleries, each with its own organ, inspired the composers who wrote music for its services to emphasize the resulting echo effect, scoring antiphonal music for double choirs.

By the time Giovanni Gabrieli was writing his music for St. Mark's, the simple echo technique evolved to include multiple choirs and instrumental ensembles, creating remarkable aural experiences for its congregation. Our performance of "In Ecclesiis" ("In the Congregation") will be well complemented by the powerful acoustics of St. Mark's church in Glendale, where our holiday concert will take place.

Austrian composer Jacob Handl (1550-1591) was a contemporary of Giovanni Gabrieli. His "This Is the Day", written for a double-choir, echoes the Venetian polychoral style.

The Chorale will continue the program with some choral masterpieces written in the 20th century, including Randall Thompson's moving "Alleluia".

Following the performance of a guest Children's Choir, the Chamber Choir will perform Kirke Mechem's sequence of carols, entitled "Seven Joys of Christmas".

After the audience sing-along, accompanied by brass -"Six Carols Singing", the Chorale will perform two compositions by a contemporary British composer, John Rutter. The first piece, "Cantus", for choir, brass ensemble, and organ is a fantasy on a single word: Alleluia -a distant echo of Randall Thomson's famous setting. The program will conclude with "Gloria" by Rutter --a major work in three movements, scored for SATB choir, brass ensemble, percussion, and organ. The Chorale plans to travel to New York in Spring of 2007, to perform "Cantus" and "Gloria" at Carnegie Hall under the baton of the author, John Rutter.

In place of an encore, the audience will join us in singing two traditional carols: Silent Night and Jingle Bells.

Echoes of Joy

Chamber Choir

Intermission

Audience Sing-Along