March-ing through the Snow

On March 7, we had a wonderfully energetic rehearsal. We started a new theme of the month – diction. We shared some tongue twisters with the group and had people gain more awareness around where their tongue is and what it does to make different vowels and consonants. We sang through a few songs we are getting to know quite well, including Stevie Wonder’s ‘You are the Sunshine of My Life’. Eve led us through the rest of the Kingston Trio’s ‘MTA Song’, which is chock-full of words and opportunities to clarify our phrasing. We also started to rehearse a spoken word piece by one of the MANNA members, Al Action. He wrote a work about the MANNA Singers, which Al recited at the December concert. In May, at our spring gala, we are going to perform this work again, but this time it will be spoken together as an ensemble (this takes practice).

This week, Eve is at her Feldenkrais training, so wasn’t able to come to rehearsal. So, yesterday Cale (our keyboard player) and I trudged through the blizzard carrying a giant bag of bread donations (thanks to When Pigs Fly bakery) to St. Paul’s. When we got to the cathedral, we saw that there were not enough people there to hold a rehearsal. We sat with folks in meditation for an hour, which was really wonderful. I don’t usually have a chance to join the group in meditation because I am preparing lunch and materials for the singing rehearsal. Then we froze the bread for next week, ate some donuts leftover from Writer’s Group and headed home. We hope that everyone stayed safe in the storm.