Yvonne Orlich
Here we are—almost halfway through our break. Summer has just begun yet it seems like just yesterday it was Spring and we were prepping for a Spring concert. While we swelter here in Arizona, the work of getting ready for a new season of the Chorale starts to take shape.
In March, just following our Spring Concert, the Chorale held their annual meeting at Sun Lakes Country Club. This is where we meet to visit and discuss our likes/dislikes about the previous season, improvements, etc., and finally, hold elections for the positions on the Board of Directors. Here is the list of those members who will lead us in the 2026-27 season.
President, Yvonne Orlich; Vice President, Beth Wyman; Treasurer, Dan Morson; Recording Secretary, Karen Sproates; and members-at-large Jay Hershorin and David Mork. We are committed to working together with our director, accompanists and singers to bring a polished, energetic hour of entertainment. New signs will be ordered, tickets printed, and preparations for the start of the fall season are coordinated. Monthly meetings will be held to approve the new signs, schedule members to man the booths at the community Open Houses, to assure that we have members to place the signs, and to schedule members to work on Ticket Tuesdays for a few weeks prior to the concert.
Our director has ordered the music and our librarians, Pat Amica and Merrie Crawford, will be working diligently to number and organize the sheet music to be ready for the first day of rehearsal. These two ladies do an amazing job of organizing our extensive music library—no small task to be sure. The new season will start the Monday following Labor Day, Sept. 14 with registration, collection of dues and the distribution of music. We will hear the usual accolades as well as moans and groans about the choices of music—we love this one, this one is too fast, this one is too long—and the usual trepidation about “how will we ever learn all this in time?”. And finally, our first run-through of the songs we will be performing.
We will be sparse the first few weeks as many of our members are “snowbirds” and won’t be back in Sun Lakes until late September or early October. But we’ll be at full capacity soon enough and we’ll all catch up. Each week will show improvements and our earlier concerns will disappear.
Our Holiday Concert is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 10. We will post more information here each month. In the meantime, try to stay cool—tough as that may be. Watch for concert information here and at the Open Houses in October.
See you all soon!