Then, now and what's next with Iowa City's Metro Mix Chorus
Music — especially singing in harmony … TOGETHER — is the lifeblood and the joy of our Sweet Adeline Chorus! We have always loved performing in our 4-part harmony style. We love our costumes and being on stage. We gather in quartets and sing sometimes for hours. Then we perform for others, lifting spirits and filling hearts with harmony. So the past year has been difficult to maneuver and survive, as a chorus and as individual singers.
For most of this last year, we sang alone and met only virtually. Fortunately, the chorus leadership and our new director, John Hayden, developed unique rehearsals with reviews of repertoire music and to sing together on Zoom. John is the music director at the Benton Community School district, so he is a master of ways to teach and direct using these new tools for online learning.
During our rehearsals, we sing along with the learning tracks and with other chorus members, but muted, facing each other in those boxes on Zoom. It’s OK. It will do for now! Fortunately, we are learning new songs and we especially love “It’s the Music That Brings Us Together,” written by Clay Hine, a master composer and arranger, shortly after Gov. Reynolds issued her COVID-19 shelter-in-place order last year.
So what’s next? As we move forward, we are keeping the flow with social times and sometimes games during our rehearsals. After all, being a Sweet Adeline makes us all sisters in harmony. We also look for ways to create music to share via recordings and videos, some of which are on our MetroMix YouTube channel. Check it out.
Our chorus and Sweet Adelines also share our craft with the next generation of Sweet Adelines. A dynamic member in our chorus, Lauren Fladland, who teaches music, is now facilitating a free Young Women in Harmony workshop on Zoom. Join Lauren and the clinicians — “Hot Pursuit Quartet,” a rising star champion quartet — for a virtual class and performance, starting Tuesday! Young women, ages 10 to 25, who love to sing are welcome to participate and learn about singing in 4-part harmony. It includes creating virtual recordings of “Kokomo” and “With a Little Help from My Friends.”
Register at https://tinyurl.com/Region5YWIH-Registration or by emailing Lauren Fladland at lfladland@gmail.com.
More news of what's next will come in my next column. Maybe it will be an announcement that we can finally sing together outside or in an open space or even indoors, with social distancing. But one thing is certain: We will continue to sing the song “It’s the Music that Brings us Together” because the tag-line is “But it is the friendships that make us stay.”
Follow us on Facebook at MetroMix Chorus and on our MetroMix YouTube channel.
Lynda Black-Smith is an area artist and loves to sing lead in Metro Mix. She can be reached at lyndablacksmith@gmail.com.