Director's Notes
- Lee Irwin Culbreth
- Aug 30, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: 14 hours ago
*This will be updated each week following the most recent Monday night rehearsal. NOTE: the most recent post can now be found just below here at the top of this blog.
What about the Christmas 2026 concert Season?:
First rehearsal as is the custom will be the last Monday in August specifically the 31st of Augus at 7:30 PM. Registration begins at 7:00 PM
For the 60th Anniversary concert season entitled “WCC 60th Anniversary Traditional Christmas Music” we will have a selection of sacred and secular choral arrangements from the top 100 most popular of all time traditional Christmas songs. The Criteria: Chosen for ongoing popularity, impact, importance, and strong association with the holiday. "Traditional" is defined as encompassing all pre-rock styles of popular music; Christmas songs include both religious and secular songs as well as songs about winter which are associated with the festive season.
Feature Tryouts.
Those wishing to try out for a feature presentation are encouraged to select from the list of top 100 most popular traditional Christmas songs unique from those selected for the choir. As a reward for selecting a song from the list the applicant will receive a one-point bonus on their peer judge rating score. Otherwise the applicant may select any song of their own choosing in line with the season.
Preliminary planning for music selections:
Choir sacred selections
Silent Night
Adeste Fidelis (O Come All Ye Faithful)
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
Joy to the World
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Go Tell It On The Mountain
O Holy Night
Choir secular selections
White Christmas
The Christmas Song
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Sleigh Ride
A Holly Jolly Christmas
The Little Drummer Boy
Frosty the Snowman
There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays
I hope to see you all back for the WCC Christmas "WCC 60th Anniversary Traditional Christmas Music" concert season. Check back later for sample recordings to be added later. Enjoy your summer season break..
5/19 Auxiliary Concert:
Westminster Senior Center in Lake Ridge -
With the compleation of this performance that wraps up the WCC Spring 2026 "What About Baby?" season . . . almost! We will or have submitted a request to perform at the annual Arts Alive! festival. If approved we will be performing some selections TBD from this season at the festival on September 12, 2026. So keep your music handy for that. More details to follow. Hope to see you all back again on August 31 to begin preparation for the WCC Christmas 2026 season. Have a safe and pleasant summer break.
5/03/2026 Concert at Ferlazzo:
5/02/2026 Concert at Ferlazzo:
5/1/2026 MANDATORY on-site rehearsal:
4/27/2026 rehearsal:
4/20/2026 rehearsal:
4/13/2026 rehearsal:
4/6/2026 rehearsal:
3/30/2026 rehearsal:
3/23/2026 rehearsal:
Next week will be the last of the Feature tryouts. The focus will be on selections 8, 9, 13, 4, and 1. Nancy has announced that she will not be able to attend this rehearsal.
3/16/2026 rehearsal:
Next Monday, 3/23 we will be Touching Up selections #7, #10, #3, & #6. Immediately after the break there will be two Feature Tryouts: Andrea and Winnie.
3/9/2026 rehearsal:
Next Monday, the results of the Line Solo tryouts that were based on the votes of the peer judges will be announced.
We will begin to revisit each of the songs starting with 2, 12, 5, and 11.
Oh, one other thing: if you tend to ignore emails coming from Andrea or myself, you are very likely missing valuable and timely information.
3/2/2026 rehearsal:
Next Monday the plan is to go through the full program and conduct Line Solo tryouts during the process. Please do not ask to tryout for a Line Solo if you did not sign up in advance before the announced deadline. This will also be the deadline for signing up for a Feature, the tryouts for which will be distributed evenly over the following three weeks.
2/23/2026 rehearsal:
Next week the Review will be selections 2 and 5. The Focus will be selections 12 and 7. The deadline for signing up for a Line Solo is the at the close of this rehearsal. The actual Line Solo tryouts will be during the rehearsal on March 9. If you are having problems accessing the Voice Tracks let us know so that we may help you resolve them.
2/16/2026 rehearsal:
Next week we will review selections #1, #3, & #10 and focus on #2 and #5. If you are interested in trying out for a line solo be sure to add your name to the Line Solo Signup sheet. Also Feature tryouts will follow in the three weeks after the Line Solo Tryouts which will be 3/9/2026 for Line Solo tryouts.
2/9/2026 rehearsal:
Below is a listing of the Line Solos:
Song | Measures | Voice |
Sweet Baby James | Page 2 | Male |
. . . Baby One More Time | Page 2, 8, & 10 | Female and small mixed group |
Start a Fire | Page 2 | Any |
Meant to Be | Page 2, 5, 8, & 9 | Male, Female, and Descant |
One For My Baby | Male & Female | |
Photograph | Page 10-13 | 2 part Descant |
Next Monday we will Review selections #4, #6, & #11 and the Focus will be on selections #10, #3, & #1. The Voice Tracks are available to everyone that have met the condition for accessing them on the WCC website. If you need additional help let me know.
2/2/2026 rehearsal:
Next Monday we will Review selections #13, #9, & #8 and the Focus will be on selections #11, #6, & #4 and hopefully more people will trickle in to join us. The Voice Tracks should be available on the WCC website by the end of this week.
1/26/2026 rehearsal:
Next Monday we will Review: "Who Loves You" and "Photograph". We will then Focus on the selections "Baby, What a Big Surprise", ". . . Baby One More Time" and "Meant to Be". Normally, I would refer to these selections by number but since most of you have not received the program listing I have used the titles instead.
12/21/2025 final performance of the WCC "Sing We Now" concert season:
12/14 or 12/21 Auxiliary Concert:
Marine Corps Museum
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