Weekly Newsletter

November 11, 2016

Doc’s Corner Upcoming Events

Below is pretty much a reiteration of what I sent out on December Wednesday morning. LOTS of important information. 1 (Thursday) > 9:45-10:30am • Basses and baritones: If you are able to be in your seats by Channel 12 – record program to be aired next day on Arizona 6:50 for the next two weeks to go over Jingle Bell Rock, I Midday would really appreciate it. 35-40 singers – more details forthcoming • Please send me any feedback you have about Boys to Men. I always appreciate hearing things you thing went 4 (Sunday) concert (3:00, 1:30 call) well as well as areas to improve. American Lutheran Church • Name for December program > how you want your name 17200 N Del Webb Blvd. in the program AND YOUR HOME TOWN > please try to Sun City, AZ 85373 make sure you do this at the next rehearsal if you missed it last week. 6 (Tuesday) > concert (7:30, 5:45 call) • Dec. 1 Thursday > record at channel 12 (Arizona Midday) > Velda Rose United Methodist Church more details forthcoming (~9:45-10:30). We will try to use 5540 East Main Street three risers and get 35-40 people for this. I will need a Mesa, AZ 85205 good balance of sections. This spot will air on Friday, Dec. 2. This is GREAT timing for our upcoming concerts. 11 (Sunday) > concert (3:00, 1:30 call) • Dec. 21 Wednesday > Channel 15 (Sonoran Living Live) > Camelback Bible Church 2/3 of you raised your hand for this at last week’s 3900 East Stanford Drive rehearsal. We don’t know the details on this, but I would Paradise Valley, 85253 likely need risers there at 7:45 and singers at 8:00. The (live) show is from 9:00 to 10:00. Although this is after our 21 (Wednesday) > 8:00-10:00am concert series, this is some great exposure and helps Channel 15 – Sonoran Living Live support a wonderful cause (i.e., Operation Santa Claus). Details forthcoming • Risers for both of these events (above) and our concerts. Please help with setup and teardown if you are able. Pre-Rehearsal Dining • Dec. 6 concert at Velda Rose > I need you to get off of work early > we need to be out of the space BY 7:00 or Please join us at 6:00pm for dinner Tuesday before rehearsal at sooner to accommodate that audience. Call will probably Five Guys, McDowell at 7th Avenue, where "fresh is the word" be at 5:45. PLEASE do your best to make arrangements to describe their award-winning burgers and fries – and now now to get to Mesa by 5:45. offering shakes too! Five Guys – where all the fixin’s are free • Our ticket prices have gone up . . . for those who buy at and the freshly roasted peanuts are yours for the taking. Or the door. just come for some fellowship over a glass of iced tea or a • DO NOT WORRY ABOUT MEMORIZING Jing-a-Ling. The shake. audience will be watching the reindeer, sleigh, etc. YOU DO NEED TO MEMORIZE We Wish You and White Christmas. Members’ Corner • Three more rehearsals until our December concerts!

PROGRAM NOTES

Do You Hear What I Hear

This popular Christmas number has an interesting history. Noël Regney and his wife Gloria Shayne Baker wrote it in 1962 at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, when President John F. Kennedy narrowly averted nuclear war with the . The French-born Regney had been forced to serve in the Nazi army when Adolf Hitler invaded France in 1940, and so he knew first-hand the horrors of war. Emigrating to New York in 1952, he found work composing commercial jingles and TV theme songs. Asked in October 1962 to write a holiday number, he searched for inspiration but found none in the faces of fellow New Yorkers who expected to hear on the radio at any moment that nuclear bombs had been released. But as he was walking home, he noticed two mothers pushing baby carriages along the sidewalk, and he had his inspiration: “The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night” came to earth amid darkness and gloom to “bring us goodness and light.” The song has been recorded by hundreds of artists, most notably in 1963 – legend has it on November 22, the day President Kennedy was assassinated – but Crosby actually recorded it on October 21 of that year.

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Meredith Wilson, composer of scores for numerous Broadway shows and motion pictures, wrote this delightful, upbeat holiday standard in 1951 while a guest at the Grand Hotel in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia – hence references in the lyrics to the hotel and to the park across the street. Other references seem dated now, such as “the five and ten” and “Hopalong boots” (well, some of us do remember Hopalong Cassidy). The song has been recorded by numerous artists, including , Bing Crosby and (who made it a hit), not to mention Alvin and the Chipmunks and Sesame Street’s Big Bird. Our arrangement is by Stuart Churchill, who sang in ’s Broadway show This Is The Army on its worldwide tour, along with a young upstart named Ronald Reagan. Churchill also sang with Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians and had his own radio show.