NEWS: October 2011
NASSA Board Meeting
From September 23-25, the NASSA Executive Board met in Kitchener to explore what the next Saengerfest 2012 has to offer and to see how far we are with the organization of this Event. So far, so good! We thank all the Board Members for traveling to Kitchener/Waterloo to meet with us, attending a Jodlerabend and exploring our wonderful region. We had a great time! (Photo: NASSA Board Members in beautiful St Jacobs, Ontario).
Hotels
It looks like there will be good participation at Saengerfest. We have asked the Canadian choirs to make their reservation at the Radisson Hotel, and thank you all for your prompt replies. This has helped us to make sure that there will be enough rooms available there.
Now we would like to ask all the other choirs to please contact the Holiday Inn (www.holidayinn.com/kitcheneron) to reserve as many rooms as you will probably need. Please let them know you are a part of Saengerfest 2012. Although you will need to leave a credit card number for the reservation, you will be able to change your room requirements until 20 March 2012. This way, you will be sure that your group will be at the Hotel where all the meals are being served. Important: If you need special assistance rooms, please be clear what your needs are (for example: no stairs, wheelchair accessible, on main floor, etc.). Although it seems perhaps very early to make all these reservations, with your help it will be possible to keep everyone within walking distance. Thank you very much!
Phonetic CD now available
A member of our choir has clearly spoken all the songs and recorded it on CD to assist with the pronunciations of the songs. If you would like to receive one of this CDs, please email us.
Jodlerworkshop
If you are interested in attending a yodeling and singing workshop with Marianne Weingard from Switzerland, please let us know. This workshop will be held most likely on the afternoon of Thursday 28 June.
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!
An important reminder that the picture and description of your choir for the Souvenirbook are due in November! If you haven't sent them yet, please send them to us immediately.
NEWS: July 2011
Less than a year to wait. We are very excited; are you? We have plenty of important news to share:
Tickets are available
Tickets for the choral competition and the Grand Concert will be available as soon as 2 August 2011 at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener, ON. Go to their box office weekdays from 10 am to 5pm; visit them online 24/7; or ask any choir member:
- Choral Competition: Fri 29 June 2012 -- Adults & Children: $17.50 incl. taxes.
- Grand Concert: Sat 30 June 2012 -- Adults: $27.50. Children: $17.50 incl. taxes
Please note that this is for everyone that will not buy a Saengerfest-Badge. We will also sell tickets at all local Swiss Club Events leading up to the Saengerfest. The next events are:
- Swiss National Day Celebration -- Monkton, 31 July 2011
- Jodler Stubete -- Moorefield, 24 Sept 2011
- Swiss Farmers Band Concert -- Milverton, 19 Nov 2011
Souvenir Books
To all participating Choirs: please email pictures of your Choir and Director no later than November 2011 to mueller@cyg.net. The pictures will be printed in black and white. Please include all the names of the singers as they appear in the pictures. For best results, please do not downsize the pictures.
As always, we would also like to have a description of your Choir (about 200 words) and of your director (about 60 words). Please also list members who have passed away in the past three years, with their year of birth and death.
Hotel
Hotel rooms for the period of Saengerfest are reserved. The prices are confirmed at $124.99 plus tax and $129.99 plus tax with the king suites at the Radisson available for 134.99 plus tax. All the room prices include an excellent hot breakfast for two. Additional people per room only pay an extra $10 for their breakfast.
Workshop
Marianne Weingard from Switzerland is offering to conduct a yodeling and singing workshop. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested! Depending on demand, this workshop would most likely be held Thursday afternoon. More information will be sent out to the directors soon.
NEWS: January 2011
Dear Friends and Fellow Singers!
Greetings from Ontario! We have been working hard to keep on schedule and to have a wonderful Saengerfest ready for you in 2012! As you noticed, last spring we opened this website. Although it is still under construction, do keep an eye on it: progress will be made throughout this winter!
Songbooks
We are very excited to inform you that the songbooks are almost ready. Anne and her team are proud to have all the necessary permissions to go ahead. We are currently putting the finishing touches on the books and they should be ready to be sent out in the spring.
This means that it is time for you to let us know how many songbooks you need, so that we can decide how many we need to print. Please contact us and have your order in by March 1st 2011. This way we can ship them out before spring planting! Thank you!
Souvenir books
We will be happy to accept sponsorships, memorials or advertisements for our Souvenir book. We will be handing out the Souvenir books to everyone at the concert, which means a lot of exposure for any advertisers. Please email us or contact any of the members listed on the back of the Saengerfest brochure.
Also a reminder: for the souvenir books we will need a new picture of each choir and their director. So, make sure to get everyone together and “smile”! We would be grateful if you could have this ready by the end of this year. More instructions on the size of pictures and other specifications will come soon.
Hotel
Currently we are finishing a contract with the Holiday Inn in Kitchener, with more rooms reserved at the Radisson Hotel, situated right across the road.
Get to know the Swiss and Saengerfest 2012
In December we went to Kitchener to sing at the Christkindel Market. It was cold but well worth it! We really enjoyed singing at their nicely decorated and well organized event. A few days later we made the trip to Toronto to sing at their beautifully arranged Christkindel Market. There were several little “alpenhuts” with many wonderful things for sale. The smell of raclette brought back memories and even the Gluehwein tasted like in Europe!
2011 has begun, only a year and a half left until the great Saengerfest in Kitchener! I hope you all are looking forward to meet old and new friends! Now it is up to you: please order your songbooks and keep on singing!
All the best,
Your Saengerfest Committee.