Voices of Hope – Rhode Island

Voices of Hope is sponsoring another workshop!

Clarice LaVerne Thompson

It will be held on Saturday, February 2, from 10 AM – 4 PM at Church of The Epiphany, 1336 Pawtucket Ave. in East Providence (Rumford).

The topic is “African American Folk Music”, including gospel, spirituals, and freedom/justice/peace songs. The workshop presenter is Clarice Thompson, director of RPM Voices here in Rhode Island. She has many other titles as well in Rhode Island and in the Boston area. She was a Professor of African American Music at Brown University from 2002 – 2009. She is eminently qualified, and you can read her biography on the flyer, or go to the RPM Voices web page to learn more about her. We are so excited to spend a day with her, singing gospel music!

The workshop is open to women singers and girls of all levels of experience.  All women are welcome!!

The cost is $50 – we will provide snacks and beverages and ask that you bring your own bag lunch.  Be sure to wear comfortable clothing and come prepared to sing your heart out!

We do encourage  you to come! We do need you to pre-register with Susan Murphy at ssmurphy212@cox.net.

For more specifics, please download the flyer and pass it along to your friends, colleagues, and family. We hope to see lots of you there!

Fondly,  Beth Armstrong
VOH Music Director

Please join us as we happily present a new repertoire ….
Songs of comfort to carry you warmly into the winter

November 4, 2012
4:00 pm

Church of the Epiphany
1336 Pawtucket Ave.
Rumford, RI
For directions, visit http://www.epiphanyep.org/

Please download our poster & share with your friends!

Due to an unfortunate accident, we had to postpone this workshop. But we’re happy to announce the NEW DATE – November, 3, 2012. Registration is re-opened. If you were unable to join us before, and this date is good for you, we hope you will join us.

For more information about Peggo & Vibrant Voice, see her website: http://peggohodes.com/vibrant-voice/

If you want to register now, please contact us.  We will forward the request to Susan.

For the past few weeks, a smaller contingent of the Voices of Hope has been learning some new songs and polishing some of our old favorites.

JOIN US for an informal evening of song and friendship.
June 8, 2012    7:30 PM
Private Residence (please send an email to receive details)
Outside Setting on a fair night / Indoor Setting in the event of rain.
Please  bring lawn chairs and/or blankets for comfortable seating.
Parking on the neighborhood streets

We will be offering light refreshments and friendly conversation after the singing.

$10.00 donation requested to support our on-going work!

Hello Friends of Voices of Hope … Old and New, Young and Old!!

This post contains TWO important pieces of news:

• Upcoming rehearsal session
• Letter from our director!

You may be a Voices of Hope singer, recently on hiatus and eager to return… or someone new to us and eager to get started! Either way, we welcome you and hope you will join us for our Spring Sing starting Sunday, April 22nd.

Rehearsal Dates (note…Sunday OR Mondays!):

** 6:30 – 8:00 PM **
Sunday, April 22;
Monday April 30th;
Sunday, May 13th;
Sunday, May 20th;
Monday, May 28th; and
Sunday, June 3rd

Culminating in a “House concert” on Friday, June 8th.

Rehearsal Location: the Church of the Epiphany, 1336 Pawtucket Ave; Rumford

Membership Cost / Dues:

• $30 minimum per singer
• $45 minimum per singing family (2 plus)

The membership fee should be paid by all at the first rehearsal.  The deadline to pay membership dues is the second rehearsal. These fees help us to pay for the music director and to cover the costs of music and other materials.

Please read the following wonderful letter from Beth Armstrong, our Music Director, to get a full accounting of the ‘what next’!

Letter from our director – Beth Armstrong

Dear Women of Voices of Hope:

We have just completed a very successful session of our chorus, and the steering committee has met to talk about our future. As many of you know, Kim has decided not to continue as co-music director, so the question is, what next? With input from some of you, and our own opinions, we have decided that this group is too good and too much fun to let this stop us, so we are announcing another session, with me as your only music director. I am delighted that Voices of Hope seems to be healthy and growing. I think there is no reason why we can’t continue to grow and prosper, and I am excited to be a part of that!

We don’t want to wait until September for another session, so we are going to do a spring session. We know that many of you have conflicts this time of year, but we are hoping that the schedule we are announcing is flexible enough to make it possible for many of you to participate. We are going to emphasize working further on music we have already learned, to polish it and improve our group’s sound. We will also learn a couple of new songs. We are going to include some organized activities for a few minutes each week, designed to get to know one another better. Not only is it more fun if we know each other, we also will sing better if we are friends. We are going to aim toward an informal, friendly performance, a house concert, held in the back yard of Ginny Fox’s house on the East Side of Providence, with our audience sitting on a deck or on a lawn. We will have food and beverages for them, so it will feel as much like a party as a concert.

Rehearsals are later – 6:30 to 8:00 – to accommodate outdoor activities in the spring. Rehearsals are usually on Sunday, but twice on a Monday, to accommodate my performance schedules with other groups. Rehearsals are 90 minutes long instead of 2 hours, but we will start ON TIME and end on time. If you could make a real effort to be there on time, we will get enough work done, I think.

Singing together is more than fun. It is an opportunity for people who are perhaps not involved in the arts in any other way to express themselves artistically. There are some messages that are most effectively communicated musically, and music has a way of reaching a listener that language alone does not. Thus, as singers, we are both empowered and empowering. Think of the first sound heard by a human at birth – it is the sound of their mother’s voice. Women’s voices nurture, soothe, educate, commiserate, rejoice, and encourage. Women’s voices can heal. Women’s voices can chastise. Women’s voices can change the world, and indeed, often have. Let’s be sure that there is a place where women, accustomed or not to singing their message, can sing together for pleasure, for peace, and for justice – in Rhode Island. Voices of Hope offers that opportunity. I am glad it exists; let’s make sure it does!

I hope to see many of you on April 22.

Love, Beth

Please join us for our Spring Performances:

Main Event

We’re all excited! The first rehearsal is almost here. Please join us!

This is the schedule for Spring. Please contact us to let us know that you plan to attend — and encourage your woman friends, relatives, work colleagues, neighbors to come along as well! Girls welcome too!

When: Sundays  from 1:30 – 3:30. Please be prompt — we start warming up exactly at 1:30!

Where: NOTE – Location Change:
Epiphany Church
1336 Pawtucket Ave.
RUMFORD,  RI

2012 Dates for Session 1:
January 22 ** Start time 12:30 (We will sing first and then have a meet & greet)
January 29
February 5
February 12
February 26
March 4
March 11

Concert Dates (so far):
March 9, 2012 – WE LEARN Conference, Women’s Perspectives Student Writing Celebration (5:00 – 7:00, Roots Cafe)

March 18, 2012 – 4:00 pm – Voices of Hope Spring Concert (Place, TBD)

Membership Cost / Dues:

• $30 minimum per singer
• $45 minimum per singing family (2 plus)

The membership fee should be paid by all at the first rehearsal.  The deadline to pay membership dues is the second ​rehearsal. These fees help us to pay for the music directors and to cover the costs of music and other materials.