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(Although if you know a singer in our choir, you can always put in an advance order. We’re easy like that.)

Vienna Choral Society Poster for the Celtic Arts Festival - March 17, 2012 (artwork by Steven Keen/Keen Method)

(PLEASE NOTE – THE APPLICATION IS THREE PAGES)

Vendor Application – VCS Celtic Arts Festival 2012 (1 of 3)

Vendor Application – VCS Celtic Arts Festival 2012 (2 of 3)

Vendor Application – VCS Celtic Arts Festival 2012 (3 of 3)

VES Jammers (3rd - 6th grade, Vienna Elementary School students led by music teacher David Reynolds)

There’s going to be a lot to choose from at the Celtic Arts Festival. Not the least of which will be the VES Jammers. They’re an auditioned ensemble of 3rd through 6th grade students at Vienna Elementary School, the venue of the festival. VES uses a combination of traditional and non-traditional instruments  - garbage cans, for instance. Take a look!

And yeah, they do that whole flash mob thing well, don’t they? That would be the doing of VES Music Teacher, David Reynolds. If you came to our season opener in October 2011, you would have seen him as the human “beatbox” in our concert opener, the Mission: Impossible theme. But you may know him better as the guy who led that other flash mob – the VES flashmob of students doing Thriller at the 2011 Viva Vienna. Yeah, he’s that guy. That would explain things, wouldn’t it?

VCS Celtic Arts Festival Small Poster (artwork by Steven Keen/Keen Method)

If you’ve come to check us out for open rehearsals these last few weeks, you know by now that our next event is going to be so much fun some of us are jumping up and down with excitement!

VCS will present the Celtic Arts Festival, an afternoon of music and art, on – wait for it – St. Patrick’s Day.

March 17
from 1 – 5 pm
Saturday, March 17, 2012
at Vienna Elementary School 

In addition to our own choir, now at 75+ voices, the afternoon will feature rotating performances by the following:

• Tinsmith – a folk band fusing traditional music with modern influences
• Rich Follett – singer, songwriter, poet and minstrel
• The Irish Breakfast Band – 20+ member traditional Ceili band and dancers from the DC area
• Katherine Hughes – a traditional celtic dancer
• John and William Hughes – father and son bagpipers
• Eammon Carolan – Irish fiddle

You’ll have the opportunity to see traditional Irish dancing at a championship level, stroll among local craft vendors working in the Celtic tradition, and oh yes, eat scrumptious traditional pasties from Vienna’s own Pure Pasty.

The festival will be an open house atmosphere. One ticket buys admittance to the whole afternoon.

Save the date and stay tuned! We’ll tell you when tickets go on sale – soon!

Photo by Karen Akers

There are some things that are never pleasant to write, and chief among them is news of someone’s passing. Last night, one of the VCS members phoned to tell me that Oscar Morgenstern died over the weekend.

Those of you who are new to Vienna Choral Society do not know Oscar, because he last sang with us in our 2010-2011 season. That was the first year I joined VCS, so I didn’t get to know him very well, but it means something that he was one of the first people I learned to recognize; kind, quiet, not one to draw attention to himself. He sang bass. He has a wife named Ann, who survives him.

This post is simply to share the news, and to give information about the funeral, but I hope VCS members who have been in the group longer, and therefore may know Oscar better, will share their memories in the comments.

Oscar Morgenstern’s funeral will be at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 26, at St. Mark’s Catholic Church, 9970 Vale Road, Vienna. In lieu of flowers, the family would be grateful for donations made to St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Oscar’s memory.

Weep if you must, parting is hell. But life goes on, so sing as well. – Joyce Grenfell (1910 – 1979)

~ Karen Akers, President, VCS

Lost and found. Usually more lost than found.

I have a history of finding lost things and returning them. Never turn anything in to the “lost & found.” It will only be lost forever. Finding something and locating its owner is a treasure hunt for me, with great personal satisfaction.

• Umbrella left at Vienna Choral Society practice – I put it in the window behind Jen the next week, and the owner saw it and retrieved it. Otherwise it would probably still be in lost & found somewhere.
• Address Book on the subway platform – old and handwritten – It belonged to a woman from Ohio, visiting DC. It contained most of her adult life. I mailed it to her.
• Wallet rolling in the street by the bus stop – dodged traffic to get it – Just as I thought, the woman had left it on the roof of her car while getting gas. No address or phone, so I called the number on her AmEx card. She was single, well-to-do, and understandably nervous. Happy to find I was not dangerous looking, she offered a reward, which I declined.
• iPhone in the Post Office – iPhones had only been out for a couple months, and were still long back-ordered. Called the most recently called number.

“Ricardo. What’s up!”
“Sorry. I am not Ricardo but I have his phone. How can I get it to him?”

Note: put a label inside the shell, “Reward if Found. Call ____.” I got my own BlackBerry back that way. Twice.

~ Tom Johnston, VCS Bass

* Tom’s in the crazy white wig. In case that wasn’t apparent. 

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