The choir once again enjoyed a brilliant Highland Games in Victoria, and was doubly fortunate in that we had perhaps one of the nicest Victoria Day long weekends in recent memory. Our formal Saturday choir performance brought in a sizable crowd and we had little outside competition from pipers this year. That afternoon we did a second performance that focused on 'waulking' songs, and were lucky enough to have a length of freshly woven tweed for the task from the local weaver's guild. Unfortunately, like last year, our exuberance and talent ensured that the tweed was 'fulled' within a couple of songs, so it was fall back on the short length of material to drag the crowd in. Overall it was a lot of fun and we had great audience participation. 

Our Sunday and Monday ceilidh style performances went very well with some outstanding solos, duets, and trios from our members. Crowds were thinner because of our early times, but they were still happy to join in on choruses.

In between, the choir tent was the social hub of the games where singing, whisky, and fine companionship were the highlights of the day. For those experiencing their first Highland Games with the choir, I think it was fair to say that a good time was had by all.

Now we begin our wrap up with the season including our AGM and final ceilidh night. 

It's mid July and already the Choir's Executive is planning for a busy schedule come the fall. We said thank you to our long time president, Elizabeth Bennet, who opted to take a well deserved break from the board after several years of devoted service. We have many new faces in our executive - some veteran members and some new. All are eager for a new session which looks forward to another whisky tasting and a fall ceilidh. We had an excellent High;and Games with a lot of interest by prospective members so we hope to see them when our practices resume on 7 September. Stay tuned! 

Time trucks on and we're getting closer and closer to the 2014 Mod in Inverness! Preparations are well under way and the choir is madly rehearsing the competition songs. We are, in fact, getting ready for an even earlier competition - the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival in April. And, of course, we've been busy with Burns season and the many performances we had during January and early February. No rest for the wicked!

We hosted a ceilidh out in Brentwood Bay in November at which we debuted a new song, a puirt, that we'd been working on for the previous few months. We've now added the song to our performance repertoire and have had a few opportunities to get some toes tapping with it at some of our recent performances. We'll have another new puirt soon as well - one of the competition pieces for the Mod.

And in other news, we're pleased to welcome several new members and old members who have returned after a few years' hiatus. It's lovely to have some new voices and energy added to the choir. We are, of course, always welcoming new members.

Hope all is well with you and we'll see you at a performance soon! Keep checking our upcoming performances schedule for updates.

How time flies! We've been busy this season singing away at many wonderful gigs including The Kirkin' o' the Tartan at St. Aidan's Church and the Tartan Day festival in April. It was lovely to have some sunshin for Tartan Day this year and the entertainment was varied and, well, entertaining! Some of us even managed to try out our weightlifting skills at the Highland Games heavy events demonstration.

For those who have been following my blog (as sparse as it's been), The Importance of Being Earnest was a success and I have fully recovered from that. I have, however, gone straight into a teaching practicum at David Cameron Elementary School and have been spending my days (and my "free time") chasing (and, hopefully, teaching) a fantastic class of grade one students and planning, preparing, planning and more preparing for lessons! It has been, so far, a busy but incredibly rewarding experience. Four more weeks to go!

And back to the choir news. We've been working diligently on some new songs, including the music for 2013 Royal National Mod in Scotland. We won't be attending that competition; however, it's excellent practice as preparation for our attendance the following year. And, of course, the music is fantastic anyway and will be a great addition to our repertoire. We're also busy preparing for the Highland Games over the Victoria Day long weekend in May. We will be performing in the Heritage Tent this year - a more intimate setting and a longer performance slot. The festival is going to be an exciting one this year with many top competitors for the heavy events and pipe band competitions as well as appearances from this year's special guest and Chieftan of the Games, His Highness the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. We will have a booth there all weekend as usual, so be sure to drop in and visit us while you're checking out the other events at the Games... and be sure to come see our performance on Saturday (the 18th) at 2:30! See you then!

Our 2013 Burns season went rather swimmingly. We had two afternoon perfomances (one at Amica at Douglas House and one at Berwick House on Shelbourne) and one evening Burns dinner at the Unitarian Church on West Saanich. We had a grand time at all three events and our audiences highly enjoyed themselves. I saw many people singing along and we even got a standing ovation at the Unitarian Church! Of course, the dinner was, as always, tasty and filling and choir members did their best to dance off the haggis post-dinner.

We've got a few weeks off before our next two performances in April, Tartan Day on the 6th and the Kirkin' o' the Tartan on the 7th, and are busily working on two new songs that we're hoping to debut in April. We're also brushing up on some songs in our repertoire that we haven't sung in a while, so rehearsals are busy as always. The music for this year's Mod has arrived and we will likely be learning that soon in order to expand our repertoire and to further prepare ourselves for our own Mod trip in 2014. No rest for the wicked!

April will be a busy time for me as The Importance of Being Earnest will be running the first two weekends and then I begin my first practicum. I'll be teaching grade one at David Cameron Elementary for six weeks and am looking forward to getting my hands dirty in a real classroom. Never fear, I'll be teaching them some music and perhaps even a little Gaelic! We'll see how much my mentor teacher allows me to get away with.

In the meantime, I wish you all a happy spring. I really hope this mild weather lasts as I'm about to plant some vegetables in my garden! Hope to see you in our audience in April.

Welcome to a brand new era for the Victoria Gaelic Choir! So many changes in such a short time, but all of them are leaving me with a wonderful sense of productivity and positivity.

Change #1: As simple and as obvious as it sounds, it's a new year. We're now two weeks into 2013, despite some expectations of an apocalypse in 2012 that, just like Y2K doomsday predictions, turned out to be complete bunk. Surprise, surprise. Thankfully, this means that we get to continue on singing away! January also means Burns season, so we are gearing up for three upcoming Burns performances. Our first performance of the season and of the new year is coming up this Saturday with two more following next Friday. Check out our Upcoming Events page for more information.

Change #2: We held our AGM in early December and shook up our Executive, welcoming three new members, allowing one member to take some time off and rest, and shifting some positions around. This year's Executive is as follows:

President - Elizabeth Bennett
Vice-President - Jean Layland
Secretary - Margaret Chapman
Treasurer - Thelma Bell
Members-at-Large - Bonnie Boulter, Irena Jazwinski and Lois Theaker
Past President - Sharron Gunn

As you can probably guess from the "Past President" position, I am one of the changes! I've given up my position as member-at-large in charge of media and public relations and taken on the presidency. I am joined by a fantastic team of wonderful individuals and am looking forward to a successful year together. We've already had our first Executive meeting and have made ourselves some lofty and much-needed goals, which leads to...

Change #3: Inverness! We've been throwing about plans for a trip to Scotland and the Royal National Mod for some years now and have come to the conclusion that Inverness in 2014 is a go. We've already begun to plan, beginning with booking accommodation. Yep, it's really happening! There's plenty to do to prepare for the competition, so it's a good thing we've got a few months to organize ourselves! Accommodation is the first and most important step. From there, we'll be figuring out which choir members are committed to going, how many of those members have Gaelic language cards and how many more we'll need to meet the quota, arrange flights, fundraise, talk subsidies... the list of tasks goes on and on. One step at a time, though, and we're underway!

Change #4: Our online presence has been somewhat limited over the last few months, and we're making big strides to change that and move ourselves into the big scary world of social media and more. To that end, welcome to our brand new website! We also have a brand new and shiny Facebook page to add to our existing YouTube channel. Twitter will be coming soon. So you can bookmark us, like us, subscribe to us, follow us, email us... basically any verb you could possibly want to achieve online! It's an exciting new venture for us, so be sure to check our various sites for updates and more entertainment.

Change #5: I've changed our email newsletter, the Guth nan Eilean Chronicler, to a blog for more convenient distribution and updating. Of course, you've noticed that, since you're reading the blog... The website will also be used for uploading and distributing the audio files we used to burn onto CDs and the translation and pronunciation guides we've been printing and giving to choir members. Yes, this means we're moving more into the digital world and, in turn, saving the environment!

I think that sums up all the changes so far. No doubt there will be more in the coming months.

In other news, I'm going to take this opportunity to remind everyone that January is not only Burns month, it is also Alzheimer Awareness Month. As many of you know, I'm heavily involved with the Alzheimer Society of BC and Chair the Investors Group Walk for Memories in Victoria. The IG Walk for Memories is an annual fundraiser for the Society and is held on the last Sunday of January in various locations across BC as the culmination of Alzheimer Awareness Month. This year's Walk is on January 27 and will be at the Edelweiss Club in Victoria. Registration opens at 9 am and the Walk begins at 10 am. You can register at www.walkformemories.com or just show up and register on the day. Collect donations and support a wonderful cause - it is estimated that 1 in 3 Canadians know someone with Alzheimer's or related dementia... who do you know? You can also join my team here or donate to me here.

And in yet more news, I've just accepted the role of the Honourable Gwendolen Fairfax in the upcoming Peninsula Players production of The Importance of Being Earnest. The play will be running in April and I will keep you all updated so you can come see the show. I'll be working with a fantastic cast and a director with a lot of fun ideas, beginning with setting the play in the '60s Mod era. Yep, that means amazing geometric and colourful dresses and, potentially, a crazy 5-point haircut for me! Ah, the things we do for art...

That's it for now, folks. I'd love to hear your feedback on the new website and Facebook page, so feel free to contact me or leave comments on the blog.

Happy singing, and I hope to see you at the Walk on the 27th!

Liz