Meet Joan Ostler

Joan has been with our chorus from the beginning. She sings first soprano.

Joan was born in Lovell, Wyoming. Other places she's lived are: Billings, Montana; Bountiful, Utah; Boise, Idaho; Cowley, Wyoming; and Lehi, Utah.

After graduating high school in Cowley, Wyoming, Joan gave up two academic scholarships to marry her sweetheart, Wayne. Wayne and Joan met at a movie. They have three children: Shon, 41; Collette, 40; and Amy, 36. They have eight and a half grandchildren.

Joan has many hobbies, and says there's never a reason to be bored. Among her interests are: oil, water, and tole painting; sewing; needlework; reading; playing the piano and scrap-booking. Joan also played the clarinet and bassoon in high school and at one time taught both piano and voice lessons.

Joan's first job was working in a canning factory, where she helped can corn, beans, peas, and many other things. She and her husband owned their own business for many years, up until very recently. If I understand correctly, they made computerized cow trackers. Joan helped on the computer end of the business.

Joan prefers books over movies, but says she likes movies too. Some of her favorite bokos are Jane Eyre, Uncle Tom's cabin, The Secret Life of Bees, and the Harry Potter series. Her favorite movie is South Pacific.

Show tunes are Joan's favorite type of music, so she's really happy to be singing them this spring. her favorite TV show is "Castle," or pretty much anything on HD TV.

Joan's current ward callings are ward music chair and Relief Society pianist.

Joan's go-to meal is homemade chicken noodle soup. Her favorite food is rib eye steak, and her least favorite is anything that tastes like black licorice.

One thing most people don't know about Joan is that during her senior year of high school she served as student body president.

Joan would like us to know that she has loved music her entire life and that she has a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pattern for Music Holders for Binders

Here is an image of the pattern for the music holders for your binders. Click on the image to maximize it, then you can right click over the image and save it to your computer, then print it out. When you print, make sure your margins are set at 0 and you're printing at 100% for an accurate pattern. I would recommend printing it onto card stock if you can.

I used flexible cutting mats for my music holders. Cheap plastic folders to put paper in also work, and are dirt cheap. You can cut either type of plastic with scissors, and then use an Exact-O knife to cut the slot in the inside of each music holder.

To use the holders, open one of your music pieces to the very center and slide all of one side into the slot of the holder until the middle folds over the narrow strip of the holder. You might want to secure the music to the holder with one small piece of tape. Try to position the tape so that it isn't over any print. If you need a demonstration, just snag me at our next rehearsal.

- Karen

Original Music

For those who missed our meeting on the 12th, this is important information. Cory is not going to be making copies of the music for this season. Instead, each chorus member will purchase original music. If both spouses are in the choir, one original music set can be ordered and copies made by you for the other spouse. Cory will let us know how much the music costs. Please talk to him if this will present a financial burden. Just FYI, last time the music cost about $60 per set.

We're asking each chorus member to provide their own rehearsal binder. Any standard 3-ring binder will work. Any color. The black binders will be used for performances. This will make them last longer and stay looking nice.

So, please bring a binder to the first rehearsal on the 26th and bring money to pay for the music.

I sent out an email about music holders. Here's a picture of what they look like:

Please let me know if you want me to make these for you.

Set Three Goals

Hi Chorus Members,

In last night's choir meeting, Cory talked a lot about becoming better as a group. He told us again and again that we are talented and that we have the potential to be great. He also told us about the positive feedback we were given for our Christmas performances.

To keep progressing as a choir, Cory asked us each to set three chorus-related goals. He said to write them down and put them in our folders where we would see them every time we sing. Your goals should be personal--what you need to work on and how you can improve. To get you started thinking, here are possible goals I came up with (some were mentioned at the meeting) -  make your part a melody, come to rehearsal on time, improve your voice, memorize the words, memorize your part, try to be more pleasant to look at while you sing, work harder, have a good attitude, learn to sight read, listen more, spend more time at home going over your music, talk less, reign in your vibrato, no "H's," get to know more members of the chorus, etc.

Chorus Meeting on Jan 12

Hopefully you got Cory's email about the meeting, but I'm repeating it here just to be thorough.

Our first meeting for the spring chorus is January 12, at the same church where we rehearse, but this will not be a rehearsal, just a meeting.

See you there!

Chorus Picture

Here we are, getting ready for our December 19 performance at the beautiful Stone Gate historic building. We love the acoustics there! You can click on the picture to see a larger version.

An Idea For You

I thought this idea might be beneficial to you.

In the back of my black binder I have one of those zippered pencil pouches. In it, I have a couple of cough drops, a couple of tissues, an extra pencil and my reading glasses. These are things I thought I might need during a performance, but didn't want to worry about digging them out of a pocket or purse. The pouch is also where I stashed my cell phone after it embarrassed me that one Wednesday. If you do put a cell phone in it, take my advice and turn it off. :)

Anyway, just an idea. It works well for me.

Karen