This page contains information you need to know to participate in the Blue Ridge Choir Festival event. Choir directors: please encourage your singers to read it prior to attending the event.

Participating Choirs & Number of Singers

Blue Ridge Vocal Connection                                  25

Dublin Baptist Church                                                9

Grove United Methodist Church                           13

Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church        12

Raleigh Court United Methodist Church               ?

St. John’s Episcopal Church                                     12

Wilderness Road Chorus                                         12

Choirs

Participating choirs may perform up to 6 minutes of music of their choice. Music and rehearsal tracks for the joint closing song are posted on our website here. Rehearsing it ahead of time isn’t necessary, but if you can it will help everyone bring it together during the 4 pm rehearsal. You are also welcome to print copies for your own use in connection with this event. However, we plan to print and provide sufficient copies for all of the singers who attend. One of the closing songs, I Will Bless the Lord has a small group trio descant. We’ll identify volunteers to sing that part during the 4 pm rehearsal.

Please note this change to prior information: We initially offered choirs up to 6 minutes to perform. But since we only have 6 participating choirs, we’re adding an extra minute of performance time to each group.

4 pm Rehearsal

Maximizing our limited rehearsal time (30 minutes per song!) will be imperative. Plan your arrival to allow sufficient time to deliver food, visit a bathroom, pick up music, and be in place ready to rehearse promptly at 4 pm. In other words, singers should plan to arrive 15-20  minutes before 4 pm. For GPS purposes, the church’s address is 1020 Tyler Avenue, Radford. 

Sit in the congregational pews, filling in from the front, segregated in vocal sections as directed.

If the rehearsal goes long, be prepared to move into the concert portion of the event as efficiently as possible. We’ll leave enough time for you to re-group with any non-singing spectators in your party, but encourage you to not to dally as you do so.

Participating Individuals

Individuals are welcome to participate in the 4 pm rehearsal to learn and perform the joint song at the end. The 5 pm concert is also open to spectators and guests, and we strongly encourage you to invite them.

Supper

The 6:30 pm dinner is a potluck open to singers as well as spectating guests. If you’d like to attend, bring some food to share. Singers advising their guests that they are also welcome to attend the after-concert dinner should either bring enough food to cover them, or ask them to bring additional food themselves.

Plates, utensils, napkins, cups, ice, drinks, etc. will be provided by the host. Please bring at least a main dish and either a salad or dessert sufficient for 12-15 servings. Try to choose something that doesn’t require refrigeration, reheating or prep more substantial than adding a serving utensil.

Sanctuary Instruments

Grove UMC has outstanding instruments available for participating choirs to use, including a grand piano and 4-manual Allen organ. You are welcome to use them as you choose, or bring additional instruments as desired. However, we encourage you to prioritize maximizing vocal performance time and minimizing turnover time over including complex instrumental support.

Sound System

Grove UMC’s sound system is sufficient for the participating choirs. We will provide a separate, single mic for speaking to introduce your group and/or for any soloists you might have. However, if you want additional mics for other subsets of your choir, or if you plan to use instrumentalists besides a pianist or organist, please let us know so we can prepare in advance. Also, if you should plan to use a recorded track, contact us to let us know what format your recording is in.

Platform Traffic Flow

The following instructions are designed to help us cooperatively maximize performance time and minimize “dead” time between performing choirs.

Grove UMC has a split choir loft with seats on opposite sides of the pulpit area. Singers are welcome to use them as they desire. However, we will also set up risers in the center of the platform. Given the size of most of the participating choirs, we expect most directors will choose to use the central risers.

To enhance traffic flow and avoid jams, choirs two and following will quietly stage “on deck” in a hallway that enters the back of the platform behind the organ while the choir immediately before them is performing. Exiting choirs will depart directly from the platform in the sanctuary seating area. Singers with mobility needs can access the platform directly from the sanctuary floor, if desirable.

We will provide an order of performance at the event. The first choir should already be in the choir loft at the beginning of the event with the second choir simultaneously staging in the back access hallway, Successive choirs should move to their preferred performance area when each choir finishes performing and exits the platform to the sanctuary.

Narrators introducing their choirs and/or music should move directly to a mic and start doing so as soon as the preceding choir finishes to minimize turnover delays. Moving choir members should do so without talking, so as not to distract from intervening speakers.

Plan ahead for singers who need special accommodation moving on or off the platform. While Grove UMC has some downstairs educational spaces, all of the activities we’ve planned for this event will occur on the main floor, where ramps and curb cuts are available for anyone who needs to avoid stairs.

Places for the Joint Songs

We anticipate that the platform will be too small to contain all of the singers for the joint songs, especially if we have a robust number of individuals joining as well. But the acoustics are such that we will not the rely on the sound system, so whether singers are on the platform will be irrelevant.

When called upon, singers should move to the front and fill the existing choir loft seating areas and platform starting at the back as quickly as possible. Taller singers should move to the back and shorter ones to the front or sides.

It is quite likely that the platform will not be large enough to accommodate all of the singers for the joint songs. No worries. Spillover into the front floor is expected. Regardless of where located, each singer is responsible to ensure that he/she has a clear view of the director by moving away from obstructions or other singers.