LAURA PRICHARD, DIRECTOR
ARGONAUTS MUSIC CLUB
Yale & Manhattan Performing Trip
Broadway's The Book of Mormon
April 2014: Twelve students and eighteen adults met in Boston to see the closing night of the touring Broadway company of The Book of Mormon at the Boston Opera House. Group leaders distributed copies of the text that inspired the play two weeks before the trip, and we celebrated several upcoming study abroad and college acceptances (including Cambridge University, Yale, a Berkshire Scholar position at
the Berkshire Choral Festival, and Malcolm Dalglish's Ooolation High Sierra Summer Workshop).
Our next trip to see a musical will be the A.R.T. premiere of Finding Neverland in Cambridge, MA in August 2014.
October 2013: Nineteen singers and family members traveled by car and Amtrak train to Yale University and New York City over Columbus Day weekend. We performed in Grand Central Station, at All Soul's Unitarian Church on Lexington Avenue (both services), and sang/danced in a sea shanty workshop at Mystic Seaport. We saw The Yale Exit Players comedy show, ate at Yorkside Pizza and the new Café of the Juilliard School, toured St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center and Lincoln Center, viewed great works of art at the Met Museum, participated in a professional improv show, and rode on the Prichards' boat in Narragansett Bay.
April 2013: Twenty-four singers and chaperones traveled to the Montréal Unitarian Church in April for a four-day Arts/Music Enrichment Trip. We enjoyed a full day in Quebec City and explored the Old Town and Mont Royal Cathedral districts of Montréal. We participated in a carillon workshop by Colombine Garnier at the Oratory St. Joseph and shared a fondue banquet at the Alpenhaus restaurant.We also visited the new downtown art museums in Montréal (now joined with underground tunnels), toured the Ben & Jerry's Factory in Vermont, and had dinner in a McGill University dining hall.
December 8, 2013: Nineteen singers joined with youth from the Bedford UU Children's Choirs and a Catholic Elementary school in Waltham to lead carols for the Waltham Symphony's annual Pops Concert. Arlington Ottoson School Advanced Strings, led by Jing-Huey Wei, were a highlight of the event. J. Welby and L. Prichard conducted the combined choirs in Hark, How the Bells and Autumn Jig.
We dressed up and enjoyed or own Green Room and reception at Kennedy Middle School Auditorium.
Quebec, Canada Performing Trip
Waltham Symphony Pops
PAST ACTIVITIES
Here are some of our recent trips and performances.
June 2013: Eighteen singers and family members traveled to Martha's Vineyard to collaborate with Jim Thomas and the U.S. Slave Song Project Choir. We were joined for an evening concert at the Katharine Cornell Theater in Tisbury, MA by Phil Dietterich, the Vintage Voices, the Scottish Society, and the choir of the United Church of Edgartown, conducted by Peter Boak. We enjoyed a weekend of biking, camping, playing on Lambert's Cove Beach, petting alpacas, feasting, singing, and raised over $3,000 to support victims of the Marathon bombing.
One Fund Boston Fundraiser
May 2014: Fourteen students and adults returned to Martha's Vineyard to share a free afternoon song recital for Vineyard Seniors and to contribute to a music-themed service at the UU Society in Vineyard Haven/Tisbury. L. Prichard gave the sermon, entitled "Paradise Found," and we sang selections including Away from the Roll of the Sea by Allistair MacGillivray, In Paradisum from Fauré's Requiem, a spiritual led by Jim Thomas, and four hymns. Carol Loud played organ and John Gorman, retiring Choral Director, played piano in the service. The Prichards and Rowan Wheeler sang solos and duets, John Burt led the singing of songs by Robert Burns, and Denisa Burt accompanied a variety of songs on guitar.