The Vancouver Chamber Choir's new series of CDs
The Vancouver Chamber Choir has an exciting new series of CDs called Music for Healing . It will consist of three discs: Finding the Still Point, Unexpected Gifts, A Quiet Place – lullabies and more...
To listen to Laverne talk with Sheryl Mackay of CBC Radio 1 about the Music for Healing Series go to www.cbc.ca
The first CD in the Music for Healing series is Finding the Still Point. It was released in late September of 2006 and is now in its fourth pressing. Popular response to this therapeutic disc has been overwhelming. One family, after the death of their father, wrote "The music you left made that hospital room a sacred place." Still Point was conceived as an accompaniment for alternative therapy sessions, such as Healing Touch. It is intended to help people find an inner quiet centre, especially those in difficulty, dealing with palliative care or simply seeking respite from daily travail. Its theme is achieving balance, as reflected in the disc's title and the balanced rocks of the cover art.
The Vancouver Chamber Choir would like to share an innovative opportunity with your organization in a way that will help you to fund your crucial projects and activities. We are offering you Finding the Still Point as a vehicle to create your own booklet of stories from your own donors. Added to our original booklet and CD, this would create a Limited Edition of the CD which reflects your own community. The potential revenue is significant. For information on this offer email Laverne Gfroerer or call Violet Goosen at 604-738-6822.
The Vancouver Chamber Choir is grateful to all who contributed to Finding the Still Point, especially the following people who generously sponsored pages in the booklet: Mary Jean Abbott, Cecilia Chueh, Tama Copithorne, Bill Dyer & Wendie Reinhardt, Al and Bernice Lill, Jacquie Forbes-Roberts, Laverne Gfroerer, Tim Laithwaite & Fiona Blackburn, Marla Mayson, Naramata Centre Healing Pathway, Roger & Laurine Nickel, Viviane Nitting, Spirit Singers of Highlands United Church North Vancouver, Bill Vermeulen and Sharon Yetman.
When the National Arts Centre Foundation heard about this new community outreach initiative and its innovative funding formula, they invited the Vancouver Chamber Choir to present both the completed Still Point disc and the proposal for the new Unexpected Gifts project at their 2006 Roundtable on Mental Health and the Arts, where both projects were extremely well received.
Unexpected Gifts is a new and different concept which combines music and dialogue. It tells the story of a family (Paul and Jan with their children Chloe and Jake) which is dealing with one of the most challenging experiences in life - the serious illness of a child. The disc strives to create a safe, calm environment where parents can put aside their own fears momentarily and talk to their children (and each other) with increased openness and honesty. It tries to enable touching, relieve fear and to help parents reconnect with each other. In the midst of the chaos of hospitals, tests and seemingly endless waiting, music can often provide a much needed moment of grace.
Unexpected Gifts Music for Healing II is available in two versions. The version with the green cover is an all- music disc of familiar gentle folksongs and is for commercial sale. The heart of the project, however, is the purple 2 disc set subtitled ‘family set: dialogues for families in crisis”. This family set has the all-music disc but also has a disc of seven dialogues – the innermost thoughts of the family - set over harp interludes amidst the folksongs.
At the launch of Unexpected Gifts we were delighted to have Candace Newton speak about our wonderful partners in this venture - the Michael Cuccione Foundation. She also touched us all as she shared the story of her 4 year old granddaughter’s battle with leukemia. Explore her website: www.unlockingsecrets.com
The Vancouver Chamber Choir gratefully acknowledges the sponsors of Unexpected Gifts :
Lead Partner Michael Cuccione Foundation 
Sponsors British Columbia Boys Choir 
Bull Housser & Tupper LLP 
Martha Lou Henley Charitable Foundation
Dorothy Gfroerer
There have also been many generous individual donors. Thank you for your support.
The Vancouver Chamber Choir is embarking on the third disc in its Music
for Healing series. It is to be called A Quiet Place - lullabies and more.
Our intention is to integrate the concepts of Finding the Still Point and
Unexpected Gifts in a way that helps children, and their parents, find
that inner stillness that is so healing.
The disc will be a combination of lullabies and gentle songs interspersed
with poems. It is our hope that the CD will be calming for children who
are agitated, reassuring for those who are frightened, and comforting for
those who are ill or grieving. Parents - whether or not their children are
in difficulty - need resources that enable sharing moments of calmness and
connection with each child. This disc will be focused on creating such an
environment.
We expect to record A Quiet Place in the 2008/2009 season and have an
exciting and innovative approach to funding it! We will be giving families
the opportunity to personalize the CD for their child through limited
edition covers. These covers, an integral part of the booklet, will be a
picture of the child (or child with parent, grandparent or family member)
framed by our standard border.
For a $1000 donation, each family will receive 10 CDs with their limitededition cover and a tax receipt for $850.
There will also be an opportunity for businesses or groups to sponsor a cover for a child as a community outreach initiative.
For more information, or to be placed on the list for the limited edition covers, please contact Laverne Gfroerer at 604-985-3280 or
.