Joyful Voices Chorus -- Winter '24 -- San Anselmo

TL;DR: Want a ticket to our 7-week community choir (including the Big Sing) in San Anselmo starting 2/26? Or just a ticket for our drop-in evening with Noe Venable on 2/26? Or, if you haven't sung with our choir before, a try-it-FREE ticket for our March 5th evening? Or a ticket to our community-wide Big Sing with Melanie DeMore on 4/5? Click the orange Get Tickets button!

Love to sing while you're driving? On a walk? In the shower? Then this joyful, soulful, uplifting community choir is for you! Our Joyful Voices Chorus is:

• So easy to join in and sing because singing experience is never needed, and, because all songs are taught by ear, line-by-line call-and-repeat-style, there's no music to read!
  
• Non-auditioned, non-performative, and anti-perfectionistic.
• Welcoming, accepting, and inclusive. We create a safe, non-judgmental, collaborative space that's supportive for all, especially if you're feeling nervous about sharing your voice.
• SO. MUCH. FUN.

So...what kinds of songs do we sing?

• Led by Marv Zauderer, we sing short-form, non-religious, easy-to-learn songs mostly sourced from the modern community singing movement -- unison songs, chants, rounds, layer songs, and 2-, 3-, and 4-part harmony songs. With the occasional old favorite, too -- perhaps even a sea shanty!
  
• Songs are selected for their ability to rejuvenate, soothe, uplift and inspire! Songs of belonging, songs of healing, songs of hope, songs of joy.
  
• Feel free to check out our YouTube channel for videos and audio of us singing, and our Song Library, which has every song we've sung so far -- and there will be a whole bunch of new songs this season!

Our 7-week community choir, which, although similar in most ways to our drop-in All In Song Circle, brings you unique benefits that come from being part of a consistent group:

• Some of our songs can be juicier, richer songs that take parts of 2-3 successive evenings to learn. So juicy!
  
• We get to co-create and experience a deeper feeling of community with each other!
• Although there's no need to practice the songs between evenings, there will be practice tracks posted online for each part of every song if you'd like to practice.
• The 7th week, Saturday, April 5th, 3:30-5:30, we'll again be holding a Big Sing in San Anselmo -- a wonderful celebration of singing together and building community! This is NOT a performance -- we'll invite family and friends and the community to sing with us! (but no pressure, they can hum or just listen if they'd like.) I'll teach a couple songs that we've been working on (choir members vote in advance on which ones), and then I'll turn it over to our Guest Songleader, the incredible Melanie DeMore!! (pictured, see bio below)
  
                           
  
  This Big Sing is going to be amazing! (Check out our YouTube channel and our Photo Gallery for videos and photos of our previous Big Sings.)
  
• If you haven't sung with the choir before, you can try it FREE, only during Week 2 (March 5th), before committing to the season (and of course you are welcome to buy a ticket to 2/26 as well, see below). 
• Missed a week? (or any week) No problem! I always review what we're working on, we have practice tracks posted online so you can catch up, and every evening has songs that we learn completely that night!
  

Here are some of the comments from singers in past seasons of the Joyful Voices Chorus:

• "Uplifting in every way."
• "I felt invigorated, connected, peaceful, and nourished."
• "This kind of singing is my daily medicine to get through the hard stuff in life."
• "I felt a reconnection to a childhood love that I had lost touch with, and I felt joy, more openness, and a sense of community."
• "All my wife knows is that I come home Wednesday nights feeling better than when I left."
• "Marv's style of teaching was one of the best things about the chorus: his ease that let me feel at ease about not having to get it right, his positivity, his play, his energy, and his effort to want things to work for us all."
• "I felt different feelings throughout: sometimes deeply touching my heart and soul, sometimes very playful."
• "Sometimes I'm feeling kind of down and I don't really want to come to choir, but I just know 10 minutes in, I'm already going to feel better."
• "It was very uplifting -- we felt inspired and happier every single time."
• "I felt like I was a part of something larger -- it was very uniting and spiritual for me."
• "It touched my heart and soul!"
  

The details:

• We're in our usual big Duncan Hall auditorium space at the church in San Anselmo Wednesday evenings, 7:00-8:30, February 26-April 2, plus the Big Sing in Duncan Hall with Guest Songleader Melanie DeMore on Saturday, April 5th, 3:30-5:30. We'll have some fans/doors/windows open for airflow and the massive heating system going to keep us warm if needed. If you haven't been in Duncan Hall, you can check out our latest Big Sing Photo Gallery to get a good look.
• We are SO lucky to have the amazing Noe Venable (pictured; see bio below) joining Marv as Guest Songleader at a special open-to-the-community Opening Night of the Joyful Voices Chorus on Wednesday, 2/26, 7:00-8:30!
  
                                 
                                                   
• Note that our special evening with Noe on 2/26 is included in choir members' fee; for non-choir members, the ticket price is $20 Standard/$25 Supporting/$15 Supported. If you buy a ticket to sing with Noe then decide to join the choir, you'll get credit towards your choir fee from your Noe ticket.
  
• Sliding scale cost for the 7-week series including our Noe evening and the Big Sing with Melanie: $115-$175. Lower amounts make the choir more accessible to more people, higher amounts support folks who need a lower fee at this time, you choose the fee that feels affordable and generous. Your payment is for the entire series, regardless of attendance.
  
• Early Bird Discount for the choir if you register by Thursday, February 13 at midnite: $99 (such a deal!).
  
• Kids under 18 are FREE with accompanying adult.
  
• And, if you haven't sung in the choir before, feel free to try the choir one night FREE, only on March 5th!
  
• Community members who don't want to join the choir, but do want to attend our evening with Noe and/or the Big Sing, can buy tickets just for those.
  
• Our COVID policy is required reading before you attend.
• Note that we're also scent-free, thank you!
• If you (ever) have a challenge getting to/from choir, or you can offer a ride to a choir member, please email me, we're setting up carpools.

Come and co-create the magic of singing in community with the Joyful Voices Chorus! Reserve your seat in the choir, get a try-it-FREE ticket for 3/5, or get a one-time ticket to sing with all of us and Noe Venable on 2/26 or Melanie DeMore on 4/5 by clicking the orange Get Tickets button -- I hope to sing with you!

Warmly,

Marv Zauderer

Joyful Voices Chorus Director & Enthusiator

pronouns: he/they (what are these?)

e: marv@singwithmarv.com  •  w: singwithmarv.com  •  t: 415.488.5969

Marv Zauderer (he/they) leads community choirs and song circles on unceded Coast Miwok land in Marin County, CA. He loves the magic of singing together, magic that can connect us deeply and uniquely with each other and exquisitely bridge so many divides in this more-than-human world. He is passionate about co-creating spaces for singing that are safe, welcoming, and easy for anyone to join in and feel alive, well held, and uplifted.

Melanie DeMore is a 3-time Grammy-nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director, and vocal activist who believes in the power of voices raised together.

“If you can walk you can dance, if you can talk you can sing.” Fifteen years ago, Noe Venable made this Zimbabwean proverb her motto. Since then, she has helped more than three thousand Bay Area families to sing more, feel better with her award-winning music offerings centering nature, spirit, and authentic connection.  She currently leads two weekly community choruses with cohorts in San Francisco, Berkeley and Pacifica - Forest Voices Choir for children and Mothersong Chorus for women and nonbinary folks. In addition, she is the children’s music director for the California Revels. Also a seasoned singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and storyteller, Noe weaves a spell of wonder to help us reconnect to myth, magic and the deeper currents of life.