This past year has been an extremely busy and eventful one for our choir. In March of 2005, we sang at the Greek Orthodox Church in Markham for the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Also, in March, we participated at the Micic organized Humanitarian Evening. We sang at Vespers in Whitby on March 27 and held a garage sale on April 24. On the weekend of May 28 & 29 we sang at the SSF Festival in Pittsburgh where we debuted our new choir costumes – I must admit that we made a pretty picture. On July 23 we had our choir picnic in Milton. On September 10, we participated at the Church Vasar followed by our church Slava the next day. We held our 50th Anniversary Concert on October 1&2; we participated at the celebration of Father Doders 25th anniversary also in October; and we traveled to Cleveland for the weekend of October 22&23. On November 25th, we participated at the Micic sponsored Kosovski Bozuri and on December 10th, we participated at the Jovan Ducic Society program. And finally, we made a significant contribution to the St. Sava Program held January 28, 2006. Interspersed throughout the year, we sold coffee & cakes once per month and sang for many weddings throughout the year. All of that, along with executing our prime responsibility of responding to Liturgies every Sunday in our beautiful church.
We had significant events or challenges this year.
The sudden departure of our former director Nikola forced the board to spent considerable time and energy to
recommend a path forward to our members to replace Nikola, and in July, the membership supported the boards’
recommendation to hire Janez Govednik to take over as musical director of this choir on a 10 month contract.
Also out of this situation that started with Nikola’s resignation, Karolina and Marina stepped forward to
address the fact that we needed more assistant directors for Liturgy. I personally thank them for their
personal courage and dedication to this choir for stepping forward to learn how to direct us – this is a
major commitment by each of them and the 3 of us will continue to direct liturgies for 2006 – assuming
the membership is ok with this arrangement.
The other major challenge for us this past year, was planning, organizing, and executing our plan for the 50th Anniversary Concert.
It was a major task and I wish to thank the concert committee, led by Alex Brkic for the outstanding job they did.
The objective was to make it a special event that would be remembered.
It was no easy task to put on an event at two locations – here and at the Living Arts
Center but we had great support from our choir members, as well as the public who bought
tickets for the concert and dance, and attended the banquet on the Sunday. The concert itself
was terrific with 4 other choirs including our Kumovi Choir the Petar Krstic Choir from Steubenville Ohio participating.
It certainly turned out to be a weekend to remember.
Going forward, our main challenge is one that has plagued us for many years. Our potential is great;
but our willingness to live up to that potential is weak. I am referring to the fact that we still have
very erratic attendance at rehearsals and liturgy. In light of the fact that we are paying a professional
director now, we are not taking advantage of what Janez has to offer us by the simple fact that many members
attend irregularly. We need to find ways; new ideas to motivate our membership to attend more frequently so
that we can continue to evolve into the best choir that we can be.
We also need to continue to be very active in this community and to continue with our internal fundraising activities –
specifically to continue to sing at as many weddings as we can so that we have an income stream to fund our expenses.
So although we had a busy 2005, expect 2006 to be similar as we plan out our schedule which will most certainly include
Vespers/Festival/Picnic/Weddings and Annual Concert in the fall.
Before I conclude my remarks, I want to specifically thank Djordjo for continually updating our choir website – it is a wonderful and informative site that we should be proud of and he has taken great care in maintaining our site on the choirs behalf.
Finally, I want to thank the outgoing board for the hard work done on behalf of the membership and to thank each of you for supporting the board and myself in 2005. As you elect a new board, the first question you should ask yourself is “What can I do to help the choir in 2006” because it is not the work of one person or the board that will make 2006 a success - but the combined efforts of each and everyone of you that will determine the progress and success that we will enjoy.
©SAINT SAVA SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH CHOIR ( TORONTO– MISSISSAUGA )
Design and concept by Djordjo B. Vasic, 2004
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