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| As was the custom at Western Way RV Resort at the time, small volunteer groups of residents planned and implemented
a series of social activities or events for one month, all of which were to be open to and enjoyed by all residents of
the park.
In the spring of 1990 several residents of Western Way met and decided to attempt to provide a variety of events for the
following month of December.
This particular planning group consisted of Jack and Betty Thomson, Dick and Karen Lloyd, Ted and Marguerite Emery and
Charlotte Ebert.
One of the twelve events they wished to offer in December was a Festival of Music for the Christmas Season.
Marguerite and Ted were to be in charge of this event.
They posted a sign asking for people to volunteer their talents to perform in this event, seeking singers and other
performers not having much idea what the response would be.
The response was not overwhelming but they did get seven singers who were willing to practice and they prepared a short Christmas Festival of Music to be performed in December 1990. To enlarge the group for that particular performance, they enlisted Randy Emery, the Emery's son from Phoenix, to come down to make a double quartet. The original singers were: sopranos Lucille Witkay and Betty Thomson; altos Marguerite Emery and Rita van't Groenewout; tenors Carol Davis and Ted Emory; and basses Jack Thomson and Randy Emory. They called themselves the Western Way Chorale. Marguerite served as the director. The Festival of Music program included a reading, several solos and a lot of carol singing. Originally, the Chorale was formed for only this one event but Betty Thomson was in charge of planning the Christmas Eve Program and asked the group to also sing in that program. The music was so well received by the audience and the Chorale members had such a good time they decided to keep the group going and to seek additional members during the coming spring of 1991. Under the leadership of Marguerite Emery, several members were added to the group and during the spring they sang several times for appreciative audiences at Western Way. The momentum was building and the growing group decided to call themselves the Western Way Corral -- a play on words that was meant to indicate that they didn't take themselves too seriously but rather they were singing just for fun. They were no competition for the Fred Waring or Norman Luboff choirs but clearly they enjoyed what they were doing. They quickly adopted "Happy Trails" as their signoff number whenever they sang. The following winter season, 1991-1992, again under the leadership of Marguerite Emery, the singers regrouped in the Fall and presented a musical Christmas program and again sang for the Christmas Eve service planned by Betty Thomson. Now up to 22 members, two of the new Corral members, Alice Lord and Dottie Schmidt, decided to make red neck kerchiefs for each member to wear to help give the group an identity. The group sang for several programs at Western Way throughout the season and gave a spring concert in March. The group began to sing more difficult music during this year and hoped to gain more members. They also sang for two 50th wedding anniversary parties for Western Way couples. During the 1992-1993 winter season the Corral sang at the same events as they had for the previous two years and expanded their repertoire as well. They sang several times at the Carondelet Holy Family Nursing Home and also at the Archer Center for senior citizens. As a special event, The Corral invited the Santa Rita Singers from Santa Rita High School to present a short concert for residents at Western Way. Afterwards the Corral members treated their guests to pizza and sang for than while they ate. During the spring, the women from the Corral also sang for a fashion show at the nearby Foothills Clubhouse. During 1992-1993 the Corral was opened to residents from Tucson Estates and the Foothills and membership increased to 28 members. In 1993-1994, still under the leadership of Marguerite Emery, Corral members kept learning new music and continued to sing at places such as Western Way, The Foothills, Holy Family Nursing Home, and Rincon West RV Park. The group was becoming more cohesive and still having a wonderful time making music. In December of 1993 Marguerite was diagnosed with lung cancer and because of all the treatments, she was unable to conduct many of the rehearsals for the Spring 1994 concerts. Jack Thomson, Betty Thomson and Maxine Everaert stepped forward and took over the rehearsals that enabled the group to continue. The group remained about the same size. At this point in the development of the Corral, they had so many people coming to concerts at Western Way that they decided to present each concert twice at Christmas and twice in the Spring. They started by having one concert on Tuesday evening and another on Thursday afternoon to accommodate those who preferred to come in the afternoon to avoid coming out after dark. The 1994-1995 season was a wonderful one. The Corral performed at the usual events as in previous years and added a concert at Rincon West RV Park and one at Trinity Presbyterian Church for their winter visitor's program. The latter two were very well received and were probably the high point of the Corral performances up to that time. The Spring 1995 concert was the best to date as the group sang with great presence and musicality. For that concert Ruth Kieffer, the accompanist, was a great help to Marguerite Emery who was dealing with serious health issues. Ruth's help was especially appreciated with the more difficult music. The Spring concerts included such songs as "We're The Choir" arranged by Kirby Shaw, "Consider Yourself" by Bart/Leyden, "Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit" an arrangement by Knowles, "Tucson" an arrangement from the Tucson Boys Choir, "One Of Those Songs" arranged by MacDuff, "Give My Regards To Broadway" by Cohan, a MacDuff arrangement of "Rogers & Hammerstein On Broadway", and ended with "Happy Trails" arranged by Marguerite herself. It was a fitting ending for Marguerite's career as director of the Western Way Corral! The two Spring 1995 concerts proved to be the last one of our founder and director, Marguerite, who passed away in early December, 1995. Also, during this season Alice and Dottie added earrings to go along with the kerchiefs as part of the Corral attire for women. In the Fall of 1995 Maxine Everaert took over as the new director and Ruth Kieffer was the accompanist. An experiment involving a slide show that went along with the music turned out to be unsuccessful since the room in the Western Way Clubhouse could not be made dark enough to see the slides and also light enough for the singers to see their music. As the group started rehearsing for the 1996 Spring Concert, Maxine developed physical problems that required surgery so she asked Ruth Kieffer to take over the conducting until she could return. Unfortunately Maxine's physical problems did not allow her to return. However, Bob Fisher, who had joined the Corral that year as a bass singer was also an excellent accompanist and was willing to help out. He and Ruth shared the directing and the accompanying for the Spring concerts. The Corral continued to sing short programs for various small groups upon request and presented the usual longer concerts in the Spring. At this point the group consisted of 23 members. The next Corral year, 1996-1997, found Ruth Kieffer still conducting with Bob Fisher as accompanist. We continued to sing for small groups and to give the traditional concerts at Christmas and in the Spring. Until this year, the group had survived by using old music that could be copied legally and without attempting to raise revenue to buy new music. Much appreciated monies had been donated by the Western Way Men's Breakfast Committee and similar groups but even generous donations from others were not sufficient to buy much music for such a large singing group. Ruth had purchased some music with her own money but that was not a feasible solution to the problem. She proposed to have a free will offering at the closing of each concert at Western Way and Tucson Estates to supplement the small amounts of available money. The Corral continued to sing for outside groups such as nursing homes for free. Ruth and Don Kieffer also made a wonderful gift of new folders for each singer to hold their music and it made singing so much easier. Ruth also kept financial records for the group as to how much we collected from free will offerings and how the money was spent. At this point there were 30 singers and both the Christmas and the Spring concerts went very well. The 1997-1998 year continued the overall progress of the Corral. As usual, the group sang for various small groups as well as giving conceits at Western Way and the Foothills. This year Charlotte Nehls was the accompanist and Ruth Kieffer the director. This was also the first year that we provided printed programs for the audience. Prior to this time Jim Kirchhoff served as the announcer/narrator for the programs, a capacity in which he continued to serve whenever needed. He was particularly capable at finding interesting highlights to many of the songs that were being sung. Jack Thomson narrated for the Christmas programs. During this year the number of singers dropped off a little and there were only 22 singers. During 1998-1999, Bob Fisher returned as accompanist and Ruth continued as conductor/director. Ruth had taken on this role back in the Spring of 1996 with a lot of enthusiasm and interest but not with a lot of previous experience in conducting. By the Spring of 1999 she was really finding her own conducting style and the Corral responded by continuing to improve even while singing more difficult music. Some favorite numbers for the 1998 Christmas concert were the German "Snow Carol", along with "Candlelight Carol" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", both by John Rutter. For the Spring 1999 concert the Corral had fun with Randall Thompson's "The Road Not Taken", Ringwald's arrangement of "Precious Lord", "Banquet Fugue" by Rutter, "All I Ask of You" by Webber, and "Embraceable You" by Gershwin, along with several other fun numbers. Membership was down a little in numbers with 19 members for the Christmas concerts and 26 for the Spring concerts. It is interesting to note that at this time in Corral history the membership had significantly changed as to where the singers came from. Originally the membership was entirely from Western Way but at this juncture it was about 50 percent from Western Way and 50 percent from Tucson Estates/Foothills. The following year, 1999-2000, the Corral was still having fun and singing well under the direction of Ruth Kieffer. Bob Fisher went back to singing bass and Phyllis Dye, one of the sopranos, became the accompanist. In the 1999 Christmas concerts they sang Burt's "Caroling, Caroling"; "African Noel", a Liberian folk song; "Sifuni Leo", an African folk song; "Candy Canes" by Schram; "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", an English traditional carol; along with many others. For the 2000 Spring concert titled Americana Plus they sang "We're Gonna Make Music For You" by Price and Besig, the old Irish Air "Danny Boy", "American Tapestry" by Ed Lojeski, "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" arranged by Steffe-Wilhousky, and many others. Also in the Spring program, Mary Heineck played a flute obligato part for one of the numbers. Additionally, Corral members enjoyed two special numbers that had considerable meaning for several of them. "O Canada" was sung especially for Ruth Mathews, an alto from Canada, and "May You Always", a special number that was sung at the recent wedding of two Corral members, Dottie and George Squire. This year there were 29 singers. Unfortunately, in the 2000-2001 year the Corral became aware that Ruth Kieffer had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have surgery and chemotherapy. In spite of her health problems, Ruth wanted to continue as director. Bob Fisher obligingly agreed to become assistant conductor to take over whenever Ruth wasn't able to be the conductor. Phyllis Dye continued as accompanist. The 2000 Christmas concerts were memorable for one particular song -- "Mele Kalikimaka" by Andersen during which soprano June Meola performed the graceful Hawaiian hula dance. The group also enjoyed singing "Christmas Lullaby" by Rutter, "Sleigh Ride" arranged by Ades, "Heaven Sings Tonight" by Alexander, and many other numbers. For the 2001 Spring concert Ruth chose the theme "Give My Regards To Broadway". One anecdote from the Spring concert was as follows: The group was practicing "When You're Smiling" by Fisher-Goodwin-Shay and they just weren't giving it much oomph. Ruth asked the members to close their eyes for a minute. She had lost all her hair due to the chemotherapy and normally wore headscarves. While our eyes were closed she removed the scarf and replaced it with an outrageous wig. Then she said we could open our eyes. The stunt absolutely broke up the rehearsal for several minutes while everyone just howled! When order was restored she told us to sing with that same feeling of fun which resulted in a much-improved rendition of the song. There were many other Broadway songs that we all thoroughly enjoyed. One other event of significance during the Spring of 2001 was the invitation to sing the "Star Spangled Banner" at the opening of one of the Colorado Rockies baseball games. We memorized an arrangement and sang that year and then continued to sing every year since then. For Ruth's final year as director there were 36 grateful singers who wished her the very best! The Corral had come a long way under her tutelage! Ruth had announced her retirement from conducting and said she would sing whenever she could but that she and husband Don were going to do some traveling. At this point the Corral had no director or director-apparent. A small group of concerned singers got together to try to solve the problem and to provide leadership for the Corral. The small group consisted of Mary Heineck, Phyllis Dye, Jim Kirchhoff, Martha Kash, Ted Emery and Shirley Wallien. One of the main problems was that up to this point the director had had complete control of and responsibility for everything and no potential director wanted to take on all that responsibility. The group decided to divide up all the responsibilities and try to find people to take on specific jobs. They were able to persuade several people to take on specific tasks. Mary Heineck agreed to be the director for the Spring 2002 concerts under the new conditions and Don Anderson agreed to take on the same responsibility for the 2001 Christmas concerts. There would not be any other concerts, large or small. Also, there would be one concert at Western Way in the evening and one concert at Tucson Estates in the afternoon of the next day, both for the Christmas concerts and the Spring concerts. Shirley agreed to be the secretary and to have concert programs printed, Jim agreed to serve as treasurer, Dottie Squire agreed to continue as costume designer and coordinator, Martha agreed to handle publicity, and Ted agreed to be music librarian and facilities coordinator. George Squire agreed to maintain an on-going roster of members. At that time the small leadership group decided to limit the size of the Corral to 40 members and to keep a list of people who expressed a wish to become a member of the Corral. When an opening occurred, those on the list would be considered in the order they wore entered on the list of potential members, with the exception that the balance of singers for the various parts would take priority. The director and the small leadership group would make final decisions on membership. At this time it was also decided to explore the possibility of sharing sheet music with other choral groups around Tucson in order to save money. They had little luck with sharing music except that they were able to borrow some music for the Christmas concert from Trinity Presbyterian Church where several members of the Corral were also members of the church choir. During Ruth Kieffer's tenure as director she maintained a music file of all Corral music in her home. She donated two filing cabinets to the group that contained all the music from the past. Dorothy Tombaugh also donated a filing cabinet as the amount of sheet music had increased considerably over time. The file cabinets were placed in the front office at Western Way to make them accessible to the new directors and the music librarian. Later, for space reasons, the music was moved to Ted Emory's shed for several years. Eventually the music was moved to a closet in the Western Way Clubhouse where it is currently housed. At this point it seems prudent to include mention of the facilities that were available to the Corral during its existence. Practice sessions were always held in the Western Way Clubhouse and major concerts were held there and in the All-Purpose Room at Tucson Estates and at the Foothills Clubhouse. When singing at nursing homes, the Veteran's Administration Hospital, and other places in the community, available small rooms were used. For the major Christmas and Spring concerts, homemade risers were built by Jan van't Groenewout and Russ Williams -- and later added to by Jan and Ted Emery. From the very beginning, the management of Western Way RV Resort was very supportive and helpful. The office staff printed the programs and allowed the Corral to use the copy machine whenever it was needed. The Western Way maintenance staff always set up the room for the weekly practices, moved the risers and set them up for concerts at Western Way and at Tucson Estates, and then returned the risers to a storage room until the next concert. Such cooperation and support has been vital to the success of the Corral. Getting back to the Corral chronology, Don Anderson started as directed the 2001 Christmas concert as planned but with some insecurity since he had not done much conducting recently. But as time went along he became more comfortable and the Corral responded accordingly. One anecdote relative to the 2001 Christmas program involved the song "Choc'late In My Stocking" which was sung by the Corral women. Unbeknownst to either Don or to the women, George Squire had purchased several packages of chocolates that he passed around to the men who preceded to toss chocolates at the women as they sang. It was great fun and the audience and the men loved it although the women were a little non-plussed by the unexpected event. The Corral also sang "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by Rutter, "Angels Spread Your Wings" by Schram, "Let Heaven And Nature Sing" by Althouse, "Christmas Calypso" arranged by Yalanis, and many others. It was a nice, fun concert with the theme, Unto Us A Child Is Born. There were 33 singers with Phyllis Dye as accompanist. As planned, Mary Heineck took over as director for the Spring 2002 concert and chose as a theme Let's Make Music, America! using some folk songs and some patriotic ones. The Corral members enjoyed the music and had fun singing "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" by Warren/Gordon, "Colorado Trail" by Moore, "On The Banks Of The Wabash", "This Is My Country" and "This Land Is Your Land" by Guthrie, among other numbers. The audience sang along on "This Is My Country", "America The Beautiful" and "God Bless America". There were 40 singers for this concert, accompanied by Phyllis Dye. For the 2002 Christmas concert, there were 36 singers and Don Anderson was again the director. The program, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, included "Christmas Choral Fantasy" by Courtney, "The Little Drummer Boy" by Althouse, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" by Simeone, "We Need a Little Christmas" by Herman, "Sleigh Ride" by Anderson, "The Christmas Song" by Tonne, "Let It Snow" by Lojeski, and many others. Don found himself doing more things in his life than he was comfortable with so it was time to begin to look for a new director for the next Christmas season. Those in the Corral were very appreciative of the help he had given them and certainly wished him well for the future! In the Spring of 2003 director Mary Heineck chose as a theme, One World. Accompanied by Phyllis Dye, the Corral sang music from many countries including Mexico, Ireland, Scotland, Austria, Italy, South Africa, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States of America. Some of the songs included: "Halle, Halle, Halle" by Hopson, "Danny Boy" by Weatherly/Kupferschmid, "Loch Lomond" arranged by Shaw-Parker, "Edelweiss" arranged by Specacek, "Pasta" (an Italian spoof) arranged by Shaw, "Sakura" arranged by Scott, and "Waltzing Matilda" by Cowan. The audience was invited to sing along in "O Canada" and "The Star Spangled Banner". The 40 singers had much fun. In the Fall of 2003, to replace Don Anderson as director for the Christmas concerts, Phyllis Dye, the usual accompanist, offered to take over the role of director. Judith Perry, one of the sopranos, became the accompanist. How fortunate to have these two musicians be willing to take over! The theme was Caroling. The 31 singers for this concert performed numbers such as "Caroling, Caroling" by Burt, "Bring A Torch, Jeannete Isabella" by Saboly, "Angels Spread Your Loving Wings" by Schram, "Candy Canes and Christmas" by Schram, "Sans Day Carol" by Rutter, "Silver Bells" by Livingston & Evens, "We Sing Feliz Navidad" by Strommen, among others. For the 2004 Spring concerts Mary Heineck chose the theme That's Entertainment with the opening song "That's Entertainment" by Dietz/Schwartz. Phyllis Dye served as accompanist; Jim Kirchhoffwas the narrator. This program was a favorite of many of the 38 singers even though they knew it would be a challenge. The numbers from Broadway musicals were: "Hello Dolly" (Hello Dolly!, 1963) by Herman, "Any Dream Will Do" (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, 1969) and "iquot; (Phantom of the Opera, 1983) by Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Beauty School Dropout" (Grease, 1971) by Casey/Jacobs with Barbara Davis as soloist, "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" (The Lion King, 1994) by Elton John, "And All That Jazz" (Chicago, 2002) by Ebb/Kander. Theme music from movies included "As Time Goes By" (Casablanca, 1931) by Hupfeld with George Squire as soloist, "Over the Rainbow" (The Wizard of Oz, 1938) by Arlen/Harburg, "Oh, Pretty Woman" (Pretty Woman, 1990) by Orbison, "When I Fall in Love" (Sleepless in Seattle, 1993) by Victor Young, and "My Heart Will Go On" (Titanic, 1997) by Horner/Jennings, with a duet by Shirley and Dave Wallien. Finally, a song from television, "Stay Tuned" arranged by Mark Brymer. In the Fall of 2004, Phyllis and Judith continued their roles as conductor and accompanist respectively. The theme of the concert was An Evening To Remember. Some of the songs were "Hey Manger Child" by Smith, "For He Is Born Today" by Althouse-Elliott, "O Love So Small" by Carter-Beat!, "The Jesus Gift" by Martin, "Various Themes On Fa-La-La" by Bridwell, and "An Evening In December" by Walker. There was also a sing-along with the audience singing "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" and "Go Tell It On The Mountain". Even though many of the Corral members do not return to Tucson until after the holidays, there were 30 singers for this concert. Mary Heineck was again the director for the Spring 2005 concerts with Phyllis returning to the accompanist role. The theme was Western Way Favorites. Mary selected numbers from past concerts which were favorites of everyone. There wore four categories of favorite music: 1) Western Way Favorites that included "The Star Spangled Banner" by Key and "We're the Choir" by Shaw; 2) Favorite Hymns such as "Amazing Grace" by Almjeld, "Shall We Gather At The River" by Carter, "Lord, Listen To Your Children" by Medema/Schrader, and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" by Hennan/Ringwald; 3) All Time Favorites including "The Alphabet" by Mozart/G/J/J/, "The Rose" by McBroom/Chinn, "Edelweiss" by Rogers/Hammerstein, "Consider Yourself" by Bart/Leyden, and "And All That Jazz" arranged by Kirby Shaw; 4) Favorite Fun Songs such as "Banquet Fugue" by Rutter, "After Beeps" by Donnelly/Strid, and "How The West Was Fun" arranged by Kirby Shaw. Another fun time for 40 singers! In 2005-2006 Janet Schratz was enlisted to become the director as Phyllis wished to return to the keyboard. Janet was new to the group and attended several of the Spring 2005 rehearsals to become accustomed to the Corral and the members to her. For the 2005 Christmas concerts Janet chose a theme of Here We Come A-Caroling. Some of the songs were the traditional "Here We Come A-Caroling", "Bethlehem Boy" by Gray, a medley of Carols of the Holy Night including "Coventry Carol" by Croo, a medley of Bell Carols including "Ring Christmas Bells" by Leontovich and "Jingle Bells". Following a sing-along intermission, we sang "Love Like A Christmas Rose" by Carter/Beall, and a medley of Carols Around the World: "Feliz Navidad", by Jose Feliciano, "Christmas in Killarney", the German "Snow Carol", "Jesu Bambino" by Martens/Yon with soloist Ted Emery, and "Mele Kalikimaka" with June Meola, performing the hula dance. The program concluded with "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" by Marton-Blane/McHuftu. The concerts went well and Janet agreed to come back for the next Christmas concert. The Spring of 2006 found 40 singers ready and eager to sing. Mary Heineck had chosen the thane of Sing A Rainbow using only songs that referred to colors. Some of the music was quite difficult and presented a nice challenge. The Corral entered the hall to Phyllis Dye's enthusiastic piano rendition of "Black & White Rag". The opening song was "Sing A Rainbow" by Hamilton/Coates. Other songs included "Blue Moon" by Rogers and Hart, "The White Cliffs of Dover" by Burton and Kent, "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles/Brymer, and "Scarlet Ribbons" arranged by Spevacek. At intermission Phyllis played a spectacular arrangement of "Deep Purple" by DeRose and she did it spectacularly. The second half of the program began with a men's barbershop quartet singing "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon" arranged by Hicks. The quartet consisted of Ted Emery, Marv Knittel, Neal Hanley and Jack Thomson. Then the Corral sang "DeColores" arranged by Poorman with Isabel Crowell as soloist, "That Old Black Magic" arranged by Zegree, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" arranged by Parker and Shaw, "Green, Green Grass of Home" by Putman with Neal Hanley as soloist, and "Look For The Silver Lining" arranged by Zegree. It was a fun concert for all. Interestingly, the percentage of singers from Western Way had now diminished to about 25 percent. At the end of the year, both Mary and Phyllis decided to take a sabbatical from their positions and become singers in the group again. The decision was understandable knowing the amount of time and effort they had graciously contributed to the Corral. In recognition of the many contributions they had made over the years, Corral members honored them with a catered dinner party in the Western Way Clubhouse following the Spring concert. As might be expected, the dining room was decorated with the many bright colors of a rainbow and each was given a gift as an expression of gratitude and appreciation. Together they provided a wonderful experience for all members of the Corral. As agreed upon earlier, Janet Schratz returned and took on the yeoman's task of both director and accompanist for the Christmas 2006 concert. There were 27 singers for this concert. The theme was Christmas Memories. Some of the songs were "Somewhere In My Memory" with Jack Thomson on the keyboard, "Candy Canes and Christmas", "We'll Dress The House", a three-piece "Santa Medley", "The Little Drummer Boy", "Over The River And Through The Woods" arranged by James Eliot, "Silver Bells" which included a duet by Anita Parsil and Marv Knittel, the Clement Moore/Darvy/Simeone arrangement of "'Twas The Night Before Christmas", "White Christmas", among several other old favorites. June Meola sang the solo in "The Christmas Song" and Neal Hanley led the audience in singing Christmas carols during the intermission. In the spring of 2007 Neal Hanley took over as director and Phyllis Dye agreed to return as accompanist, a talented brother and sister act! The theme was Mostly Broadway and we had a full complement of 38 singers. After opening with the National Anthem, we sang numbers such as "That's Entertainment" narrated by John Wasco, "Lullaby Of Broadway", "Hello Dolly", "Embraceable You", "Theme from New York, New York", "Nothin' Like A Dame", "Gershwin For Girls", and "Rogers And Hammerstein On Broadway". At intermission Neal sang "Old Man River" with feeling and Phyllis Dye and Mary Heineck played a sterling piano duet of "Moonlight Serenade"! The program was very well received. During the summer of 2007 Neal Hanley moved out of town once again creating a vacancy in the position of director. For the 2007 Christmas Concert, Phyllis Dye once again directed the Corral and Judith Perry served as the accompanist. The theme of the program was Looking For Bethlehem. Included were such pieces as "How Far Is It To Bethlehem?" arranged by Hayes, "Bethlehem Road" and "Sweet Jesus In A Manger" by Waterman, "Only A Baby Came", "What Was The Name Of The Baby Boy?" by Lister, "Glad Tidings Of Joy" by Hayes, "Hey, Manger Child" by Smith, "Bring A Little Jingle" with Joyce Lex on bells, and "There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays" with Marv Knittel, soloist. It was a fun program for the 22 singers. Interestingly, for the first time in Corral history there was an electrical power outage all over the area that started about 30 minutes before the 7:00 P.M. Christmas concert was to begin in the Western Way Clubhouse. Even without lights, a somewhat smaller-than-usual but eager audience showed up and seated themselves in the darkened hall. Knowing there was an audience waiting, the chorus carefully found its way into the hall at the scheduled time wondering what was going to happen. Because there were no lights, Corral members sat at the front of the room hoping that the lights would soon come on! To stall for time, Director Phyllis suggested that anyone could call out a carol and the audience and Corral would sing one verse of the song a cappella. This went on for about 20 minutes until we had difficulty thinking of more familiar carols. At this point it was decided that we would try to sing the pieces in the intended program. Several people in the audience had flashlights and there was a single emergency exit light on at the front of the room. Audience members held flashlights on the music of the accompanist and the director while the Corral members huddled together under the one emergency exit light near the piano. Doing the best we could, we sang almost half of the program. Our last number in the first half of the program was, "Glad Tidings Of Joy", a brisk and rather majestic piece of music. Just before beginning this piece, Phyllis quietly cracked to the Corral members, "If this one doesn't bring on the lights, nothing will!" Amazingly enough, at that moment the lights did indeed come on and they remained on for the rest of the concert. We were all surprised at how well the concert was performed under the circumstances. It was a great achievement for the Western Way Corral and one of those experiences that members will never forget!!! Accompanying the 2008 Spring concert was the last Corral activity for Phyllis Dye, our erstwhile accompanist and director for many years. Another milestone during the Spring of 2008 was that Mary Heineck agreed to return as director for this one more concert -- truly to be the last time she would direct before returning to the role of singer. The two 2008 Spring concerts with Mary and Phyllis in their respective roles were a real joy for all, both singers and audiences. The theme for the 2008 Spring Concert, with 33 singers, was Magic. Songs included "Magic Moments" by Burt Bacharach, "That Old Black Magic" by Johnny Mercer, "This Magic Moment", "The Magic Of Love" by Lionel Richie, "You've Got The Magic Touch", "Puff The Magic Dragon" with Don Schroyer on guitar, and "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes". The finale was "Music From The Magic Kingdom", a medley of Disney theme songs narrated by John Wasco; Vaughn and Mary Heidenreich were the dancers. The program was very well received by the audiences and was much fun for the singers -- especially the "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E" part. Again in March, as in previous years, the Corral sang the national anthem at the opening of the Colorado Rockies Spring training game. As planned, Phyllis and her husband moved back to Colorado during the summer of 2008. She and her multiple talents will certainly be missed in the future. After the Spring 2008 concerts the Corral was again left without a director or accompanist. Fortunately, Jene Wilcox, a retired professional engineer and a musician from Foothills, expressed an interest in the director position. He was invited to consider the position and to attend a couple of rehearsals to see what the group was like. After his visits and attendance at the Spring 2008 concerts, he agreed to become the director. Jene quickly selected music for the following Christmas concert and being technologically proficient, he proceeded to establish a Corral website located at http://wwcorral.JeneWilcox.com. Additionally, he provided each Corral member with a compact disk of the music he wished us to learn during the summer. Each CD contained the arrangements for all voices to help members become familiar with the overall sound, followed by a replay of the arrangements with each of the four parts emphasized for an individual singer. The CDs proved to be very helpful since there is always limited rehearsal time prior to the December concert. Although rehearsals started in early October for those in the area, some of the 21 concert singers did not return to Tucson until mid-November. Jene also produced sheet music with four scores -- one for each of the four parts -- plus the piano score. The sheet music was placed in newly purchased music notebooks. Many of the songs for the 2008 Christmas concerts were arranged by Jene himself. We were fortunate to have Janet Schratz back as the accompanist. The program, Glad Tidings of Joy, included John Rutter's "Candlelight Carol" with solos by Charlotte Long and Marv Knittel. Other songs included "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano, "Hanukkah Nigun" arranged by Charles Davidson, "Rise Up, Shepherd And Follow" by Hayes, "Santa's Choir" by Kupferschmid, "Santa Needs A Vacation" by Andy Beck with a trio obligato sung by Charlotte Long, Martha Kash, and Gail Sinclair. As the Corral sang Clawson's arrangement of "The First Noel/Pachebels Canon", Anita Parsil played the cello part on the keyboard. The concerts were well received by both the Western Way and Tucson Estates audiences. At the end of the program, "Happy Trails" was re-introduced as the Corral's signature song. Jene recorded the concerts and each member was given a CD of the performance. The Corral looks forward to singing in the Spring under the direction of Jene Wilcox and with Janet Schratz as the accompanist. End Note Summarizing almost 20 years of the Western Way Corral, a volunteer musical group composed of and for senior citizens, has been an enjoyable and enlightening experience. At the same time it has been difficult to recall and recognize all the many contributions of so many individuals over the years. Many people, both members and friends and spouses of members, have provided valuable services -- frequently behind the scenes. Thank you to one and all! The support of everyone has been important and greatly appreciated. If I missed mentioning something or if I stated something incorrectly, please forgive me. As of this writing, the only member to have sung in every major concert was Jack Thomson; Betty Thomson missed only one major concert in 19 years! Hopefully the Corral will continue to be a viable and enjoyable community activity in the years ahead. May all who read this history of the Corral gain an appreciation of our purpose and our activities over the years. In the future, may we never take ourselves too seriously. May we remember that most likely we are the only singing Corral in existence. |
Western Way Corral Members
1990 through 2008*
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