April 2025 Newsletter - Winter's Highs and Lows
- Sandra Low
- Jul 8
- 7 min read
Dear members and subscribers,
I am sorry that this newsletter has been so tardy. I usually write three times a year - March, July and October. I think this year, it will be April, August and December. I was weighed down by heavy sadness in March so I was not in the mood to write. Things are more calm now so I am back. But before I get into my personal March news, I will first tell you about the great event that went down in February. As I mentioned in the October 2024 newsletter, we were going to organize our first public concert performance fundraiser for February 1st. And the main reason for this concert fundraiser was that we had to raise funds to pay for the shortfall between collected members’ fees and our group's expenses with the three largest being the website, Zoom Pro Plan and our commercial liability insurance. ( The latter was necessary to cover our members if ALMSG wanted to create in-person performance concerts,workshops and masterclasses at venues other than Steinway Piano Gallery.)
This group was actually founded in March 2018, so it may seem strange to you that our group has never performed for our family and friends in those 6 years and 10.5 months. But members had never felt the urge to - we all collectively agreed to limit our meetings/performances to members only, so we could feel safe in our supportive cocoon to perform. However, when members were informed of our cash crisis, I was so elated when eleven of our seventeen members "raised their hand" to perform for our fundraiser. And I am so very proud to tell you that our concert at Ambrose University knocked it out of the park on so many levels. I am still reveling in the success of it all!
First, all of us did so well in our performances as we had so many positive comments and feedback from many audience members. That was our collective triumph. Second, we raised about twice the amount that we thought we would - $650. This amount will take care of our shortfall with a large buffer left over. Third, I was so proud of the planning and the overall production of this - our first public concert! We had everything timed to the last second and we finished on time! We presented a total of 90 minutes of entertainment to our audience members with a 10 minute intermission (chocolates and non-alcoholic beverages on offer for our audience members) and we had 15 minutes for all of us to tidy up and vacate the venue! I was really happy with our final product! Thank you to all of our members who stepped up to make our debut concert a success! Thank you to Graham for announcing the performers and their pieces as they came up to perform. Thank you to Claude for offering to host a rehearsal at his home for our members the night before. Thank you also to Kaylene's husband in helping us record our individual performances and to Kaylene in uploading the recordings to Youtube so members could relive their performances. And thank you to Edel and Kaylene for making their speeches alongside me at the concert. It was such a smashing debut concert that we were all on a high for many days afterwards!
The other big change this year was the increase in members' fees. We have not increased our member fees of $40 since 2020 when we first started implementing an annual membership fee. (Prior to 2020, we had members pay $5 per meeting.) So this year, our membership fee of $40 increased $5 to $45 for non-Calgary members and for Calgary members, it increased $15 to $55. The difference in the two membership prices is explained in our FAQs section of our website. But basically, the lower membership fee for non-Calgary members is because they do not have access to in-person meetings and performances. We had 18 members last year and this year, as I write this newsletter, we stand at 19 members. Due to our increase in fees, we were able to raise $305 more than last year which will make our group’s finances much more sustainable going forward.
We also have news on our volunteer positions. Linda has stepped down as meeting chair coordinator because Claude has stepped up to be our permanent meeting chair. Thank you, Claude, for taking on this task, we are very grateful! And Joanne has joined Edel, our president, Kaylene, our vice-president and myself, the founder, on the ALMSG leadership team . Joanne is a pianist who lives in Saskatchewan. Joanne will lend the much needed perspective of the out-0f town member to all of our meetings. Welcome, Joanne!
We had a recent leadership meeting at the beginning of April. These are our planned events for the rest of the year. First, there will be two more performance concerts. We will have our first joint concert planned with the Calgary Classical Guitar Society (CCGS) in May. This concert opportunity was brought forward by the director of the CCGS orchestra at the end of last year. She invited us to collaborate on a joint concert. At this concert, ALMSG members will perform more in duos and duets although we will have a few solos. Some CCGS members will also perform some solos and duos. And the CCGS guitar orchestra will perform as an ensemble. We will be selling tickets mainly to cover the venue costs for this concert. So tickets will be nominal at $10 plus the service charge of the platform that we will be using for sale of these tickets. This concert will take place at the Christ Moravian Church in Calgary on Saturday, May 31st 2-4 pm. Please check the website for more details about this concert.
The third performance concert that we have planned will take place in November. It will be an online virtual concert that will be streamed live. In this way, our out-of-town members will be able to participate in a performance concert with the rest of the members in Calgary. And because it is streamed, we will have the advantage of being able to invite our friends and family who live elsewhere to be able to hear and see us perform virtually. Please look on our website for further details about this event. ALMSG will endeavour to produce at minimum two concerts annually for our members - one in-person and the other virtual.
In terms of workshops, we are bringing back an online version of Solfege Basics, a 3 hour workshop, with the amazing Marni for our out-of-town members and any Calgary members that missed her fall workshop last year. This will take place again in the fall with a follow up hybrid Solfege Level 2 workshop about a month later. And our leadership team is also looking at creating an Alexander technique workshop with a focus on injury prevention and a rhythm workshop. These two workshops probably will be scheduled for the spring of 2026. There will be plenty of exciting learning experiences for our members!
And I just want to also give a heads up about the adult Lethbridge Piano Intensive which is running July 4-6. My daughter and I have already signed up. And Dorothy and Graham, our flatmates from last year are going to sign up as well and we will share lodgings again last year. If you have never been to an adult piano camp, I encourage you to join us. We have so much fun! The LPI tuition is only $125 which is a steal of a deal. The 3 day Calgary CASSA adult piano camp runs from $349-$399 which I have experienced two times previously. It is also a good camp. Dorothy is going to both CASSA and LPI. I personally like LPI better because there is more focus on learning instead of preparing for a final recital performance which they focus on in CASSA. Both programs have their benefits. The main thing is to go to participate in something like this to invigorate and put some pizzazz in your learning. Kaylene has enrolled and is excited about the 5 day Rusty Musicians camp for String musicians that is running up in Edmonton. Do you have any interesting music camps that you are participating in? Let me know.
And now before I end this newsletter, I will relate my sad news. My beloved 92 year old mother passed away suddenly at Rockyview Hospital on March 11th, She will be dearly missed by our family. The one consolation that we have is that up until the 1oth, my mom was living pretty independently and was healthy and happy. We had more bad news as a close family member suffered a major health incident a week after my mom’s passing which added to our family’s heaviness. But this family member is now doing well and is on his way to recovery. So we have some calmness back in our lives now.
Again, if you want to reach out to me to tell me any of your news, please do so. I am always interested in hearing about your musical journeys.
In closing, please check the members' page on the home page to find out more about our endeavours and our learning experiences at Adults Learning Music Support Group | Canada | Adults Learning Music
Until the next newsletter, I wish you a happy Spring and Summer!
Musically striving with you always,
Sandra
April 13, 2025
