Summer's come and going...

Hi everyone,

I am sending this to your inboxes on the last day of August. I hope you all had a lovely summer! I just want to fill you in on things that happened with the group and with me since my last newletter. First, we had a very successful joint concert with the Classical Guitar Society of Calgary on May 31st at Christ Moravian Church. We had a great turnout as we sold 50 tickets which meant that we were able to cover the venue rental and our stage balloon decorations (celebrating our 7th anniversary (I Know it looks like a '1' but it rotated ) and CGSC's 50th anniversary (I know it looks like just a '5' but there is a '0' floating behind there). In addition, we still had money left over for each of our respective non-profit groups which was a bonus. We received great feedback from multiple audience members about how much they enjoyed our concert! The resounding success of our event was due to the great volunteer work of our members! Kudos to everone!

And after that wonderful joint concert, our group members performed two weeks later for the Venvi Retirement home in Edgemont on June 14th which was great fun for all the members who performed. And we have another one scheduled for the Evanston Summit Home on September 13th. You can view our music concert programs on the "Other Events" Page if you are curious about what kind of music selections we perform. We also try to include some sing-a-longs with the residents so they can join us in the fun of creating music too! Group members have family that are living at these respective homes. We are transitioning to performing at seniors' homes again as these community service concerts are booked by our members so their family can benefit from an ALMSG concert. The family members along with the residents of these seniors' homes really enjoy our gift of music!

During the summer, many group members were also busy with music summer camps. In the summer, I, along with six other members ie Prem, Edel, Megan, Graham, Dorothy and Kathleen (and my daughter) attended the adult Lethbridge Piano Intensive (LPI) camp July 4-6. This is my fifth year of attending LPI. We had a great time learning and socializing together.

Our meeting chair, Claude, attended the 9 day UVic piano intensive course July 5-13 for the first time. He has written about his experience which is posted to the blog. Look out for the link to his blog article below.

Vice-President, Kaylene, attended the Rusty Musicians camp with her viola July 2-6. She has written about this experience -please look for the link to her article below too!

Both Dorothy and Claude attended their second summer adult piano camp at CASSA July 15-17. And member Kim D, attended her first strings summer camp called the Valhalla Fine Arts SOAR camp that ran August 10-14. KIm D. has also written about her camp experience and is posted to the blog - look for the link to her blog below as well. So yes, as you can see, a lot of our members have been very busy at music camps during July and August.

For the fall, the leadership team is now working on two workshops for our members: Solfege Basics and Solfege Level 2 with the amazing Marni Strome ( the same instructor we had last year). The dates for these workshops are being determined but will be taught sometime in Sept/October. Our leadership team is also working on a virtual concert that will be live-streamed so that our out-of-town performers can have the chance to perform alongside our Calgary performers. This event is scheduled to occur in November.

And the latest ALMSG news is about our enrollment numbers. We currently are at 21 members wbich matches the highest ALMSG enrollment ever, in 2020 when we had 21 members. BUT we will be surpassing this record and setting a new one as a few more members join our group in September. I will let you know how many ALMSG members strong we are, in my next and last newletter of 2025!

And as to the other 2 personal pictures that you viewed above. Yes, I am proud to announce that we now have a beautiful grand piano in our house! We had a lovely Heintzmann upright before but it was time to move onto a grand piano because my daughter is going to be studying music at the University of Calgary in the fall. It is absolutely wonderful to be able to play on a grand! And to add to that excitement, I just went a few days ago to pick up another beautiful acquisition - a new carbon fibre cello for me! (I was previously renting from V A Hill Strings). I have a beautiful red case for it and I now get to choose a bow to marry with my cello. My teacher will help me, of course, but I am so excited about this!

So we will soon be in the midst of music lessons in September along with orchestra and band rehearsals again. I hope you enjoy returning to your music classes again. And please click on the respective links below to read the blogs that Claude, Kaylene and Kim D have written about their summer camp experiences. Happy reading to you all!

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 and navigate to our 'other events' on the main menu 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 productive Fall!

Musically striving with you always,

Sandra

August 31, 2025