Concert House Manager
Job Description: Concert House Manager
The Concert House Manager (CHM) will be responsible for oversight of all activities associated with tickets, audience members, and merchandise sales on performance day.
PRE-PERFORMANCE
- Recruit at least 2 people to handle ticket sales (CNS officer can assist with this, if needed)
- Recruit at least 1 person to handle merchandise sales
- Contact CNS venue to determine number of ushers needed (2 per entrance; 1-2 ushers inside to assist with seating) Some ushers may be recruited by CNS singing members or come from HYC membership; recruit others as necessary
- Email all ushers to confirm arrival time (at least 60 minutes prior to performance time) and dress code (shirt and slacks, tie for men, no jeans, no sneakers)
- Recruit crew for riser transport, set up, and take down
- Coordinate transport of CNS risers to venue; arrange for arrival and crew set-up (and take down, if necessary) at dress rehearsal
ON PERFORMANCE DAY
- Arrive at performance venue at least 90 minutes prior to concert time
- Collect cash box from CNS Treasurer
- Contains a “bank” for furnishing change during cash transactions
- Contains “Will Call” list
- Contains ticket tallying form
- Set up ticket tables, chairs, and signs (Ticket Prices, Will Call, Merchandise Sales)
- Train ushers when all have arrived
- Admit audience members no more than 30 minutes prior to performance time (attendees requiring additional assistance [e.g., those in a wheelchair] may be admitted earlier at the CHM’s discretion)
- Oversee all ticket and merchandise transactions
POST-PERFORMANCE
- Direct ushers to check seating area for programs—programs in good condition can be reused for multiple-performance programs; all others should be recycled
- Break down and put away in storage ticket tables, chairs, and signs
- Tally tickets taken/sold and cash/checks collected
- Done at the end of every performance
- Everything put into cash box; CHM delivers cash box to Treasurer immediately following the last performance of the program
For more information or to apply, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Marya Machart at maryamachart@gmx.com.
April 2022 Update
- A performance date of Saturday, June 25, 2022, at 7:00pm (note earlier start time!!!) has been set. Downbeat at 6:00pm.
- Dress rehearsal will be Thursday, June 23, 2022, with downbeat at 7:30.
- Now that we have a performance date, we need to shore up the roster of performance-related jobs. Anyone interested in volunteering for one of the myriad of roles please contact Marya Machart at maryamarchart@gmx.com.
- We will hold our Annual Chorus North Shore meeting on Monday, May 2, 2022, between breaks at rehearsal. The agenda will include voting on next year’s Board of Trustees members as well as a few changes in the By-laws. Anyone interested in becoming a board member please contact a member of the Nominating Committee. Penny Jones at banjopenny2@gmail.com; Cindy Marshall at marshall1973@verizon.net ; Anne Mills at millsannes@gmail.com
Please Note:
Current members NOT singing are encouraged to come, listen and vote on issues that require one. It is also NOT a requirement that a board member be a "singing" member of the chorus.
April 2022 Update
Chorus North Shore is finally back together again. We have just completed our third rehearsal and, although the music is challenging, we’re making great progress. Sunny has chosen three compositions in honor of all the losses we, as a community, a nation and the world have had to face in the past two-plus years. We are working on Faure’s “Requiem”, Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” as well as” How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place”. We have a tentative performance date in late June but are waiting to see what the next few months will bring before making a firm commitment.
As many of you know, making a performance a success requires many individuals working behind the scenes. With the Chorus reduced to approximately half its normal size those tasks fall to a diminished pool of volunteers. The Board of Trustees is currently working to identify, specifically, which roles need to be filled and should have more details within the next two weeks. Anyone who would like to join in making our upcoming performance a success can volunteer by contacting Marya Machart, at maryamachart@gmx.com.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted us all. Sometimes in small ways like curtailing our singing; sometimes in more personal ways like silencing a voice forever. We are looking forward to the day when restrictions are a thing of the past and we are able to bring all the people that created one unified, powerful voice together again.
Stay Well,
Donn Kurjan
President, Board of Trustees
Volunteer Opportunities
Become a Part of The Chorus North Shore!
It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child. It can also be said that it takes a community to support a community chorus.
The logistics behind putting on a concert are mind-boggling.
Before the concert, there is publicity and ticket sales, design and printing of posters – and distribution of those posters.
Financing, grant-writing, venue availability. Clothing, costumes, music acquisition.
More publicity.
Leading up to the actual concert is the dress rehearsal – the fine-tuning.
On Concert Day, there are ticket-takers, Ushers, people to move risers and help set up the venue – and to break it all down, again. Our non-singing community.
We are looking for individuals to help us in these endeavors.
For more information, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Marya Machart at maryamachart@gmx.com.
Current Opportunities:
We are looking for Ushers and Entry volunteers for our June Concert
Ushers
- Report at 5:45pm on June 15th
- No jeans, sneakers, or form-fitting pants, please
- Direct audience members to proper entrance
- Assist people in finding seats for their group
- Guide audience members toward restroom
- After performance: collect unused programs, clear out seats
Entry volunteers
- Report at 5:45pm on June 15th
- No jeans, sneakers, or form-fitting pants, please
- 2 volunteers needed for Will Call table
- 2 volunteers needed for taking tickets
- 1 volunteer needed to sell merchandise (CDs, etc.)
Concert House Manager
The Concert House Manager (CHM) will be responsible for oversight of all activities associated with tickets, audience members, and merchandise sales on performance day.
Our Music
Chorus North Shore is tackling the finest of classical and contemporary choral masterworks to consistent praise. In the past several years audiences have been thrilled by the range of programs including the following:
- Bach – Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio
- Bernstein – Chichester Psalms
- Brahms – Requiem
- Faure – Requiem
- Handel – Messiah; Ode to St. Cecilia Day
- Haydn – Creation
- Mendelssohn – Elijah; Lobgesang
- Mozart – Coronation Mass, Missa Brevis
- Orff – Camina Burana
- Poulenc – Gloria
- Rutter – Requiem; Mass of the Children
- Schubert – Mass in G
- Stravinsky – Symphony of Psalms
- Thompson – Peaceable Kingdom
- Vaughan Williams – Dona Nobis Pacem; Toward the Unknown Region
- Verdi – Requiem
Listen to some of the extraordinary music the Chorus North Shore has performed over the past few years.
Classical Greats
May 2023
American Choral Quilt
March 2020
Basilica di San Fedele
Como, Italy Summer, 2013
Celebration of Carols
December 2018
Honors Youth Choir
May 4, 2018
Handel’s Messiah
December 2017
One Earth Many Song
May 2017
Verdi’s Requiem
First Movement
Sing Out
May 2016
February 2022 Update
Chorus North Shore Singers,
We have finally reached the point for which we have all been waiting. The results of the survey sent in late October enabled us to establish specific criteria that would allow CNS singers to comfortably return to rehearsal and performing. For those who confirmed you would be joining CNS as requested in CNS’s November and December Monthly updates, rehearsals will begin in early March with a tentative June performance. The current chorus limit was capped on a first come first serve basis. If you recall from our January update, 60 voices were the maximum number of individuals the Ipswich High School choral room could accommodate based on a three-foot safe distancing policy established from CDC recommendations. We now have a waitlist for others wishing to sing. Anyone wishing to register for the waitlist can do so by contacting Annmarie Baldisserotto at ab869@outlook.com.
The board spent a considerable amount of time deciding what variables would allow singers to comfortably return; vaccinations with boosters, full time masks and a maximum of 60 singers were some of the measures put in place. Ultimately the safety of every single individual involved in rehearsal was what framed the decision making. It was understood the some would not return because their concerns were not met.
Our intent was not to be exclusionary; it is our fervent hope that Chorus North Shore will return stronger than ever. We see CNS as more than those singing in any one concert. It is a large group of people who do a myriad of things to keep the chorus thriving; from providing financial support, to manning the ticket table, to delivering the risers to our performance venue. It is not uncommon for non-singers to perform many of the tasks that go into creating a successful performance. We are in great need of volunteers, both non-singers and singers, to help fill the rolls of those many tasks. Our short-term success will determine our long-term future.
With the coming of March, we will once again carry on the tradition of community based choral music. The covid-19 pandemic may have temporarily silenced our voices, it may have reduced our numbers for the moment, but it has not diminished our desire to join together in song. We are confident with the support of the CNS family we will be back bigger and better than ever.
Anyone who would like to join in making our upcoming performance a success can volunteer by contacting Marya Machart, at maryamachart@gmx.com.
Stay Well,
Donn Kurjan
President, Board of Trustees
Rehearsals Start March 14th!
Due to the pandemic and 60-singer capacity in the rehearsal space, the Board emailed recent members to see who was interested in returning to singing, with full vaccination status and masks.
A full complement of singers has signed up, and these members have been contacted about starting rehearsals at the Ipswich High School on March 14 at 7:00pm.
- If you would like to sing and would like to be placed on a waiting list, please contact Annmarie Baldisserotto, our membership coordinator, at ab869@outlook.com.
- Two Section Leaders have chosen to not sing this semester, so please contact CNS President Donn Kurjan at president@chorusnorthshore.org if you will be rehearsing and would like to help by being a key contact for the Soprano or Alto sections.
- The Board of Trustees is also looking for two people to serve on the Sunny Pryor Endowment Committee. If you, or someone you know is interested, please contact President Donn Kurjan - president@chorusnorthshore.org.
Pre-Registration will take place on Saturday, March 5,
10 am – 12N at Ascension Memorial Church in Ipswich in the church.
Please make sure to bring:
- Proof of full vaccination and booster check (screen shots of vaccinations are acceptable).
- Pay for dues and music: (Have two checks ready, payable to Chorus North Shore with “dues” and “music” on the memo lines respectively.)
- Dues:
- $60 ($30 for new members)
- Music:
- Lux Aeterna - Lauridsen $9.00
- How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place? - Brahms $1.35
- Requiem - Faure (gently used) $5.00
Please let us know if you have had any change in plans and will not be joining us this session ASAP since we do have a waiting list of singers.
Support for a Fellow Chorus Member
Fellow Singers,
One of our fellow CNS singers and board members has been extremely ill and hospitalized since before Christmas. Stephen Moore has spent more than a month in ICU at Lahey Burlington. He has recently demonstrated signs of improvement and rehab is now being discussed.
His illness is unrelated to COVID-19 but the hospital implemented a no-visitor policy since the recent Omnicron surge and, as a result, Stephen has been without the encouragement of family or friends going on three weeks.
I have been in communication with Stephen’s wife, Joyce, and she would gladly bring any cards or letters to Stephen once the no-visitor policy is lifted.
Any correspondence can be sent to their home address:
Stephen Moore
12 Pomeroy Road
North Reading, MA 01864
Donn Kurjan, President
Board of Trustees
Chorus North Shore
