Sue Ribaudo's Website

Greetings to you after a long pause from my blogging! I’d like to announce some musical news. Vic and I are deep into rehearsals for a wonderful musical, “Rochester Light and Power“, written by brother Dick Robson and the music is by my talented sister-in-law Dorothy Robson. The info is on the poster below and you can find out more and buy tickets on the website for the White River Valley Players at wrvp.org.

Secondly, the Players’ Music Makers are firing up again in June for some group singing sessions. I’ve been leading singers in our valley since 2016. I love teaching eclectic styles of song from folk to pop to world music and more. The songs are easy to learn and the rhythms, melodies and harmonies are compelling. If you want to know more, please email me at sue.ribaudo@gmail.com. We’ll be singing at Spice Studio (482 S Main St, Rochester, VT) on Monday, June 3rd and June 10th, from 6:30-7:30.

Hi Singers-
We’ve missed a few years of singing together. To all who have sung with our Valley Voices group as well as those who have expressed an interest in singing in the valley, we are gearing up for some spring singing! You need not attend each session, but let me know if you are interested. See the flyer below:

Valley Singing!

Join us for an evening of carefree singing led by Sue Ribaudo* and friends. 
Singing is a great way to lift your spirits and to feel connected to others.

The songs will be full of harmony and rhythm and yet they will be easy to learn. 
Different styles of music will be represented, songs from different times and other countries. 

When:  Tuesday, August 10, 6:30pm-8pm
Where:  Rochester Public Library
Who:  Sue Ribaudo, Susan Rule, Sue Clarke, Dorothy Robson plus you!  
Note:  This event is for vaccinated singers.
*Sue has been leading the Valley Voices since 2017 and new singers are always welcome.
Sponsored by the White River Valley Players’ Musicmakers

It has been so long since we’ve been able to sing together! As more people are vaccinated and we can be outside more, we’ll slowly be able to step towards singing side-by-side. In the meantime we’re looking ahead.

In 2019, I started making plans with the White River Valley Players to have more singing events in the Valley and the Players’ Musicmakers was formed. We sponsored numerous gatherings including some well-attended Pub Sings, a concert with Sally Rogers, and a Broadway sing-along. Then, it all came to a halt! But we’re all motivated to get the wheels rolling again.

Workshops, sing-alongs, vocal jams, and coffeehouses may all be in the mix. So if you’re interested in being notified about upcoming singing events, let me know at:
sue.ribaudo@gmail.com

2021 Update:  I’ll keep the info here so that you can keep an eye on Moira’s website for future plans:

Register for the Vermont Big Sing!

The Players’ Musicmakers, along with Valley Voices,
will be participating in the inaugural
Vermont Big Sing, happening
Saturday, July 11, 2020 in Middlebury!

Organized by New-Haven born musician/composer Moira Smiley in partnership with Bread Loaf School of English’s Centennial Celebration and presented by Middlebury College, the first ever Vermont Big Sing will bring together singers from all across Vermont for a day of celebratory singing.

•ALL singers of every experience level are welcome at this
community event.

Led by exceptional musical artists of several genres and traditions, participants will sing all together from 12-5pm on July 11 and hold a collaborative concert with those artists the same night.
The music will be sent to participants in April.

Visit www.moirasmiley.com for more information or to register.
Advance registration is required.
Check out the California Big Sing video there.

•Questions? Contact Linnea Wilhjelm & Moira Smiley at vtbigsing@gmail.com

If you are in central Vermont, contact Sue Ribaudo (sue.ribaudo@gmail.com) about a few rehearsals that will be held in Rochester in the spring and summer, dates to be determined.

The VERMONT BIG SING is a grateful recipient of the
ShareYourself/Front Porch Forum Grant

I have gotten far behind! Here’s what’s been happening.

When we told friends we were moving to Vermont, they assumed that after a few months we’d be bored. What did they know? We’re busier than ever! We love Rochester partly because there’s so much going on. And when we see a lull ahead, we plan community activities: a concert, a play, a visiting speaker or a singing class.

I’ve been busy singing and encouraging others to join in. I’ve been leading the Valley Voices, a group of singers who meet in a beautiful space in the Rochester Library several times a season. I occasionally travel to do workshops. On October 19th I’ll be the keynote at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference of the Threshold Choir, a national organization of choirs who largely focus on singing for Hospice patients. We will meet in Gaithersburg MD. Since we moved here, I’ve led the New England Regional Conference in Boston twice. And we celebrated 10 years of the Threshold Choir of NYC at the Mid-Atlantic gathering in 2016.

Back at home I am on several committees including Pierce Hall Community Center. Built in the early 20th century, the building has been refurbished to be a shining center of activity in our town. The auditorium is ready for concerts, weddings and other celebrations. We’ve recently opened a fitness center and dance studio. Classes are beginning soon!

I’m working with the White River Valley Players as we encourage the community to join our Musicmaker events. So far we’ve had two successful Pub Sings and a Broadway Singalong. Other interactive events are being planned. The Players (founded by a group headed by Dick and Dorothy Robson, my brother and sister-in-law) are celebrating their 40th year of presenting great theater for the Valley. There will be a Gala party at Pierce Hall on October 12th.

I’m also singing with a terrific trio. Since we are all named Sue, we call ourselves the Three Sues. We sing for local coffeehouses and fund-raisers. I love the tight a capella harmonies and working with good friends!

We love to travel to see our grandchildren in St. Louis. Dan and Sarah are working hard and Tilly and Tommy are growing fast. Adam and Iona are in Boston and are expecting their first child in November! (UPDATE: Dan and family have moved to Middlebury, VT! And Adam, Iona and baby Alenka have moved to Bedford, MA, not too far away! March 2021)

Vic is on several committees including the board of the local hospital and the ambulance company. He’s head of emergency management for our town and part of a committee looking into ways to enhance Rochester by focusing on its many strengths.

For more information on Threshold Choir, see my previous blogs and www.thresholdchoir.org.

We are moving!!  Vic and I, that is.  We will be winding up our activities in New York and heading up to Vermont this summer.  We have been going there for many years and my brother and family live there, so settling into a full life in Rochester, VT isn’t a far stretch for us.  We will also have more time to visit family, including our new granddaughter in Texas.

Mountain view

I have been directing the Threshold Choir here in NYC for eight years now.  Over the years many members have stepped up and there is an impressive group of people supporting what we do.  So when I announced that Vic and I will be moving to Vermont this summer, I knew they wouldn’t like it, but I also knew TC of NYC would manage just fine after I go.  It is an amazing group and we all learned the tricks of the trade together.  We have a new Managing Director and are on our way to finding a Music Director.

I will also miss my other chorus, Rising Voices, a group for cancer survivors sponsored by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Integrative Medicine Center.  They are enthusiastic singers who really enjoy the uplifting benefits of singing together.  We are looking for a person to direct the chorus starting in September 2015.

I will update this blog more often to let you know about all the changes coming up.  We really appreciate the extraordinary people, places and activities we’ve been able to experience during our 14 years in New York.  The city will be calling us back now and then.

Here is a great way to spend a week, singing the day away and into the night! I have taught for a number of years at Augusta Heritage Center (www.augustaheritagecenter.org) in the beautiful hills of West Virginia. You can come and immerse yourself in the arts of the Appalachians, or sing many different styles of music. Here is a list of the classes offered during the week of Aug. 6-10. I’ll describe my two classes, below.

Classes & Instructors

Charles Williams
Care of the Voice (offered in 2 time periods)

Kathy Bullock
Songs from Jamaica, West Africa, & South Africa
African-American Spirituals & Gospel Songs

Laurelyn Dossett
The Art of Songwriting
Five Days, Five Decades: Written Songs Worth the Singing
Bio & Class Descriptions

Bobby McMillon
Appalachian Ballads & Story Songs (offered in 2 time periods)

Emily Miller
Georgian Songs
Heard in Honky-Tonks (with Jesse Milnes)

Jesse Milnes
Songs from Around West Virginia
Heard in Honky-Tonks (with Emily Miller)

R. P. Hale
Aztecs, Incas, and Jesuits: Choral Works from the Early “New World”

Jeff Warner
Nor’easters: Songs from the Sea and New England
Singing Unaccompanied

Sue Ribaudo
Creating Harmony
World Connections

Anne Louise White
Improvisation: The Joys of Sprezzatura
Jazz Standards Around the Piano

Rhiannon Giddens
Late afternoon, one-day workshops:
Opera for Everybody
Irish Songs

Flawn Williams, Vocal Week Coordinator
Ad Hoc Harmonies

Jam Leaders
Don Friedman
Elizabeth LaPrelle

My Classes:

Creating Harmony

You may be asking “how can I join in on those beautiful Augusta harmonies?”. Or, “how can I come up with some creative alternatives?”. Using traditional and contemporary songs, we will find some helpful rules to follow when harmonizing (and learn when to break them). We’ll explore how to take a seemingly ordinary song and make it outstanding. Find out how to sing “human karaoke” and the “Appalachian second”.

World Connections

We will immerse ourselves in the polyrhythms and lush harmonies of many different lands with songs from countries as far-reaching as Brazil, Ireland and South Africa. Singing these songs will give you special insights into these cultures and widen your horizons. While we learn about the differences in our music, we’ll be connecting through its universal language. Don’t be shy about singing in different languages. Many songs are in English, and others have a lot of repetition.

[There’s more……..Click “Next page”, below!]

Threshold Choir of New York City

I have been working on a project that is dear to my heart. In order to describe it, I need to give you a bit of history.

In 2001, a friend, Kate Munger had been artfully leading some groups of women in the San Francisco Bay area in community singing of rounds. After having a profound experience of singing at the bedside of a dying friend, she had an epiphany and was struck with an inspiration that she needed to focus on this much-needed kind of service. She wondered what would happen if hundreds of women in the area were trained to do this kind of work. What if dying people were comforted with song by people who respected death as a natural part of the cycle of life? She started a choir called the Threshold Choir, to sing softly for people who were on the thresholds of life. Within a few years, Kate started one choir after another and nurtured dozens in California and the West Coast. Here is Kate’s description:

“The all-women Threshold Choirs honor the ancient tradition of singing at the bedsides of people who are struggling: some with living, some with dying. The voice, as the original human instrument, is a true and gracious vehicle for compassion and comfort. The choirs provide opportunities for women to share the sacred gifts of their voices at life’s thresholds.
When we are invited to a bedside, we visit in small groups. We invite families and caregivers to join us in song or to participate by listening. We choose songs to respond to musical taste, spiritual direction, and physical capacity. The songs may include rounds, chants, lullabies, hymns, spirituals, and choral music.”

Kate asked me if I would be interested in starting a choir in New York City. We had been friends for years, and I had visited her San Francisco choir and admired their work. I hesitated since I wasn’t sure I had the right skills. I had directed a community choir, and I had volunteered at a children’s hospital, but hospice was a new concept to me. With a plan to take some hospice training, I decided to take her up on the idea in 2007. Kate introduced me to Susan Graves, now a New Yorker who was a member of the original Threshold Choir in California. Susan was able to convey the history of the group as well as her own valuable experience. Slowly, one voice at a time, we began to grow into a wonderful group of women who enjoy singing, community and service.

We now have thirty women who volunteer their voices at three hospitals in Manhattan. In addition to rehearsing twice a month, our singers are led by trained song leaders who schedule visits to the various hospitals. Kate visits with our choir once a year for a workshop and I attend the annual national gathering in California to keep connected with with our sister choirs. I enjoy conducting workshops there as well.

Kate has started over one hundred choirs across the country and several in other countries. To see the list of cities who have a choir, and to learn more about what we do, go to www.thresholdchoir.org, the national website.  For information about the New York City choir based in Manhattan, see www.thresholdchoir.org/nyc.

Sue Ribaudo
Music Director, Threshold Choir of New York City