Volunteers: the heart of the organization

Baroque Choral Guild and Cantabile have a long list of volunteers that assist our efforts on a daily basis, some who have been at their post for years, some who involve their entire families. They are extraordinary individuals who give their time and talent to make our organization successful. They are, in many cases, the heart of the organization—treasured gems who make our work much easier. We could not do it without them! Meet two of our volunteers below.

Iron Man

Baseball’s Cal Ripkin Jr. is nicknamed “Iron Man” because he set the Major League record for consecutive games played. We in BCG have our own Iron Man, although it’s probably more accurate to describe him as Golden Heart.

Norm Proctor joined the BCG Chorus in 1983. Every chorus welcomes a good bass, and Norm’s contribution is valuable enough just for its 21-year tenure. But Norm has gone far, far beyond being an exemplary chorister.

Brand-new singers learn who Norm is right away, as he produces the translations, language pronunciation guides, and practice tapes for the chorus. He also schedules and hosts chorister voice lessons with Kristin Womack. He coordinates the semiannual musicales. And he co-hosts (with partner David Miller, BCG’s Assistant Conductor) bass sectionals.

BCG staffers rely on Norm for behind-the-scenes support. He edits Sanford’s program notes and all the copy for the Baroquen Record newsletter. He also puts together the innards of all the concert programs. Now that he has become proficient with his music notation software, Norm is cranking out wonderful, readable working scores, for which we singers are eternally grateful. But that’s not all...Norm served on the Guild’s board of directors from 1987 to 1998, first as Chorus Coordinator and then as an at-large member. His leadership and participation, especially in matters of policy and procedure, helped us reach and maintain a level of organizational stability which is making it possible for us to weather these tough times.

Norm has involved himself in all aspects of BCG, Inc. He has attended special rehearsals and performances with Cantabile Children’s Chorus and Peninsula Choral Workshop. Each December he dons Victorian garb and sings carols with Choir for Hire. He is a jolly addition to Guild parties, potlucks, picnics, hikes...

His tireless generosity is the best example of the sense of community that volunteer organizations promote. If there were such a thing as a Volunteer Hall of Fame, Norman E. Proctor would be inducted—on the first vote.

~Audrey Wong

Musical Tesarowskis

Over Christmas vacation the office asked a few volunteers to help put together a large and complicated mailing for Cantabile. Four of the five Tesarowskis—Katie, Andrew, Laura and Dawn—arrived full of holiday good cheer and enthusiasm for pitching in. In between stuffing, stamping, cutting, and folding, the family from Ontario, Canada, emerged as a cheerful, hardworking group with a passion for chocolate. The Tesarowskis are musical. So much so that the Tesarowskis knew that Laura and Katie would be singing with Cantabile before they knew their precise address in the USA! Besides Katie and Laura’s singing with Cantabile, Katie plays the flute, Andrew plays trumpet and tuba, mother Dawn sings second soprano in the Foster City Community Chorus, where she is also a board member, and even father David has studied piano. In fact, all the Tesarowskis seem perfectly at home with the keyboard we have in the office and took breaks to entertain us.

Work went so rapidly that Katie and Andrew progressed to the office computer where they helped ferret out information from the Internet and put it into a database. It took minutes for them to understand the project, and they made fast work of it.

Cantabile families know Dawn as the Volunteer Coordinator who calls and emails for help on various projects. Before moving to the US from Canada, Dawn taught French to grades K through 8 in the city of Guelph, Ontario. Because of her visa status she is unable to resume her work as a teacher so she spends her time helping teachers. She is the editor of the yearbook for Bowditch Middle School where Andrew is a student. She chairs the Book Faire Committee at Laurel School and, like so many modern parents, involves her children in her volunteer activities.

When pressed, Dawn says that she spends her days the way she saw her mother spending hers. As a transplanted Canadian, she also finds volunteering a good way to meet a number of interesting people. Dawn claims, “There is always room for volunteers, and I enjoy making a contribution where I can. There are so many small ways that volunteers can enhance a program and, in the case of Cantabile, provide support to the director and, finally, the singers.”

In her spare time, Dawn enjoys sewing and hiking and is perfecting her music sight-reading skills. Given her extraordinary energy and love of music, Dawn has been invited to audition for BCG. Ever modest, she claims she’s “not good enough” but enjoys attending all of the concerts and helping out where she can.

Signe Boyer will tell you that the Tesarowskis make the perfect “o” sound. They also make a perfect addition to our community.

For the record, they do not miss the Canadian winters at all.

~JoAnn di Lorenzo

Volume 12, Issue 3

Baroque Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410