President’s Message July 2021

Message from your new chapter president

HMRS has every reason to celebrate the just-completed 2020-2021 season. Regular meetings were smoothly converted from in-person playing sessions to bimonthly virtual sessions using Zoom. I was constantly gratified and impressed by the enthusiasm and resilience shown by the membership. We owe a huge thankyou to our program leadership, Lee Danielson and Kathy Kuhrt who mastered overdubbing and the basics of video and audio production to provide us with quality recordings to accompany our “muted” play-alongs. Trust me, playing and synchronizing all 4 parts of just one piece takes a lot of skill and patience. I heard it in progress! They did it for a complete playlist for the season.

Attendance at virtual sessions averaged 15-25 members. Our total membership has reached 32, including some individuals living well outside the Capital District. Some of the new members were attracted by an outstanding lineup of 5 miniworkshops featuring well known clinicians and two of our favorite composers. Who could have guessed that we would be led by Marg Hall from her home in Scotland? We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of two of the miniworkshops by grants from the American Recorder Society. I encourage members to consider joining the national society as a way to support this type of aid and also to receive member copies of new music, and gain access to a host of playing resources for all levels.

The HMRS Board will meet soon to consider plans for the upcoming season. We are hoping that in-person sessions will soon be possible but rest assured that there will be playing sessions of some type for certain.

Finally, I’m sure we all want to wish the very best to Lee and Susan Danielson as they move to Massachusetts this summer as part of “downsizing”. The invaluable contribution that Lee made during this past season to help make virtual sessions so successful and enjoyable was just the most recent of his many efforts to benefit HMRS. A long-time active chapter member, Lee served as president, worked with the chapter library and was a member of several consorts. We hope that Lee will still be able to join us occasionally, if only virtually.

—Mike Kuhrt, HMRS President

About Michael Kuhrt

HMRS President and Librarian
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