Page 14 - North Haven Magazine Issue 31 Holiday 2023

Holiday
by Holly Francke

Harmonies

Sunday, December 10th, 2 PM at North Haven High School

Come get into the holiday spirit as you listen to an outstanding a cappella chorus as they perform the music of
the season. You’ll probably find yourself tapping your feet and singing along with some familiar favorites. And
you may even go home with one of the beautiful raffle baskets!
Tickets are available online at www.silknsounds.org or at the door.

What better way to celebrate the season Silk’n Sounds strives to be an organization a variety of communities throughout Con-
than through the gift of song? that values and celebrates diversity among necticut, including North Haven. Some trav-
its members, empowering women to rise el quite a distance to attend rehearsals and
Directed by Kia Lampe-Onnerud, Silk’n to their highest level of musicality through performances. Within the past year, we are
Sounds is an auditioned chorus of women singing and performing. The chorus is also thrilled to have had 8 amazing women join
based in the greater New Haven area, bound committed to making a positive difference the chorus.
together by our love of singing. Kia brings in our community, with performances for
over 30 years of chorus leadership and mu- local charities and youth outreach projects.
sical performance experience across a wide In addition, we support New Reach as they
range of genres. In addition to her love of a address homelessness and poverty in the
cappella, Kia imparts a deep understanding Greater New Haven area with a continuum
of jazz harmonies and rhythms to our group. of housing and innovative support. We also
As a talented jazz dance master, she infuses participate in their Adopt a Family program
some of our “up tunes” with fun and creative during the holidays, bringing joy to those in
choreography. need.

The chorus also performs pro-bono con-
certs, most recently at the Blue Back Square
Farmer’s Market in West Hartford. In ad-
dition, we have performed at the Hamden A Few Members of the Baritone Section
Community Supper, and the “Bring Back the
Night” celebration at Hamden’s Villano Park While Silk’n Sounds is not formally based
-- just to name a few. in North Haven, the group has spent many
hours practicing and performing at North
Haven High School as well as singing at
the Winter Wonderland drive-thru event
at The Landing in North Haven. We will be
performing at the North Haven Library De-
Silk’n Sounds at Area 2 Contest cember 2nd.
Who are we as a chorus? We also collaborated with “Key of She” (the
NHHS Girls Select Chorus) during our last
Silk’n Sounds was founded in 1998 as the holiday concert. We’ve come to feel very at
first Connecticut chapter of Harmony Inc., a home in this town! Silk’n Sounds has a gift
vibrant international organization of women of connecting people in ways that lift up the
barbershop singers. We have a broad reper- spirit. Please join us for “Holiday Harmo-
toire of traditional and contemporary songs North Haven Winter Wonderland 2022 nies” on Sunday, December 10th at 2:00 pm
including jazz standards, ballads, and rhyth- in the North Haven High School auditori-
mic pop favorites. The chorus continues What has kept this group singing together um. Let us add a little bit of SPARKLE and
to honor our roots as an a cappella chorus for over 25 years? joy to your holiday season through our gift
dedicated to excellence in the performance of song.
of four-part vocal harmony in the American Answer: the gift of song that lifts the spirits of
barbershop tradition. The four-part har- others, a sense of community, and a unique “The ONLY THING better than SINGING
mony is comprised of leads (singing melo- bond of sisterhood. The past two years is MORE SINGING.” - Ella Fitzgerald
dy), tenors (singing the highest notes in the proved to be challenging with the effects of
chord), baritones (filling in the all import- the pandemic. However, through determi-
ant missing notes in the chord), and bases nation, innovation and the driving force of
(supplying the harmonic foundation of the our director, we continued to sing. Music
chord). and singing became a bond that was not to
be broken. Our dedicated singers come from

14 North Haven Magazine - Holiday Issue 2023