NEWS FROM THE CHOIR LOFT

By Mary E. Futris

Happy New Year 2005!  We hope everyone had a joyous Christmas holiday season.

As previously mentioned, a few of our choir members began the holidays by attending two concerts--the “Barbershop Holiday Cabaret Show” of the Orange Empire Chorus and the Saddleback Chorale and Concert Singers Christmas Concert.  We all knew that choir bass, Richard Cote, was singing with the Orange Empire Chorus, however, many of us were shocked to find that another of our members, tenor, John Kandara, had also joined the Chorus (a year ago?).  What a delight it was to also see John performing!

We are truly proud of our members as not only do they spend many hours of their time singing praises to God, but also lend their voices to other choirs.  Two additional members, Mary Futris and Deno Soteropoulos, had been asked to join a special singing group to help sing Christmas carols to the VIPs (seniors) at a luncheon given at the St. Sophia Cathedral Fellowship Hall in Los Angeles. 

Our choir members were also pleased to sing at two weddings in November to help additionally beautify the wedding services.  We sang at the Pamela Petros-Hristos Karanastesis and the Wendy Madison-Gus Gatsios weddings.

Prior to the holidays, Richard Cote and his wife, Kay, joined their daughter on a marvelous Mediterranean cruise and, of course, we hear had a magnificent time. 

We would like to welcome another new alto into our choir, Chrisann(the) Travlos.

Hooray, let’s keep the alto section growing! 

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Pantelis (Pete) Antoniou.  Pete, who was recently hospitalized, gave us all a scare.  He has had to be rushed to the hospital twice since his major surgery.  He is finally back home recuperating, hopefully on his way to complete recovery.  We pray he will be back singing with us very soon.  Happy Namesday to Richard Cote, Ernie Gekas, John G. Hadjis, John T. Hadjis, John Kandara, and a Happy belated Namesday (in December) to Barbara Tsetseris.

We have also heard that our psalti, John Mestakidis, became seriously ill and was hospitalized during the Christmas holidays.  We wish him well (Perastika) and hope he is back with his beautiful voice singing the chants of our church.

“How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.” – Psalm 147:1