December was a busy month for Shine, and now we are all resting and enjoying the holidays, proud of what we accomplished in what was definitely our best season yet!

We had a great time at the Festival of Giving with Radio Disney on December 4th. It felt good to help support their efforts to collect goods for local charities, and as a bonus it gave us a chance to polish up our songs in front of an audience before our big concert the following week.

December 11th was our Winter Concert, with special guests The Green Note from PSU, and it was a huge success, a really fun and memorable night for everyone involved. I've been uploading video from our Shine video camera (which was mounted on a tripod the whole time, so don't expect too much fancy camerawork, or any for that matter...) onto our YouTube channel. Check it out, or watch below-- our best yet version of Fireflies by Owl City.

The Tuesday after our concert, a group of our singers made a special appearance at the DHS (Department of Human Services) Christmas Party for Foster Children. We sang a selection of songs from our repertoire, and then had a round of caroling, inviting everyone there to join in. It was a really nice way to end the season, and I was told that our being there was an inspiration to many.

To cap off our action-packed season of singing, we had a Holiday Karaoke Party at Voicebox, a really great option for karaoke singing with friends, as they have private rooms and a fantastic song collection. Our singers had a LOT of fun, and I think we might make this a Shine tradition!

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, I've been holding auditions for new members who will join us in January, working on arrangements of new songs for our repertoire, and putting together the plans for some exciting new projects!

Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season and all the best in 2012!

This Sunday, December 4th, we'll be singing at Radio Disney's Festival of Giving at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton. We're very proud to be a part of this event, which is a one-stop-drop for holiday donations of food, clothing, toys, and even pet supplies. It's a great opportunity to spread some holiday cheer and make the season brighter for all. We go on at 1pm, and would love to see you there!

Click here to download a list of the participating organizations and their donation guidelines. So many great ways to give!

On Sunday, October 2nd, we had our first performance on the season at Oaks Amusement Park, as part of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's annual Walk to Cure Diabetes. With only 2 rehearsals to prepare for the show, our singers worked incredibly hard and we were able to debut two new songs (Perfect by Pink and Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time). In addition to these, we sang Waka Waka by Shakira, our Sunday, Bloody Sunday/Airplanes mash-up, and Owl City's Fireflies. The kids did a fantastic job, and our music was amplified throughout the park for the 5,000+ attendees to hear-- our biggest audience ever!

After the show, everyone received ride bracelets and our singers had the opportunity to hang out and have fun together at Oaks Park! Several of our singers also participated in the walk to help raise money for diabetes research. It was a great experience for us, and I'm proud that we got to be a part of such an important and worthwhile event!

I'm so glad that we were able to obtain a recording of this performance. It was a really special experience for the kids. The Home for the Holidays show is put on annually by local musician Mark Bosnian, who, upon hearing about Shine in September (when we were just getting started) invited us to be beneficiaries of the concert AND to perform at it! A performance opportunity AND a donation-- what more could a fledgling chorus ask for? We were thrilled!

The night of the concert, we arrived for our sound check and found that not only was Mark Bosnian just as kind a person as his generosity would suggest, but he was also amazingly calm while pulling together all the last minute details for a major event with lots of people involved. I think his calmness helped put the kids at ease, and reminded all of us that we were gathering to share music and joy, and to relax and let it be fun.

And so much fun it was! We sang our mash-up of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow and I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, and our soloist JinMei really knocked it out of the park! We also did Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) by Shakira. The audience was wonderful, the atmosphere was warm and inviting, and the kids REALLY connected. Afterward, there was lots of praise for Shine and how expressively the kids sang, how they really seemed to be getting into the music and enjoying themselves, and how nice they sounded. The rest of the night was filled with beautiful music by different groups and individual performers (including the multi-talented Mark Bosnian himself), and it was a pleasure and an honor to be a part of it.

Watch Shine's performance below!