The Chorister
North Dakota ACDA
SPRING ISSUE: 2015
1. 2. 4. 6. 8.
The Chorister: Cover Page Weber: Another Exciting Year Redfearn: Student Assessment Porter: Inspire the Choir Moe: Encouraging Lifelong Singers
9. 10. 12. 14. 15. 16.
A Note from the Editor Seil: Steve Zegree’s Legacy Voeller: Sight Reading Josh Bronfman: Summer Photo Flash Photo Flash
Another Exciting Year.. Michael Weber, NDACDA President Congratulations North Dakota ACDA! We have had another exciting year. Our continued growth in membership this past year is amazing. Currently we have 186 members that are either have an active membership, a retired membership, institutional membership or a student membership. I think we can safely say this is the largest membership that our chapter has ever had throughout our history as a state chapter of ACDA. This was a group effort led by Rebecca Raber and Andrew Miller. Congratulations to them and all of you who nominated or recommended teachers and conductors for membership. Because of our efforts, we will be recognized at the National Conference in Salt Lake City by Tim Sharp, the executive director of ACDA. North Dakota is the ONLY state to receive this recognition for both years of the Sing Up! campaign. Evidence of our commitment to excellence is seen in all of the projects we support throughout the year. Surround the State in Song, led by Cheryl McIntyre, was one of the most successful activities of the year. There were five sites throughout the state and each site had great participation. Josh Bronfman did a wonderful job planning our state conference in Bismarck. Tom Porter, Andy
Miller and Keri Bolte Hess did a great job as the hosts and site managers. A huge thanks to all of the teachers who prepared their students to sing in the honor choirs. I witnessed the magic and power of music as these students sang so well under the leadership of our honor choir conductors. And a final shout out to the organizers of each honor choir. Tom Porter, James Wolter and Danielle Larson spent countless hours organizing the choirs so that our students would have a great experience. We are also continuing our support for scholarship to the International Music Camp. More information will soon be on our webpage and distributed through the list serve. Finally, I want to thank all of you for what you do for ACDA and for your students. Everyday you bring the remarkable gift of music to your students. Everyday you are motivated to give your students valuable learning experiences that will shape their love of music for their entire life. Everyday you are committed to making sacrifices so that your students may be successful. I
cannot think of a more important profession or passion than the work that you do with your students. YOU are North Dakota ACDA! This is my last article as President. Next July, Josh Bronfman takes the helm as President. I am confident that the organization will continue to thrive under Josh’s leadership. We have great momentum established for growth and a commitment to working hard for our students and fellow teachers/ conductors. I would also like to welcome Peggy DahlBartunek to the leadership team and the executive committee. I know that she will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to help guide NDACDA in the future. I look forward to seeing what exciting ideas they have for our continued growth and support for the mission of ACDA. Together, we can be proud of NDACDA and the people who work so hard to make it happen. Thank you to all of you for your work and dedication to NDACDA!
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CONTEMPORARY COMPOSITION
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N DS U C H O RA L SY M P OS I U M OCTOBER 22-24, 2015 NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY, FARGO The NDSU School of Music, the American Choral Directors Association and the American Composers Forum proudly announce the “NDSU Choral Symposium: Contemporary Composition in America.”
PHOTO: MARC ROYCE
Noted composer, conductor and lecturer Eric Whitacre will headline the three-day symposium, presenting sessions on his music and working with NDSU choral ensembles. FEATURED CHOIR
PHOTO: CURTIS JOHNSON
Cantus is a nine-member ensemble based in the Twin Cities. It is acclaimed for its performance of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century.
FEATURED PRESENTERS
Abbie Betinis, Composer Craig Carnahan, American Composers Forum Jocelyn Hagen, Composer Steven Sametz, Composer Tim Sharp, American Choral Directors Association MORE INFORMATION: contact Jo Ann Miller at jo.miller@ndsu.edu or visit ndsu.edu/performingarts/choralsymposium.
IN AMERICA
Student Assessment Christopher Redfearn, Collegiate & University Choirs There are many current buzzwords in the field of education. One of these is assessment. All around the state, principles and superintendents gather teachers for professional development sessions to discuss district and school goals for assessment. As music teachers, we may feel left out of these discussions, because our subject is not included in annual standardized examinations. The term “assessment” refers to the act of ensuring that learning is occurring in a classroom. We are just as interested in knowing whether our students are learning in our classroom as any other educator in the school. Assessment is central to what we do every day in the music classroom. Our jobs as ensemble directors require us to make multiple assessments during each rehearsal. We assess all aspects of the performance, including attacks/releases, intonation, diction, dynamics, musicality and expression, etc. We also assess the visual performance, including facial expression, dress, choreography, and so on. However, these efforts are centered on the teacher. Students need to be actively engaged in the assessment process as well. It is when the students are assessing their own
p e r f o r manc e th at tr u e music education is happening. Ultimately, our students are going to leave our programs, and we want our students to be able to make music when they have left our program. For that to happen, they need to begin thinking like music teachers. We need to give them the assessment skills that we developed in college and on the job. Here are some ideas for implementing this in your program: 1. Pitch Traps: I give credit for this idea to Dr. Paul Broomhead at Brigham Young University, who was my choral methods teacher. He developed a list of common problems that choirs have keeping a piece in tune. He called them “pitch traps,” and they included ascending lines (steps too small that end up flat), descending lines (steps too big that end up flat), repeated pitches (drift flat over time), intervals that don’t quite make it, and so on. He advocated bringing the students into the assessment by asking them to identify the problem, then to identify which of the “pitch traps” could be causing the problem.
2. Record rehearsals and performances: Students hear you give feedback in rehearsal, but how many of you believe that your comments go in one ear and out the other? Try recording a take of a song in rehearsal, and then play it back for them instantly. This will require you to have your technology ready ahead of time. (There are many options for hand held recorders, depending on your budget. You may also take time to permanently wire a microphone and hang it in your rehearsal hall.) This is a type of formative assessment. Students can hear in real time where the mistakes are happening. You can either direct the conversation toward an issue you have, or allow the students the chance to direct the rehearsal towards an issue that they can now collectively hear. Video recordings in rehearsal allow your students to “see what you see” and make adjustments before the concert. In addition, this works well as a summative assessment. Record your concerts and have your students comment on their performance at the end of the process. 3. Part Checks: Sing through a section of a piece, or an entire piece, and then ask students to circle the areas in the score where they are having issues. This is for them personally, not for the entire ensemble. Ask students to avoid generalities (circling the entire page) and have them be specific. Then ask students to come up with some ideas as to why that section is difficult. Is it a
“pitch trap”? Is the tessitura causing issues? Ask students to find the problem, then ask them to formulate a solution. They can also ask their classmates or you for advice. 4. Assess the performance of others: Search out performances of other choirs for students to evaluate. These could be recordings of your choirs from years past. They could also be recordings of ensembles that you respect, whether on the secondary, collegiate, or professional level. There are a wealth of recordings, whether you are looking for performances to emulate or discuss, on Internet sites such as YouTube. Narrow the focus by giving students one topic to listen for, such as intonation, diction, phrasing, etc. Ask students to f o r m u l a t e solutions for the issues they hear. You can also ask students to apply what they are hearing to their own performance. You can start small by incorporating just one of these in your rehearsal. Perhaps reading this sparked your creativity and led you to come up with another strategy, or to see a way to modify a strategy you are already using. By involving students in the process of assessment, we give them the tools necessary to continue making music throughout their lives.
Inspire Your Choir Tom Porter, Men’s Choirs R & S In the movie, City Slickers, Jack Palance shares with Billy Crystal the secret of life, “one thing.” This is a philosophy contrary to contemporary society that values multi-tasking to such a degree that it identifies it as a fine art. Choir directors can be especially susceptible to multitasking, listening to a choir sing a section of music and offering a plethora of “fixes” (note the instructions at 1:11 in this video), the majority of which will go directly over the heads of the singers. Doing one thing means finding that thing that is most important, most critical to success--the desire of the heart—and making that one thing the goal in every decision and situation. I propose that “one thing” is inspiring the choir. The word “inspire” has a variety of meanings. It’s root meaning is to breathe in, but not just as an act of air going in and out. The word carries deeper connotations, to inflame, to blow into, to bring to life (spirit). As choral directors we often talk about breathing as a technical process. But breathing for the singer is more than that. It is the moment the singer connects with life and blows into or inflames the music. It is an intimate process. If the direction is to breathe on the
vowel, or to breathe from the diaphragm, the singer experiences only the technical part of the process. If the inspiration to breathe is an emotional connection to the music that is about to take place, chances are that breath will be more deliberate, more “correct,” and will sustain a musical line that has meaning and life. The term “inspire” also means “to spur on, to impel, to motivate.” In the process of learning music in
rehearsal, it is important to find those inspirational moments at every point in the process. Over years of conducting, I have learned that one of the most important moments for a choir is the first day of school. For many years this was, for me, a day to get the busy work done— auditions, section placement, syllabus, folder assignments, etc. Now it is a day to get the choir to sing. That’s why they are there; they want to sing. And not just to sight read everything in the folder, I want them to truly experience the depth and beauty of song, even if that means one lovely, well
expressed phrase. Every rehearsal needs that moment of motivation, when we step back from the technical directions and enter the song. It is the director’s responsibility to “spur on” the choir (back to the City Slicker reference—spurring points a direction and motivates the horse). Finally, inspiration also means, “to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence.” To animate we must be willing to reveal, to open our own emotions to the music. It cannot be simply a technical exercise. Music is art, and to conduct music is to animate dots on a page. What does this particular piece mean to me? Why did I choose it? Why am I having you (the choir) sing it? If there is no personal connection, there will be no musical connection. It starts with the conductor, and the choir learns by example. Today in rehearsal I will try to do one thing: inspire, exploring the music and the process of singing, and enabling the members of the ensemble to focusing on life, motivation, and animation. In conclusion, here is an inspirational performance of an Eric Whitacre piece, “Sainte Chapelle.”
EDUCATING THE NEXT GENERATION
OF OUTSTANDING MUSICIANS. University of Mary Concert Choir Dr. Tom Porter, director
Check us out on Youtube “Elijah Rock” by Moses Hogan “Loch Lomond” by Jonathan Quick
Dr. Tom Porter Director of Choral Activities Katherine Henjum Associate Professor of Music, Voice Contact the UMary Music Department to learn more: music@umary.edu www.umary.edu/music 800-288-6279, ext. 8301
The University of Mary Music Department is defined by a commitment to excellence. Vocal music students have the opportunity to study Concert Choir, Vocal Jazz, Vocal Arts Ensemble, Chamber Choir, Musical Theater, and Private and Class Voice Lessons. Scholarships are available for music majors as well as students majoring in other areas who participate in music ensembles. Students may contact the music department to arrange a campus visit and scholarship audition on a different date. Students living more than 250 miles from campus may send a recorded audition.
Encouraging Lifelong Singers Charlette Moe, Women’s Choirs R & S Happy Spring Everyone! I certainly enjoy serving as the Women's Repertoire and Standards Representative. Across our state, there are many women's choirs and each time I hear one of them perform. I glean new ideas about repertoire and expression. Last year I was lucky to work with Melanie Popejoy and heard her a m a z i n g women at UND sing Kodály's "Dancing Song." Her performance reminded me of that brilliant piece and since our collaboration, I have programmed "Dancing Song" with two different ensembles. As I write this, may I entertain a thought with you? As I look into the eyes of female singers and hope they become "lifelong" singers, I have recently had a new realization, that maybe many of you have already entertained. Along with my hope that they become "lifelong" singers, many of these women may potentially become mothers who will eventually assist their children with choosing schedules in both school and leisure activities.
My request to all of you, encourage our female singers, not only for the beauty of their voices today but their potential influence on their children tomorrow. I wish everyone a fantastic summer!
A big shout out to our guests at the 6th Annual Women's Choral Festival and their directors: Fargo Davies Women’s Choir, James Wolter, conductor
Fargo North Women’s Choir, Shelley Zietz, Director Bella Voce, St. Michael Albertville High School, Barbra K. Jones, Director Minnesota State University Moorhead, Erynn Millard, Director ENJOY THIS VIDEO!
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: 7th Annual Women's Choral Festival will be on Friday, February 26th, 2016.
A Note from the Editor Thank you to all of you who contributed to the Chorister this year, whether it was writing an article, sending pictures, or stories!
60th Annual International Music Camp At the International Peace Garden on the border between North Dakota & Manitoba
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Steve Zegree’s Legacy Mike Seil, Jazz Choirs R & S On March 7th, the vocal music world, and more specifically, the vocal jazz world lost one of its most inspirational influences with the passing of Steve Zegree. Dr. Zegree was the director of Gold Company and staff member at the University of Western Michigan for 34 years. He had recently moved to Indiana University in 2012. His groups were often the standard that others strived for with their own ensembles, receiving 50 performance awards from Downbeat magazine during this span. Dr. Zegree was also a brilliant pianist, touring the world with the Western Jazz Quartet. He was a prolific arranger of vocal jazz charts and had also written two books about teaching in this genre. However, Dr. Zegree’s influence, as with all great educators, will be best remembered in the education, motivation and inspiration he provided to his students. His influence is unmistakable, considering that many of the most well know jazz arrangers and the directors at many of the universities with outstanding jazz choirs of their own were once under his direction.
NCACDA High School Jazz Honor Choir. My students were very intimidated at the beginning, both based on his reputation as a task master and since they had just had Steve as a judge at the University of Mary Jazz Festival that previous January. This intimidation quickly diminished, only to be replaced with amazement and admiration. I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to watch a master at work, quickly taking a collection of vocalists from different schools and different states and make them into an ensemble that sounded amazing, but more importantly, cared about the music they were making and each other.
I have had several opportunities to be involved with Dr. Zegree, most notably when he was the director of the 2010
Here is a list of arrangements and resources written by Steve Zegree:
If you aren’t familiar with the life work of Steve Zegree, this would be a most appropriate time to peruse through his catalogue of arrangements. There certainly isn’t a more appropriate way to keep the memory of Dr. Zegree alive than by keeping his music known to singers and audiences alike.
All of Me 350027116 SATB Alright, Okay, You Win HL08200122 SATB Blue Skies HL08200204 SATB Button up Your Overcoat 33114 2-Part Bye Bye Blackbird HL00121776 SATB Christmas Time is Here HL08743224 SATB The Christmas Waltz 35029463 SATB Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me HL00116850 SATB Down by the Riverside HL08745222 2-Part God Bless the Child HL00116857 SATB High Hopes HL08745132 2-Part I’ll Be Home for Christmas 35010523 SATB Isn’t It Romantic HL08740224 SATB It’s Only a Paper Moon HL08564141 2-Part I’ve Got the World on a String HL08564169 2-Part I Wish You Love HL08749749 SATB In My Life HL08201887 SATB It Had to Be You WBCH93386 SATB The Lady Is a Tramp HL08742614 SATB Moon River HL08743469 SATB More I Cannot Wish You HL08754583 SATB New York State of Mind HL08201461 SATB
The Night We Called It a Day 35015150 SATB On a Clear Day HL08602142 SATB On the Sunny Side of the Street HL08564114 2-Part Once Upon a Time HL08749744 SATB Seasons of Love HL08621493 SATB Sing HL08748073 2-Part Smile HL08603699 SATB So Nice (Summer Samba) HL08753022 SATB Take the ‘A’ Train 35022415 SATB Tenderly HL00116862 SATB That Old Black Magic HL08200200 SATB They Say It’s Wonderful HL08747938 SSAATTBB This Masquerade 35023223 SATB Trickle, Trickle 35024032 SATB When I Take My Sugar to Tea HL00116848 2-Part Where or When 35028750 SATB A Wink and a Smile HL08552347 2-Part The Complete Guide to Teaching Vocal Jazz 30/1737H The Wow Factor (How to Create It, Inspire It & Achieve It) HL08749574
Sight Reading with Your Choir Phillip Voeller, Senior High Choirs R & S Sight-reading is one of the most important items we can teach our students. Unfortunately, with the hustle and bustle of upcoming performance dates, sight-reading is often pushed to the bottom of our priority list. I challenge you to invest a few minutes of every one of your rehearsals towards a few sightreading exercises. I assure you, that it will pay tremendous dividends to your choir. In this article I will list a few tips to get your choir started on the right note. ! 1. Make sight singing a priority. Yeah, it’s obvious, but it needs to be said. Even last year I was still telling myself, “I don’t have time for that! I have a concert next week!” Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, the only way I’ll ever have a choir that sight reads music well, is if I make sight singing a priority. It will be time invested and it will pay off in the end.
Sight-reading is now a part of our routine. The students know that no matter what is pressing, I will never, ever, in a million trillion years, give up our daily sight singing time. I have it written into my will that my students will continue to sight read every single day.
the difficult route and went with what I was not familiar with. The decision is yours, but I have had much more success with the use of solfege.
2. Decide if you want to teach solfege or numbers.
Start with 2 notes. Then work up to 3 notes and slowly increase the difficulty. Be absolutely certain all of your students have mastered it before you add anything new. Be patient and take your time. Why give them something more difficult if they can’t sight sing what they already have? If it takes a month before they get it so be it, so be it. It is better to do less with mastery execution, than it is to do more with mediocre performance. Be encouraging throughout this entire process. This is not easy for your students and they can easily become frustrated. Stick with it, encourage them, and they will eventually catch onto it.
I used to sight sing with numbers. However, as I dug more and more into the pedagogy of sight singing, I noticed solfege w a s m u c h
more commonly used. I figured there has to be a reason for this. I ended up taking
3. Start easy.
4. The Forbidden Pattern. We play a lot of “The Forbidden Pattern” in my choir. Students must use solfege hand signals while we play “The Forbidden Pattern” The Forbidden Pattern is a game that is teacher vs. students and there is a pattern that the students are forbidden to sing, let’s use “Do-Re-Mi” as the forbidden pattern. The teacher begins singing patterns in and the students repeat the pattern, remember that solfege must be used. If the teacher sings, “Do-Re-Mi”, and the students repeat it, the teacher gets a point. If the students are silent and do not repeat the forbidden pattern, then the students shall receive a point. There are some great youtube videos on this game. There is a great pedagogical explanation of the game at https:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=JoO6R4OHSIY and there is also a great video of it being taught to students at https:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=TlUd8v-BONs. I am very particular about it being silent when the forbidden
pattern is sung. If I hear even a peep, the teacher gets the point. Use it, the kids will love it! This is a great way to introduce new material such as low So, or interval skips. You can also use this game if students are singing a passage or rhythm wrong. Play teacher vs. students and if they sing it correct they get a point, if they sing it incorrect you get a
point. wins.
First to 5 points
5. Practice Rhythms. I don’t have my kids just sight sing and be done. They also clap rhythms every single day of their entire student lives with me. Again, start simple and slowly get more complex. On day one of
this year we started with just quarter notes and quarter note rests. Gradually we increased the complexity and just the other day I was able to throw them a hemiola. This didn’t happen over one rehearsal, we’ve worked towards it every single day of this school year. Everyday I write a new 4 measure rhythm on the board for them to clap. I can’t stress enough the importance of staying persistent when it comes to teaching sightreading. Not matter what is pressing, there is nothing more important. You will be able to learn music more quickly, sing higher quality music, and focus on other elements beyond the notes. I hope you have learned a few tips to successfully incorporating sightreading into your choir. If I can ever be of any help please feel free to contact me with any questions!
Summer Rejuvenation Josh Bronfman, NDACDA President-Elect As the year begins to wind down, I make a small list of projects to engage in over the summer. I try to find projects that aren’t things that I normally do during the school year, and that might not get done otherwise. Usually, this mean projects that either take up too much time, or too much mental space for deep thought. Most important is that these projects be fun and interesting, otherwise they won’t get done. I find if I can bang out a few of these, my school year is much m o r e productive, organized, and satisfying. Read I try to read a few books about composers, leadership, teaching, or anything else indirectly or directly tied to my job. Sometimes I chose a single topic, and sometimes I just pick up what interest me. I try to focus on things that will make me better at my job, or better at the work/life balance. I also read more recreationally, but I try to include one interesting work related topic in the rotation all summer.
Repertoire Summer is such a great time to immerse oneself in repertoire. The key is in how you do it. I purposefully don’t search with a goal in mind; I let my brain and heart freely flow as I browse my files, Popplers, the Internet, YouTube, Spotify, and my iTunes library. I just listen to things that please me, and if something peaks my interest, I write it down (I use Google Docs for this so I can do it on my phone if I hear something in the car or at a conference). I have found a lot of great music by c a s u a l l y browsing on a summer evening with a cold beverage in my hand! I love doing this, and it hardly feels like work. Exercise It’s awfully hard to get outside in the winter, or get to the gym during concert season, but in the summer I walk, run, lift weights or even just horse around with my kids. I try for at least an hour a day. It’s not directly work related, but it makes me happier, healthier, and better able to handle the stresses and long days during
the regular year. Mini-Project During the year we always have that moment when the structure of something we do during the year needs revamping, but during the hustle and bustle of concerts, solo contest, and everything else, we just can’t get around to redoing things. So I make it a point to spend a few days looking at one small piece of curriculum, grading, or schedule, and then restructuring it. This is the one thing that feels the most like work, but the key is making it a relatively small project that you wouldn’t have the mental space to do otherwise, and that needs a creative solution. Often, it’s just allowing myself time to freely think about the issue, rather than doing anything about it. Much more than the four things listed above and you lose the rejuvenating effects of summer. Keep it limited, and in no way let it impact family and vacation time, and you’ll find that your next year starts of in a really positive way. Keep up the good work… summer is almost here!
Photo Flash
SpringChoir Tour!