Issue 14 • Winter 2016
The Official Publication of the North Dakota Chapter
of the American Choral Directors Association www.ndacda.com
| 1
North Dakota ACDA Leadership Joshua Bronfman, president University of North Dakota Peggy Dahl-Bartunek, president-elect Mike Weber, past president North Dakota State University Sheldon Weltz, treasurer
North Dakota Repertoire and Standards Chairs Cheryl McIntyre, children’s choirs James Wolter, junior high choirs Discovery Middle School Allyse Hoge, junior high choirs Valley Middle School Tom Porter, men’s choirs University of Mary Charlette Moe, women’s choirs North Dakota State University
Phillip Voeller, senior high choirs Beulah Middle/High School Mike Seil, jazz choirs Legacy High School Brian Saylor, show choirs Bismarck High School Sara Lichtblau, ethnic/multicultural Fargo South High School Chris Redfearn, collegiate/university Valley City State University
Melanie Popejoy, community choirs University of North Dakota Vicky Boechler, music in worship St. Mary’s High School Andrew Miller, student activities Bismarck State College
2 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
In This Issue From the President
4
From the Editor
6
2016 State Conference Information
8
Schedule
8
Legacy High School
10
Honor Choir Conductors
12
Articles Multicultural Resources
14
Sara Lichtblau Promoting Your Program
15
Mary Pat Archuleta Becoming an Encourager
18
Brian Saylor
www.ndacda.com | 3
W
From the Pr esident elcome back from break everyone. I hope you had a restful and rejuvenating time with family and friends.
First off I’d like to share my excitement for the upcoming ND-ACDA State Convention, February 5-6. If you haven’t made arrangements to attend the convention, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible. Peggy Bartunek, our Conference Chair, has put together an exciting program of showcase choirs, interest sessions, and outreach activities. We have some wonderful guest directors, and a gorgeous new facility at Bismarck Legacy High School with our host, Mike Seil. It’s going to be a great time, and I hope to see you all there. I love conventions. I go whenever possible. I find so much value in getting together to share our common experiences. But still, when I look around this state, I see many folks that are not participating in enrichment events like our conference. Here are some things to think about, that might help those who don’t participate, to join us at ACDA, or NAfME, or any other gathering like our state convention. Education OK, so this one is obvious. We have interest sessions, we have guest conductors and auditioned showcase choirs, all of which help us to learn more about our field. What I find interesting is that while we recognize the value of education for 4 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
our students, sometimes we neglect the need for our own continued growth. We’ve all had those weeks (or months!), where it seems like all we’ve been doing is going from meeting to rehearsal to another rehearsal to voice lesson to musical rehearsal, without a break, until our head hits the pillow at night. And then, we wake up the next day and do it all again. By joining ACDA, and participating in ACDA events, we force ourselves away from the grind of daily music making (a joyful grind nonetheless), and allow ourselves time to breathe and think about what we are doing. The best directors always give themselves this time, and they know how much it helps themselves, and their singers. I find that there is always something to learn, whether it be a new technique, a new piece, or to learn about the state of the choral community around us. Difference This one is not so obvious, but is no less important. By attending convention, you get to see stuff that is fundamentally different from the stuff that you do. Another way of saying this is diversity, but I think that word seems to infer only racial or religious difference (which is no less im-
portant). That’s why I chose the word “difference” in the subtitle. I’m talking about different teaching styles, different repertoire choices, different school sizes and ages, different administrative structures, and so much more. I find I learn an incredible amount from the ways in which people are doing differently than me. One of my closest friends is another college choir director, and he is my go to person for repertoire questions. The funny thing is, we both hate each others’ repertoire choices! That might be an exaggeration; the truth is more that we are on opposite side of the repertoire spectrum, and rarely choose the same pieces. But because of that, because of that difference, we provide each other with fresh, out-of-the-box ideas and pieces that get each of us thinking in different ways, and more often than not leads to a solution to the problem at hand. When I go to convention and see all the diverse and different ideas floating around, and it inspires new ideas in me in exactly the same way.
plain. I think many of those folks who don’t participate in conventions are really missing out on an opportunity to improve their professional and personal lives. It’s sort of like those “Blue Zones” that scientists have identified around the world where people live an average of 20 years longer than anywhere else. They’ve identified common factors between the Blue Zone communities, and one of them is a robust and fulfilling social network. We are so often closed off in our classrooms and offices that we sometimes don’t realize how even going out a few times a year can have a real impact on our happiness, health, and sense of well-being. This to me, is the main reason to be a part of gatherings like the upcoming state convention. And so, please reach out to any of your colleagues who are not coming to Bismarck, and encourage them to come. It’s a small commitment, but well worth it. I hope to see you all in there. Come and say hi.
Josh
Community All that aside, the sense of community is the most important for me. In many ways, this is more important than anything else. ACDA provides a community— a tribe, really—of like minded folks who can get together and share our triumphs and tribulations. Normally, we spend all day long talking at our singers, and so rarely get a chance to talk with our colleagues. When I can go and have a cup of coffee with my peers, and just relax and talk to people who get what I do, it’s rejuvenating in a way I can’t even ex-
Joshua Bronfman University of North Dakota NDACDA President
www.ndacda.com | 5
I
From the Editor
’ve often found an outsider’s perspective to be enlightening, because the longer I’m in a place or situation, the less conscious I become of the objective pros and cons of that place or situation. For example, when I was a student at Brigham Young University I thought it was normal for a large university (around 30,000 students) to have four auditioned choirs with a total enrollment of 450+ students, along with two more non-auditioned choirs with a combined enrollment of 200–250. When I got out into the real world, I realized I was very much mistaken.
So I want to share with you an experience I had last month that might remind you of one way in which we are fortunate here in North Dakota. Being in my first year at Dickinson State University, I don’t have a good feel yet for what kind of audience we have in our community, what they’re interested in, and how likely they are to attend our concerts. So when I planned a large-scale holiday concert at a venue 25+ miles from our campus, it was something of a hail-Mary pass to see what would happen. My department chair was skeptical—especially when I asked for $2,000 to hire an orchestra from Bismarck so we could perform the SaintSaëns Oratorio de Noël—but I pressed on in hopes that an impressive holiday concert in perhaps the most beautiful venue in the western part of the state would be just the thing we needed to jump-start the choral program at DSU. I was not disappointed.
6 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
The concert took place on a foggy, icy evening, and much of our audience had to drive a significant distance to attend the concert at Assumption Abbey in Richardton. But they came—and they filled the church. We started with more-familiar holiday tunes, which they seemed to enjoy, and when our band teamed with the fine string players we hired from Bismarck to play a medley of songs from Frozen, the audience loved it. However, as we prepared for the oratorio—which in my mind was to be the centerpiece of the concert—I wasn’t sure what they would think. This is a 150-year-old piece, and none of it would be familiar to the audience. We sang it in English instead of the original Latin to make it more accessible, but I still had concerns that the performance would fall flat in terms of audience response. But they responded very positively, and we have received many comments from many community members since the day of the concert letting us know how much they enjoyed it. We have good audiences here! In my first college-teaching job (whose name I won’t give so as not to “throw it under the bus”), we really struggled to get an audience to come out for our concerts. Yes, we can’t expect people to pack the
house for every performance, but even for our big holiday concerts our venues were typically half full at best—and this was in a city significantly larger than Dickinson. Last month I was absolutely floored not only to see the church filled, but also to see the way the audience responded to a piece which, although it’s one of my favorites, was completely unfamiliar to them and from an era long past. This is a blessing that not all conductors have, but I have found that there is a strong love for music in many Midwestern towns. My first college job was in a city about the size of Bismarck, which had only a small community orchestra which was nowhere near as skilled as the BismarckMandan Symphony. We are fortunate indeed to be in an area where music in general—and classical music in particular—is valued by the community. As an outsider who is transitioning to being an insider in this area, this was brought powerfully home to me last month, and I hope this is a phenomenon you also enjoy in your respective positions. Brent Rogers Dickinson State University Editor and Designer, The Chorister
How Can The Chorister Better Serve You?
Are there issues you would like to see addressed in a future article? Some examples might include:
The Boy’s Changing Voice
Re-Arranging Your Arrangements
Working With Instrumentalists
Anything else you think could be useful!
Are there regular features you would like to see included in future issues? Any features that were previously included, but which may have gone by the wayside? Please feel free to email me with suggestions as to how this publication can better meet your needs! brent.w.rogers@dickinsonstate.edu
www.ndacda.com | 7
2016 State Confer ence Friday–Saturday, February 5th–6th Legacy High School, Bismarck Schedule Friday 11:30
Register
12:00
Honor Choir Rehearsals Begin (Directors are encouraged to observe rehearsals when workshop presentations don’t fit their needs.)
12:30
Business Meeting All members are encouraged to attend.
1:30
Sight Reading Resources and Ideas to Incorporate into Your Middle School (and High School) Choir Rehearsals (Desiree Bondley)
2:20
R&S Reading Session #1: Middle School (Allysse Hoge)
2:30
What I Wish I Knew Going In & How I’m a Better Teacher Now Than I Was in My First Year (panel of teachers who are in their first five years)
3:20
R&S Reading Session #2: Children’s Choir (Cheryl McIntyre)
3:30
Act II: Music Directing the Musical! The Complete and Healthy Way (workshop continued from 2015) (Dr. Katherine Noone)
4:20
R&S Reading Session #3: Ethnic/Multicultural (Sara Lichtblau)
5:30
Dinner – Legacy High School Cafeteria
7:30
Showcase Concert (Doors open at 7:00) Honor Choirs 19th Ave. Jazz Choir, Fargo North High School Shelley Zietz, Director Central Dakota Children’s Choir – Kantorei (grades 7-9) Bismarck James McMahon, Director Horizon Middle School 8th Grade Choir, Bismarck Connie Stordalen, Director
8 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
Saturday
9:00
Incorporating Kodaly into the Choral Rehearsal (Dr. Charlette Moe)
9:50
R&S Reading Session #4: Women’s Choir (Dr. Charlette Moe)
10:00
So You Want to Start a Jazz Choir: Nuts and Bolts (Shelley Zeitz)
10:50
R&S Reading Session #5: Jazz (Shelley Zeitz)
11:00
Choral Conducting (Dr. Joshua Bronfman)
11:50
R&S Reading Session #6 (Phil Voeller)
12:00
Lunch – Legacy High School Cafeteria
12:00
Lunch & Meeting for Collegiate Students
1:00
Making the Most of the ND-ACDA Website (Rebecca Raber/Brian Saylor)
1:50
R&S Reading Session #7: Showchoir (Brian Saylor)
3:00
Final Concert (Doors open at 2:30) Middle School Treble Choir Middle School Mixed Choir Men's Choir Presentation of Outstanding Choral Director Award
www.ndacda.com | 9
O
Welcome to Legacy High School!
n behalf of the staff and administration of Legacy High School, I look forward to welcoming you to our new facility on February 5 & 6th for the NDACDA Honor Choirs and Convention. We are excited to finally be in our space in our third year of existence. Located on the northeast side of Bismarck, Legacy is just one piece of the massive expansion that has taken place in this part of town and throughout the greater Bismarck/ Mandan community. At Legacy High School, we were given the directive to formulate our teaching structure and strategies around what will best serve students. Rather than simply follow the models of what has always been done, the Legacy staff spent two years researching and formulating a plan to motivate students to be more active participants in their education. We are employing a “flex-mod” schedule, dividing each day into 20 minute intervals. The class schedule is different each day of the week, similar to the structure of a lab science college course. Some days, we see the students for 40 minutes, while on others, 80 minutes. This structure allows the flexibility to schedule those activities that require more time for the 4 mod days. In several of the required courses, the teachers collectively utilize the auditorium for large group presentations, rather than giving the same lecture or hosting a special event multiple times during the day. Another philosophy of Legacy is promoting collegiality amongst the staff. Many of the rooms are equipped with a windowed garage door, allowing teachers to open their 10 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
classroom, or better yet, collaborate with a teacher in the same area. In the center of the hallways, commons areas and collaboration rooms are available for students who are completing missed work or participating in a group project. Throughout the day, students have “Saber Time.” This time can be used for lunch or a break, but can also be used for tutoring. Each teacher is assigned “Saber Time” mods, in addition to the staff that are stationed in the Learning Commons to assist students throughout the day. Lastly, Legacy is a 1-to-1 school, utilizing and emphasizing the implementation of technology in the classroom and beyond. In the music department, we feel very fortunate to have a facility that promotes both group rehearsal and individual student practice. We have three large rehearsal spaces (band, choir, orchestra) in addition to the 660 seat auditorium. However, we also have 2 Wenger practice modules, a recording studio, and a black box theater that can be used for any level of rehearsal. In Choir, Alicia Fladeland and I have taken on the philosophy that “bigger isn’t always better.” Our middle level choirs, mostly sophomore and juniors, are divided into groups of 30ish based on ability for rehearsal, arranging them in any appropriate combination for performance. We feel that this makes each singer’s individual participa-
tion more meaningful, while assisting us in making authentic assessments of ability and improvement. When you arrive in February, please use these directions to find Legacy High School: From I-94:
West on Knudsen Avenue
Enter from the northeast side of the parking lot, proceeding forward to the bus loops From Century Avenue: North on Hamilton Street East on Calgary Avenue
Use exit 161 North on Centennial Road West on Knudsen Avenue
Enter from the northeast side of the parking lot, proceeding forward to the bus loops
Enter from the southeast side of the parking lot, proceeding forward to the bus loop
Don’t use Google Maps, since we don’t yet exist in that world. We are really looking forward to having you here with us!
From HWY 83:
Mike Seil
East on 43rd Avenue South on Minnesota Drive
Legacy High School Jazz Choirs R&S Chair
For more photos of the Legacy HS facilities, see p. 21 www.ndacda.com | 11
Honor Choir Conductors Dr. Janet Galván (Mixed Choir) Dr. Janet Galván, Director of Choral Activities at Ithaca College, conducts the Ithaca College Choir and Women's Chorale, and is Artistic Director for the Ithaca Children's Choir. Her New York colleagues recognized Dr. Galván’s contribution to choral music in 1995 when she received the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) New York Outstanding Choral Director Award. In 2010, she founded the chorus UNYC that has performed with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra (Lanfranco Marcelleti, conductor). Galván has conducted national, regional, and all-state choruses throughout the United States in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Constitution Hall, Minneapolis’ Symphony Hall, Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall, and Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center. She has conducted her own choral ensembles in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall as well as in concert halls in Ireland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria, Canada, and Spain. Her choral ensembles have also appeared at national, regional, and state music conferences. She has conducted the chamber orchestra, Virtuosi Pragneses, the State Philharmonic of Bialystok, Poland, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the Madrid Chamber Orchestra, and the New England Symphonic Ensemble in choral/orchestral performances. Galván was the sixth national honor choir conductor for ACDA, and was the conductor of the North American Children’s Choir which performed annually in Carnegie Hall from 19952007. She was also a guest conductor for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2002. Galván has been a guest conductor and clinician in the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Brazil as well as national and regional choral and music education conferences and the World Symposium on Choral Music. She was on the conducting faculty for the Carnegie Hall Choral Institute, the Transient Glory Symposium in February of 2012 and the Oberlin Conducting Institute in 2014. Galván has two choral music series with the Roger Dean Publishing Company and is the author of chapters in two books, Teaching Music through Performance in Choir, Volume 2 and The School Choral Program: Philosophy, Planning, Organizing and Teaching. She is also the series advisor to Latin Accents, a series with Boosey & Hawkes. Her article on the changing voice was published in the International Federation of Choral Music Journal in August of 2007 and was reprinted in La Circulare del Secretariat de Corals Infantils de Catalunga. Galván has been recognized as one of the country’s leading conducting teachers, and her students have received first place awards and have been finalists in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions of the American Choral Directors biennial 12 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
National Choral Conducting Competition. Dr. Galvรกn was a member of the Grammy Awardwinning Robert Shaw Festival Singers (Telarc Recordings). Galvรกn is the founder and faculty advisor of the Ithaca College ACDA Student Chapter. This chapter has won Outstanding Student Chapter at the last three national conventions of ACDA. She is past president of NYACDA.
Dr. Christopher Redfearn (Treble Choir) Christopher Redfearn is Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Valley City State University. He conducts the Concert Choir and University Singers, and also teaches courses in conducting, vocal methods and pedagogy, music appreciation, and applied voice. He earned the BM in Choral Music Education at Brigham Young University, the MM in Choral Conducting at Michigan State University, and the Doctor of Arts in Choral Conducting and Music Education at the University of Northern Colorado. Redfearn has experience conducting choirs at all age levels, from elementary through high school students, collegiate ensembles, and adult community choirs. He taught high school choir for seven years at programs in Idaho and Michigan, where his choirs consistently scored superior ratings at large group festivals. Choirs under his direction have presented juried performances at conferences and competitions across the United States and in Europe. He is in demand as an adjudicator, guest conductor, and choral clinician, with recent presentations at area conferences on topics such as vocal and choral pedagogy, assessment in the choral rehearsal, and choral literature. Redfearn has been chosen to conduct the ND ACDA Jr. High/ Middle School Honor Choir at the 2016 ND ACDA Conference in Bismarck, ND. He is an active member of the American Choral Director's Association, the National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, and the National Collegiate Choral Organization. Redfearn currently serves on the executive board of ACDA North Dakota as the College/ University Repertoire & Standards Chairperson.
Dr. Daniel Stowe (Men's Choir) A native of the Los Angeles area, he received his undergraduate degree in Music and International Relations from the University of California, Davis, and holds graduate degrees from the University of Southern California and Cornell University, with research interests in the sacred and secular music of the sixteenth century. He has conducted the University Chorus, Chamber Singers and Early Music Ensemble of U.C. Davis, as well as the Cornell Chorale. In addition to leading the Glee Club, he also presently serves as conductor of the Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra and the Notre Dame Collegium Musicum. He is a founding member of the plainchant ensemble Schola Musicorum and has appeared in Notre Dame Opera productions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan tutte. Mr. Stowe contributed articles on Renaissance, Baroque and 20th-century Latin American composers to the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music.
www.ndacda.com | 13
T
Multicultural Resources
he following are a few resources that I found online that I’m going to be using to increase my knowledge and understanding of multicultural music, and resources that I can use to build my music library.
For all of you Pinterest fans, there are plenty of resources to gain from this person’s pins. https://www.pinterest.com/ thorppearse/music-ed-multicultural/
Multicultural music education articles: http:// www.davidelliottmusic.com/praxial -music-education/ multicultural-music-education/ In this article the author of Music Matters discussed his opinion on why multicultural music should be taught and learned during all stages of development. He has written a few books on the subject and you can check those out on this webpage: http://multiculturalmusiceducation.weebly.com/ This website gives many different websites to utilize and links to national associations that also talk about multicultural music education.
“The Skin that We Sing”- http://mej.sagepub.com/content/98/4/75.abstract This link will lead you to the abstract and you can choose to read the pdf file that is attached to the abstract. The author, Julia Shaw, states, “[T]his article builds on an abundance of literature addressing culturally responsive pedagogy in general education to apply the principles specifically to choral music education. In addition to describing culturally responsive approaches to repertoire selection, rehearsal technique, and curriculum design, the article discusses how choral music education can go beyond a surface treatment of diverse repertoire to one that develops students’ sociopolitical competence and empowers them toward social action.”
If you have any suggestions for multicultural pieces, I always welcome them. My e-mail is lichtbs@fargo.k12.nd.us. I’d be happy to review something that you have enjoyed performing. Sara Lichtblau Fargo South High School Ethnic/Multicultural R&S Chair 14 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
Promoting Your Program
H
ow do you promote your choral program?
Depending on the size of your school and school district, this can vary. Many of us leave the promotion of our programs, and info to our school secretary and a school newsletter. Maybe we rely solely on an informative handout we give the students on the first day of school. We all communicate the concert dates, festivals, auditions and countless other things verbally to our students. I also have to be honest, before social media was so prevalent I wasn’t too big on tooting my own horn about anything. By nature, I wasn’t a “look at me”, “see what I’m doing” kind of person. True story: I had to be pushed, prodded, convinced and talked into starting a Facebook account by some fellow colleagues and they were right, it’s fun! You share what you want to share, learn about others, and well, now I’m hooked, just like everyone else. As an educator well into the prime of my career, I loved learning how to utilize all the new technology that exploded into the world of education. Along the way, I learned to rely on my own children, my STUDENTS and my own experimentation with all of the social media out there: Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, school/program web pages, and the list goes on. I truly enjoy the fun of the social interaction, finding friends from high school, seeing my kid’s pictures of their activities, seeing our grandkids grow and achieve. But setting up, managing and keeping current information in these
accounts can be tough and time consuming! Especially if you have a busy choral program and I know that all of you do!
In my position in Bismarck, I am fortunate to have a lot of help. My high school has a fine Activities Director, who advertises and promotes ALL activities in our school—and quite fairly, I might add. Above him, we also utilize a wonderful PR person who gets upcoming events on a district webpage. We are able to send important dates, concert information, photos, achievements and within a day or so, our information is out there for the world to see. Within that same district office, we have a district Activities/Athletic Director and a secretary who assists by putting out a great district-wide Fine Arts Newsletter. They are magic if for some reason we have to make a concert date change, and we all know that comes up occasionally.
I designed a webpage this summer with WIX and if I can do one of these anyone can put a webpage together. I would suggest that you start taking pictures of your kids during the day, as they line up for concerts, after a concert and just whenever. As a parent myself, I love to see when my child is featured or pictures for something they’ve done well. Everyone loves to see pictures-just be sure to check out your district’s privacy www.ndacda.com | 15
and opt out policies for publishing photos of students. Your smart phone will work just fine because you carry it with you most of the time. I used to keep a camera in my office and that works just fine, too. I looked at many webpages before doing one and decided to try to keep it simple, informative and colorful. It was very well received and our parents like to have a place to check out dates and times for events. I also did a Facebook page for our CHS Choral Department. Until very recently, it really stunk. Fortunately, we have hired a wonderful accompanist to our music department who has a marketing degree and lots of experience. She asked me in her fun way, “Who is the administrator for the Choir’s Facebook page? It’s terrible!!” I laughed out loud and said “I am”, and quickly added, “would you please come on as an administrator?” She graciously and immediately said YES and I was ecstatic!! She’s improved the page so much more in the last two months than I had since I started the darn thing. But as all of you know, our real job is to teach, to sing and play, and motivate young brains. At the end of a very busy and musical day, I don’t always remember (or have TIME) to post, vine, snap or tweet about my choirs?! Even though I love my job and students like crazy, I’m thinking about other things like: music to program for upcoming concerts, auditions, my crazy calendar, my family and perhaps what I am going to cook for supper that night. It was a great move to accept help. Genius. I would encourage you to seek others in your community who are good at getting the word out, in as many ways possible. It may mean you should start small. 16 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
Maintain some of the promotion yourself, but rally some help with management of your choir’s PR. You may have a parent or a student out there who really enjoys PR work, design-and has a good head on their shoulders. Our accompanist/ marketing whiz, Lauren, has also stepped in to assist with designing programs and posters for concerts. She’s got t-shirt ideas, Facebook posts, lovely photos and new IDEAS constantly. Relinquishing some of that control and allowing myself to delegate a few things has allowed me to be a better professional. It’s also reduced a little stress. I have realized that it’s a good thing to “toot my own horn”, and to accept some assistance in doing it! I have to admit, being a visual learner and a little old school from time to time, I still like a paper copy. Still, our world is more e-driven than ever and our stakeholders are increasingly tech savvy. If we are going to showcase our programs, it will have to be along the information super highway.
Mary Pat Archuleta Bismarck Century High School NDACDA West Representative
www.ndacda.com | 17
L
Becoming an Encourager
ately I have been contemplating the idea of the Choir Director’s role in encouraging our students. We all have numerous stories of how and when we were able to encourage a student to push for success in an area of their lives and this lead me to another thought. What about us as the Choir Director. How do we stay alert and ready to accomplish this daunting task. How do we ensure that we are able to see the needs of students and be able to act according to those needs. I was reminded of a story I read several years ago and decided to share it with you: The Keeper of the Stream (From Soul Keeping, by John Ortberg, )
There once was a town high in the Alps that straddled the banks of a beautiful stream. The stream was fed by springs that were old as the earth and deep as the sea. The water was clear like crystal. Children laughed and played beside it; swans and geese swam on it. You could see the rocks and the sand and the rainbow trout that swarmed at the bottom of the stream.
High in the hills, far beyond anyone’s sight, lived an old man who served as Keeper of the Springs. He had been hired so long ago that now no one could remember a time when he wasn’t there. He would travel from one spring to another in the hills, removing branches or fallen leaves or debris that might pollute the water. But his work was unseen. One year the town council decided they had better things to do with their money. No one supervised the old man anyway. They had roads to repair and taxes to collect and services to offer, and giving money to an unseen streamcleaner had become a luxury they could no longer afford. So the old man left his post. High in the mountains, the springs went untended; twigs and branches and worse muddied the liquid flow. Mud and silt compacted the creek bed; farm wastes turned parts of the stream into stagnant bogs. For a time no one in the village noticed. But after a while the water was not the same. It began to look brackish. The swans flew away to live elsewhere. The water no longer had a crisp scent that drew children to play by it. Some people in the town began to grow ill. All noticed the loss of sparkling beauty that used to flow between the banks of the streams that fed the town. The life of the village depended on the stream, and the life of the stream depended on the keeper. 18 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
The city council reconvened, the money was found, the old man was rehired. After yet another time, the springs were cleaned, the stream was pure, children played again on its banks, illness was replaced by health, the swans came home, and the village came back to life. The life of the village depended on the health of the stream. I would assert that it is vital that we as Choir Directors need to be “Keepers of the Stream” so that we can be effective encouragers to our students. I would like to take a few moments of your time and quickly explore 5 areas in which we can all seek to maintain the skills and attitude necessary to accomplish the awesome responsibility of being a “Keeper of the Stream.” Stay Positive It is easy in life to see the negative around us. In real life and online we see and hear the horrible awful things that are happening in the world. It is a challenge for us to remain positive. Our students can read us better than we expect, often when we are frustrated or upset this blends and blurs into our daily school life. I would assert that we should keep these negative things out of our rehearsals and conversations that we have with students. I try to do this, often unsuccessfully, but now aware. Speak positively about colleagues and other students. Help students to see the positive around them. I know that I am constantly amazed by the small little acts of students towards each other that show the good in my day-to-day world. We need to reinforce those positive actions in every way possible. Avoid Negativity I know what you are thinking, “isn’t that the same thing.” I don’t think it is. Avoiding negativity is the awareness that I was talking about earlier. Once we are aware of the negativity and the sources of negative thoughts, we then can begin the process of avoiding them at all cost. I once worked in a school where the teacher’s lounge was the worst place to hang out because of all of the negative talk. I could go into details, but I won’t. I made a decision to avoid the place whenever possible. I found that my days were better just by removing myself from the negativity. There will always be folks who seek to tear others down to make themselves seem bigger. It is the most basic of the study of human behavior. I think we are at our best when we avoid those who seek to do this in our lives. Stay Sharp (Sharpen Your Axe) You have probably heard the story of the young man who starts working for a logging company. He is told that he will be paid according to his productivity. The first day, he has more trees down than all of the rest of the crew, however as the days go on he notices that he is falling behind. He asks his foreman what the secret of the older loggers is, the foreman simply responds “sharpen your axe!” I know this to be true. When I am out of sync and balance in my life, I feel like I am working harder and www.ndacda.com | 19
harder and the work piles up more and more. Sometimes I need to walk away, do something restful and rejuvenating and then my productivity returns. As Choir Directors our lives revolve around performances and rehearsals. The pace can be grueling and exhausting. We owe it to ourselves to take time and “sharpen our axes.” Be creative, be musical, be in the moment. See Beyond the Surface In a Choral Program it is easy to see the performances, auditions, festivals, and contests; while missing the little needs of our students. My choirs are like any other, they have students who excel and students who struggle. It is often easy to work with the students who excel, and much more difficult to work with the student who struggles. It is my job to see each student need, know their story, and do my best to assist them on their journey as a singer. This means that helping a student figure out how to match pitch and sing a scale are every bit as rewarding as working with the students who achieve at the highest levels. This will help me (I am still on the journey) to seek to work with each student individually, and to see them for what positive things they are equipped with. Show Gratitude Sometimes saying “thank you” is hard. Not that the words are hard, but just remembering to say it. Showing gratitude is crucial to being a “Keeper of the Stream.” No one achieves without the help and encouragement of many. I think it is our responsibility to show gratitude as often and in as many ways as we can. A simple note, email, word at a concert, or conversation can go a long way. This is particularly true with the students we work with. Showing genuine and true gratitude for them and their individual strengths is an awesome way we can encourage them to be something more than what they even imagine they can be. Finale In conclusion, it is my hope that these words have encouraged you. I hope that you are excited and invigorated as you begin your next several weeks of working with students in the 2015-2016 school year. Please know that I am honored to be a part of such an awesome group of Choral Directors. I believe that North Dakota is THE PLACE to be as a Music Educator. I am excited to see many great things in the future of our great North Dakota American Choral Director’s Association. Brian Saylor Bismarck High School Show Choirs R&S Chair NDACDA Website Administrator 20 | The Chorister • Winter 2016
www.ndacda.com | 21
22 | The Chorister • Winter 2016