Issue 17 • Winter 2017
The Official Publication of the North Dakota Chapter
of the American Choral Directors Association www.ndacda.com
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North Dakota ACDA Leadership Mike Weber, president, North Dakota State University Peggy Dahl-Bartunek, president-elect Sheldon Weltz, treasurer
North Dakota Repertoire and Resources Committee Repertoire-Specific Coordinator: Tom Porter, University of Mary Men’s Choirs: Tom Porter Women’s Choirs: Charlette Moe, North Dakota State University Vocal Jazz: Mike Seil, Bismarck Legacy High School Showchoir: Brian Saylor, Bismarck High School Ethnic Music: Mary Pat Archuleta, Bismarck Century High School
Youth Coordinator: Sarah Barnum, Discovery Middle School Children and Community: Cheryl McIntyre, Jamestown High School Middle School/Jr. High:
Allyse Hoge, Valley Middle School Jessica Blair Stoppleworth, Wahpeton Middle School Senior High School: Phillip Voeller, Beulah Middle/High School
Collegiate Coordinator: Chris Redfearn, Valley City State University Youth College/University: Chris Redfearn Student Activities: Melanie Popejoy, University of North Dakota
Life-Long Coordinator: Sara Lichtblau, Fargo South High School Community Choirs: Sarah Barnum Music in Worship: Vicky Boechler, St. Mary’s High School, & Sara Lichtblau
Brent Rogers, Dickinson State University Editor and Designer, The Chorister brent.w.rogers@dickinsonstate.edu
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In This Issue From the President
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From the Editor
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NDACDA 2017
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Peggy Bartunek, President-Elect
Articles “Vowels In Hand”
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C. Leonard Raybon, Tulane University What’s in the Folder
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Trudy Fraase Wolf, Zeeland Public School
Molding Our Singers
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Mary Pat Archuleta, Bismarck Century High School A Handful of Songs
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Tom Porter, University of Mary
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From the President
appy New Year, everyone! The New Year has ushered some new changes for the governing structure of ACDA. The NDACDA board has decided to follow the national model of the reorganization. The biggest change is in the Repertoire and Standards committees. There used to be at least 12 different areas and now there are four committees which will be an umbrella to cover all of the interest areas. The new committees will fall under the title of Repertoire & Resources. The four areas are Youth, Collegiate, Lifelong and Repertoire Specific. The new structure of our board will be: Youth Coordinator (Sarah Barnum will oversee these areas):
Children and Community – Cheryl McIntyre
Middle School/Jr. High – Allyse Hoge & Jessica Blair Stoppleworth
Senior High School – Mary Pat Archuleta
Collegiate Coordinator (Chris Redfearn will oversee these areas):
Youth College/University – Chris Redfearn
Student Activities – Melanie Popejoy
Life Long Coordinator (Sara Lichtblau will oversee these areas):
Community Choirs – Sarah Barnum
Music in Worship – Vicky Boechler & Sara Lichtblau.
National Repertoire & Resources Chair Tom Porter overseeing these Repertoire Specific areas:
Men’s Choirs – Tom Porter
Women’s Choirs – Charlette Moe
Vocal Jazz – Mike Seil
Showchoir – Brian Saylor
Ethnic Music – Phillip Voeller
Peggy Dahl-Bartunek is our president-elect. Sheldon Weltz will remain as treasurer. Our website/social media managers will be Rebecca Raber and Brian Saylor. Brent Rogers will continue as the editor of The Chorister. 4 | The Chorister • Fall 2016
If you have any questions, please email me at m.weber@ndsu.edu or speak with one of our board members. This new structure should be more efficient and representative of the organization. A couple more items of note. Our membership is the largest we’ve ever been! We currently have 243 members including Active, Industry, Life, Retired and Student memberships. Our state was again recognized by the National Office for our increased membership. This is the 3rd time that we have received this recognition. Congratulations!!! I urge you to attend our state conference to held at NDSU on February 3 & 4, 2017. Peggy Dahl-Bartunek has a great schedule for our interest sessions. Allyse Dunnigan and Jessica have asked Dr. David Holdhusen from the University of South Dakota and Shelley Zietz from Far-
go North High School to work with our middle school honor choirs. Tom Porter has asked Dr. Eph Ehly to work with our men’s honor choir. All of our singers are going to have a great experience working with these excellent conductors! Please visit our website for more information: http://www.ndacda.com And finally, congratulations and thanks to Cheryl McIntyre for organizing our Surround the State in Song choirs. We had 6 sites and we had well over 400 students participating. Thank you all for what you do for your students and NDACDA. North Dakota is a great place to work and sing! Mike Weber North Dakota State University NDACDA President
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From the Editor
Happy New Semester to all from Dickinson! I thought about making some offhanded complaint about the weather, but I know we’re not getting the worst of it in the state, so I’ll refrain. But I will say that, as a native Minnesotan exiled to the desert southwest for several years, it’s nice to be back in the snow and cold! My January is very busy this year, so I’ll keep this short. I continue to be impressed by what I’m seeing from the choral community in North Dakota, and I’m anxious to make The Chorister as useful to you as it can be. I hope that the “What’s in the Folder?” articles will be useful to all of you at some point. Carlos Viera’s article in the Fall issue sparked my interest in Brazilian choral music, and although I don’t have the spare time now to look over new repertoire, I have a feeling that the DSU choirs will be doing some Brazilian music soon. Carlos provided us with valuable resources for a wide variety of ensembles; in this issue, Trudy Fraase Wolf offers some suggestions that are specifically directed at small schools—of which we have plenty! In coming issues, I will continue to solicit “What’s in the Folder?” articles from as wide a variety of conductors as possible so that hopefully every member of NDACDA finds at least one piece they can use. In addition, I’ve lined up at least one out-of-state guest article for our next issue. Dr. Luke Lusted is a colleague of mine with plenty of experience with a wide variety of choirs. I’ve given him a 6 | The Chorister • Fall 2016
snapshot of our membership and asked him to provide us with something useful for that demographic. I’m excited to see what he has to offer, and I’m sure it will be good! I didn’t receive any notices for North Dakota Choral News for this issue, so I’ll leave that out except to share a little bit of exciting news from Dickinson: the DSU Chamber Singers are going to Carnegie Hall in March! My mentor from the University of Arizona is conducting a festival choir in a performance of the Mozart Requiem, and he invited us to participate, so we’re furiously raising funds and rehearsing fugues to get us ready. So as not to toot our own horn further, I’ll leave it at that, but should any of you have similarly exciting news, please share! I think I speak for the membership of NDACDA when I say we want to hear about your successes. They inspire us and help us to keep going in this challenging but tremendously rewarding profession. My best wishes to each of you as you start the second half of your year/season. May it be at least as good as the first half! Brent Rogers Dickinson State University Editor and Designer, The Chorister
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2017 State Conference
t’s time for our annual conference on February 3-4 at NDSU’s Reineke Fine Arts Center in Fargo. This is such a wonderful opportunity for all of us to enjoy each other’s company, to learn from each other, to celebrate the successes of our Showcase Concert directors, and to watch our guest conductors work wonders with the honor choirs. I love these two days. Site manager, Dr. Charlette Moe, along with Alysse Hoge, Jessica Stoppleworth, and Tom Porter, who are responsible for the honor choirs, have done a huge amount of work in advance of the convention. Friday night’s Showcase Concert will feature an elementary choir, a high school choir, and a college choir. The choirs and their directors are the Grand Cities Children's Choir Accordo Voce (Grades 5-6), Danielle Larson, conductor; the Jamestown High School Concert Choir, Cheryl McIntyre, conductor; and the NDSU Concert Choir, Fargo, Jo Ann Miller, conductor. It was my responsibility to organize the workshops for our members. A second “track” has been added which we hope will provide a choice of topics useful for all levels of teaching. We are hoping to attract more elementary teachers to the conference. You’ll see on the schedule below that the workshops are presented by our own members. In addition, I’d like to welcome C. Leonard Raybon from Tulane University who is coming at his own expense to present “The Vowels in Hand System: A “TimeOut” for Five Quite Contrary Letters. Learn more about him at http:// www2.tulane.edu/liberal-arts/music/c-leonard-raybon.cfm. If you have any colleagues who have never attended the conference, PLEASE invite them and encourage them to give us a try. There is no advanced registration. Please come!! Peggy Peggy Bartunek NDACDA President-Elect
(See next page for conference schedule.)
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CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
FRIDAY All Meetings unless otherwise noted, are in Room 122 (Choir Room)
11:30
MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION – OUTSIDE OF THE CHOIR ROOM #122 (Honor choirs register in the Atrium)
12:00
NDSU Concert Choir open rehearsal until 12:50. – All are welcome to observe!
1:00
Honor Choir Rehearsals Begin
1:10
Membership Business Meeting
2:20
R&S Reading Selection #1 – Middle School - Jessica Stoppleworth
2:30
Jeff Mueller “A Few Things I’ve Learned Over a Long Career as a Choir Director”
3:20
R&S Reading Selection #2 – Showchoir - Brian Saylor
3:30
Chris Redfearn (RM 117) “Developing Healthy Vocal Skills in Elementary School Singers.”
Dr. JoAnn Miller “Tried & True Literature for Class A and Class B High Schools”
4:20
R&S Reading Selection #3 – Mixed -Mary Pat Archuleta
5:30
Dinner (Location TBA)
7:00
Doors open for 7:30 PM SHOWCASE CONCERT 2017 SHOWCASE CHOIRS & OUTSTANDING CHORAL DIRECTOR AWARDS FOLLOWING THE CONCERT SOME TYPE OF INFORMAL MEMBER SOCIAL (Open to anyone who doesn’t have responsibilities with honor choir students) SATURDAY
9:00
R&S Reading Selection #4 – Ethnic – Phil Voeller
9:50 10:00
Connie Stordalen (RM 117) “Starting an Elementary Choir”
Dr. Tom Porter “Preparing students for All-State Auditions”
R&S Reading Selection #5 – Children - Cheryl McIntyre
10:50 11:00
Dawn Hagerott “Diction & IPA Boot Camp”
Sarah Hanson (RM 117) “Pop into Choir”
Dr. Brent Rogers (RM 117) “Easy as 1-2-3: Fostering Rhythmic Literacy in the Choral Rehearsal.”
Sara Lichtblau “Praise Bands” (Church)
11:50
R&S Reading Selection #6 – Sara Lichtblau Worship
12:00
Lunch (Location TBA)
1:00
C. Leonard Raybon, Tulane University “The ‘Vowels in Hand’ System: A ‘Time-Out’ for Five Quite Contrary Letters”
1:50
R&S Reading Selection #7 –High School Women – Dr. Charlette Moe
2:30
Doors open for 3:00 HONOR CHOIR CONCERT
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“Vowels in Hand ”
A Preview of C. Leonard Raybon’s Session at NDACDA 2017
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owels are like children. They must be the center of attention, meaning they “should,” since they are so central to choral singing (blend, tuning, etc.). They can be off-color and difficult to wrangle; vowels sounds are as innumerable as the colors of the rainbow. They should not talk to strangers; /r/ and /l/, for example, contribute a vowel's delinquency. They can be very sneaky, as regional dialects can bring about different vowel shapes. The uniqueness of each should be discovered and celebrated. Are you sure that your singers agree on vowel shapes? Absolutely sure? Even when our singers are well-trained, there are words for which more than one vowel sound could be appropriate. When you talk to your singers about vowels, how do you do it? Do you use a dry erase board to write rather imprecise
phonetic spellings, such as “ah”? Do you simply model the vowel and hope singers hear you correctly? The Vowels in Hand m e th o d s e ts twelve and only twelve American English vowel sounds, links them to twelve archetypal keywords, and assigns never-before-seen hand gestures to each, making an efficient vowel dialog possible with your choral singers.
C. Leonard Raybon Tulane University NDACDA 2017 Guest Presenter
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W hat’s in the Folder?
teach in one of the smallest public schools in the state. Our current grade 7-12 enrollment is 12, with 11 of them being in choir this year. As you may surmise, the make-up of the group varies quite widely from year to year. Finding music that appeals and is singable for a grade 7-12 group is tricky. The key, I discovered, is to find material that works for the voices you have. Avoid the temptation of using a song you love if it does not fit your group for that year. The following are some memorable pieces that fit our voices nicely at the time we performed them.
“Hold Me, Rock Me,” by Brian Tate (Pavane 8067260) This is an unaccompanied spiritual available in SATB, SSATB, and SSAA. With smaller numbers, I often don’t have an accompanist available and, even if I do have a player, I am reluctant to lose a good voice from my already small choir. If I have a group that can sing a cappella, it gives me a chance to actually conduct my group rather than be stuck behind the piano. That allows for a lot more expressive possibilities. We performed the SATB version. I prefer the SATB whenever possible as it is more comfortable for the men’s voices. “Come, Pretty Love,” by Joan Szymko (Santa Barbara SBMP 492) Rounds are great material for choirs with less than ideal balance. This a cappella round is based on a Shaker song and comes in SSA or SATB. However, since it is a round, one can use whatever voicing one chooses. We used the SSA version and placed both men and women on each part. Since it comes with clapping and stomping rhythms, I taught the simple melody to my choir by rote so that we were not fighting with holding the music and clapping. “If Music Be the Food of Love,” by Andrew Miller (Santa Barbara SBMP 1013) I may be biased on this piece as it is dedicated to the Zeeland High School Choir. It was very exciting to have a composer write a piece for my choir, though I was nerv10 | The Chorister • Fall 2016
ous that we would not be able to perform it well. My fears were unfounded. The melodies were lush, my students were able to sing the harmonies and they loved the piece. You know the piece has touched the students when you can hear them singing it through the halls at various times of the day. Having the composer come to rehearse the choir was icing on the cake. “Non Nobis Domine,” by William Byrd (Oxford University Press, SAB, ISBN 978-0-19-390054-7) (Yes, this is another unaccompanied round, okay, a canon.) It is difficult for me to find music of earlier eras that my little rural school choir can sing, but this one fills the bill. With students being in my group for six years, I often have requests by my older singers to perform a song again that they had sung in their younger years. This is one that the students have asked to sing again. “He Was Wounded,” by Antonio Vivaldi (Alfred 4201) Like Non Nobis Domine, this is a work by a past master that we can perform and do well. Arranged by Hal Hopson, the piano accompaniment supports the singers very well, making it a go-to piece if I have singers that are not solid enough with pitch to sing a cappella. Only available in SAB, this piece is another that has been requested by students. Trudy Fraase Wolf Zeeland Public School
Bio: Trudy Fraase Wolf is the K-12 principal, music teacher, and librarian for the Zeeland Public School where she has worked since 1993. She has, in the past, been the editor of The Chorister, site manager for Surround the State in Song, and R&S chair for women’s choirs.
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Molding Our Singers
appy Winter everyone! I hope you all are still upright and standing having made it through the holiday concerts! Not to mention all the ongoing work for other festivals, winter concerts (later in Feb and March), and All State preparation, right? Scales, etudes, solos and jazz improv have been dancing in our heads. I’m probably singing some of it in my sleep at night, but my husband’s too tired from shoveling to hear me. My December was great. Performances were good and I can’t say enough about the folks I work with each day. We are so lucky at my school to have a collaborative team. Our instrumental staff works “in concert” with us—I know, a bad pun, but I couldn’t resist. The custodians in our school are always there for us, and I’m a believer that they have a ticket to heaven. Our students really pulled together for concerts and special performances even though we share them with their coaches, studies, their part time jobs, parents and snow days. All in all, I’m ready to move on to January. So here we are, preparing new literature for future concerts and working through various honor choir materials for ND and National ACDA, and audition criteria for All State. Most of us have our best and brightest singers clamoring in the fall for the details of the audition. During my career I’ve encouraged lots of students I thought would have a good chance at selection into All State. While I don’t want to encourage students who probably shouldn’t do the audition, I 12 | The Chorister • Fall 2016
know that just going through the process really builds character and students grow from the experience. This year, when we spoke about it in class quite a few of our lower skill level kids showed interest. A great surprise! And the best part, was that several of those were males, so this was a chance to mold and improve these voices. It was pretty unexpected but I was eager for the opportunity but I have to admit, I was a little unsure about it too as some of these kids had quite a way to go to be ready. So, the preparation began to find suitable solos. A couple of these students had limited ranges, some experience with foreign language, but little to no reading ability. We started pairing like voices together within the choir and created mentorships to work on tone, especially working the head/light register in the men’s voices. We went to work on the etudes and set up repeated daily sessions to make minuscule improvements and rehearsing went on and on before the holiday break. Taping the melody of their solo and etude on the student’s phone helped immensely ensuring the ability for the student to have their ehearsal (continued on p. 14)
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rehearsal materials at their fingertips. Now, would they utilize those tools? As we all know, YouTube has been an enormous help (most of the time) so that students can hear an example of the performance of the solos, etc. This hasn’t been a slam dunk process. No, not at all. I have really doubted myself throughout these last months. Some of these kids were really having trouble maintaining their melodies, even with the music right in front of them. You know know the type: the kid who can sing every note along with you, but can’t sing/stand alone? Any of you know kids like this? My brain was telling me, “this student shouldn’t probably do this” and I even asked a couple of them if they were sure they wanted to do this, and Yes, Yes they did!? A few even came in before and after school. A couple of them, upon really learning their song, couldn’t sing with the piano accompaniment unless the accompanist helped to double the melody. Others had really improved their tone, had good ears, but were forever forgetting where to breathe, pushing their chest voice way too far, not to mention understanding lip formation for vowels, OPENING THEIR MOUTHS, and didn’t have a clue about an umlaut. Honestly? I have seen improvement in these voices and know that working together with my partner teacher and accompanist has been vital to help these kids move ahead and progress. By the time this is printed our All State auditions will have come and gone. Our holiday break will be over and as we will have resumed classes in January. I know we will have a flourish of work to do to finalize the work that we began. Some of these kids will do well, and some may 14 | The Chorister • Fall 2016
not. Even the best of kids get pretty nervous in front of a judge, so I know the added adrenaline will only add to the drama and excitement. Some of the most important things that I have observed is the growing pride and stronger feeling of belonging that is shining in these kids who are trying for the first time. They now understand why I’m asking them to breathe in exact places, and realizing the importance of moving into their light register rather than pushing the limit with their chest voices. I hear them asking what they have to do to audition for our Jazz/ Show groups and I see them sit a little straighter, trying to do better in class. It’s not like they’ve become star performers overnight, but it’s the small steps I’m thrilled about. They’re trying, accepting my instruction, feel pride in their work, and know that I am extremely proud of them. They make my heart sing!! Mary Pat Archuleta Bismarck Century High School NDACDA Sr. High School R&R Chair
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A Handful of Songs A Lifetime of Memories
don’t often have the chance to be a choral singer. Although my formative years were filled with singing opportunities, the past several decades have found me almost exclusively on the other side of the podium. I love directing ensembles, and I am blessed with opportunities to work with singers of all ages. At times I find it helpful to reflect on my own experiences as a singer in order to help me select repertoire and prepare rehearsals. There are some stellar performance experiences that I treasure, performing Brahms’ “Requiem” under the direction of Helmuth Rilling in Carnegie Hall, singing “Chichester Psalms” under the direc-
tion of Eph Ehly with the University of Missouri-Kansas City Heritage Singers and Conservatory Orchestra, and singing the Thompson “Alleluia” for the first time as a high school student under the direction of Bill Franke. However, as I reflect on my years of choral singing, I find that the strongest memories are of the music making rather than the music itself. Choir is a social activity. We often use this line to promote and recruit. I have friends from every choir experience since middle school, in fact, I met most of my closest friends through music. That is a gift I want to pass on to my students. In every school setting there are students who live on the fringes of society. They may go the entire day without someone speaking to them. Choir is a place where they should be called by name. When I take attendance in choir, students reporting the absence of “the kid that sits next to me” is not acceptable. At the beginning of each semester, I take time students to learn each others’ names, and I make a point of calling students by name before, during and after rehearsal. I regularly switch seating formations to encourage students to interact with a broader circle. In addition to learning each others’ names, I look for opportunities to bond. www.ndacda.com | 15
Special events over the course of a semester may include suit up day, crazy sock day, and super hero day. I try to be aware of students’ needs and life outside of the rehearsal room by planning stress relief activities during test weeks or special musical reflections/experiences when faced with crisis situations. Creating unforgettable concert moments is another bonding experience. This year my Concert Choir sang Rachmaninoff’s “Bogoroditse Devo” by candlelight while standing around the perimeter of the chapel. An amazing piece of choral literature combined with the visual and aural experience of the performance is an experience that students will remember and recall for years to come. Finally, I want my students to know me, to know why I do what I do, to know why I appreciate them doing what they are doing. Every encounter, every rehearsal, every performance is an opportunity to serve one another, to deepen the spiritual experience of making music, to become more truly human. Selecting music that is accessible yet offers chal-
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lenges, and then planning a rehearsal process that enables students to learn and perform the music is my responsibility and one of the ways that I serve the members of my choir. Poor planning on my part should not result in anger at or disappointment in the students in rehearsals. That is not why I do what I do. I want each encounter to be a positive move toward a positive experience. Musical experiences touch hearts, change lives, and become part of the fabric of our lives and the lives of our students. The particular pieces are one aspect of the complex process of making music. Building community, planning memorable concert moments, and sharing positive experiences of life in rehearsals and performances create a lifetime of memories. Tom Porter University of Mary NDACDA Men’s Choirs R&R Chair
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