Issue 27 • Spring 2020
In This Issue: The Year in Review Ideas for Teaching During Quarantine What’s in the Folder? Conclusions for Extraordinary Times The Official Publication of the North Dakota Chapter
of the American Choral Directors Association www.ndacda.com | 1
North Dakota ACDA Leadership Cheryl McIntyre, president, Jamestown High School Dean Jilek, president-elect, University of North Dakota Rebecca Raber, past president, University of Mary 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: Lauren Brandenburg, Fargo South HS/Eielson MS Vocal Jazz: Mike Seil, Bismarck Legacy High School Showchoir: Connie Stordalen, Horizon Middle School Ethnic/Multicultural Music: Phillip Voeller, Beulah Middle/High School
Youth Coordinator: Sarah Barnum, Discovery Middle School Children and Community: Brady Gudgel, Mandan Middle School Middle School/Junior High:
Lacey Hanson, Center-Stanton Public School Samantha Steffan, Hazen Public Schools Senior High School: Brian Saylor, Bismarck 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:
Traditional: Vicky Boechler, St. Mary’s High School, Contemporary: Sara Lichtblau Brent Rogers, Dickinson State University Editor and Designer, The Chorister brent.w.rogers@dickinsonstate.edu 2 | The Chorister • Winter 2019
Contents The Year in Review
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Cheryl McIntyre, NDACDA President Ideas for Teaching in Quarantine
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Cheryl McIntyre What’s in the Folder?
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Brent Rogers, Dickinson State University A Few Conclusions for Extraordinary Times
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Melanie Popejoy, University of North Dakota
Visit NDACDA online at ndacda.com, or by clicking below.
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From the President
W
hat an eventful year this has been! It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for all of us. Here are some of the 2019-2020 highlights in review.
We hosted Surround the State in Song throughout the state although bad weather threatened some cancellations and caused some postponements. Thank you to Brady Gudgel for taking over leadership of this project at the state level. Thank you to the site managers for all of your work and organization.
We already have a commissioned piece for the 2020 Surround the State in our hands. Our commissioned composer was Timothy Takach. Thank you to Dr. Rebecca Raber for taking the lead in this commissioning process.
We held our North Dakota ACDA State Conference in Grand Forks.
Many thanks to Dean Jilek and company for planning and hosting this conference. Grand Forks Red River High School was very accommodating for the conference.
Thank you to our conductors and honor choirs for outstanding performances.
Treble Choir, directed by Christina Chapman from Dallas, Texas who graciously stepped in for Laura Farnell.
Mixed Choir, directed by Jeff Stone, Director of Choral Activities at Bismarck State College
Women’s Honor Choir, directed by Carrie Tennant, Founder and Director of the Vancouver Youth Choir
Thank you to the organizing chairs for these choirs Samantha Steffan, Lacey Hanson, and Lauren Brandenburg. You commitment and dedication to this project is appreciated so much. Once again, weather made it necessary to extend the deadlines for the auditions for these groups. Samantha and Lacey handled it with grace and flexibility.
Congratulations to the Showcase Choirs that performed at the state conference. We enjoyed the quality and variety within these performances.
Wahpeton Middle School, directed by Jessica Stoppleworth
NDSU Madrigal Singers, directed by Dr. Michael Weber
Grand Forks Red River High School Concert Choir, directed by Brad Sherwood
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Thank you to our clinicians who presented at the State Convention. We have such a wealth of knowledge among the choral directors of North Dakota and surrounding states.
Sight-Singing in the Choral Classroom and the Live Audition” Presented by Sara Lichtblau and Dr. Dean Jilek
“Body Mapping in the Choral Classroom” Presented by Amanda Moreno
"Developing the Young Male Voice" Presented by Dr. Kelly Burns
"Diction and Vocal Solo Repertoire" Presented by Marla Fogderud
“Composing for the ND Council on the Arts” Presented by Tom Porter
Impromptu question and answer session- presented by willing volunteers Mike Seil, Dean Jilek, Annette Hovey, and Patrick McGuire
Our heartfelt thanks and congratulations go to Dr. Michael Weber for your leadership in NDACDA. We were proud to honor your with the Outstanding Choral Director Award. You have given so much to North Dakota ACDA throughout your many years of service.
Dr. Tom Porter has written "Prairie Winds" as part of a North Dakota Arts Grant. This song has been made available to all North Dakota Choral directors for use throughout the coming year. In addition, due to the unusual circumstances this spring, Dr. Porter is putting together a Virtual Choir recording as a North Dakota Virtual Choir Project. Instructions and recordings are found on the NDACDA web page and on our facebook page.
Several directors attended/had students participating in Regional ACDA in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Congratulations!
At this point, the world decided to hit PAUSE, as we await further instructions from our Governor and the President amid the COVID-19 crisis. Every teacher is working overtime to figure out how to teach our unique subject as an online class. The collaboration and willingness to share ideas has been a blessing and essential to our overall success. Please keep encouraging our students and allowing music to be a tool for them and their families to persevere. Continue to make meaningful, uplifting opportunities to make music in their own homes. Thank you for your service. It is such an honor to be a part of this organization. Start making plans to attend the 2020 NDACDA Conference in Bismarck at Bismarck High School on February 5th and 6th. Cheryl McIntyre Jamestown MS/HS NDACDA President
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More from the President Ideas for Teaching During Quarantine
Since we are all having to make it up as you go, I have found helpful videos on Youtube on:
Counting complicated rhythms
How to create harmonies
How the voice works
Psychology of Music
I created google forms for students to turn in after answering some key questions on each video. We have had face to face meetings each week on Google Meet. We have played compound meter bingo, Broadway Kahoot, Disney and Pop Kahoot, and Stay at Home Bingo. My students have done a Music Video Scavenger Hunt where there identified items in their homes including: a musical instrument, some household item which could be used as an instrument, something in their house which creates rhythm, sing their favorite song alone or with a family member, and rap a children's book. Students sent me the videos. This was a lot of fun and we had creative ideas emerging from their time at home. This week we will be exploring the Anatomy of a Voice. We will be exploring interpretation of music using lyrics, tempo, and dynamics.
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What’s in the Folder? ull disclosure: not all of these pieces are currently (or even recently) in my folder, but they’re pieces I have done either as a singer or a conductor at some point, and one that I hope to perform in the future.
Ave verum corpus, by Colin Mawby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbWjoLR6A_E (No perusal score available online.) This is one of my very favorite pieces I’ve ever sung. (Look for the bald baritone in the glasses in the video—he might look familiar. ☺) The text is beautiful and profound, the texture is lush (mostly eight parts throughout), and the harmonies are perfectly suited to the text. The voice leading is good, making the piece doable for a moderate to advanced high school choir. Originally written for choir and organ (here’s a recording of the composer conducting the Westminster Cathedral Choir with organ), it also works well with piano.
Meet Me Here, from Considering Matthew Shepard, by Craig Hella Johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4MbPRAr4OY (Perusal score here: https://www.jwpepper.com/Meet-Me-Here/10954178.item) I got to see Considering Matthew Shepard performed at Louisiana State University a few years ago, and was struck by its directness and clarity, and the powerful message it sends. In trying to figure out what to do with my choirs during the COVID-19 quarantine, I decided to do a “virtual choir” piece, and selected this as a good option for the times we’re all dealing with. You’ll need a strong soprano soloist, but the choir parts are not terribly tricky. It does divide into eight parts (and briefly into nine—three soprano parts) for the climax, and I had to do a little rewriting to redistribute some of the pitches among my relatively small choir. But it’s a piece that’s well worth the effort.
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All of Us, from Considering Matthew Shepard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHJF_Z0Xk8k (Perusal score here: https://www.jwpepper.com/All-of-Us/10715793.item) When I first heard this piece, I thought it seemed strange to combine Gospel-style singing with what sounds like an old-fashioned Protestant hymn or Lutheran chorale. But the more I listen to it, the more I’m struck by the symbolism of this combination of things that seem like they shouldn’t go together, but in fact create a powerful climax to this work about acceptance and celebrating differences. This is a challenging piece in many ways: you’ll need three strong soprano/alto soloists with large ranges, and for three pages (in a section that reminds me a lot of Philip Glass) the choir is divided into twelve parts, but for most of that the altos and basses are doubling each other, as are the sopranos and tenors. So, this will work best for a larger, more skilled ensemble, but it’s so good! Seriously, just go listen. This has become a bucket-list piece for me.
Red River Valley, arr. Bern Herbolsheimer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLWKlvDBpBk (Perusal score here: https://www.collavoce.com/catalog/item/red-river-valley-3920119) A beautiful arrangement of a folk song about our very own Red River Valley for SATB (minimal divisi) and piano. There are some spots that are a bit rhythmically and harmonically challenging, but overall it’s not terribly difficult, and really beautiful. (Performance tip: when we sang it when I was in college, our conductor had the basses take the melody on the second verse until measure 12.)
Brent Rogers
Dickinson State University Editor and Designer, The Chorister
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A Few Conclusions for Extraordinary Times
hroughout my career, I have worn many hats: public school music educator, community choir director, university choir conductor, and college classroom teacher. The current crisis facing the world is unlike anything any of us have ever faced in our lives. In learning to cope with this extraordinary situation the Coronavirus Pandemic has placed us all in, I have come to a few conclusions: 1. Regardless of what everyone else is doing, as the leader of my ensembles and classes, I need to identify the needs of the people I serve, develop a plan specifically for them, and see it through. 2. Never before has it been clearer to me and the singers in my ensembles that we have a deeply rooted need to stay connected during this time of social distancing. That has been the part, even beyond our charge to explore virtual music making, that has remained most important. I have tried to not let the myriad of emails, journal articles, posts and conversations that challenge us to be “Super Virtual Choir Directors/Music Educators” become overwhelming and steer me away from addressing that need. Some of the ways we have tried to meet that need have consisted of: 1) regular class meetings on Zoom which include stretching and vocal warmup sessions, as well as a time for sharing; 2) exchanging emails or text messages just to check in with each other; 3) mailing handwritten notes of affirmation; and 4) emailing short video messages to groups that I do not get to see through video-conferencing apps. 3. The next conclusion I have come to is that I can look at this situation as a gift. A gift of time to do some of those things that we often do not feel we have the time to do with a busy performance calendar. In order to help the singers in my ensembles discern what “good” choral music is and what constitutes a wellrounded concert program, one ensemble is taking part in “The Great Literature Search.” They have been given specific criteria and charged to search for literature for their choir via YouTube, music publishers, and other various websites. We are creating a list, listening to recordings, and having class discussions about the pieces. Through a polling and elimination process, we will create a program to present at our concert next fall. Our goal is to collaboratively create something wonderful during this difficult time! 4. The final conclusion is that end-of-the-year celebrations still need to continue. I believe that some sort of closure needs to occur, it will just look different. My heart aches when I think about the date our Grand Cities Children’s Choir Spring www.ndacda.com | 13
Concert & Awards was to occur. We acknowledged the day on social media by asking our singers to take a photo of themselves in their GCCC shirt or concert attire and posting it. Our theme song in the Children’s Choir is “Here’s to Song” by Allister MacGillivray. It is sung at the end of every concert we present, and includes an invitation to our alums to join in singing this with us. This year we have asked our singers, parents, staff and alums to post a video of themselves singing the chorus. We plan to put these videos together in a tribute to our 9th grade singers who “graduate” from our program, as well as our senior GGs (mentors) who have dedicated their so much of their time and effort giving back to the organization. As we navigate these unique times, it is imperative that we remember what is foremost to all of us: our students. If we do that, we know that whatever we do will have a positive and far-reaching impact on their growth and development not only as musicians, but as citizens of the world.
Melanie Popejoy University of North Dakota Grand Cities Children’s Choir NDACDA Student Activities R&R Chair
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This will be our reply to [adversity]: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before. And with each note we will...commemorate...courage, and reaffirm...faith in
the Triumph of the Mind.
(Remarks to the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York after the assassination of JFK. More details here.) www.ndacda.com | 17
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