Working as a conductor doesn’t have to lead to vocal fatigue or strain. Participants in this session will learn exercises and techniques for retaining vocal health despite the hectic rehearsal schedules, maturing/aging voice, and heavy speaking demands. The emphasis here is not on healing damaged voices but on making healthy conductors more resilient. Exercises will […]
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Be Not Afraid: Vocal Improvisation in the Choral Rehearsal
Using solfège and popular songs to learn progressions is a great introduction to improvisational techniques. This session will use I-V-vi-IV to experiment with rhythm and melodies. From that gateway activity we can move to circle songs and vocal improvisation over other progressions. The goal is that activities such as this can help students to create […]
American Boy Choir
The American Boychoir is widely known for incorporating boys whose voices are evolving into its choirs. Litton-Lodal Music Director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz describes both the physiological and psychological elements involved in the evolution of the male voice. Choristers, each in varied stages of their respective voice change, will demonstrate these different stages through vocalizations. This provides […]
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Choral Conductor and Voice Instructor
For many students, the choral director is the only voice instructor they will ever have. How can we best serve those students and the students who receive private instruction outside our rehearsals? In an ideal world, the instruction offered in voice lessons and choral rehearsals would compliment each other and would never leave the student […]
Thirty-Something: New Choral Music by Today’s Hottest Young Composers
Come ready to sing and hear the hottest new music being written today by some of the most exciting young and emerging composers. Indiana University Jacobs School of Music choral conducting faculty member Dominick Di Orio and NOTUS: Contemporary Vocal Ensemble will introduce you to these “hot-off-the-press” works for mixed chorus by Zachary Wadsworth, Dale […]
Socially Engaged Musicianship in Choral Music Connecting to the World around Us
Being a choral musician in the twenty-first century requires a fluid rather than fixed practice suitable for the social and cultural conditions of the world today. Historically, singing in a choir has been linked with the traditional values of uniformity rather than diversity, exclusivity rather than inclusion, and perfection over social responsibility, contrasting values of […]
