Using several works from standard high school repertoire, this session demonstrates ways to bring score study a practical way of determining rehearsal goals and strategies. Learner outcomes include an increased understanding of how score study relates to interpretive decisions, reduced anxiety about what score study entails, and increased confidence in one’s ability to wed analytical […]
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Process in Practice: Honor Choir Observations
Because Beyond the Notes is all about the process of music-making, each honor choir will also have a designated open rehearsal during the interest sessions for convention participants to observe the process of music-making from the very beginning as they learn and rehearse a choral piece they receive when they arrive at the conference.
New Choral Frontiers: Cuba, ACDA, and the International Conductor Exchange Program
ACDA’s International Conductors Exchange Program represents an opportunity for a new generation of choral specialists to affirm that choral music-making transcends national borders, ideologies, religions, and all those demarcations that too often divide us. This session, featuring an ICEP participant from Cuba, provides participants a rare opportunity to look inside the choral culture of Cuba.
The Music of Stephen Paulus
Composer Stephen Paulus, whose oratorio To Be Certain of the Dawn will be performed during the conference, will lead a reading session of his music and discuss his compositional process, the way he marries text to music, and how he thinks about musical structure in writing choral music.
Making Music Meaningful
Participants in this session will be guided through musical excerpts with specific outcomes and strategies that have the potential of intentionally creating meaningful singing experiences, definitely beyond the notes—perhaps because of the notes. The participants will also receive additional concrete strategies to use in their next classes as they continue to strive for meaningful music-making […]
Imagine What Lies Beneath: Mining for Jewels in the Choral Ensemble
This session will discuss methods used to help students dig beneath the surface of the notes and rhythms as they search for aesthetic jewels initially unseen. Methods of encouraging imagination in the rehearsal will be introduced and the imagination/technique cycle will be discussed.