Middle school is a crossroads of music education for today’s students. It is at this stage of education that we can hook them into a musical path or lose them. The ability to recruit singers is the lifeline of any choral program. Learn from master teachers on how they have utilized classic and new recruitment […]
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Thinking Like an Athlete: New Ways to Improve your Conducting Gesture
Conducting and singing are both highly athletic, a balancing act of tension and relaxation. Singers absorb incredible amounts of information from conductors, conscious and subconscious. Given that, what are we showing our singers through our use of our body? Is our gesture as fluid, organic, graceful, and clear as we would like? Are we able […]
Teaching Musicianship through Repertoire: A Panel Discussion
The world of the choral conductor/teacher is multifaceted, involving the need to know diverse repertoire, vocal skills, and rehearsal pedagogy; to have the ability to teach to a variety of needs and interests; and the will to collaborate with parents, audiences, and professional peers. This session presents practical approaches to dealing with these varied elements […]
Renaissance Reborn: Breathing New Life into Renaissance Music
This session is an exploration of performance practices that help to make the music of the Renaissance era more understandable and appealing, more accessible to performers and audiences, and more worthy of programming and appreciation. Topics to be covered include: pitch, performing forces, meter and tempo, phrasing, text underlay, and musica ficta.
One Sky, Many Destinies: Collaborating across the Prison-University Divide
In a world where exposure to concert music is limited to few, it is critical to create access for those who are typically denied, such as the homeless and the incarcerated. In 2015, the University of San Francisco Choral Ensembles collaborated with the students in a Massachusetts prison music class. The culminating concert included choral […]
Nā Mele Polenekia: The Choral Music of Polynesia
In this session we will discover the rich heritage of the Polynesian choral arts and uncover the canon of Polynesian communal singing from the islands of Hawaiʻi, New Zealand, and Sāmoa from pre-western contact up to the present day. This hands-on session will provide insight and methods on indigenous pedagogies, oral traditions, and performance practice […]
