Have you ever wondered how other high school choir director shave found success? Big Voice is an eighty-three-minute documentary that chronicles a challenging year in the life of a determined public high school choir director. Jeffe Huls pushes his students to achieve a high level of artistry and become “one big voice,” despite many obstacles. […]
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Beyond Words and Music: A Conversation with Composer Eric Whitacre and Lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri
Frequent collaborators Eric Whitacre and Charles Silvestri discuss their long years of friendship and fruitful creative partnership. Touching on their creative and collaborative processes, this dynamic duo will discuss their catalogue of collaborations (Lux Aurumque, Sleep, Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Nox Aurumque, Her Sacred Spirit Soars, The Chelsea Carol, Sainte-Chapelle) and introduce their […]
Beyond “Getting Ready to Sing”: Creating Symbiosis between Warm-ups and Repertoire
Singers learn more effectively and perform more musically when choral warm-ups relate to the music being rehearsed. When conductors identify the important musical problems in the repertoire, they are able to design musical solutions to teach in the form of warm-ups—before their singers ever encounter them in the score. The clinicians will use choruses from […]
Appalachian Folk Songs: High-Lonesome Mountain Voice
We all love Appalachian folk songs as an integral part of our American music history, but how do we translate that high-lonesome mountain voice tradition to our ensembles? This session will cover many popular Appalachian tunes, identifying stylistic changes that can be made to existing choral arrangements to perform them within the Appalachian tradition. Dialect, […]
Ambition, Adaptation, and Risk: Stay at the Top of Your Craft
As artists in the creative field, we need to embrace the right mindset to make sure we’re always learning, growing, and being as effective as we can be with our work. Timothy C. Takach has co-founded the professional vocal group Cantus and the music publisher Graphite Publishing, and his work as a composer has risen […]
Advent, Lent, and Ordinary Time! Oh My!: Creative Programming for the Church Year
Explore strategies for effective planning for church choirs of all shapes and sizes. Planning is the key to promoting musical growth, volunteer retention, and achieving long-term ensemble dreams. In this session, Joshua Taylor will share the planning process and ideas of church musicians from across the country and provide a rubric for music selection that […]
