Leslie Guelker-Cone, Director of Choral Activities at Western Washington University, winner of the 2009 Leadership and Service Award
 Tim Fitzpatrick, R&S Chair for Women's Choruses for WA ACDA, and a colleague on the staff at Western Washington University, presented this year's Leadership and Service Award to Leslie Guelker-Cone, Director of Choral Activities at WWU.
Tim said, " I have known Leslie now for 13 years and have worked with in in many capacities. She has been a steadfast friend, a strong advocate and an extremely helpful mentor. I would not be were I am today without her support. She is dedicated to the ACDA community, her colleagues, her students and the choral arts in a way that one does not often see."
Leslie Guelker-Cone is director of Choral Activities and Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Western. In addition to conducting the Concert Choir and the Western Voices chamber ensemble, she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting and choral music education.
Her reaction to the award was, "what an unexpected and touching surprise to receive this award--I couldn't feel more honored! The outpouring of love and support from all my ACDA friends and colleagues has been really overwhelming for me. I feel so fortunate to live and work here among so many wonderful people--i ncluding all the past recipients of this award--who have shaped choral music here in Washington in profound and important ways, and who have supported and encouraged me from the beginning. Thank you all--I am so grateful!"
Leslie is not only well known for her leadership in ACDA, she is recognized (literally) world-wide for her superb choral work. She recently conducted Western's Concert Choir on tour in Eastern Germany and Poland; under her direction, the choir has sung at national and divisional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and regional and state conferences of the Music E ducators National Conference.
She received her Doctor of Musical Arts from The University of Colorado, Boulder in choral conducting and literature. She has served as a Repertoire and Standards chair for the American Choral Directors Association at both the national and local levels and on the boards of both the California and Washington Music Educators Associations. She is currently the past President of Washington ACDA and is in frequent demand as a choral adjudicator, honor choir conductor, and guest clinician throughout the United States and Canada. Dr. Guelker-Cone received a WWU Summer Teaching Grant to assist her in the study of university choral conducting programs in Australia and New Zealand; current research includes study of the incorporation of the movement theories of Dalcroze and Laban into the teaching of choral conducting. She is a recipient of the university's highest teaching honor, the Excellence in Teaching Award.
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A Choral Chat with Charlene Archibeque
by Leslie Guelker-Cone
This summer, we are excited to welcome Dr. Charlene Archibeque, Professor emerita at San Jose State University, as our headliner for the Washington ACDA Summer Institute. WACDA past president Leslie Guelker-Cone has asked Dr. Archibeque a few questions that will give us the opportunity to get to know her a little better before we meet with her in Tacoma this July.
LGC: Why don't you begin by telling us a bit about yourself--your background, musical training, and professional career.
ANSWER: I was fortunate to grow up in a small town in Ohio where everyone sang and played instruments—I started on  piano in the 2nd grade and still play,(was a piano major at Oberlin Conservatory), started violin in the 4th grade and continued as a violin major at the Univ. of Michigan, sang in a girls sextette, played drums in the marching and concert bands in high school and tympani in the All-State Orchestra, played my own marimba and entertained for banquets, played organ in church and piano for Sunday School as well as accompanied the school choir class starting in the 6th grade. Summer music camp at Ohio Wesleyan Univ. for three years cemented my love of music along with a great piano teacher in Columbus. I always knew I wanted to teach, so becoming a music teacher was a natural. I started when I was 22 teaching junior high in San Diego, after 7 years I was asked to try the high school choir at Claremont High, then after two years at Crawford High I took the job at Mesa Junior College. By then I knew I had to get a Doctorate and teach at the University Level, so I was the 2nd person to get my DMA at the Univ. of Colorado with Lynn Whitten (perhaps the first woman DMA in Choral Conducting in America). I assumed the position of Director of Choral Activities at San Jose State Univ. in 1970 and the rest is history. . .16 International tours with the SJSU Choraliers, winner of 7 major Choral Competitions including Choir of the World at the Wales Eisteddfod in 1991, Best Conductor Award in Gorizia, Italy, 1996, Best Program, over 80 wonderful MA graduates—like Leslie Guelker-Cone—choirs performed for dozens of National, Divisional, State, and regional Conventions, presented Interest Sessions and served on various panels at fifteen ACDA Conventions, conducted All-State and Honor Choirs in 44 states and six provinces, presented choral symposia in Australia, Germany, England, Switzerland, Canada, and throughout the USA, only recipient of both SJSU’s highest honors: Outstanding Professor Award and President’s Scholar Award.
LGC: Though many of us know you best from your work with San Jose State University, even in “retirement” you continue to lead an extremely busy professional life and wear many musical hats. Tell us about your present musical interests and projects.
ANSWER: I still love doing teacher workshops more than anything—sharing important ideas and helping choral directors improve their effectiveness. I have been Visiting Scholar at Azusa Pacific University the past three years and taught a choral workshop with Don Neuen in Los Angeles last summer as well as gave sessions for the California ACDA at ECCO. I love visiting various campuses working with choirs, doing master conducting classes, speaking to prospective music educators, and helping young people on their way. I have several articles in mind to write and have been urged to do a DVD on choral conducting. I often do clinics with high school choirs and do consulting with directors as well as continue to conduct honor choirs. I am also President of the Silicon Valley League which supports the San Francisco Symphony and am Chair of the Development Committee for the American Beethoven Society which supports the Beethoven Center on the SJSU campus—the only one outside Germany. Bob and I have season tickets for the San Francisco Symphony, attend chamber concerts, opera, ballet, modern dance troupes, plays, musicals, and other cultural events—often three or four times a week.
LGC: In observing and working with a wide variety of conductors over the span of your very successful career, what do you feel are the essential attributes that all successful teacher/conductors share?
ANSWER: Great question! A great passion for music, love of people, a positive attitude, ability to work tirelessly, and to constantly learn new techniques, ideas, information. Great conductors have great ears, are innately musical, understand the essence of each composition they perform, know what they want and how to articulate their vision with gesture and personality.
LGC: You’ve seen many changes both in education and in society since your own years as a teacher new to the profession. How do you feel the conducting world has changed and what is your advice to young teachers just starting out in the choral field?
ANSWER: The biggest challenges in our society today are twofold: knowing enough to be able to secure a position that pays enough to lead a good life and finding the time to delve into those activities and pastimes that give meaning to life. Young teachers have to learn so much so fast (often with inadequate backgrounds and inadequate instruction) that they often begin without the basic tools they need—how to teach voice, how to choose appropriate music, how to recruit and retain singers, how to organize rehearsal time, how to teach music reading. Where do they learn about themselves and who they are and what they believe? How do they overcome basic insecurities, learn to be honest with themselves and their students, take time for reflection and self improvement—all this and still have time to organize their personal lives, raise families, travel, study, read, grow? And yet, with so much information at our fingertips, technical advances make it possible to hear great choirs performing great music of all periods and styles, DVDs show us how to incorporate the latest theories of how the brain works and how people learn we must ask ourselves if we have motivated young people to strive for the highest ideals, the deepest emotions, lives of meaning and fulfillment. Do young conductors go into the field because they love making choral music or because they want to share important experiences, give their students the skills they will need in life, and create magnificent moments in others lives…I have more questions than answers.
LGC: Can you give us a preview of the topics you'll be covering at our Summer Institute? What do we have to look forward to?
ANSWER: In my first session I want to share some of my favorite voice building exercises and show how physical involvement teaches vocal and musical concepts in a more direct way than words. My second session will deal with how to fix typical problems in a quick efficient way during rehearsal—some of my tricks of the trade. In the conducting master class five different conductors will conduct pieces from the reading packet as I point out those gestures that elicit the best sounds from our singers and try to help all the participants eliminate gestures that get in the way of beautiful singing. I hope that all the Institute participants will attend and not only serve as singer respondents and observers but will take an active part in practicing more effective gestures. I recently previewed the DVD Anatomy of Conducting produced by James Jordan which recommends two distinct fields of conducting for each hand and explains the four parts of the body involved in free gestures. I want to incorporate these ideas in my teaching as well as demonstrate some better techniques for using the left hand.
Friday morning I will rehearse five different pieces from the five style periods, showing five different approaches to rehearsing dependent on the structure of the music. And finally I will conduct and read through some of my favorite choral pieces including music for all voicings and levels.
LGC: Besides having a great time with us in Tacoma, what other interesting things do you have planned for this summer? Any trips, hobbies, projects?
ANSWER: For the first time ever I do not have plane reservations in hand. After recent trips to Buenos Aires, Chile, San Antonio, Kansas City for Mechem’s opera John Brown, a fantastic two week trip back to China, six weeks in Crete and mainland Greece, five days in Montreal, and of course the ACDA Convention in Oklahoma, we are trying to decide our next big trip. I’m pushing for Majorca and Minorca plus more of Spain and France (I’ve never spent time in Brittany and Normandie), we always go to Greece in September, I’ll attend the NCCO convention at Yale in November, and possibly plan another round the world trip in combination with an exotic cruise. Summer means reading and swimming in our pool, giving parties, attending concerts and music festivals including the Bach Festival in Carmel and the Contemporary Music Festival at Cabrillo with Marin Alsop, numbering and filing my CD collection, maybe converting all my old tapes to CDs, seeing Bob’s grandchildren, planning fundraising activities for the 25th Anniversary of the Beethoven Society and possibly forming an Alumni Chorale which my singers have been begging me to do… |
ration included all sessions and the famous salmon BBQ dinner on Wednesday evenin
g. Housing was available in the University of Puget Sound dormitories. 