 |
Home - Leadership - Summer
Institute - Links - Calendar - UNISON |
High School Choir Tour by Justin Wisness,
All of the hard work, dedication, living the tradition of a great choir program, and the musicality and life lessons Mr. Michel had taught us all came together at this little church in Kalispell, MT. It was my junior year at Rogers High School in Puyallup and my first choir tour trip. Before the trip, I remember being excited, but also remember thinking, "Why would we go to Kalispell, MT? Let's go to Disneyland." It didn't take long to realize why. At some point in our lives as choristers and/or choir directors we've had these experiences. For me, tours from high school were enriching, meaningful experiences that I'll never forget and that inspired me to continue in music. It is now my goal to provide the same experiences for my students. Let me paint a picture of my experience with tours. I'm in my seventh year of teaching and have never done a "big" tour with my own choirs. We've never gone on a plane or toured for more than four days. My tours have always been planned by me and my choir board, and have always been in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Although I've only had seven years of touring experience as a director, I feel like I've endured many more years. In my first year of teaching and my first tour, I had to send home four of my thirteen boys because of a choice they made. It's a funny story in hindsight, but at the time, it was the most traumatic thing that could've happened. I had to send almost 40% of my guys home and we were singing for my alma mater the next day. In college I traveled with the choir to Eastern Europe. I've also traveled with the Washington Ambassadors of Music twice to Europe. Why should you tour? I've talked to colleagues who don't tour and have valid reasons for not doing it. Some tour, but only every other year. I truly believe that you should tour every year. The extent of tour doesn't need to be grand. In fact, I challenge you to weigh the reasons for doing the things you do on tours and choosing the places you choose. It's not going to be the city you go to, it's going to be the spaces you sing in, the enriching activities you choose to do, and the people you're with. Last year we toured from Puyallup to Portland. The three essential things to plan on a tour are performances in great spaces, performance exchanges, and workshops. Some of the great spaces we sang in are the Rotunda in our state capital, Holy Redeemer Church in Vancouver, St. Mary's Cathedral and The Grotto in Portland. We also had a workshop with Dr. Stephen Coker at Portland State, who recently departed. On the three day tour, we squeezed in friendly exchanges with Heritage and Rex Putnam High Schools. The final night was the traditional sharing night where the choir basically has a lock down in a room we all could fit in for the night. You never have any issues with students trying to sneak out when you've got them all in the same room! I don't know what kind of acoustic you have in your auditorium or cafetorium, but singing in a live acoustic is an experience that students will never forget. Instead of planning lighter music in the spring, I try and plan music that is great for cathedrals or live spaces. The Bruckner Os Justi and Rachmaninoff Bogoroditse Devo became favorites for the students. My students would not have been asking to sing Bruckner and Rachmaninoff in our performing arts center over and over, but in the live acoustic, it came alive! The students didn't get tired of it either. On a recent trip to Western Washington University for the WWU High School Invitational, we stopped at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle for an informal performance. They were very accommodating and we were able to sing for about a half an hour. The music came alive and the students were so excited. I remember looking at some of my newer students who had never sung in a space like St. Mark's and seeing smiles from ear to ear. This is inspiration and motivation for both you and the students! It helps the students develop an appreciation for great choral music. If you're not touring now, please consider it. Although it's more work for you, do it for the students. If you're already touring, remember why you're touring. Meaningful and enriching experiences will create lasting memories for you and your students. |
||
March 2, 2009 Tapping into Technology
As many of our students are practicing the “art” of texting whenever possible, and internet becoming accessible whenever we’d like to get it, we need to find ways to connect to our students through this technology. I’ve seen some very creative web pages created by choir programs that include syllabi, practice parts, links to web pages including ones to music theory web sites, video clips of performances, blogs, and much more. I know of choir programs that have used Facebook as a way to create discussion about characterization of pieces that they are singing. Google also has some discussion boards, document sharing tools, and blogs that are user friendly. Last year I tried connecting with my students after a workshop we had with a guest conductor through a blog. This is something I’d like to do more of. I offered a day’s worth of participation points for any student making an intelligent comment on the blog (check it out at www.squalicumchoir.blogspot.com). Of course there is the big one, the “University of YouTube.” Don’t we all love this one? It’s amazing to me that you can find so much repertoire on Youtube and often times, your students find it before you. Here are some ways to effectively use technology:
6b. Use the digital recorder to test during class. Instead of pulling kids out of the
|
||
June 11, 2008 Recruiting and engaging singers with
a multi-cultural hook |
||
Thinking back to my first high school choir tour, the first thing that comes to mind is seeing a ray of light magically beaming into the church during our performance of "There is No Rose of Such Virtue," by Robert H. Young. Probably because I was insecure, I remember glancing across the choir after the song to see if there were any other tears other than mine. The rest of the choir was having the same sentiment. Thank goodness!
Success in my mind was getting to a point where the students not only enjoyed choral music and grew individually and together, but also to a point where the level of literature and performance would feed my soul musically. That is the only way I will continue in this profession for thirty plus years. Using multicultural music to recruit and engage singers is a fabulous tool in today's education. We must keep our programs as strong as possible to continue to advocate for the arts and elective programs. When first started, I had many good ideas for recruiting. The first idea may not have been the best one; I was going to pay each male that signed up for choir $10 each. Fortunately for me, the principal said no. The most fiscally practical idea, and in many ways educationally practical idea, was to pick music that was catchy and easy to sing. Multicultural music is a great choice in this situation. In many cases, the performance practice of multicultural music lends itself to rote teaching. Not many of my students at that time were musicians yet because they had not been introduced to reading music. So I wanted them to learn to sing before they learned to read. This is where a multicultural selection came into play. The first day of class I got the students singing immediately, first vocalizes, and then I taught them Mungu Ni Pendo by rote. I had them from day one! To them, they sounded "good," and it created a buzz on the first day. Getting them to be successful made them believe in me, and helped me gain trust. Once I had that trust, I could get them to believe that sight singing was essential in how we learn music. We added a spiritual to the program; Poor Man Lazrus by Jester Hairston, Dirait-on by Morten Lauridsen, and La la la je ne lose dire by Pierre Certon. We enjoy listening to the recording with the choirs to see how far we've come! Now that the program is somewhat established, I still use multicultural music as a way to keep my vocal musicians engaged. I often choose pieces that are catchy and good closers to the choir’s portion of a program. Sometimes they are very challenging and other times they are quick learns. Either way, it is a great way to end rehearsal with a piece that will get “stuck” in the student’s heads all day. This creates a buzz about choir which helps recruit, and it keeps them coming back excited to sing. I've compiled a list of pieces that I've used that have been essential in over tripling the size of the choir program at Squalicum. Many are pieces you might've done before, but there could be a few that you haven't heard or performed. There are various levels of difficulty, but I think all of them are doable at the high school level. If you'd like more specific information about any of the songs, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Variable Voicing Mungu Ni Pendo – Edward G. Robinson, arr. Robert Gower Hashivenu - Hebrew - arr. Doreen Rao Shalom Chaverim – arr. Patrick Liebergen
SA Ae Fond Kiss - Lee Kesselman Arirang – Sonja Poorman & Jonathan Lim Dodi Li – Nira Chen, arr. Doreen Rao Three Italian Songs of the Sea – arr. Henry Leck Yo le canto todo el dia - David Brunner
SSA Beau Soir - Claude Debussy, arr. Linda Spevacek Dry Your Tears, Afrika – John Williams Fa Una Canzona – Orazio Vecchi, arr. Russell Robinson Hotaru Koi - Ro Ogura Les Berceux – Gabriel Faure, arr. Alan Raines Nani, raza mea de soare – Gabriel Dumitrescu Oye - Jim Papoulis Reuben, Reuben – arr. Vijay Singh South African Suite – arr. Henry Leck Vus Vet Zayn – arr. Henry Leck
SSAA Ah! si mon moine voulait danser - Donald Patriquin Go Where I Send Thee – Paul Caldwell & Sean Ivory Niska Banja - arr. Nick Page Wana Baraka - Shawn Kirchner
SAB El Mambi – Romero-Lavilla, arr. Carlos Abril Jamaican Market Place – Larry Farrow
SATB An Irish Love Duet - arr. Bradley Nelson Bogoroditse Devo - Rachmaninoff Bonse Aba - Andrew Fisher Chindia – Alexandru Pascanu Cloudburst – Eric Whitacre Daemon Irrepit Callidus -Gyorgy Orban Der Gang Zum Liebchen - Brahms Dirait on - Morten Lauridsen Domaredansen – arr. Drew Collins Dravidian Dithyramb – Victor Paranjoti Dorven Dalai - Yongrub Duerme Negrito – Emile Sole El Grito – Carmen Cavallaro Esto Les Digo – Kinley Lange Five Hebrew Love Songs - Eric Whitacre Freedom is in Your Hand – arr. Anders Nyberg Gate Gate – Brian Tate Hiney Ma Tov - Iris Levine Horizons – Peter Louis von Dijk I’m a Rollin’ – arr. Paul Rardin Jabula Jesu - Stephen Hatfield John the Revelator - Sean Ivory & Paul Caldwell Kpanlongo - Derek Bermel La Lluvia – Stephen Hatfield Loch Lomond - arr. Jonathan Quick Muie Rendera - C.A. Pinto Fonseca My God is So High – arr. Moses Hogan Natufurahi Siku Ya Leo – Boniface Mganga O Sifuni Mungu – arr. Roger Emerson Praise His Holy Name – Keith Hampton Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain - Joseph Shabalala, arr. Steve Everett Salmo 150 – Ernani Aguiar Ta Tikee Tei -Sid Robinovich Tango to Evora -arr. Jon Washburn Tres Cantos Nativos - arr. Marcos Leite Two Japanese Proverbs – Gary Kent Walth Son de Camaguey - Stephen Hatfield Sigalagala – S.A. Otieno
TTBB Tshosholoza - arr. Jeffrey Ames With a Swag All on My Shoulder – arr. Vijay Singh
SATB + SSA
Hope For Resolution – Paul Caldwell & Sean Ivory |
||
|
Return
to top of this page Return to WA-ACDA homepage |
|