california - calcda.orgcalcda.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cantate_vol23_no2_winter20… · •...

Inside…

Coming Up ....................................................... 3

Mentoring at the Personal Level by Travis Rogers ............................................... 4

A Note from the President-Elect by Jonathan Talberg ...................................... 6

Honor Choirs by Shirley Nute ................................................. 8

California ACDA Elections by Ken Abrams .............................................. 10

Sessions for Students at the National Conference in Chicago by Tammi Alderman ..................................... 14

A New Chromatic Scale by David V. Montoya ................................... 16

Recruiting With No Feeder Program by Dana Alexander ...................................... 20

Mulligan: The Sequel by Mary Purdy ................................................ 21

Starting Over by Jeff Seaward ............................................ 22

California ACDA Directory ........................... 23

WHEREAS, the human spirit is elevated to a broader understanding of itself through study and performance in the aesthetic arts, and

WHEREAS, serious cutbacks in funding and support have steadily eroded state institutions and their programs throughout our country,

BE IT RESOLVED that all citizens of the United States actively voice their affirmative and collective support for necessary funding at the local, state, and national levels of education and government, to ensure the survival of arts programs for this and future generations.

CALIFORNIA ACDA MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO PRINT THIS ACDA ADVOCACY RESOLUTION IN ALL PROGRAMS.

WINTER 2011

California

As I explained the chromatic scale, one of my students (born in Korea) gave me a

puzzled expression and asked, “Don’t you learn this in

elementary school?”

PAGE 16

I must come up with new and creative ways to

recruit students, most of whom have never sung or read music before.

PAGE 20

Put it on while you cook dinner, get lost in sonic

beauty, and remember why you started singing

in the first place.

PAGE 4

2 Cantate Vol. 23, No. 2 Winter 2011 California ACDA

Leading the Way Cantate Vol. 23, No. 2 Winter 2011 3

Official Publication of the California Chapter

American Choral Directors Association

CANTATE Volume 23, Number 2

Douglas Lynn, editor

[email protected] c/o 1450 South Melrose Drive

Oceanside CA 92056 760-758-4100 ext 140

With thanks to Jan Lanterman and David Scholz for their invaluable assistance.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

Fall Issue — August 1 (mailed September 1) Winter Issue — December 1 (mailed January 1)

Spring Issue — April 1 (mailed May 1)

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS The editor welcomes the submission of articles, announcements, reports, music and book reviews, job vacancies, and any other item of interest to the California ACDA membership. Articles should reach the editor no later than the established deadline and should include the following information:

1. Title 2. Author’s name and phone/email address 3. Name of school, church, or organization 4. Author biography (50 words) 5. A good full-face photo

The manuscript should be limited to a maximum of two typewritten pages. Electronic text is preferred and may be emailed to the editor at the above address.

The editor reserves the right to edit all submissions.

GUIDELINES FOR ADVERTISING

Charges listed are for camera-ready copy only, submitted electronically by TIFF, PDF, JPEG, or GIF. Cantate is produced in black ink.

A check made payable to “California ACDA” must be postmarked by the submission deadline. You will not be billed. Invoices can be prepared upon request. No copy will run without advance payment. If you would like an ad to run in more than one issue, please include full payment at the time of the initial ad.

Advertising copy is subject to editorial approval. The Editor reserves the right to head and/or box any advertisement bearing confusing resemblance to editorial content.

ADVERTISING RATES

Size ......................................................... Single Annual 1/6 page (2.5”x5”) ................................... $55 $110 1/4 page (3.75”x5”) ................................. $75 $150 1/3 page (2.5”x10” or 3.33”x7.5”).......... $95 $190 1/2 page (3.75”x10” or 5”x7.5”) ........... $140 $280 2/3 page (5”x10” or 6.67”x7.5”) ........... $190 $380 Full page (7.5”x10”) ............................... $275 $550

COMING UP 2011

ACDA National Conference ......................................................... Mar 9-12 Chicago, Illinois

California All-State Honor Choir ........................................... Mar 31-Apr 2 Sacramento

Cantate Deadline for Spring Issue .................................................... Apr 1

California ACDA Summer Conference................................. Jul 31-Aug 3 Oakhurst (ECCO) Dr. Joshua Habermann, headliner

California ACDA Regional Conferences ........................................ Sep 10

2012 ACDA Western Division Convention ....................................Feb 29-Mar 3

Reno, Nevada

California ACDA Summer Conference................................. Jul 29-Aug 1 Oakhurst (ECCO) Dr. Joe Miller and Dr. Doreen Rao, headliners

California ACDA Regional Conferences .......................................... Sep 8

ADVERTISERS INDEX Azusa Pacific University ............................................................................... 2

California State University, Fresno ............................................................ 15

California State University, Fullerton ........................................................ 19

Dale Warland Residency at CSU Fullerton ............................................. 10

California State University, Long Beach The Bob Cole Conservatory of Music ................................. back cover

California State University, Los Angeles .................................................... 9

Forum Music Festivals ................................................................................... 5

International Barbershop Youth Chorus Festival ................................... 22

University of Southern California ................................................................ 7

Singing is the most human, most companionable of the arts. It joins us together in the whole realm of sound, forging a group identity where there were only individuals and making a communicative statement

that far transcends what any of us could do alone.

Alice Parker from Melodious Accord


He is one of several mentors I have had through the years, and those all those wonderful people have been influential in my growth as a choral musician. I’ll keep it short here and just mention a few by name:

• Warren Potter, my junior high choir teacher, who wouldn’t let me quit choir when I got discouraged at not being able to figure out how to read a choral score. Mr. Potter just passed away this past November at the age of 80 after having taught thousands of elementary and junior high school vocal and instrumental students;

• Marian Long, my piano teacher growing up, who believed that the pursuit of excellence was a noble and valued ideal and always communicated, more through her actions than even her words, that nobody is too old to learn something new in the vast world of music and life;

• William Andrew Cottle, my first high school choral director whose guidance and strong ethical and moral values prepared me for life;

• Jo-Michael Scheibe, my choir director my senior year of high school (his very first year of teaching!), whose enthusiasm for choral music inspired me to want to be a high school choir director—he has certainly gone on to bigger things!;

• Wesley B. Reed, my master teacher at La Serna High School in Whittier, whose love, support, and sometimes brutally honest appraisal of my skill and effectiveness as a choral conductor has been ongoing.

All of these folks (save Mr. Potter) continue to this day to be wonderful sources of support, counsel, advice, and guidance. They are the best friends and people with whom to associate that anyone could ask for.

The point of this article? The moral of this story? As a conductor, be ready to GIVE advice! Be a mentor to those around you who need your support. You could prove to be the difference in the personal and professional success of a fellow choral conductor. Also, as a conductor, be ready to GET advice! Don’t think that because of advanced age, personal

Mentoring at the Personal Level

M any years ago the California ACDA board discussed setting up a mentoring program for young

conductors. All on the board agreed that mentoring was important—at the time we just couldn’t figure out how to implement a meaningful and manageable program. A lost opportunity? Perhaps, but maybe too a realization that it doesn’t necessarily take a formal program for a young conductor, or ANY conductor, for that matter, to have a mentor or multiple mentors as a part of his or her choral experience.

A dictionary definition of “mentor” reads: A wise and trusted counselor or teacher, an influential senior sponsor or supporter.

Driving alone in my car on long road trips, I frequently phone longtime friends and mentors (don’t worry, it’s legal—I’ve got bluetooth!). On my trip to the most recent California ACDA board meeting, I phoned one of those mentors, my college choir conductor, Loren Wiebe. Thirty-two years after my graduation from Biola College (now Biola University) this marvelous man is still a “mentor” to me in every sense of the word. A former California ACDA State President, Loren was the person who introduced me to ACDA, but in a very indirect way.

Loren was once gone from our choir for a few days attending the 1977 ACDA National Convention in Nashville. As a young teacher just out of college, I remembered Loren’s absence to attend that convention. As a professional choir conductor, I realized that could join the same organization that my college director was a member of and find out for myself what these conventions were all about! The first convention I attended was a Western Division gathering at a Los Angeles Airport Hotel and the Loyola-Marymount University Chapel in 1984, and it was life-changing in so many ways I thought I had died and gone to choir heaven!

Loren’s mentorship to me didn’t end with my college experience and my introduction to ACDA. He is still a phone call or email away and has continued to the present day to provide wise and trusted counsel and support to me in my personal life and as a choral musician.

TRAVIS ROGERS

[email protected]

PRESIDENT

acdacal.org

Travis Rogers is choral music director at Napa High School and director of music at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Napa.


insecurity, ego, or holes in your musical education or choral experience that you wouldn’t benefit from reaching out to a respected colleague (who might even be younger than you!) for their wise counsel, advice, and support. In truth, nearly all choral conductors I know wouldn’t hesitate to work with you, support you, and share whatever they could with you to advance your skills, your musicianship, your confidence, and your overall well-being.

I truly believe that we are among the most blessed people in the world to be in the profession of creating choral music magic every day we are in front of a choir. This belief is confirmed at every gathering of choral musicians, whether at an ACDA event or other activity where singing is the activity. Though

we can certainly be a tad critical at times, and have a few type “A” personalities (okay, more than a few) in our ranks, we can count ourselves among the most fortunate people in the world!

Get some mentors in your life if you don’t have any already, and be a mentor and a potential life changer to somebody who would benefit by your expertise. Keep singing and smiling in a world that desperately needs positive people continuing to do wonderful, magical things! ACDA may be “leading the way” (we’re certainly here to help) but, ultimately, YOU are leaders every day in your school, church, and community as you expose people to choral music and to the joy of singing together. Keep up the good fight in 2011!


college need to be listening to professional ensembles to maintain that professional ear that can so easily atrophy into ‘good enough’ with singers who sing the right notes at the right time most of the time. By listening to great performances, you will remind yourself of what good singing is really about—line, phrase, unified vowels, intonation, emotional content, diction, clarity. We talk about it all the time, but do we hear anyone else do it? Get out those CDs and do some listening to Robert Shaw and Roger Wagner, to Polyphony and Chanticleer. Put it on while you cook dinner, get lost in sonic beauty, and remember why you started singing in the first place!

Third, find something to be grateful about in your current situation as a conductor. Our California budget is terrible (and, possibly getting worse). But, GLEE has turned on a whole generation to a cappella music. It might be pop music, but kids want to sing again—let’s be grateful!

Or, the holidays are over and you can concentrate on a new anthem you want to program for Easter—go for it! Take a breath of gratitude for the time you now have to really study the score, to learn every nuance, every chord, every suggested dynamic.

Maybe, just maybe, tell one of your ensembles or classes how grateful you are to be their conductor. Surprise them with a treat in the New Year JUST BECAUSE you want to.

You have a big job to do in 2011; face it with a renewed sense of your profession, your love of the art itself, and your gratitude at being able to touch lives and make music on a daily basis.

Happy New Year!

A Note from the President-Elect

A loyal constituency is won when people…judge the leader to be capable of solving their problems and meeting their needs.

—John Gardner

T he carols are sung, the candles extinguished, the garlands wound up, and the trees recycled. Do you still believe in

New Year Resolutions? If so, you might have made one or two (or six). If not, maybe you believe that every day presents an opportunity for self-betterment.

I’d like to suggest that there are three things you can do in 2011 to make yourself a better teacher, a more confident musician, and a finer, more engaged colleague. Some of you have already mastered these, but a lot of us haven’t…

First, if you haven’t taken the time to register at Choralnet.org , please do so. By registering, you will receive a daily email “New at Choralnet.org” with the following subheadings:

• Forums • Program administration/curriculum • For singers and students • Announcements • New recordings • Classifieds • Concerts • Active forum threads

Some days, I just delete the email, but on others, I scan it and look for an interesting forum, an announcement that catches my eye, a new recording, or a concert in my area. I spend a few minutes reading, engaging in a thread of conversation, or just ‘choral geeking’ out. I’ve found it to be a wonderful way to stay engaged in a large, national (and international) discussion about our art.

Second, listen to high quality choral music recorded by the best ensembles you can find! If you teach elementary school, do you have your recordings of your favorite children’s choirs in the car, on your iPod, or at home? For junior high teachers, have you made a collection of ACDA performances from the best junior high school choirs? Same for high school teachers! Those of us who teach

JONATHAN TALBERG

[email protected]

PRESIDENT-ELECT

www.acdacal.org

Dr. Jonathan Talberg is director of choral, vocal, and opera studies at CSU Long B e a c h ’ s B o b C o l e Conservatory of Music, music director at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, and artistic director of the Los Angeles Bach Festival.


Regional Honor Choirs Wrap-up CENTRAL REGION JOHN SORBER, CHAIRPERSON

A great musical experience… 200 singers were chosen from 477 auditioned to participate in the 79-member Women’s Choir and the 121-member Mixed Choir. The performing arts center on the Clovis North High School campus offered incredible acoustics which combined perfectly with the glorious singing of the young women and men. Dr. Jonathan Talberg of CSU Long Beach and Bruce Rogers of Mt. San Antonio College led the choirs with skill and care. The students walked away with life lessons learned and a great musical experience. The Central Region directors left with new skills and tricks to implement with their own choirs.

COASTAL REGION GENEVIEVE TEP, CHAIRPERSON

An excellent success… The 2010 Honor Choir included 120 singers in the Mixed Choir and 70 singers in the Women’s Choir. The choirs rehearsed at the Carlmont High School performing arts center for two days, then moved to Palo Alto First United Methodist Church for the final day of rehearsal and the afternoon performance. The church was packed and the concert was an excellent success. It was a blast to work with both Desiree La Vertu of Occidental College and Steven Coker of Chapman University.

SCVA (SOUTHERN) REGION TAMMI ALDERMAN, CHAIRPERSON

A night of brilliant music… The 2010 edition of the SCVA Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed Choirs at Santa Monica High School was a feast for the ears and the soul. It was an educational experience and honor to watch the magic and artistry of each of the three conductors: Kimberly Barclay-Drusedum, Vijay Singh, and Jeffrey Seaward. The students were engaged from the start of rehearsals through the performance. This was an opportunity that they will never forget, even as many of them take the next step of singing in the California All-State Honor Choir and the ACDA National Honor Choir.

SHIRLEY NUTE

[email protected]

ALL-STATE HONOR CHOIRS

acdacal.org/honorchoirs.htm

Shirley Nute retired from teaching after 43 years—five years at Glendale High School and 38 years as director of choral activities at Crescenta Valley High School—and has yet to stop contributing to the choral art.

T he singers selected for the All-State Honor Choir will begin their weekend choral experience with registration on Thursday

morning, March 31, on the campus of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Sacramento. The 354 singers participating in the All-State Honor Choirs represent 126 high schools from throughout the state of California. The Men’s Honor Choir, conducted by Dr. Jameson Marvin, will number 75 singers; the Women’s Honor Choir, conducted by Sigrid Johnson, will number 124 singers; and the Mixed Honor Choir, conducted by Dr. Edith Copley, will number 155 singers.

On occasion, California ACDA has commissioned choral works to add to the repertory of good high-school literature. This process is always a multi-year procedure, involving contacting a desired composer and securing a spot in his or her work schedule. In 2009, the California ACDA board authorized Dr. Anna Hamre to pursue this project to secure a new work for the 2011 All-State Women’s Honor Choir. In consultation with the designated conductor Sigrid Johnson, well-known composer Stephen Paulus was chosen. Using poetry by Frederico Garcia Lorca, Mr. Paulus completed a three-movement work for women’s chorus in November 2010. This piece will receive its world premiere at the 2011 honor-choir concert.

All-State Honor Choirs Moving Forward

CALIFORNIA ALL-STATE HONOR CHOIR

PERFORMANCE SATURDAY, APRIL 2 ● 3:00 P.M.

SACRAMENTO CONVENTION CENTER COMMUNITY CENTER THEATER

13TH & L STREETS

THE CONCERT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC NO TICKETS ARE REQUIRED


California ACDA Elections 2011

This year, California ACDA’s annual elections include our new President-Elect as well as regional representatives from the Bay Area, Central, and Southern regions. Candidate bios follow.

A separate mailing with ballots, bios, and photos will be sent to California ACDA members in the spring. Please acquaint yourself with our candidates. Each would make a fine addition to the state board. Your vote counts!

KEN ABRAMS, VICE PRESIDENT [email protected]


CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT-ELECT A six-year term — two terms each as President-Elect, President, and Vice President

LORI MARIE RIOS Lori Marie Rios is a highly accomplished conductor, soloist, educator, and voice teacher. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Music at College of the Canyons (COC) in Valencia where she is the music director of the Chamber Singers and Voices of the Canyons Community Chorus. She also teaches voice and administers the applied music program.

Ms. Rios has served on the California ACDA board for the past eight years. She also has served as Transportation Chair and Hospitality Chair for the past four ACDA Western Division and three ACDA national conferences. She currently sits on the Los Angeles Bach Festival Board of Directors and serves as their president.

Prior to her appointment at COC, she led the choral program at La Cañada High School. Ensembles under her direction have performed at the California Music Educators Conference, at the 2004 ACDA Western Division Conference in Las Vegas, and at the 2007 ACDA National Convention in Miami.

Ms. Rios is an adjunct professor at Pasadena City College where she conducts the Concert Choir. She is a faculty member at CSU Los Angeles’ Summer Graduate Program where she teaches voice and graduate level conducting. She also participates as choral-vocal faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program where she serves as assistant director.

She has presented workshops for ACDA and presented three workshops this past year for the Nevada Music Educators Association. Last year she conducted the Nevada All-State Junior High Honor Choir and the Southern California Vocal Association Women’s Honor Choir.

Ms. Rios holds a Master of Music in Conducting and Vocal Performance from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a Bachelor of Music in Choral Studies.

JEFFERY A. SEAWARD Jeffery A. Seaward is currently Professor of Choral Music and Voice at College of the Sequoias (COS) in Visalia. His duties include conducting the Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, Master Chorale, and Men’s Chorus. He also teaches Voice and Music Fundamentals, and he is vocal music director of the COS Musical Theater. He is a graduate of CSU Fresno, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Voice and Clarinet and a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting.

Mr. Seaward currently serves as the Two-Year College Choirs Repertoire and Standards Chair for California ACDA.

He has been teaching choral music for more than 30 years, at all levels. He is active in Central California as a conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. He was honored as Tulare/Kings Counties Music Educator of the year in 2008 and was the guest conductor of the 2008 Central Regional Women’s Honor Choir and the SCVA Men’s Honor Choir in 2010. His choral groups have received numerous awards and honors and have performed at many California Music Educators Association conferences and ACDA conferences and festivals, including three ACDA national conferences.



CHRISTOPHER BORGES Christopher Borges is in his tenth year as director of the Bakersfield High School choirs and is the choir director at Grace Episcopal Church in Bakersfield. He has hosted CMEA choral festivals annually since 2002, where his choirs have consistently received superior ratings. Prior to his tenure at Bakersfield High School, he taught elementary and middle school vocal music.

He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and Theory/Composition from Azusa Pacific University and a Master of Music degree in Choral Music Education from Florida State University.

He has served as Choral Representative for Central Section CMEA and as PR Representative for KCMEA. He has received the CMEA Central Section Choral Educator and Multicultural Educator of the Year awards, and was a presenter at the 2010 ACDA Western Division Convention.

TAMARA STEPHENS-DIBBLE Tamara Stephens-Dibble has been a K-8 teacher for ten years. She is the director of the music program at the Phillips Brooks School in Menlo Park, where she teaches general music pre-K through fifth grade, beginning band, and the Phillips Brooks Chorus.

Ms. Stephens-Dibble’s students have sung in both the ACDA and OAKE national honor choirs. She holds a Master of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Vocal Performance from Whitman College.

She is currently a member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and was a member of the vocal jazz ensemble “Half Dozen of the Other,” touring nationally and featured with Linda Ronstadt in several performances and recordings. She is Kodály certified in levels I and II and is a member of OAKE and IAJE.

CANDIDATE FOR CENTRAL REPRESENTATIVE A two-year term

CANDIDATE FOR BAY AREA REPRESENTATIVE A two-year term

LOU DE LA ROSA Lou De La Rosa is the Director of Choral Activities at West Valley College in Saratoga. He has taught music in San Jose for 26 years, 13 of which were at Abraham Lincoln High School, where he served as chairman of both the music and performing arts departments. He was named Teacher of the Year at Pioneer High School in 1991, and again at Lincoln High School in 2002.

For the past two years he has served as Bay Area Regional Representative for California ACDA and served on the CMEA Bay Section Board for eight years. He has hosted numerous CMEA choral and solo/ensemble festivals. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in voice and a Master of Arts degree in choral conducting.

CANDIDATE FOR BAY AREA REPRESENTATIVE A two-year term


ACDA NATIONAL CONFERENCE

MARCH 9-12, 2011

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

CALIFORNIA ACDA SUMMER CONFERENCE

JULY 29-AUGUST 1, 2011

OAKHURST

ADCA WESTERN DIVISION CONFERENCE

FEBRUARY 29-MARCH 2, 2012

RENO, NEVADA

ACDA Coming Events


FORREST MADEWELL Forrest Madewell has been teaching public school for ten years and is currently in his third year as the Vocal Music Director at Frontier High School in Bakersfield. Before beginning his tenure at FHS, he taught for five years at Highland High School and for two years at Thorner Elementary, both also in Bakersfield.

Prior to moving to Bakersfield, Mr. Madewell served as Opera Chorus Master and Orchestra Director for the University of Nevada Opera, and assisted with the choral ensembles at the University of Nevada, Reno, under Dr. Bruce Mayhall and Jennifer Tibben.

He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education with focus on Choral Conducting from UNR, and a Master of Arts degree from Point Loma Nazarene University in Education/Teaching, Learning, and Technology.

He is the current CMEA Central Section Representative for Vocal Music, helping to plan the Central Section conference as well as other festivals and events throughout the San Joaquin Valley. He currently chairs or hosts solo festivals, choir festivals, and the Kern County Honor Choir in Bakersfield. He has served as an adjudicator and clinician for choral and solo festivals in California and Nevada, including the Northern Nevada Choral Festival in Reno. He was recently named Teacher of the Year for Kern County.

MICHAEL SHORT Michael Short has been Director of Choral Activities at Orange High School since the spring of 1982. His work with his students over the years has been recognized by many significant educational groups. In February of 2002 he received the Bravo Award from the Los Angeles Music Center for excellence in music education as an arts specialist. In 2003/04 he was named Teacher of the Year for Orange Unified School District and was runner-up for Orange County Department of Education Teacher of the Year.

From 1990-1993 Mr. Short served as the California ACDA High School Honor Choir Chair, and he has served on the board of the Southern California Vocal Association. He was the Convention Properties Chair for the 2008 ACDA Western Division Conference.

He is the director and founder of the Orange Community Master Chorale and Director of Music at the First United Methodist Church of Orange since 1988. He is also the District Department Chairman of Secondary Vocal Music for Orange Unified School District. Since April 2004, Mike has also served as the Choral Director for Santiago Canyon College.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Chapman College in Orange in 1979 and a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from CSU Fullerton in 1988.

CHRISTOPHER PETERSON Dr. Christopher Peterson is Associate Professor of Music at CSU Fullerton where he directs the Concert Choir and the Titan Men’s Chorus and teaches classes in choral music education. From 2001 to 2007 he was Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He taught music in the public schools of Maine for nine years, including elementary, middle, and high school. He is series editor and a choral arranger for Hal Leonard’s Close Harmony Series for Men and the Close Harmony Collection.

Recently Dr. Peterson held the position of State Choral Representative for the California Music Educators Association (CMEA), and is currently the CMEA Southern Section President. He also is the ACDA Western Division Repertoire and Standards Chair for Male Choirs. For six years Chris conducted the Milwaukee Youth Chorale.

He maintains an active schedule as a choral clinician, guest conductor, and judge for festivals and choral performance events across the United States and internationally. In his spare time, Chris sings bass with the Masters of Harmony, seven-time International Men’s Chorus Champions of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

He earned the Bachelor of Science in Music Education from the University of Southern Maine, the Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Maine, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Choral Music Education and Conducting from Florida State University.

CANDIDATE FOR SOUTHERN REPRESENTATIVE A two-year term

CANDIDATE FOR SOUTHERN REPRESENTATIVE A two-year term

CANDIDATE FOR CENTRAL REPRESENTATIVE A two-year term



THE ACDA INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES FOR CHORAL MUSIC: A DYNAMIC CHORAL RESEARCH RESOURCE

After a number of years in transition, the ACDA International Archives for Choral Music is once again a dynamic and integral part of ACDA operations. This interest session will discuss the archives’ history, current condition, and future challenges. It will also inform attendees of current archives initiatives specifically designed to provide impetus for utilization of the collection as a historical data source. A number of ACDA’s most significant historical documents and artifacts, normally housed in the archives and in the McMahon International Choral Music Museum, will be on display. The goal of this session is to promote an awareness of the archives with an eye toward stimulating research purposely focused on ACDA and its broader relationship to the choral art.

UNDERGRADUATE CONDUCTING MASTERCLASS

Watch Dr. Rodney Eichenberger work with undergraduate college students on conducting gesture. If you’ve never seen Dr. Eichenberger work, this is not to be missed.

PILLARS OF PROFESSIONALISM: A FRESH LOOK AT PROFESSIONAL DISCIPLINES FOR COLLEGIATE MUSIC STUDENTS

Pillars of Professionalism is designed to help collegiate music students start thinking professionally before they reach graduation and their first job interviews. The presentation will facilitate students in their understanding of what it means to be a choral professional with a look at some of the disciplines that they can begin to incorporate into their daily lives as students. Though there are many disciplines for the professional, this session will specifically look at life long education/professional development, practice, maintaining a commitment to professional organizations, services, and becoming an entrepreneur.

R eading the Choral Journal while getting pedicures is one of my guilty pleasures, but the conference issue is the one that

never waits for the foot-bath. As a returning full-time student and a regular ACDA conference attendee, I am looking at this year’s conference through a different lens.

This year, I didn’t even wait for the CJ conference issue to be published. I jumped on acda.org and started digging through titles and descriptions for sessions that would be more applicable to my new life than they were in the past.

Students take note: there are a multitude of sessions that are of significant worth to all of us (first-timers and returners). Additionally, this year a Collegiate and Young Professionals track has been added to the conference schedule, offering “one-of-a-kind opportunities for students to learn from the masters, including Maestros Helmuth Rilling and Duain Wolfe.”

A brief list/description of some of the sessions of particular interest to collegiate students are listed below. Please visit the ACDA website yourself for more complete information or wait until the CJ makes it to your house and spend some time with it. If you haven’t yet registered for the conference, you may still do so. Consider it an investment in your education and your future career.

COLLEGIATE CONDUCTING COMPETITION

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to watch the undergraduate and graduate conducting competition semi-finalists and finalists lead rehearsals of a collegiate honor group.

COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES ROUNDTABLE: WHAT DO WE WISH THEY KNEW?

A panel discussion concerning tools, techniques, secrets, and sage advice our new graduates should have in their tool kits as they enter that first college/university position.

Sessions for Students at the National Conference in Chicago

TAMMI ALDERMAN

tammialderman@ gmail.com

YOUTH & STUDENT ACTIVITIES

www.acdacal.org/student.htm

REPERTOIRE & STANDARDS

Tammi Alderman just finished ten years in the high school choral classroom and started her new journey as a full-time doctoral student at the University of Southern California in September 2010. She also teaches the Choral Repertoire courses at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSU Long Beach.

See You at the Western Division Conference in Reno! ● February 29 - March 3, 2012


A couple of years ago, I sat with a few students in a summer preparatory session for my Advanced Placement

Music Theory class at La Habra High School. The four-day/four-hour course found its way to addressing the chromatic scale and its relationship to intervals, other scales, and the circle of fifths. (I love teaching this stuff!) As I explained the chromatic scale, one of my students (born and raised in Korea) gave me a puzzled expression and asked, “Don’t you learn this in elementary school?” Wow! Culture shock!

The chromatic scale is, no doubt, an important tool for musicians, but it seems that many of us find it a difficult and maybe even an unusable concept to teach. Should we teach it? When? Why do we teach it? What use does it have to the choral singer who sings mostly tonal music? Is it just useful for audition time? Does it really give an adjudicator much practical information about a singer’s musical ability? Can we as teachers even accurately perform it ourselves? Many questions… Hmm…

First of all, let me be forthcoming in my opinion, suggesting that having students sing a chromatic scale from DO (1) to DO (13) is not of much practical use to the student. How often do we come across such passages in vocal literature? Last year, I wrote an article for Cantate that spoke of the differences between the equal-tempered scale and the overtonal scale that we as singers use, usually intuitively, when singing a cappella. The experience of the pure overtonal resonances is what makes a cappella singing, not to mention music on any variable pitched instrument, amazingly beautiful! The equal-tempered chromatic scale was developed to

allow the keyboard to play in 15 different keys. But that doesn’t really work the same for singers—or string quartets, or the fretless bass guitar, or the oud, etc. What I am trying to say is: When we are allowed to make music outside of the equal-tempered environment (i.e. a cappella singing), and when we have the opportunity to sing harmonies in just intonation, and when we are allowed intuitively to invite the experience of pure resonance into our music making… WE DO.

So every time I listen to a student sing a chromatic scale in an audition, I ponder the usefulness of the exercise in the first place. Each singer demonstrates various versions of the truth. They can often arrive at the same DO (1, 13) on top and bottom, but make various choices of tuning along the way, stretching a note here and there, usually the last few, creating their own version of a tempered scale. A few even sing a perfect equal-tempered chromatic scale! But, a cappella music isn’t sung in equal temperament. Why should we make our singers audition with it? As Frank Costanza said at the creation of Festivus, “There has to be another way.”

As an adjudicator, I have heard several versions of chromatic scale pedagogy that make the pattern more or less useful to the students. (Singing the scale on “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is the cutest but probably the least practical for true musical understanding.) In the past I have taught my students to sing the chromatic scale by using scale degree numbers from 1 to 12. I have taught them to sing the notes in duplets, accenting each first note of a group of two, as in Exercise #1.


A New Chromatic Scale

Exercise #1: Singing the Chromatic Scale on scale degree numbers

DAVID V. MONTOYA

[email protected]

ETHNIC & MULTICULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

www.acdacal.org/ethnic.htm

David V. Montoya directs at La Habra High School. He is a also a published composer of choral music.


Exercise #1 gives students a compass with which to navigate waters of the equal-tempered chromatic scale. (Again, I think this is an impractical lesson, since most music does not really go this way for any extended length of time.) It shows that there are 12 notes which “start over” after 12. It shows the symmetry of the scale. And, it helps students to hear the equal-tempered half-steps as all the same, regardless of where they are in the scale—even though we don‘t sing and tune notes that way in real music. I used to teach the chromatic scale this way, BUT I’M OVER THAT NOW!

So, my dear friends, I propose a “New Chromatic Scale” (trumpet fanfare please)—one that has practical value when teaching it to all students (even in elementary school); one that is easier to learn and more memorable; one that makes sense in a tonal world with patterns that when worked into our students’ muscle memories will provide benefits to the learning process for years to come. Are you ready for it? (drum roll) Here goes! See Exercise #2.

I like to call it the “Leading Tone Extravaganza!” You can call it whatever you like. If you stop on any fermata, you can get a feel for being in a new and closely-related key (am, G, F, em, and dm where C is the original key) since the note directly before each fermata is the held note’s leading tone. These are all chromatic notes, except for “e-f” (see below). Each note with a fermata becomes a new DO temporarily if you move on (tonicization) or permanently if you stay put (modulation). Every note of the chromatic

scale is hit in descending order and IN CONTEXT as we would encounter it in much of the choral literature.

There is so much information in Exercise #2, and so many possibilities for teachable moments! I realize that if you do not have a practical command of solfege, this can seem a little bit difficult. But really, what is the difference to students who sing in many different unfamiliar languages all the time? These are just syllables attached to notes as in any piece. In learning them, with guidance, students will derive meaning. You the teacher don’t even need to use solfege regularly in the

classroom in order to learn and teach this (although this exercise is an even greater tool if you do). After a short amount of teaching time, students will have memorized the exercise with no problem. And with that memorization their muscles will also have a memory of the exercise. When they encounter tonicizations and modulations in real music, they will be able to sing them fluently and accurately. Do I have any buyers?

(Continued on page 18)

Exercise #2: A New Chromatic Scale: Singing the chromatic scale using leading tones to closely related keys

Wouldn’t it be impressive to hear each student demonstrate

their knowledge and understanding of the experience and practicality

of the chromatic scale?


acdacal.org THE CALIFORNIA ACDA WEBSITE

RESOURCES EVENT DATES REGISTRATION FORMS

So here is the big question… Would it be inappropriate for a student to walk into an honor choir audition armed with this comprehensive knowledge of leading tones that tonicize and modulate to other keys? Would it be incorrect if when asked to “please sing a chromatic scale” they would sing this exercise? Would it be against the rules? I’ll be willing to bet that, if it were allowed, we would hear a great many more chromatic scales sung beautifully in tune than we have heard in the past. Wouldn’t it be impressive to hear each student demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the experience and practicality of the chromatic scale? My dear friends and colleagues in California ACDA, I propose we take some time for exploration and discussion. Let’s talk! Teach it to your choirs and then get back to me.

(Continued from page 17)

A New Chromatic Scale

Further notes for the teacher…

To go from the key of C to the sub-dominant key of F, you need the lowered 7th note “b-flat” in addition to the new leading tone “e” since “e” is already a note in the key of C. To teach this move, you could finish the “New Chromatic Scale” with an exercise such as Exercise #3. Just tack it on to the end. But, for the purposes of knowing the chromatic notes/scale, this move is not necessary.

One further point: In the world of overtones, in non-modulating modality, the actual spellings and tunings of notes are not the same as in the “New Chromatic Scale” exercise. To experience the just tunings related to the key of C, it would be good practice to sing/teach an exercise such as Exercise #4, accompanied by a tonic-dominant drone. Please note that this particular chromatic exercise does not include FA, “f,” the sub-dominant note which is the “dominant below the tonic.” FA is curiously NOT overtonal since it never appears in the overtone series!

Exercise #3: Modulation to the Sub-Dominant

Exercise #4: Chromatic Scale with correct spellings in non-modulating modality of C


love being there. Most boys will love it when girls walk up and bug them to join choir. The girls may have to bug them for a long time, but it usually pays off in the long run.

2 Get older siblings to recruit their younger siblings, and get the younger siblings to bring their friends. This has worked well for

me over the years. The younger siblings are excited because their older brother or sister loved choir, and the friends they bring with them are usually just as excited as they are.

3 Even though there is no choir program at my middle school, there is a drama program, and the drama teacher

encourages her students to sing! I take my choirs to sing for her classes every year, and she invites other students from around campus to come and listen. I also take a day to visit her classes and talk with them about how to fit two electives in their freshman year of high school (drama and choir). This way, I’m still encouraging them to do what they’ve loved doing at the middle school while encouraging them to pursue singing. I also talk about how well drama and singing go hand in hand.

4 For schools in Northern California, a tour to Disneyland is always a great incentive for the incoming freshmen to join.

5 Be in constant communication with your counselors and vice principal (or whoever handles the master schedule at

your school). Even though I’ve been at this school for 12 years, I still send the counselors the same detailed information every year about my program, and let them know how much I appreciate their efforts. I never assume they know anything. I know that some counselors can be more difficult than others, but the more positive and supportive you can be toward them, the more it will help you in the long run.

6 Always take the time to tour to your feeder elementary schools each year. It takes a few years, but elementary

students will remember when the “big kids” came down to sing for them, and that may be the thing that leads those students to your program a few years later.

(Continued on page 21)

I am pleased and honored to be the new Northern Regional Representative for California ACDA. I have been a member of

this incredible organization since my undergraduate days, when my friends and I started an ACDA Student Chapter at CSU Fresno. I have loved being a member ever since. ACDA has helped me so much in my professional growth over the years, and I am excited now to have the opportunity to give back by serving as your Northern Regional Representative.

By the time you are reading this article, you will have started the second semester of your school year. In another month, the counselors at my school will be meeting with students to help them choose their classes for next year. While I love my school and community, each year it is progressively harder for me (as with many of us in this state) to keep my program alive.

I have not had a feeder program at our middle school for years, and the elementary classroom and choral music programs are practically nonexistent in our district. Every year I must come up with new and creative ways to recruit students, most of whom have never sung or read music before. This school year was no exception.

As I reflect back to the end of last year and think about this year, I find it really amazing (and wonderful) that I have a program at all, let alone one that is thriving. Last year, all but three singers in my men’s section graduated, as well as a large number of my veteran women. At the time I wondered how things would play out this year.

Long story short, through many different avenues I have ended up with a larger men’s section than I had last year, and a larger number of students in my program overall than I’ve had for a few years. They are inexperienced but enthusiastic, and we’re having a great time.

There are always lots of great ideas floating around out there for recruiting, but I thought I’d share what worked for me this year:

1 Get your current students to recruit for you. No one is a better promoter of your program than the current students who

Recruiting With No Feeder Program REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE

DANA ALEXANDER

[email protected]

NORTHERN

www.acdacal.org/north.htm

Dana Alexander is choir director at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa.



7 I have a great relationship with my band director, and we constantly encourage students to get involved on both the choral and band sides of our department. He teaches two guitar classes and encourages his guitar students who want to sing to join choir. We also share many

students between band and choir. Sometimes we get in each other’s way in terms of scheduling, but we always work it out because we know that in the big picture, involving students in both band and choir is good for the students and for our programs. My band colleague often observes that his students who also take choir understand phrasing and musicality much better, and his band students come into my program with advanced reading and musicianship skills.

There are so many great ideas for recruiting out there—these are just some that have worked for me, having no direct feeder program of my own. I hope you can use one or two of them to continue the great work that we all do. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time.

(Continued from page 20)

W hen the members of the California ACDA board were asked to write an article about a choral mulligan last

year, I was somewhat perplexed. I knew what a mulligan was, but I wasn’t sure what I would do over if given the chance. After all, our lives are defined by what we have learned from our failures. However, after reading my colleagues’ articles, I thought I should finally weigh in with an experience that I would give anything to do over.

My Madrigal Choir was invited to a High School Choral Festival at USC. I was excited that we were asked to perform at such a prestigious event. It was spring, and we were getting ready for our big pops concert, tour, and various festivals. I wanted to challenge my students, so I gave them the Palestrina Super Flumina Babylonis. A piece of this magnitude would not normally be a problem for my singers, but I gave it to them only three weeks prior to the festival. Even with such little time to rehearse, they could have pulled it off if I had done a better job of preparing myself!

I’m sure that you can guess what happened. At the festival, I was so excited about the way they sounded on the Palestrina that I became literally lost in the music. Then one of my altos came in a measure early on page 8! We were at the last phrase before I managed to get the choir back together.

The audience, consisting of other fine choirs, didn’t clap at all. It was particularly horrifying,

because Super Flumina Babylonis was our first selection and we still had three short pieces to go. The good news? My singers didn’t let that one piece ruin the rest of their performance. In fact, they wanted to prove that they deserved to be there, so they tried their hardest to make the rest of the program as strong as possible. The bad news? The audience didn’t clap after any of our songs—not once! My students wanted to slink down in their chairs after we got back to our seats, but I made them sit up proudly. The disaster in the Palestrina wasn’t their fault, it was mine. The best news? The choir performed Super Flumina Babylonis beautifully after more rehearsal time and better preparation by their conductor.

I hope that I’m not the only person in all of ACDA land that has had this kind of character-defining experience. Although painful, it was a great learning experience for me! I learned that I need to do a better job of preparing—a lesson I should have learned much earlier. I also learned that my choirs need to be challenged, but they need time to feel comfortable with those challenges. As an audience member, I learned that no matter how well the performance goes, we need to let the singers know that we appreciate their efforts.

Who knows? Maybe someday my singers and I will be invited back to USC and we can try Super Flumina Babylonis again! That would be my mulligan.

Recruiting With No Feeder Program

Mulligan: The Sequel

MARY PURDY

[email protected]

WOMEN’S CHOIRS

www.acdacal.org/women.htm

Mary Purdy has been teaching choral music for 33 years, the past 20 at Canyon High School.


Starting Over

O ne of the big issues at the community college level is attrition and the revolving door of students in our

classes. I have a 10-20% turnover in the makeup of my choirs in the spring, and every semester feels like starting a new year. Here is a simple check list that I have found helpful, maybe you will too.

• Identify your singers’ strengths – Find those areas in which your singers excel as soon as you can. If you have few low basses, don’t do Russian liturgical music.

• Always have a plan B… and sometimes a plan C, D, and E – Use tried and true literature to start your semester.

• Choose music you believe in – If you don’t love it, no matter what you try, they won’t either. I have sometimes included pieces

that I thought would add variety to a concert, but didn’t particularly care for them: they always bomb.

• Include a Renaissance motet – I try to cover several genres of music each semester and I always include at least one Renaissance motet. They are such great teaching tools for building tone, intonation, vowels, and rhythm. I find that many of my students have never sung a Victoria or Palestrina motet.

• Do something old – It was Jonathan Talberg who convinced me that it was OK and even a good idea to repeat a piece from the previous year. If it is a quality piece of music, there is always more “meat” to find.

• Do something new – Premiering a new composition by a local or student composer can be exciting. Take a chance; sometimes it’s good to live on the edge.

• Confess your sins – When you make a mistake, fess up. Lord knows I am not perfect and much of the time when my singers are having problems, it’s really my fault. When rehearsal is not going well, it’s usually my lack of planning and “winging it” that is the problem. But by the same token, don’t let your singers off the hook if they are just being lazy.

• Be firm, but loving – Be consistent and flexible in your discipline and classroom management etc. Stuff happens! And some students seem to always be having, or creating, a crisis. You learn early on who is taking advantage of your kindness. The flakes usually seem to weed themselves out.

• Let them fail – Sometimes you just need to put the responsibility on your students and let the chips fall. This can be a great lesson for them, and for you.

• Be yourself – Don’t try to be someone other than who you are. I have tried to imitate, but I always fail.

• It’s not about you – It is about bringing people together, working with one another, and learning from each other—learning to accept each other—with all our quirks and eccentricities. The whole of the choir is much greater than the sum of its parts.

JEFF SEAWARD

[email protected]

TWO-YEAR COLLEGE CHOIRS

www.acdacal.org/twoyear.htm

Jeff Seaward is choral director and voice instructor at College of the Sequoias.



President Travis Rogers 707-253-3705 [email protected]

President-Elect Jonathan Talberg 562-985-5112 [email protected]

Vice President Ken Abrams 925-788-3802 [email protected] [email protected]

Executive Secretary California ACDA Office Jan Lanterman 2348 Clay Street Napa CA 94559 707-255-8012 [email protected]

Boychoirs Joyce Keil 650-678-2001 [email protected]

Children’s and Community Youth Beth Klemm 805-460-2500 office 805-481-1189 [email protected]

College & University Choirs Anna Hamre 559-278-2539 [email protected]

Community Choirs David Scholz 530-898-6127 [email protected]

Ethnic & Multicultural Perspectives David V. Montoya 626-419-8031 [email protected]

Junior High/Middle School Choirs Linda Lovaas 209-522-6115 l [email protected]

Male Choirs Lori Marie Rios 818-952-4205 661-259-7800 [email protected]

EXECUTIVE BOARD REPERTOIRE & STANDARDS

Summer Conference Linda Lovaas 209-522-6115 l [email protected]

Regional Conferences Contact Regional Representative

All-State Honor Choir Shirley Nute 818-845-2683 shirleyb2@earthl ink.net

Regional Honor Choirs

CENTRAL John Sorber [email protected]

COASTAL Tony Dehner [email protected] SOUTHERN (SCVA) Tammi Alderman [email protected]

EVENT CHAIRS

COMMUNICATIONS Newsletter Editor Cantate Douglas Lynn c/o 1450 S. Melrose Drive Oceanside CA 92056-5294 760-758-4100 x140 [email protected]

Website Coordinator Mark Alberstein 559-623-1149 [email protected]

Music in Worship Julie Ford 925-283-9990 x224 [email protected]

Senior High School Choirs Gavin Spencer 530-241-4161 [email protected]

Show Choir Genevieve Tep 510-928-9108 [email protected]

Two-Year College Choirs Jeff Seaward 559-730-3871 [email protected]

Vocal Jazz Christine Guter 562-985-8138 [email protected]

Women’s Choirs Mary Purdy 661-252-6110 x445 [email protected]

Youth & Student Activities Tammi Alderman 970-988-5193 [email protected]

California ACDA Directory

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES

Bay Area Lou De La Rosa 408-206-7192 [email protected]

Central Heather Bishop 559-327-5449 heatherbishop@

clovisusd.k12.ca.us

Central Coast John Knutson 805-546-3195 [email protected]

Far South Nancy Gray 858-213-9014 cell 858-748-0245 x5155 office [email protected]

Northern Dana Alexander 707-328-6718 [email protected]

Southern Michael Short 714-997-6293 office 714-325-7648 cell [email protected]

California California Chapter, American Choral Directors Association c/o Douglas Lynn, Editor 1450 South Melrose Drive Oceanside, CA 92056

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