Aspiring choral composers- do NOT miss this!

I see that Steven Sametz and his school Lehigh University, in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania, have hooked up with ACDA to present a choral composers workshop this summer. Bravo to all involved and for those of you who don't know the history behind this, I will try to fill you in (though I am not privy to the details of the new developments with ACDA- perhaps someone there can fill in the recent blanks).


Steven started this great idea about 9-10 year ago-- a week long bootcamp for aspiring choral composers/arrangers to start a new piece or two from scratch, hit the ground running, write like maniacs every day AND hear their sketches sung every day by Steven's fine professional group, the Princeton Singers. This was Steven Sametz' and Lehigh's invention, and it went really well the first year, from what I heard.

The next year, 2002, Steven got Oxford University Press (USA), at that point run very ably by Chris Johnson, to collaborate. Oxford (with some of the decisions being made by the UK management) decided to expand the event by adding in a "festival" adult choir to the composer element in hopes of drawing more people and more income to the event. For a few years this was the format, but the festival choir element never really took hold, as many quality amateur singers in the area (and there are a lot, this is Bethlehem Bach Choir country) already had pretty strong allegiances to singing at the Berkshire Festival off and on.

But in the meantime Steven had great guest composer mentors such as Libby Larsen, Bob Chilcott, and so on working with the aspiring composers and things really took off. Oxford was able to discover some, at that point, totally unknown composers such as yours truly (I attended 2002 and 2003 to compose, and 2004 to work on my conducting with Nicholas Cleobury), Reg Unterseher, Jon Rommereim, Ellen Voth, Valerie Crescenz, Jonathan David, and a whole bunch of other very talented folks. Oxford was able to, in short time, add about 40 quality pieces into their catalog from the composers at the event, no small accomplishment by the composers or by OUP.

However, things kind of unraveled. As I said, the festival choir element never really gelled, although people like Nick Cleobury and Tom Hall gave it their all (hey, I just rhymed) and Oxford UK seemed to grow weary of the event and/or lack of income. They finally pulled the plug on their support which to me totally sucked (yeah, I can say that, it's my blog). To me, this was OUP UK not respecting (or jealous of?) OUP USA as run by Chris Johnson-- a real shame that they decided to not respect Chris' vision for what OUP USA Music Department could achieve.

I believe Steven Sametz did the event at least once or twice since then with its original intent, as a composer/professional choir workshop for new choral compositions. I'm thrilled that Steven and Lehigh went back to their original idea and did that.

I am also thrilled to see that Steven, Lehigh and now ACDA are collaborating on this event this summer. I wish them all the success in the world and for any of you aspiring choral composers/arrangers of any age- PLEASE sign up and attend. I guarantee you that it will be worth it- the chance to work with Steven, Chen Yi, the Princeton Singers, and the collegial atmosphere you will find there will be life-changing for you.

And finally, I will never forget the amazing sessions we had with Bob Chilcott one summer- Bob's tiny handwritten immaculate notes he prepared for seminars, his supportiveness, his earnest and intense beliefs about the intent of musical composition, and for sure his ability to blow off some steam and amuse all of us with insanely funny King's Singers stories- what a blast.

So... here is the link to ACDA's page about this event. Go, sign up already!


http://acda.org/index.php?q=summer-choral-composers-forum

Round is a very cool shape, unless you want to be a supermodel

(Bob Chilcott, photo credit: Vicky Alhedeff)




I recently did a three hour clinic with an incredible HS choral ensemble at Jacobs High School in Algonquin IL. They were preparing for some invited performances in San Diego in early April and one of the pieces was my Mashed Potato/Love Poem from the three tune set Play with your Food! (published by Walton). So I was there to work with them not only on their mashed potatoes ("stirred, not whisked") but to give them some feedback on all their other music as well.

Wow, this is a great choir, directer by an amazing young director- Andrew Collins. Andrew has truly inspired these students. When he sent me some of the repertoire they are doing I remarked to myself that this looked like college material. And I really often wish that HS directors would stop overreaching what their students can really handle. But... after hearing them sing a few things I realize that they truly could sing at the college level in every way- impeccable tone, intonation, balance, phrasing, you name it (oh yeah, they also had plenty of very accomplished tenors- rare here in Chicago and most other environs as well).

We worked on a number of things- foremost being my pet project- effectively communicating text and mood to the audience and make a true connection with them. And one of the most amazing things we did was to get in a circle and sing to each other. The tune was one of their easier ones but quite gorgeous and very meaningful- Bob Chilcott's choral arrangement of U2's MLK (about Martin Luther King of course). So we sang it in the circle and since they had it memorized I had them hold hands and make that connection throughout the choir. But the most electric moment was this-- when I had Andrew stand inside the circle-- not to conduct (hey, by now I also had them singing with their eyes closed!) but to feel the energy inside the circle of these souls singing a text with heartfelt meaning. Also, keep in mind, they also had to sing "together", ie. start and finish their phrases without any visual cues from Andrew or each other. So... when they finished, the intensity of emotion in the room was such that it was many seconds before they all had opened their eyes... and many seconds more before anyone finally spoke. And then when the moment had ended, I asked Andrew to tell the choir what it felt like to stand inside the circle. Basically he told them that it made his hair stand on end at times, and that their energy and connectedness was what he had been hoping for all year. They did it! And the best thing about it was that we all connected, all focused, and I really think that more choirs should rehearse in this circle formation as much as possible- it really connects singers to each other in so many positive ways.

Andrew's school presented me with a very rewarding honorarium as I left, but the real reward for me was the honor of working with them for a very intense, but also very fun three hours. Best wishes to them all as they perform in sunny San Diego!