2012 North Central ACDA Conference Highlights

A hugely successful 2012 North Central ACDA Conference just finished up in Madison, Wisconsin. We got lucky with the weather- Thursday was fine, Friday got really cold and super windy with a touch of snow, and Saturday was a bit warmer. We were certainly blessed by the fact that there wasn't a major blizzard, which meant that every choir was able to arrive, sing, and depart without being assailed by dangerous winter weather. And, by the way, all the conference venues were within about two blocks of each other- wow!

The conference revolved around the theme “Beyond the Notes” as devised by NC ACDA president Aimee Beckman-Collier and her able division co-workers. According to Aimee the conference would “center on ways to engage singers' imaginations; to develop artistry by connecting mind, body, and spirit...[one would not only] hear exhilarating performances-- but also learn from inspiring master clinicians...assisting members to lead their singers to heightened independence, artistry, and a broader contextual understanding of their music.” The conference delivered on all of this--bravo, Aimee and NC ACDA.

Thursday started off with a number of fine performances, included Karen Bruno leading the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir in a drop-dead gorgeous Casals' “Nigra Sum” and other selections. Another highlight was a splendid Madison, WI community chorus, “Isthmus”, led by Scott MacPherson. In addition to selections by Gibbons and Bach, they sang Rudolf Mauersberger's “Wie legt die Stadt so wüsst”, which mourned the firebombing of the civilian inhabitants of Dresden, Germany in the later stages of WWII, an historical event I know well, as it is partly the subject of my own extended work for choir and string orchestra “1944” with text by Hilda Doolittle. The performance of this piece was truly powerful and the score should be studied by more directors (it's published by Verlag Merseburger). This was the first of two amazingly artistic performances by community choirs from NC ACDA. I was certainly highly impressed because our community choirs in Illinois are, sadly, nowhere close to this level of musicianship.

Also part of the morning session was a TOM Talk (Talks On Music- modeled after the TED talks) by ACDA executive director Tim Sharp which was highly entertaining. Tim talked about all the new variety of choirs out there- lawyers' choirs, military wives' choirs, “complaint” choirs, and even cannibal choirs (pass me that Memphis BBQ sauce please, Tim). Along with delivering this with his own special brand of droll delivery (and his newly acquired Elvis blazer) Tim also made sure to mention more socially dedicated choirs such as hospice choirs and prison choirs. Tim always has something new and unique for us to ponder. The TOM Talks, sprinkled throughout the three day conference, were quite exceptional. Veteran classroom music teacher Patricia Trump's talk on Friday was both rambunctiously humorous AND deep- she received a standing ovation for sharing her ideas with us.

I finished up my morning by attending a great interest session by Millikin University's Brad Holmes- his session was about ways to unleash greater potential in the choir. Brad spoke on a highly personal level about many things and had some great examples of how not overlooking a composer's intentions can really make great things happen. One of the best scores he showed us was a piece where the discovery of syncopations related to text underlay might be overlooked if you weren't paying close attention. As we sang this passage with Brad's insight totally changing the musical effect, the whole room had an a-ha moment. Brad was truly inspiring.

In the afternoon, The St John's Boys' Choir from Collegeville, MN led by Andre-Louis Heywood took the stage. This was a group I had no knowledge of previously since I am not in NC ACDA (I was a guest as I was presenting an interest session on Saturday). This group was great- though perhaps biting off something quite difficult in Mark Sirett's “Song of the Angels”- a lengthy a cappella piece whose tonal centers shifted often and in ways that were unexpected. I applaud them for tackling a challenging piece for a group this young. They went on to totally nail Stephen Hatfield's “Tjak!” which is a wild monkey chant. The boys were brilliant and so energetic on this piece-- the audience loved it so much! They then finished with another Hatfield wild and crazy piece, his “Überlebensgross”.

Following this performance was Joshua Bronfman's Concert Choir from the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks. Josh programmed a beautiful set which included Gjello's “The Spheres”, with the opening overlapping chords tuned impeccably. There was also an overwhelmingly visceral piece called “War Song” by Japanese composer Ichiro Ikebe, based on sounds from war chants of the Cook Islands. This piece required great energy and concentration from the singers-- there were periods where non-pitched chanting and even shouting had to jump back into pitched sections- the choir's ability to return accurately to pitched sections was truly impressive. This quite varied program was sung in a highly artistic manner, utilizing a number of very appropriate tone shadings (quite interesting since a much more well known university choir had, earlier in the day, sung their whole program in a one-size-fits-all tone color). Josh, who earned his DMA under Andre Thomas at FSU, is a young conductor we'll be keeping our eyes on. He was also a great panel discussion member at the November NCCO conference I attended in Ft Collins, CO.

The evening concert was shared by two groups, the Czech Boys Choir, led by Jakub Martinec, and the Kansas City Chorale.

The Czech Boys' Choir is an SATB group of boys/men from ages 10 to 22. Their sound was fresh, free, boisterous at times, and wholly a species unto itself. They breezed through standard Czech choral pieces by the major composers such as Smetana, Janacek, Martinu, and Dvorak. They then trotted around the globe singing folk songs from many countries with a youthful energy which delighted the audience. About every 2-3 songs throughout the evening, two singers would step to the mike and introduce the next few selections. One boy was about fifteen and the other about ten. The younger one was a natural comedian- he had the entire audience in stitches with his deadpan delivery of some very droll comic patter about the music. This kid could do comedy club standup right now, he was so funny! They finished their evening with America the Beautiful and the house went up for grabs. This was a spectacular performance- everyone was so glad we got a chance to hear this amazing choir. Their pianist, Martin Fišl, has serious chops- he sounded like Franz Liszt on some of the wild, fistful of notes piano parts some of the arrangements had-- yet he never overshadowed the boys.

(The Czech Boys' Choir having fun in the USA)

With this stellar performance, as well as the St. Johns Boy Choir performance earlier in the day, one of the themes which evolved throughout the day was that boys and young men cannot just sing, but that they can sing up a storm of major proportions - and it's time we all kept remembering to pitch in and keep working toward the boys/men singing renaissance that is starting to turn the tide in this country, which has been in danger of completely losing mens' interest in singing or any other arts activity permanently in favor of sports, beer, and more sports and more beer. Let's all realize that there may be really nothing MORE manly than a man singing out his heart and soul. It's far more pure, strong, and brave (and yet a bit personally vulnerable, which actually requires inner strength) than putting on a jockstrap, helmet, and pads and bashing other people around, or drinking beer after beer on the couch. Agreed??

The Kansas City Chorale was the second major headliner for the evening. While the programming, "Chant and Beyond", seemed to have potential, the interpretation was uninspired, or more accurately, missing in action, and the singing never soared. No program notes or translations of texts were supplied, so some of these Latin texts might have been difficult to connect for some of the audience. This, to my knowledge, is not repertoire that Charles Bruffy does often, and it showed. On piece after piece, contrapuntal voices were treated as constantly gray equals, meaning that no line ever came alive or truly engaged other lines in dialogue. It was as if all color, dimension, and life had been stripped from the counterpoint of great works by Dufay, Tallis, Morales, and others. There was no effort to tailor the sound to any composer's world- shouldn't the Spaniard Morales sound at least a bit different than Tallis? Music such as this comes alive in the hands of Harry Cristophers' "The Sixteen" and other groups (for the most part European groups), while here all we had to listen to was professional singers do what they do- which was read notes off the page. There was no real direction or artistic interpretation from Bruffy, whose gestures seemed listless. One could even venture that the singers without Bruffy would have actually done more with this music, as they would have perhaps freely started to allow their lines to interact and engage in real dialogue. But then again, at times it felt as if the singers, most of the evening with scores in hand, very little memorized, did not know some of the pieces well enough to be singing them to this caliber of audience.

Pieces were linked by a rather annoying new-agey chime tone piped in through speakers and the singers occasionally moved about the stage in a very pale imitation of Anuna. The stage movement seemed stillborn- it was used for awhile, then abandoned, then picked back up-- as if a project or vision for this program had been started but never really finished and brought to fruition. Thus in many senses this program, both musically and in its presentation values, seemed like it needed another six months of rehearsal and development to really work.

Many selections suffered from lack of rhythmic integrity--for instance, the Durufle Quatre Motets, a bit of a cliche to sing in front of this audience, were very sloppy and were only saved a bit by the women in the Tota Pulchra es. Sorry to say, but the only piece on the program which seemed unified in approach and where the singing came to life was the final number, Jackson Berkey's "Ascendit Deus".

The opinions expressed here in this blog were also voiced by many others I talked to later that night and the next day. We were very disappointed by KC Chorale's performance. I hope that they will consider further development of this program and also keep singing the music which shows off Charles' musical strengths and that they know the best- 2oth and 21st century American scores.

But all said and done, the day was spectacular.

NEXT POST: FRIDAY AT THE CONFERENCE

Day One Concert Review: 2011 ACDA National Conference

Sorry for the delay in getting some new blog material up as I was in Hong Kong for a full week teaching and conducting a festival (yes, it went very well) and then straight back to Chicago for the ACDA conference. This was two weeks of little sleep, but it was well worth such a minor deprivation. I will blog about the Hong Kong experience later and now try to get at least a little about the ACDA conference posted for those of you who could not attend.

The opening concert included performances by Illinois choirs whose directors I know and admire– Anima, Young Singers of Greater Chicagoland (formerly the Glen Ellyn Children's Choir) led by Emily Ellsworth and the Millikin University Choir, directed by Brad Holmes.



Anima led the concert off, and they were in fine form. The group performs in outfits with delightfully lively colors and moves through various highly effective stage formations and movement during many of their pieces. Emily conducted from memory, thereby freeing herself from being being anchored to a podium/music stand - she even moved about the stage herself to some extent, a freeing you rarely see of conductor from being a static, deadening stage element. When I have felt like doing this lately I keep thinking it breaks too many so-called rules about what conductors should do or not do, yet I saw Emily making this subtle conductor freedom of movement really work.

Truly Anima is all about freedom of expression-- free singing, movement, joy, and a great celebration of singing. And, hello, they actually breathe (something many choirs later in the week weren't really doing)! In addition to older scores by Mendelssohn and Handel sung with great finesse, a major highlight was Rautavaara's “Suite de Lorca”, movements 1 and 2 (published by Walton). In Rautavarra's usual very personal style, the music and text are merged in a highly complementary and darkly expressive manner. This is music which advanced children's treble choirs on through more mature women's ensembles should know better, and Anima's dramatic performance proved that young choirs are quite quite capable of singing texts which are not all just sweetness and light. A great leader and mentor to many for years, bravo to Emily Ellsworth and her choir Anima, Also a round of applause for pianist William Buhr, whose playing, to me, has never sounded better than it did at this performance.

Millikin University Choir director Brad Holmes has developed a reputation for presenting ACDA performances showcasing highly artistic, unusual a cappella repertoire, dramatic stage movement and brilliant singing. Millikin's concert at ACDA 2007 Miami is still remembered for its brilliance, especially in the staging elements. The concert the Millikin choir presented this year was not so much about staging this time -instead Brad's programming expertise and his way of combining various pieces in novel ways was front and center.



The concert began with what Brad called “An Eclectic Singet dem Herrn” which presented, in seamless manner, the Distler “Singet dem Herrn”, which flowed directly into the Mendelssohn “Der Herr lässt sein Heil” (a further Psalm 98 text), which further flowed into the Bach final Singet fugue. This was all sung so beautifully with vocal substance AND bounce, not one without the other. I especially loved hearing someone present Distler at an ACDA conference since he is such a great composer and really underperformed.

Continuing the theme of creatively pairing or connecting music, the choir then sang Tallis' “Te lucis ante terminum” (“before the close of day”) and the same text as set in a lovely harmonic idiom by thirty-five year old Hungarian composer Gyöngyösi Levente. Subtle harmonic hints of Bartok, or even more accurately, the mature Kodaly (melodic cells of major floating at times over minor chords) made Levente's heritage apparent.

The next piece was Eriks Esenvalds “A Drop in the Ocean” (published by Musica Baltica) which I heard sung beautifully last year at ACDA Tucson by the University of Utah, directed at that time by Brady Allred. This is a wonderful piece to Mother Teresa texts which we would hear sung again the next night by the international choir “Kamer”. As Millikin concluded this piece you couldn't help but be amazed at the maturity of interpretation which comes from Brad's leadership and deep understanding of music. Millikin's performances are profound and it is always apparent that every member of the choir is “all in”. The tone is always gorgeous, never forced, the choir is always aware of the overall arc and shape of a phrase, a section or an entire piece, or even for that matter, the arc of their entire program. This is music making of the highest order, and the Millikin Choir continues to set the standard at virtually every ACDA event at which they perform. Even days later and after many concerts, interest sessions, receptions and so on which can really tire you and cause the memory to become momentarily foggy, people were still coming back to the topic of the brilliance of the Millikin choir.

To finish up the program Brad went off in a new direction, into the land of folk music in the form of a lively Shaker Dance he has arranged and J. David Moore's “Seinn O”. The staging of the Shaker Dance was hilarious, and even included moments when the choir seemed to have formed battle lines over the story, and even toward the end very pointedly took on Brad as musical adversary. This was all played up to great comedic effect. “Seinn O” was all drama and drive, mouthmusic drums and pipes, as a Scots lad dancingly defies anyone else who might want a piece of him. As they finished this piece, the audience roared with applause.

I talked to Brad a day or two afterward and he intimated that he was worried that the eclectic Singet dem Herrn would perhaps not work for the purists in the audience. I assured him that it was brilliantly conceived and presented and that, I think, virtually all of us truly appreciated his mixing and matching of music in these very creative ways. And really, when you think of it, why shouldn't a director let it all hang out and do innovative things- is there any true reward for just playing it safe?!

P.S. For any young people looking for a great university choral experience within an outstanding liberal arts environment,you should be looking at Millikin. You should also know that Brad's colleagues, Guy Forbes, Ted Hesse, Beth Holmes and Michael Engelhardt are also brilliant musicians and mentors.

2009 ACDA performance- Lawrence University Concert Choir

(Rick Bjella)





Saturday at ACDA's 2009 national convention was already amazing- performances to die for from the Incheon City Chorale from Korea and the Cantoria Alberto Grau. These two international choirs used so many elements to deliver their musical messages- including staging, lighting, costumes, etc. The only American choir to come close to the approach of these amazing performances was also on Saturday- Rick Bjella's choir from Lawrence Conservatory.

Their program began with an extremely haunting score (by Aussy composer Steven Leek) called Knowee, the Aboriginal name for the sun. In the folk tale, Knowee was once a woman who lived in a time of darkness. One day she left her cave with her bark torch in search of food for her young sun but became lost, and eventually fell off the side of the earth, at which point she and her torch became the sun, traversing the skies in constant desperate search for her way back to the son she left behind in the cave. In the staging of the piece, a few female singers with lanterns roamed the totally darkened concert hall issuing piercing laments and calls; the choir joins in eventually as the piece progresses. This piece was eery, heartbreaking and magical. The rest of the program also included some great off the beaten track pieces from Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, etc. Tying the program together was the element of folk percussion, played brilliantly by Lawrence percussion professor Dane Richeson. Their final piece was a Venezuelan folk tune with some very fun choralography by Yvonne Farrow.

I have known Rick Bjella for awhile now; he has conducted my music yet I haven't been able to attend those concerts. So this, oddly enough, was my first chance to see him conduct. He's all there in the moment with his choir- nothing left for reserve and no prisoners taken. I'm sure he and the choir were exhausted (in a good way) physically and emotionally from all the preparation this program demanded.

Rick' s programming for this concert reminded me of some of the very creative themed programming and staging that Brad Homes has done with his Milliken University Choir- notably at the ACDA convention in Miami in 2007, but elsewhere as well. Here are two minds who think alike in their desire to create sophisticated programming themes, interesting stage presentation, and unusual music that challenges themselves, their own singers, and the entire audience.

(Note: Rick Bjella will lead the conductor's choir at the Illinois ACDA Summer Retreat this July, hosted by Illinois State University)