Here is my recap of a very busy
Wednesday at the ACDA 2013 National Conference.
I started out bright and early by
attending the 8 AM middle school reading session organized by my pal
Gretchen Harrison. The room was overflowing by 8:10-
you could feel the energy and excitement of the first full day of a
national conference. I was very pleased by the quality level of all
the music in this session, which did include my unison treble/piano
piece “Waltzing with the Moon” (published by Roger Dean)with texts by Vachel Lindsey. The
audience seemed to like this piece a lot- it has some pretty tasty
harmonies and they liked Lindsey's wry whimsical texts. These are
three short waltzes that link together and here is the poem of the slow
middle movement:
Old Euclid drew a circle
On a sand-beach long ago.
He bounded and enclosed it
With angles thus and so.
His set of solemn greybeards
Nodded and argued much
Of arc and circumference,
Diameter and such.
A silent child stood by them
From morning until noon
Because they drew such charming
Round pictures of the moon.
After that session I attended the Dale Warland session
hosted by Settle-based composer John Muehleisen. Dale lectured
on a wide variety of topics, but his main focus was how he felt
choirs, their director, and their artistic decision-makers
should make choices and clearly decide on artistic
priorities. Dale felt that the most important thing to do
is to develop the identity of a choir (and its conductor)
by clear choices in repertoire over the long haul.
Amidst his own wisdom were also excellent quotes from
New England poet Donald Hall and Steve Jobs.
Dale also gave us his three pillars 1) building the instrument,
ie., meaning the choir and its sound identity,
2) building the repertoire, and 3) building the conductor.
In regard to choosing singers he felt that strong musical
skills could and should often trump someone who simply
has a beautiful voice, and also stressed that we need to
try to create more physical free space around each of our
singers. He also spoke of the need to train
singers to not “sit” on long tones, and make
sure that these tones were sustaining liveliness.
Another area he discussed was the importance
of maintaining choral beauty in very soft as
well as very loud passages.
There was a Q and A session toward the end which
Mr. Muehleisen directed very well and the whole audience
left feeling very energized by Warland's session. I especially
liked that he was so relaxed and sharing in his views; one
never felt as if he was lecturing or scolding people
when he discussed areas where we needed to pay
more attention. By the time this session ended at
11:30 AM I had already had a great day!
In the early afternoon I attended John Rutter conducting
the Faure Requiem and his Mass for Children. The Faure was
lovely and I especially liked that Rutter was in no hurry to
finish phrases, something young conductors
hopefully took note of. This was the strings, four horns,
and harp version which I enjoyed- others didn't like it as
much but I liked the rich prominence
of the horns (and the horn players were excellent).
There were no empty sets for this event, in fact,
ushers had to turn some people away.
At 4:30 I attended the international concert which featured
three invited choirs; the six member group (using handheld
mikes) Rajaton from Finland, The Phillipine Madrigal Singers
and the mens group Camerata Musica Lindburg.
Rajaton was the big hit here; their amazing singing as well
as a delightful stage presence (often highly comedic, as in
singing Fernando by ABBA) was exceptional. One wished they
would keep singing for hours. If you don't know this group,
they are a bit like The Real Group, Swingle Singers, et all-
but I think they actually exceed those groups in skill and
presentation. While the comedic bits were hilarious and
entertaining there was also some really expressive
soul-searching singing, especially by lead soprano Essi Wuorela.
After a quick dinner I was supposed to go to the 8 PM
performance in the Winspear Opera House
but I decided to come in late for that for a very good reason:
starting at 7:45 my friend Sean Vogt was to play a short
program on the world-class pipe organ across the way in
the Meyerson Concert Hall. So I got in early to make sure I
didn't miss any of Sean's program, which was French
music, including a delightful set of variations on an old
Christmas tune.I was able to sit with Stephen Town,
who I know from NCCO and whose new book on
English music I have recently reviewed here.
Sean ended his program with a hymn
tune for the audience members to sing on, and I left
the hall glad that I had attended- I am a big lover of classical
pipe organ and Sean is truly a master. To read more about
the Meyerson instrument go here.
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| Sean Vogt |
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| The Meyerson Fisk Organ- yes, those are 32' pipes! |
I was able to get into the Winspear space in time to hear
a great set by California State Fullerton
University Singers led by Robt Istad.
Their singing was wonderful and their
program was very creative- with a very skilled and gutsy
string section they presented three movements of
Part's Berliner Messe and jumped in attaca(!) into a
chorus of Bach's from Christ Lag in Todebanden.
The juxtaposition of Part to this
Bach was shocking and amazingly effective- bravo for
making a daring choice and not playing it
conservatively in the realm of a national conference.
The set ended with a composer underrepresented
on concert programs around the US-
Tarik O'Regan and excerpts from his
Triptych for SATB and strings.
The choir and strings tackled this work with energy
and great skill- they received a well-deserved
standing ovation. Congrats to Istad and his choir-
I hope to hear more performances
by this group in the near future.
This concert ended close to 10 PM, but there was still
more to do- this was the evening called Media Noche de Loca
(Midnight Madness) where ACDA exhibitors get their most
attention. There was food and drinks and a great strolling
mariachi band. I met old friends, made new ones,and like
everyone, finally met a few people who until Dallas
were only e-mail or FaceBook
colleagues. After Midnight Madness it was time for a bit
more socializing in the pub and then bedtime for anyone
who might want to get up in a few hours and do
it all over again!
COMING UP: Thursday ACDA, including the interest
session I presented and a monumental performance of the
Britten War Requiem
APOLOGY: My computer has been buggy and I
apologize for the odd sentence and paragraph
spacing/formatting you see here today!
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