Choral Interview number three- Dr. Caroline Carson

Dr. Caroline Carson is Director of Choral Activities at The University of New Orleans, Director of Music at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and is Louisiana ACDA R & S Chair for Ethnic/Multicultural choirs. She has worked with the New Orleans Civic Symphony and members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Caroline sings professionally with the NOVA Chorale, Jefferson Chorale, and Inconspicuous 8. A motivating clinician, she is considered a “mover and shaker” in New Orleans, connecting and informing the choral community as well as creating New Orleans’ first Brazilian music festival. She has traveled to Bulgaria seven times, participating in conducting workshops, teaching, observing in the schools and interviewing conductors. Caroline has a 14-year old kitty named Sasha and is considered a pun queen in at least three states.

PC: Can you tell us about each of these very interesting music jobs you hold? And please tell us what makes each one fun and/or challenging.


CC: My full time position is the Director of Choral Activities at The University of New Orleans (UNO). I love this job because I am the choral expert on board, I get to challenge myself and my students with regard to programming, I love teaching at all levels, and I respect my colleagues and the support they show all of our music students. UNO, as many universities, is troubled by budget cuts and politics. I’m often frustrated by the lack of choral awareness by faculty outside of music and the amount of commitment in general from the state and the university with regards to all of the arts. I am more frustrated that I have seen little civic and media support for the university and I feel that locals often truly do not grasp the importance of having us in their midst. Nonetheless, I am encouraged that I have been able to bring back the select ensemble and have full choirs since I have been on board and that the department as a whole is above pre-Katrina numbers of music majors! The students are definitely hard-working and come from all walks of life. There are very few attitudes of entitlement at UNO. Students often have two jobs, family, and pay their own tuition. I have been able to give them many different experiences as well as strengthen my own abilities. I have also been able to work with the New Orleans Civic Symphony which rehearses at UNO. This is a lot of fun!

My next job is as Director of Music Ministry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in the Lakeview area of New Orleans. I love every moment of this job and I love the mysticism and freedom within traditional structure of the Episcopal Church. I am not an organist so I feel extremely lucky to be here. When the position was split into two people, I immediately applied. When I bought my Choirmaster cassock and cotta, I cried when they came in. It was truly a dream to work within this denomination. I feel have been able to maintain a good choral program from my predecessor and I am taking my choir on an 8-day residency in England next July! I feel this is a noble job and I relish interacting with my Episcopal music colleagues locally and across the country. I personally feel and say that I am “Cathedral-trained” and my voice is capable of sounding clear and almost like a boy chorister. I have sung in residence myself at several major cathedrals and had life-changing experiences. There is nothing quite like lining up for Evensong in Salisbury Cathedral, with the afternoon sun allowing long shadows through the towering glory of Medieval stained glass, knowing that you are part of a long-standing tradition of excellent music and the whole communion of saints.

Two years ago, I worked at the Baptist Theological Seminary and had several conducting students. That year was extremely hard with all the extra work, but I am still being rewarded by those connections and students.

Like most choral directors, I adjudicate and occasionally work with groups. It’s outside both jobs and keeps me busy, but I love it. I work hard so I also play hard.

PC: Who has been the most influential teacher in your career?

CC: Hmm…,that’s a good one! There have been several people. First, Dr. Larry Wyatt at the University of South Carolina is my mentor and friend. He’s like a father to me and we’ve known each other for 22 years. I feel as if he saved my life when I was going through extreme depression as an undergraduate – simply by taking an interest in me and what I was about, caring about my welfare, and sharing my sense of humor. Ms. Emily Remington, retired director of the Charleston Symphony Singers Guild is another great role model. She is FULL of spirit and spunk and when on my 18th birthday, I received an acceptance letter to her Singers Guild, my life changed for the better. She showed me that women can be conductors and that it is actually ok to be a little crazy : )

Next, I’d say Robert Shaw was a strong influence. Singing for him was like another graduate degree. I learned more about the depth of music from him. My favorite quote is attributed to him and is part of my philosophy: Regarding choral singing ... "I believe that joy should sound like joy and pain should sound like pain. I don't want to hear voices -- I want to hear souls!". Lastly, I am going to be vain and count myself. The amount of self-teaching I have done is significant, as is overcoming debilitating performance anxiety (which I work on almost daily). I also consider myself a survivor for other reasons, but mainly….I continue to teach myself new things and truly view life as a hopeful journey.

PC: Were there any a-ha moments for you in regard to a teacher you studied under?

CC: Yes! I remember when I learned that conducting didn’t always have to be in a pattern….that one could be “out of the box”. It is rather humorous now, but I still remember Larry Wyatt laughing at my face when I realized it. I will never forget when the ASOC (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus) was performing Brahms’ Nanie after Mr. Shaw’s wife had died and he became so moved that he slowed down and lowered his baton and put it down and just let the sound wash over him. I learned that even when we are in control….we aren’t and that sometimes, you must listen to your soul speak without ability for words.

In Bulgaria, conducting in a workshop with Maestro Marin Chonev and Larry Wyatt, I was berated for being facially expressionless and I discovered that without darkening my eyebrows, people could not see them and that I was really being expressive. I think it was more of an “a-ha” moment for the orchestra.

PC: What has been the most amazing musical experience in your life, either as a singer or director?

CC: Wow, there are so many, it’s hard to choose. Being in a frozen cathedral in Poland with the Emory choir singing and seeing people weeping and kneeling on the stone floor. Being in Padua at Saint Anthony’s basilica and finding myself in a pilgrimage line to touch his tomb when a Spanish choir began to sing. When they went from unison into polyphony, I think the heavens literally opened. Hiking in Italy and coming across a castle monument with a 7-second echo in a 3-story rotunda and seeing no one else around, chanting the Divinum mysterium and being in polyphony with myself! Being onstage with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, directed by the late maestro David Stahl, and singing the “et lux” portion of the opening mvt of Verdi’s Requiem.

PC: What three pieces have you still not conducted that you look forward to doing someday (and elaborate a bit please)?

CC: I would love to perform Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem or Verdi’s Messe di Requiem at some point. Verdi’s Requiem is so dramatic and I find this attractive. Brahms’ work is both healing and rewarding. I feel I know them so well that I could “be” the music while working with it. That is appealing in itself. I would very much like to do a Bach passion. I feel that everyone should be touched by these works and the life of Bach.

PC: What are your three most favorite choral pieces, either a cappella or with orchestra?

CC: THREE?! Verdi Requiem, Bogoroditse Devo from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, and Beati quorum via by Charles Stanford......and there are way more than three favs!

PC: I know you do some in depth research into Bulgarian folk music and church music. Could you tell us more about that, including your travels to do research onsite?
What future research do you hope to do in this area and what attracts you to it?

CC: I truly love Bulgarian folk music and other “world musics”. Bulgarian folk choral tone is strikingly different than bel canto singing. Sometimes criticized for being flat and harsh, Bulgarian music is full of vitality and vibrancy. It is significant in that it is one of the voices of peoples long-silenced, as is the music of places such as Estonia. I am amazed at how old Bulgaria is and how ancient civilizations there had one of the first agricultural societies as well as the world’s oldest gold, found in the Varna necropolis. I first paid attention to Bulgaria when my mentor Larry Wyatt went to lead a workshop and then returned with a business card to give to me. He came running up “I found you a husband….I found you a husband!” and gave me a card for “The Bulgarian ELVIS”….sigh. I then laughingly listened to the grads who had taken the workshop and decided that in spite of the fact that I wasn’t an Elvis superfan, but that I should see this country. I went and was immediately entranced by the people unique folk music styles and this huge body of unknown choral music written in a more “Western” style. I created a proposal to return the following year and teach a week after the conducting workshop which I took as a student. It was accepted and so I went back another two years to teach smaller classes / workshops after I took my own workshop. One year, I just went to visit and another year, I brought my UNO students to participate in a workshop on the Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem. I have not been back in a few years, but I hope to go again in the next few. I hope to put out a choral study related to my dissertation and also a photography book and a cookbook now that I have learned the ins and outs of self-publishing books.

PC: Your website is so filled with great choral and musical resources- I think everyone should know about it. And of course there are fun and funky things there as well. How does your website reflect your personality?
Visit: http://choralnut.com/

CC: You are so nice to have visited my website and to say that – thank you! : ) I feel like the website reflects me - in that I have many interests and try to have something for everyone. I’m a little bit crazy so my site is too. I am fascinated by unique things. I felt that there was not anywhere out there that collected info on Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Gullah so I’ve tried to collect info and resources. Being from Charleston, SC and now New Orleans, LA, you hear more about those subjects than the average person. I’ve updated it from last year to have separate pages on different subjects – including a lot of info on overtone singing. It’s meant to be a resource site and my students use it for quick links to the local music scene. The site is both personal and professional and that’s the way I am too. I’m not afraid to be myself anymore.

PC: You live in New Orleans, can you tell us how living there influences your life? Could you give us some tips on what a first time should do in New Orleans over, say, a three days visit? And, if you choose, talk about the recovery of New Orleans from Katrina

CC: I LOVE living here! I moved here the year after Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was broken - in many ways and I also felt broken. I felt like I could make a difference somehow with academic rebuilding and I was ready for a change from land-locked central Georgia (though I loved it there too). Living here, I’m quite sure my cholesterol has gone up from all the fabulous foods. I have a lot of friends and I am slightly less self-conscious than I have been (this could be age though). Occasionally, I am frustrated with the laid back nature of so many things here, but it has its charms too. I am once again able to sing in ensembles under different directors as well as direct them. To be a good leader, one must be able to follow.
Jazz is an obvious influence here and is all around you. I didn’t really listen to jazz much until I moved here, but I do love it and have been very lucky to make several friends in “the scene.” I regularly attend jazz performances….just not as much as choral concerts. I live on the border of the French Quarter so it’s great walking and close to several venues. Unfortunately, the wonderful choral, symphonic, and opera opportunities aren’t highlighted by local media very much. I have heard people say time and again “This isn’t a choral town”, but I go back and forth about that.

The city has made remarkable strides back to its former self (before Katrina) in the past five years. When I first came, many people were still in immediate shock. There was something missing in their eyes. Now, people have gotten over it to a certain extent, and certainly with the Superbowl win last year, it felt like a city that was connected and hopeful. There are still problems: people living in gutted houses, delayed road home funds, insurance battles - different from one house to the one next door, road signs missing, HORRIFIC road conditions, oil spill damages (and troubles for the next 200 years environmentally) and a host of other issues. The population is still well under what it was formerly. Nevertheless, it is a fabulous place to live and with tremendous opportunity for anyone considering moving here. The city is similar to Charleston, SC in many ways. I feel as if I have come home.
I think visitors on a three day visit should NOT come in August. If you’ve never been here, you might consider having beignets & café au lait at the Café du Monde in the French Quarter, eating a muffaletta (if you like them and I don’t), and bumming around the Quarter. Go and see “Beyond All Boundaries” at the National WWI museum – it’s VERY well done. Go to City Park and enjoy the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Botanical Gardens. Take in an evening of fine jazz at Snug Harbor jazz bistro, go to Mulate’s for Cajun dancing or Kerry’s Irish pub for some folk music. If you’re here over a weekend, you may catch the symphony or opera and you’ll of course want to come by St. Paul’s to meet me!

PC: What advice would you give undergrads who have really been bitten by the choral music conducting bug- what things do you really wish they will keep in mind and make sure to develop?

CC: I hope they will keep in mind that the desires to conduct and make music must be present and not simply the desire of glory from a conducting career. Learn to play the piano. Let go and love what you do…don’t become bogged down in beats – conduct the MUSIC! Be effective, not wordy. You are often faced with a job that won’t give you the experience you desire. YOU must get out and make your own experiences: get that church job, create that ensemble, go and sing for someone else after you graduate, take a workshop in the summer, read books.

PC: Thanks, Caroline!

Choral Interviews- pt. 2 with Tim Sharp

Tim Sharp (BM, MCM, DMA) is Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the national professional association for choral conductors, educators,scholars, students, and choral music industry representatives in the United States. He represents choral activity in the United States to the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM).

PC: You travel the world these days guest conducting and also connecting with choral organizations all over the globe- how would you describe the status of the global choral music field today and what changes globally do you foresee in the next ten years or so?

TS: It is very encouraging to witness the amount of participation that is taking place around the world in choral music making. And, I include the United States in that observation. In the most recent cultural survey from the National Endowment for the Arts, choral participation is at a higher level in the United States than it was five years ago. I think it is “up” in many other ways—in travel, in excitement, in the “cool” factor, in media attention, and in quality of composition and performance. In terms of status, I think we are seeing a renaissance in choral composition, and we are seeing composers treating the choir as an idiom of expression that is uniquely “choral.” The choir is considered a serious instrument, and I hear that both in composition and performance worldwide.I think people will hear that in a dramatic way at our upcoming National Conference. I also see the choral organization as a new social entity, as we witness choirs forming around ideas such as hospice choirs, complaint choirs, prison choirs, bicycle choirs, flash choirs, along with our more conventional titles.

PC: Along the same lines, what impact do you foresee from the increased activities in the US by Interkultur and the World Choir Games being held in Cincinnati in 2012?

TS: I see this activity as a continuation of our priority of becoming a more international and world choral participant. ACDA is a founding member of the International Federation for Choral Music, and we remain very active in this world choral organization. Bringing the World Choir Games to Cincinnati is further evidence of our desire to expand our boundaries and understanding. It is such a thrill for me to see an American city embrace choral music in the same way many cities embrace sporting events as a civic focus. To have 400 choirs from around the world converge on an American city for performance and cultural exchange is truly history in the making, and ACDA is proud to be a part of this partnership.

PC: How do the big movers and shakers in the European and Asian choral world view our US choirs, choral sound, and teaching methods? Are there areas where they just perhaps don't even get what we are up to?

TS: When it comes to choral performance, I believe we speak something of a universal language with our colleagues in other countries. However, when it comes to choral pedagogy and choral music education, there are vast differences. The history of the growth of professional training in [American] choral pedagogy and conducting tracks right alongside the growth and development of the American Choral Directors Association. This is one of the reasons that so many of our colleagues in other countries come to our onferences and enroll in our colleges and universities—they want to learn from our work in the area of choral music education and conducting pedagogy.

This year, there are over twenty countries that will be represented in participant registration for our National Conference. We often praise the sight reading skills of individual singers in other countries, but other countries will single out the progressive work we do in the United States in the area of gestural conducting and rehearsal pedagogy.

Another interesting difference is in the base of operation for many of our choirs in the United States. The largest membership category for ACDA is in the area of directors connected to an educational institution. However, in many other countries, community choirs greatly outnumber choirs based in academies.

PC: I believe ACDA membership is on the rise, and I have heard that the upcoming national conference in Chicago has already had a large number of people registered to attend --  what is ACDA's current model for membership growth? Also, is there a plan for bringing in more young teachers as members and perhaps expanding the number of (university) student chapters?

TS: Our largest area of growth in ACDA is at the level of student membership and young professionals. Our student membership base was 150 larger than this time last year, and due to the good work of our various state chapters, student membership is on the increase. This is good news for the future of choral music making, and certainly it is good news for ACDA. We have incentive programs in place for the creation of new student chapters, and for states to recruit first-time student members of ACDA. These programs have been embraced enthusiastically by many of our state chapters, and we see the results in our expanded student membership base. Our strategy is to grow our base from young professionals entering the field, and to grow our student membership base for future teachers, conductors, and leaders.

After a few years of flat growth across the association (new members replacing members that had dropped off the membership rolls, but the number remaining the same), in January of this year, ACDA’s membership has returned to the level it enjoyed in mid-2000. It was during that period that ACDA had moved into its new headquarters in Oklahoma City, and a time when our National Conference had expanded significantly to a multi-track event. And while the Great Recession starting in 2008 was sobering for all of us, we are now seeing the positive results of our renewed since of mission and purpose, along with stimulus work to bring new professionals, students, and others we are mentoring into their professional organization.

PC: As a composer myself, I applaud your obvious interest in our living choral composers. How do you foresee ACDA initiating more interaction with composers in the near future? And how do you see ACDA and ACDA interest session organizers adapting to the rise of "self-publishing" composers, which may be something the traditional publishers and retailers may not be that interested in exploring?

TS: ACDA has taken some recent steps to move more aggressively into living out one of our primary purposes as stated in our Bylaws and Constitution, which is to “Foster and encourage choral composition of superior quality.” This past summer we co-sponsored the LeHigh Composer’s Symposium, led by Steven Sametz and Chen Yi, and I was encouraged and inspired by the robust participation in that incredible event. I have an ongoing conversation with some of our Brock composers, including Steven, on this topic, and I am hoping to make the activity that is already taking place with our commissioning initiative much more visible and available to choral composers as well as those interested in their compositions. I also want to be more aggressive in seeing works that ACDA has commissioned, receive additional and ongoing performances. All of these efforts will benefit by making the activity more visible, and searchable, within our organization and its various programs, conferences, and other activities.

Regarding the rise of “self-publishing”, the many performance activities of ACDA are the natural place for composers to have their compositions considered and performed. How a work is discovered and distributed has never been a parameter for ACDA performance consideration. The only issue for ACDA is the quality of a composition, and both the universal availability, and the accessibility, of the work to the broad base of our membership.

PC: You and I talked in Tucson last spring about Joan Szymko's highly successful Brock commission piece All Works of Love (which, by the way, I programmed immediately for my summer program at North Carolina Governor's School). Can you share your thoughts on why Joan's piece was so successful, and also how you perceive the Brock commission and what attitude tweaks would you like to make to it in regard to the goals of ACDA, the chosen composer, and director members of ACDA? What measure of general accessibility do you think the Brock commission piece should have?  Do you hope that most of the Brock commissions will enter into the general repertoire of our choirs around the country?

TS: This is a conversation I hope will have a broader base of participation as ACDA thinks about strategic planning. I feel that our activity in the commissioning of new choral works is one of the best-kept secrets of ACDA. Each year, ACDA, through our various member directors, as well as State, Division, and National activities, commission many new choral works. Over the history of ACDA, this number is easily in the hundreds of commissioned choral works. To date, however, no one has cataloged and tracked all of the commissions that have the words “Commissioned by ACDA” written at the top of the score. For many reasons, we need to identify and track this catalog.

I view our activity of fostering and promoting new music in terms of helping emerging composers. And, “emergence” takes place at different levels. At the student level, we have a Brock Student Composition award, and we see student composers entering this first level of emergence. Then there are composers that are receiving some publishing success, and finding their way on to programs, regionally and then nationally. And finally, there are composers that are clearly setting the pace and emerging as our laureate and established composers. I believe we are recognizing this level composer with our Brock Commission. I don’t think we would approach a composer of this stature unless we thought this composer’s work would have a good chance of entering into the significant canon of choral works available. I think you have identified Joan Szymko’s Brock Commission work correctly with this characterization of quality and accessibility.

PC: Describe your work with the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus as their artistic and musical director, and what kind of growth do you hope for with that group?

TS: I was very fortunate to be presented with the opportunity at the end of my first year in Oklahoma to conduct this very fine ensemble within proximity of OK City. I began conducting in Tulsa in the fall of 2009. So, each week, at the end of my workday on Monday, I drive to Tulsa for my weekly evening rehearsal with the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, and due to the fact that they have an excellent and well-defined Board of Directors, my work is truly one of conducting and artistic direction for the organization. I have been able to grow the ensemble to their ideal size of 100 singers, performing four concerts in our season, usually with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. In addition to growing the ensemble and expanding the repertoire, I have been able to connect the organization to other arts organizations such as the Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Children’s Chorus, and Tulsa Boy Singers, in collaborative performances such as our recent Carmina Burana and RVW’s Hodie.

We are also working with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra on an upcoming “Side by Side” concert featuring our two organizations along with some of the best high school singers and instrumentalists performing alongside us. Next year will be an “all Bach” year for us, as we perform three cantatas (BWV 79, 80, 140), the motet Singet dem Herrn (BWV 225), Magnificat, and Mass in B Minor.

PC: And now for a few less serious questions:

What major work have you not yet conducted that you are just itching to do?

TS: I would like to conduct Gerald Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality, as well as John Adams’ Harmonium. These have been on my “bucket list” for a while now, but so far, the occasion, forces, or time has not been right for these unique works.

PC: Any guilty musical pleasures you care to admit to?

TS: I enjoy playing the banjo and have been working on a “‘High’ Lonesome” mass for years, which I will finally see through to completion this spring. My desire was to create a musical service incorporating some of the folk hymns from the Southern Harmony and Sacred Harp tradition, with true bluegrass styling. My intent is to create something I am able to play myself, along with bluegrass ensemble, with any choir interested in programming the work.

PC: What young composers have you got your eye on?

TS: I have most recently worked with Albany, NY, composer Evan Mack. I was honored to be able to conduct the premiere of his recent choral work Of Fire and Form, at the Clay Center for the Arts in Charleston, WV. I was very impressed with Evan’s writing, and the WV Collegiate Honor Choir did a very fine job performing the premiere. In addition, Evan’s opera Angel of the Amazon in workshop stage at the Manhattan School of Music, and his ballet Pinocchio will be performed by the West Virginia Ballet in March.

PC: And also what young conductors have you also got your eye on?

TS: I would love to single out a few conductors, but rather than naming-names, I will mention how important the conducting masterclass experiences are that are being offered by ACDA’s various Student and Youth Activities leaders and our College and University leaders at the state, division and national level. I have had the opportunity to be a part of some of these events, most recently at Michigan’s State ACDA Conference, and the Southern Division ACDA Conference. Also, at ACDA’s “One Song” event last Fall in Atlanta, podium time was created to help mentor young conductors.

PC: With all your global travel experience, what is Dr Tim's advice for combating jet lag?

TS: The solution for me is to immediately be working, eating, and sleeping on the time zone I am in, no matter how radically different it is from where I left. I push through to staying active if I arrive during the day, and I eat and sleep on the local timetable. If I can sleep on the airplane, I do. And, there’s Lunesta.

THANKS TIM!

Choral Interviews: Numero uno- Dr. Karyl Carlson

Hi all:

I have been meaning to launch a semi-regular feature for quite some time now- interviews of choral folks from around the country!I hope that the questions and answers you read here are entertaining and thought-provoking. As I twist the arms of various folks to reveal all, I hope we can all gain some new insights-- and especially important to me is how these folks were inspired to create music and how they go about inspiring others to do the same. Thanks to Dr. Karyl Carlson, director of choral activities at Illinois State University and the new Illinois ACDA President-Elect for being the first to fill in the blanks. You'll see my questions in italics and Karyl's answers in regular type.

PC: So, what’s new these days at the Illinois State University choral program? I believe it’s been about 5-6 years since you took over the program- tell us where you have been going and what’s new.

KK: What’s new is our continual class of students who are really excited about choral music! Thank you Illinois music educators! They have quickly adopted the ideas that quality and passion makes for a great musical opportunities. The Singing Redbirds Children’s Choir is new, so between that and the Civic Chorale, we provide life-long music-making opportunities. We’ve also been developing our public profile in an effort of arts advocacy. We’re doing this by participating in events across campus and our community, not just in our stone castle.

PC: I believe the music program is growing and growing, not just the choral dept, but the whole music program. To what do you attribute this success? How have you gone about recruiting new students to ISU?

KK: The quality of instruction is a key factor. We pride ourselves on individual attention from when we start to communicate with students and supporting them after they graduate. We invest ourselves in our students’ success. So while the university may seem big to some (although not to me, coming from Big Ten schools!) the feel is much more of a smaller school. Students respond to knowing they’re not just one in a sea of people. Also, the diversity and quality of ensembles is an attractive factor. Musicians want to be part of a talented ensemble and have opportunities to perform great repertoire. In the process, students develop into independent, confident, and skilled musicians. If they choose to teach or perform, the expectations are the same. We also have administrative support and a put forth a team effort that is incredibly invaluable.

PC:I know you have been hoping to develop the choral grad program more- how is that going?

KK: I wish I had more time to recruit grad students, maybe to connect with those in other trusted undergraduate institutions but frankly I have little time to do that. Hopefully as ISU’s visibility increases that will help attract talented graduate students. I would like to have graduate students that have already been out in the world, maybe having taught a few years. It’s important that graduates are employable after they’re finished at ISU or in preparation for further graduate study. I want them to be successful, to get out there and be brilliant.

PC: Do you have any tours coming up for any of the groups, and what do you think the true benefits of touring are?

KK: Madrigals toured in November. Their primary purpose is recruiting. Also, I really enjoy getting out into the schools. I miss that about not teaching choral methods and supervising student teachers, but now I have so many ensembles for my primary teaching load. Concert Choir has toured in the past but it’s gotten to be very expensive. We try to take an overseas trip every few years. The next one will likely be next year.

PC: Who has been the most influential teacher in your career?

KK: There are several. My first piano teacher, Mrs. Eckert is dear to my heart. She allowed me to love playing and not resent practicing in lieu of other activities. And she never told me anything was too difficult. Then there was Mrs. Turner at Keeler Elementary School. She had a little code for me to signal her when she played one of the little melodies (like Happy Wanderer!) different than what was in the book. She was transposing, but of course I had no idea what all that meant, and she didn’t tell me but she just kept encouraging me to let her know.(I think that was so some precocious 3rdgrader wouldn’t raise her hand and say “Mrs. Turner Mrs. Turner you’re playing that incorrectly!”)Then Charles Smith.Sigh.I can’t say enough about my opportunity to study with him and other MSU profs. I was so fortunate! Discovering what’s musically important in order to elucidate the intentions of gestures—the economy of means—was key in developing how I now approach music. Something like: inspire the idea then get the hell out of the way can usually works. Plus he demonstrated that a wry sense of humor and large vocabulary can be very helpful.

PC: Were there any a-ha moments for you in regard to a teacher you studied under?


KK: I have to say I received first rate music education all the way through the Redford Union Schools in Michigan. All those folks taught with great passion, high expectations and compassion. Eugene Dyer (choirs) at RUHS was a great musician. Don Burman (bands) provided so many opportunities for me to explore – I even played alto sax in a big band. My Jr. High band teacher was awesome too – handing me a bassoon knowing I’d go home and figure out how to play it, but then helping with lessons, camps, etc. At Michigan, I started as a piano major so even up until that point I hadn’t studied voice privately. Frankly I wasn’t so happy with the choral experience there because I couldn’t get into the Chamber Choir (not a grad student…) and I was in a giant choir where I felt that the director wouldn’t really know if I was there or not(and I dare say, I think he didn’t…) I had a much better time playing in the Michigan Marching Band where I learned incredible discipline and commitment. Playing in the Rose Bowl wasn’t bad either! Catherine Nadon-Gabrion was the music ed instructor at the time. She was highly influential in terms of leadership and organization. SO, all that to say, the whole of my education has been one big Ah-HA! I’m eternally grateful. I hope I never lose the idealistic hopes I had as a first year teacher at Franklin Elementary School in Sterling, IL.

PC: I know that you studied with Charles Smith at Michigan State. I’ve had the opportunity to recently observe some other Smith students such as Lynda Hasseler at Capitol University and Elizabeth Schauer at Arizona State University. You all seem to share an elegant, long line phrasing and a very gorgeous physical conducting gesture that creates this. Would you agree that that is something Smith stressed to his students and how did he teach this?

KK: Charles Smith was all about developing and maintaining the continuum of legato. He thought all gesture should be driven by expressive intentions, not habit, and all the flourish really need not be there. “Just the facts” actually includes the vital musical facts, not just the pattern. I have also tried to incorporate gestures that are supportive of vocal technique: rhythmic breath (not on the last 8th rest) and rhythmic diction. I’ve also started insisting that some of the musicality responsibility be borne by the singers, not my dictation of it. The more a conductor subdivides, whips, bounces, gyrates, not only do they look funny, the less energy the singer has to bring to the table.

PC: What has been the most amazing musical experience in your life, either as a singer or director?

KK: As a singer, the first time I sang for Robert Shaw in Carnegie Hall. Walking onto that stage was magic. Singing beautiful music in naturally reverberant places is an experience that cannot be matched.

PC: What three pieces have you still not conducted that you look forward to doing someday (and elaborate a bit please)?

KK: Britten’s WAR REQUIEM – I don’t know about ever having the space or forces to do it. I feel a great affinity for it, though. The poetry is incredibly poignant and the setting of it is perfect. I feel like it’s such an impactful work; appropriate for all time. Right now, wars are not in our faces like the world wars. We aren’t sacrificing or feeling the desperation of them now, unless we know someone fighting. These wars are crippling our country and we aren’t incredulous about it. A piece like the WAR REQUIEM, well that’ll put it in one’s face.

Monteverdi VESPERS of 1610 :Monteverdi is such a romantic. It seems intimidating, though, figuring out the sections, and then finding an audience to listen to it.
Lots of Poulenc.

PC: What are your three most favorite choral pieces, either a cappella or with orchestra?

KK: I’m having the most trouble with this one!One favorite is Durufle’s “Requiem” but recently it has fluctuated, depending on the performance. I had performed this with the Shaw singers and had that in my mind, then with organ at CWU and it was magic. The next time was of a performance with the reduced orchestration and didn’t care for it. Then the next time was a performance with full orchestration and I got incredibly distracted by string intonation issues that the magic just wasn’t there. I don’t know if I will take the chance again.

I love Henk Badings’ “Trois Chansons” and absolutely adore singing in French. The use of IPA has helped make that repertoire accessible. The piano part in this set is fantastic.

Lastly, all things Brahms! “Liebeslieder” = fun. Motets = heartbreakingly gorgeous lines. “Requiem” = iconic.

PC: I know you have tradition of everyone singing “Make our garden grow” from Candide at your final concert each school year. Did you start that tradition or was it already going on? Tell us more.

KK: I had been doing that piece in the same fashion at Central Washington University, they just wanted to keep doing it year after year, and I saw it as an alumni opportunity for building the networks of teachers. I wanted to choose a different song here (that was “theirs”, as I was chided when I left) but nothing seemed to fit the bill. I tried “My Spirit Sang All Day” by Finzi, but it wasn’t as popular. So after a few years I brought my Garden here. It tells a nice story, and has a big blastissimo ending with a high C.

PC: What do you do, like a hobby or interest, to recharge your batteries? How do you fill your summers?

KK: I’m on sabbatical in a few weeks, and am pretty excited about that. It’s giving me a chance to get caught up and do things like answer your blog questions! I write a lot of recommendations so I’m now caught up with those too. I recently got a decent piano so I can practice at home now. I’m enjoying being in an awesome relationship with Jeff Paxton. I’m a big fan of his bands; he’s an awesome bass player.Another favorite thing to do is travel and I especially like going to places where there is water and mountains. I like to be in nature, observing, appreciating, and marveling. And I like to make stuff, fix stuff, hang out with friends, cook for them and drink red wine.

PC: How is Boris, your dog? How does he contribute to the ISU music program?


KK:Boris is awesome! He just turned 11. He likes to organize parties and be the center of attention. He also has his own Facebook page and many adoring fans. He had his own jewelry company in Washington (Big Yellow Dog) but he’s too busy now. Boris is just plain good for morale, and makes for some good analogies, like “find your inner grrrr” when singing Stravinsky or Verdi or the like. Or wag like Boris, not some Yorkie. (sorry, Yorkie-owners)

PC: What advice would you give undergrads who have really been bitten by the choral music conducting bug- what things do you really wish they will keep in mind and make sure to develop?


KK: some advice for undergrads. Where do I start??? So, some points in no particular order.*Develop superior musical skills, including voice and piano. *Develop leadership skills and realize conducting has much to do with people skills. People watch! Pay attention to people’s reactions to instructions, questions, the dynamics of peer pressure. *Grip the idea that we need to be our own advocates; it’s not the case where we prepare music and people come to the concerts. *Be patient and know that careers are built, not automatic just because one has a degree. *Philanthropy pays both ways *Family first *Do a lot of listening to develop musical preferences, ideas, habits, clarity. *In rehearsal, be both participant and observer: take copious notes! *Keep programs and make notes *Go to live performances. *Support your local composer!

PC: Thanks to Karyl for that last sentiment (haha), all the other great answers, and for teaching us the word "blastissimo"!