Special Events
Church Musicians’ Meeting
On February 5, the Choral Arts Foundation brought together choir directors and organists from 11 Upper Valley churches to discuss ways in which CAFUV and church musicians could work together to address the needs of the individual church communities. Musicians from two churches announced events of interest to all church musicians.
CAFUV is currently working with the church musicians from the Lyme Congregational Church on their upcoming Choir Festival, scheduled for April 29th. (More details on the festival are on the Lyme Congregational Church page. Other ideas that the group may pursue in the future include offering basic skills workshops for choir members who want to learn (or brush up on) sight reading skills; scheduling regular meetings to give church musicians the opportunity to share and read through new anthems; creating opportunities for younger singers; working with the New Hampshire and Vermont chapters of the American Guild of Organists to develop workshop possibilities; and sponsoring a representative to attend a national conference. CAFUV is planning to extend the current web site to create space for church musicians to ask questions, make comments, and to point to resources.
Previous Special Events
Choral Clinic
An invitational choral clinic on March 19, 2011, brought 3 choral groups with about 80 choristers to work with 3 professional choral arts clinicians.
- The Kearsage Chorale, led by David Almond, worked with Dawn Willis, Artistic Director and Founder of Bella Voce Women’s Chorus and Assistant Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
- The Handel Society, conducted by Robert Duff, worked with Tony Thornton, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
- The Upper Valley Youth Chorus, led by Becky Luce, worked with Stuart Young, artistic director of the Connecticut Children’s Chorus.
The clinics were followed by two workshops, one on reading new music led by Robert Duff and one on vocal pedagogy for the choral singer led by Erma Mellinger, Dartmouth music lecturer and vocal coach for the Handel Society.
Seminar on Digital Scores
In June 2010, Melinda O’Neal, former artistic director of the Handel Society and current artistic director of Handel Choir of Baltimore, led a seminar on finding choral scores on the Internet. The participating 35 conductors and singers finished the seminar by sight singing a number of late-19th, early-20th century America choral works.
Choristers’ Summit
A Choristers’ Summit, held in June 2009, brought together directors and singers to discuss common aspirations and challenges facing Upper Valley choral groups.
All three programs provided CAFUV’s with feedback from participants on the needs and desires of the choral community.
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