Alice’s Adventures in an Arts Career

This evening was Vox Humana Chamber Choir’s spring concert.  We have officially been together for 8 months, and the progress we have made in the time is astonishing.  Listening to them sing tonight, I was blow away by their sound.  Even since December, Vox has grown by leaps and bound in every aspect of their singing; tuning, blend, interpretation. I am so proud to be a part of this group and I am so proud of each and every member.

This term we did far more difficult repertoire than last term (and last term’s stuff was hard).  We also had less rehearsal time and some issues with scheduling conflicts.  Even with all that, we put together a stimulating, varied, challenging and engaging concert.

The choir is now done for the summer.  In the fall it will live again, one way or another.  The leadership may change a little depending on how much work Tim feels like piling on for himself.  We may switch roles, or we might keep things as they are.  We shall have to see how things pan out. Sadly some of our members will not be returning since they are graduating and moving away.  However, I am hoping some will stay for another great year and we will do another round of auditions for fresh singers in September.

I’m looking forward to the summer and spending time planning for next year.  I want to get a start on choosing new and interesting repertoire.  I was also suggesting to Tim that we join Choirs Ontario, since it will give us access to new music sources, opens up access to workshops and local choir news as well as boost our professional credibility.  I have grand ideas and plans for next year and maybe even the years to follow.  And if the coming years are anything like this past one, I couldn’t imagine having a better and more fulfilled life.

Today was my choral  arrangement read-through of my final arrangement project.  It was very successful. Well, certainly not performance quality, but that was by no means a reality given that the choir was sight-reading and we only had 20 minutes to spend on the piece.  However, I was extremely pleased with the result.  This was the first time I heard my piece live and as it was meant to be performed with real singers and real instruments.  My friend Josh came in to play the solo sax obbligato line and that was so nice of him.  It was great to work with him, since he was the one who convinced me to write for sax.

After the read-through I received some very positive and constructive feedback.  My prof. Jeff Smallman suggested the entire sax part be played up the octave, which Josh did and I really liked the results.  The tone quality in that upper range of the soprano sax was much clearer and then when the line did drop below in the lower range, the tone quality contrast was very effective.

I was so happy to hear my piece.  It was the first time that I got a real, solid confirmation that what I had written worked and was as effective as I thought and hoped it would be.  I only wish we could have done the same thing with previous arrangements and projects in the course.  Oh well, I guess we can’t have everything.

I had the opportunity yesterday to conduct Les Choristes.   This is the school choir that I am in as part of my ensemble requirements for my degree and it is directed by the wonderful Jennifer Moir.  Usually at the end of the year, Jen opens a few rehearsals up to conducting students who wish to conduct the choir and get some feedback.  She made the announcement last week and asked who would be interested.  My hand flew up immediately.

So I had a short conducting workshop with her and the choir lasting roughly 15 minutes.  I haven’t had any formal conducting lessons or workshops in a year, so this was a really great chance for me to have a quick conducting check-up.  It was really wonderful and exactly what I needed.

I was nervous.  Les Choristes is a large choir and I really admire Jen, so standing in front of everyone with her watching had the butterflies fluttering away.  But, everything went great and I got some really positive feedback.

However, what was even more useful were the direction and new ideas Jen was able to give me.  With the short time that we had, we started by focusing on my conducting plane.  It seems I’ve been conducting a little too high which is contributing to some tension in my shoulders and is sending a “high breath” signal to my choir.  As soon as she brought my arms down, I sighed a huge sigh of relief.  I was told by a previous conducting teacher that I needed to raise my arms up and out for  breadth and space, but I have always felt the tension and had some issues with maintaining simplicity and ease in my gesture .   This new suggestion is really welcomed and will be something that I’m definitely going to experiment with.

The second area we worked on was my prep beat.  Again, my prep beat has always started at the plane and gone up.  Jen suggested I experiment with dropping it below and bouncing up in a cyclical motion.  This really threw my brain through a loop.  I would never have considered going below the plane.  I never knew that was “allowed”. But then again, Jen has always been one for experimenting with the rules for the sake of ease and simplicity.  This new drop down idea, she pointed out, reflects the very breath action we want our singers to take.  How, she asked, can we swing our hands up and expect our singers to drop their diaphragms and breathe low?  Again, such a simple idea, and very much in line with my own approach and understanding of conducting.

It really does take another set of eyes to see the areas that need work.  As much as I can practice in front of mirrors, I will always miss details.  Workshops and lessons give me that chance for honest feedback and the exploration of new ideas and new ways of doing.

I have come away from my 15 minutes with several things to work on.  I’m looking forward to getting back to Vox Humana and experimenting.  It was a quick tune up, but so valuable.  It keeps me from getting complacent and stuck in my ways and challenges me to keep experimenting and improving.

I have been taking a choral arrangement course this term from Jeff Smallman and it has to be one of the best courses I have ever taken.  It’s been a blast writing arrangements and really applying my composition in a more formal way.

However, as fun as it has been, the final term project nearly killed me.  We were assigned to combine the total sum of our skills learned in the class into one final choral piece.  The only guidelines: write an SATB choral piece using a public domain text and/or melody with piano accompaniment.

I don’t think I have ever put so much time and effort into a university project before.  I used nearly every single day of the two weeks given and it was a great experience, but also incredibly frustrating and exhausting.

I knew I wanted to write an original work and didn’t want to do an arrangement of an existing piece.  So the first thing I had to do was find a text.  I’m not very good with poetry and there are thousands of poets who have put sublime inspiration into words far better than I ever could.  One such poet is Christina Rossetti (1830-1894).   Her writing has the ability to touch me. Her poems make me cry.  I figured if a text could do that, then it would stand up well to choral arrangement.  I finally decided on “Song”

I set to work writing and things seemed to flow almost as well as the text, but then the nit-picking stage began, and I nearly lost my mind.  See, I was working with a combination of notation software and the piano.  Anyone who’s worked with notation software knows that it lies.  The sounds you hear don’t necessarily reflect what a performance will sound like.  More often than not what sounds awful on the computer will work wonderfully in performance.  I found myself writing and re-writing lines over and over and adjusting harmonies and second guessing myself because what I was hearing from my computer and what I was hearing on the piano were different and I didn’t know which to trust more.  Also, I have little experience writing piano accompaniments.  Oh sure I write things on the piano all the time, but I’ve never written the piano as a background instrument.  I must have written at least 3 new accompaniment parts.  Each time I would write something and think “oh, yes, this works, this is great.” but as soon as I started piecing everything together I’d realize it didn’t work.  I would have to scrap that whole thing and start over. You see, I struggle with keeping things simple.  When I play around on the piano and really get into it, my instinct is to make it bigger and bigger to the point where I’m just rockin’ out.  Now, this is fine if I am just fooling around and having fun.  But for this text with this piece, big DOES NOT WORK.  So it was a constant struggle to keep myself from getting carried away. I would have to remind myself to just keep it simple. I put hours and hours every day into this piece, so that I could get it just perfect. I got down right obsessive.

 This choral arranging course has something of a history to it.  There have been students who have written final term projects that turned out to be national competition winning pieces.  There have been students who have had their term project published.  Sarah Quartel wrote the 1st movement of her “Snow Angel”, one of the most moving and incredible contemporary choral works ever, in this course. Now I am by no means expecting this to happen to me but it does set a certain president and mood for what is possible.

I think I am fairly satisfied with my final product.  After talking with my good friend Josh (a wicked saxophone player), I decided to include a soprano sax obbligato line which lends itself very well to the mood of the piece.  There is certainly more I wish I could do with the piece.  There are sections where I wanted to use certain techniques, but after days of trying I was unable to come up with anything particularly successful. May I’ll keep trying.

The project has been handed in, and we are now reading through our arrangements in class, which is so helped. It gives us the change to actually hear our pieces and discover what works and what doesn’t.  My piece will be read on Thursday March 26th and I can hardly wait to get a sense of what it will sound like with a choir and real instruments.

I just returned from the Music for a Cure concert at the Colborne United Church.  Vox Humana performed exceedingly well.  Both Tim and I are really pleased.  It’s a good sign for our upcoming spring concert.

I was most impressed with the blend. Actually, I was having a hard time believing it.  The sound was so smooth and warm.  No part stood out over another (and with only 2 basses at certain times).  Or at least this was my experience while conducting the Ave Verum Corpus, and that piece lends itself well to good blending.  I received many comments from audience members and members of the other choral groups performing who madethe same observation.  Other people commented on our interesting selection of repertoire and liked that we did more earlier works. So congratulations Vox.

 Speaking of the Ave Verum Corpus, I have decided that piece just has to be done with organ (or better yet a full orchestra). Because a piano is a decaying instrument, you just can’t take the peice slow without losing the support under the choir.  But with the sustained organ, we could take it much slower and gentler than ever before and still have a cushion of sound underneath the help carry the choir through the long phrases.  We were able to really draw out the phrases and sink into the lush harmony unlike ever before.  I really enjoyed it.

This was only our second concert and it was  a great success.  Congratulations Vox.  See you all tomorrow!

As I promised, here are the details about the Music for a Cure concert coming up on March 7th.

Music for a Cure is an annual charity concert.  Now in their 5th year, they have raised over $16,000  with concerts now in London, Barrie and Ottawa . Funds have benefited the Royal Victoria Hospital/ Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre in Barrie and  the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.  This year’s concert will be going towards the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario.

Date: Saturday, March 7^th, 2009.

Time: 2:00 pm- 5:00 pm

Location: Colborne St. United Church

Address: 711 Colborne St.

TICKETS: are  $10/Students and $15/Adults and are available by calling (519) 902-5159 or emailing music4acure@gmail.com

Tickets will also be available at the door.

As I said before, Vox Humana will be performing a set at this concert and we’re looking forward to it as a good chance to prepare for our upcoming spring concert in April and as an opportunity to increase our visibility within the London choral and music scene.

So come, enjoy some great music and contribute to a worthwhile cause.

So in the next couple weeks, I have several small gigs lined up.

First off, my school choir Les Choristes has a concert next week downtown at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  This means I’m trucking it downtown a couple times a week for rehearsals.  This is the down side of off-campus concerts.  They tend to take up more time simply because of the logistics involved.  But oh well, it has to be done.  Besides, we’re singing Poulenc, and Aaron ( Vox Humana’s pianist) is playing St. Paul’s awesome organ for us.

Speaking of Vox Humana, we have a short concert coming up on March 7th.  We have a  set in the Music for a Cure concert.  We’ll be performing some of our new stuff including  the “Kyrie” from Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis and a few pieces from last term.  I’ll post more about this later and give out more details.

Lastly, the Q1 Hamlet band is getting back together to record a few selections from Ben Sajo’s score for the campus radio New Music Competition. The program Skatches in C will be hosting the event and airing the submissions on March 12.  We’re hoping to get the recording done on the 10th or 11th.  We might even be able to win us some pocket change.  So wish us luck!

When Tim, Aaron and myself set out to start Vox Humana Chamber Singers, we had grand visions of excellence in  mind. We were about to create a shining example of advanced art. We were determined to perform repertoire of a high artistic and technical caliber and envisioned a choir of the greatest quality. Based on these standards, we wanted to audition the best trained, most technically proficient  choral musicians.

However, when we finished auditions, we surveyed our list of brand new choir members and realized that the 4th year vocalists and master music students had not turned out. Instead, we had members from a broad range of academic and musical backgrounds. Many had sung in choirs, but most were not classically trained singers.  Some had sung in choirs, but had little experience with foreign languages or classical choral repertoire.  Some where voice majors, some were piano majors and some where science majors. Some had never really sung at all.

We were confronted with the question of whether our plans were still realistic or not?  We had been so excited to work on our advanced repertoire, which included Bach, Poulenc, Stravinsky, Brahms and Part. We wondered, would it still be possible to achieve our artistic goals and build the type of choir we originally envisioned, or would we be forced to compromise?

I will cut your fears short here…we compromised nothing. We never changed our repertoire or expected any less in quality. However, the result was a choir that was far more educational and stimulating than I think a choir of entirely “trained, professional, advanced” singers would have been. With Vox Humana, I have experienced what it means to have high expectations and a steeper road to climb to achieve them. I don’t think any member would argue that our first term was challenging. There were many rehearsals where I was sure we had bitten off far more than we could chew.   And yet, our debut performance was nothing short of amazing. Much of this is due, I think, to Tim and his refusal to compromise and give up.  He refused to remove exceedingly difficult pieces that seemed beyond our grasp, like the Arvo Part, opting instead to leave easier pieces aside to free more time.

We approached this choir with the firm belief that we could achieve greatness regardless of our initial “level”. We felt it was possible to achieve high results if that was what we wanted.  And I believe we have proven this to be true. One does not need uniformity of skill and talent to produce fine art. One does not need a group that is the same, with the same voice and experience.  One only needs participants who are eager and willing. Certainly it is a far more difficult road to haul, but equally greater are the rewards. The accomplishment is greater. This is Vox. What we have is a willingness to learn, a desire to teach, a common belief that we are capable and a drive to achieve the most that we can.

From our first rehearsal until where we stand now, our journey has been remarkable. I have nothing but pride for what we, as a whole choir, have accomplished and I look forward with anticipation to our continued growth.

I sometimes wonder how social networking, organizing and advertising was done before the invention of Facebook.  Nearly every gig or event I have organized or been apart of has depended heavily on Facebook to “get the word out”.  For arts organizing, it is so useful.  Through Facebook, I have a instant catalog of people interested in the same things I am, and they in turn have more people that are potentially also interested.  With Facebook, we are all linked.  Spreading the word about a gig or an idea or an event can almost be instantaneous and can grow exponentially as each person in turn invites or adds more people.

For example, I doubt our Vox Humana choir would have got off the ground without Facebook.  I think we had more people  learn about our choir and auditions through our Facebook invite than we did through our posters and person-to-person promotion.

Similarly, everyone in my Music Faculty advertises their studio recitals, performance recitals, choir concerts, ensemble concerts and masterclasses through Facebook.  Sure we all put posters up around the faculty, but for the most part they only served to remind us to check our Facebook for an invite.

As much as I resisted joining at first, I’ve come to realize how useful Facebook is for young artists.  Facebook is the social network of our generation, and it would be ludicrous to ignore its power.

As my previous post mentioned, I never specifically wanted to be a traditional classroom teacher. However, I do want to teach in some form or other.  I have a passion for education and love the thought of exposing others to the art that I take so much joy and satisfaction in.

In second year, when I was still convinced that I wanted to perform and only perform, I took a choral conducting course.  It changed my career direction.  I became passionate about choral conducting and when I learned it was possible to make a career from it,  I did everything I could to make conducting a reality in my life.

In September 2008, I was approached by a friend and colleague, Tim  about the possibility of starting a SATB amateur choir for young adults.  He asked if I would be interested in being his assistant director.  Of course I jumped at the idea.  I had been looking for a more permanent conducting job to develop my technique and build my resume for future grad school applications.

To my thrilled amazement, the process of choir building was nowhere as difficult as I thought it would be.  We got our mutual friend Aaron on board as accompanist, posted audition calls around the Music faculty building, created a Facebook invite (all praise the power of Facebook), booked a room through the faculty, held auditions and within 2 weeks, we had ourselves  14 members and The Vox Humana Chamber Choir was born.

Aside from the practical process of setting audition times, booking rehearsal space and advertising, one of the most important and valuable things we did in the creation of this choir was the time we spent deciding the purpose and direction of the choir.  All three of us have extensive choral backgrounds.  We knew about the types of choirs that are out there.  We knew what’s done and what’s not done, what’s popular and what isn’t.  We wanted to be a choir that was different than the others in our area. We wanted to focused less on the contemporary choral composers, the Steven Hatfield’s and the Elenor Daley’s, and more on Classical repertoire, but not the “classical pops”.  We wanted to create a high quality, advanced level choir.  We set our sights very high.  We wanted to perform challenging works , the kind that are ”good for your disposition”, but perhaps are not performed  regularly.  We strongly felt it was possible to expose even inexperience choristers to advanced and unfamiliar works and create a high level of artistry and enjoyment.   On our first concert we purformed a Bach Canata, Brahms, Vittoria, Mozart, Poulenc, Stravinksy and Arvo Part, among others.  It was a brilliant experience. 

We are now in our second term and rehearsal is one of the highlights of my week.  I rehearse and conduct an average of three pieces a term.  I am still stunned by the speed and relative ease with which this entire project has taken off.  Choir and conducting gives me the opportunity to be the type of teacher I want to be.  It gives me the forum to explore musical ideas and work with individuals as passionate about music as I am.  I look forward to each rehearsal and each new piece.