(no subject)
One aspect of the person I think I am that I don't talk about often is my affinity for choral singing. Though I don't bring it up much, being in choirs has been an important part of my life since 6th grade. I think I just really enjoy interacting musically with other people, something I don't get to do much outside of the choral setting because my other instruments - piano and accordion- are solitary ventures. There's no doubt that I'll continue to sing in college, but I'm really going to miss my highschool choir. I didn't realize until Wednesday how much I enjoyed the group of choir nerds I've been stuck with for the past six years - nor did I realize how much of a reputation we had.
Last Wednesday was the Michigan Choral Director's Association Conference. I was there for two reasons.
The first reason is that West Ottawa's sighteading skills are near-famous. Apparently, our choirs are one of maybe five groups in the state that sighread at an advanced level, and, to boot, continue to improve year to year. Mrs. Pierson was invited to bring a selection of her best sightreaders to the conference to demonstrate our methods, and I was amoung them.
The session seemed to go quite well, but it felt really odd to me. I really didn't think that we had a style of practicing or looking at it or anything that was different than what anyone else did, yet the audience seemed pretty impressed with us. I think the session lasted 45 minutes or so. We started off by sightreading an eight-measure thing, the way we always do, in front of the 70 or so choir directors that showed up desperate for methods to improve their unmotivated students. Afterwards, Mrs. Pierson invited the audience to ask us questions. They wanted to know things like why we were motivated to sightread, and how we kept from loosing interest. I felt like we bullshitted the answers pretty badly, but the audience, as I said, seemed enlightened, and Mrs. Pierson said she was proud of us.
Now, the second reason: James Jordan requested WO students to work with in his session. James. Fucking. Jordan. In Mrs. Pierson's own words, he is a choir god.
Getting to sing with one of the most famous and influential choir directors in the country was amazing. The first thing I noticed about him was that he had a certain air to him, a cockyness. He kept up this impression by deciding not to use the song he had asked us to learn for him. He had told Pierson back in May that he would only direct us if we could perform a 16th century madrigal piece, so we rehearsed weekly over the summer to learn a song that would be suitable, only for him to tell us it didn't sounds 'right,' and asked if we knew anything else well enough. His second dick move was asking the males of the group to leave the stage - he only wanted to work with women. He kept up this kind of -aren't-I-great attitude throughout the session, but I forgave him for it, because he deserved all the credit he gave himself. He focused primarily on blend techniques and placement strategies to keep a choir in tune, and all of his techniques were nouvelle, insightful, and apt, and often my own jaw would drop along with the 150 people that had packed themselves into the small auditorium. And, afterward he carried on to Pierson about how great and well trained he could tell we were. :D
Other things from the trip worth mentioning... ah, yes. On the way there, I rode with Alissa, Devon, and Rusty, none of whom I knew very well. We listened to Rusty's music on the way there, and some of what was played included Rubber Soul, A User's Guide to They Might Be Giants, and Still Alive. I was a little impressed, I took him as a Black Sabbath kind of guy. It's a little too bad I never knew he had good taste until after I won't see him regularly anymore.
We also had a three hour lunch break. Felisha and I thought we could walk to Barnes & Noble and get Starbucks. We might have made it back with more time to spare if we hadn't gotten terribly lost in MSU's huge campus. Not only did we earn the dissaproval of our director, I still have huge blisters on my feet from traipsing about in heels. But, the coffee made everything better, and MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNT FTW!
Also worth mentioning: Mrs. Pierson bought pizza for all on the way back. And enough pizza for an entire choir is a lot of pizza.
So there. I hope this write-up of the day was terribly more coherent than my twitter updates.
Last Wednesday was the Michigan Choral Director's Association Conference. I was there for two reasons.
The first reason is that West Ottawa's sighteading skills are near-famous. Apparently, our choirs are one of maybe five groups in the state that sighread at an advanced level, and, to boot, continue to improve year to year. Mrs. Pierson was invited to bring a selection of her best sightreaders to the conference to demonstrate our methods, and I was amoung them.
The session seemed to go quite well, but it felt really odd to me. I really didn't think that we had a style of practicing or looking at it or anything that was different than what anyone else did, yet the audience seemed pretty impressed with us. I think the session lasted 45 minutes or so. We started off by sightreading an eight-measure thing, the way we always do, in front of the 70 or so choir directors that showed up desperate for methods to improve their unmotivated students. Afterwards, Mrs. Pierson invited the audience to ask us questions. They wanted to know things like why we were motivated to sightread, and how we kept from loosing interest. I felt like we bullshitted the answers pretty badly, but the audience, as I said, seemed enlightened, and Mrs. Pierson said she was proud of us.
Now, the second reason: James Jordan requested WO students to work with in his session. James. Fucking. Jordan. In Mrs. Pierson's own words, he is a choir god.
Getting to sing with one of the most famous and influential choir directors in the country was amazing. The first thing I noticed about him was that he had a certain air to him, a cockyness. He kept up this impression by deciding not to use the song he had asked us to learn for him. He had told Pierson back in May that he would only direct us if we could perform a 16th century madrigal piece, so we rehearsed weekly over the summer to learn a song that would be suitable, only for him to tell us it didn't sounds 'right,' and asked if we knew anything else well enough. His second dick move was asking the males of the group to leave the stage - he only wanted to work with women. He kept up this kind of -aren't-I-great attitude throughout the session, but I forgave him for it, because he deserved all the credit he gave himself. He focused primarily on blend techniques and placement strategies to keep a choir in tune, and all of his techniques were nouvelle, insightful, and apt, and often my own jaw would drop along with the 150 people that had packed themselves into the small auditorium. And, afterward he carried on to Pierson about how great and well trained he could tell we were. :D
Other things from the trip worth mentioning... ah, yes. On the way there, I rode with Alissa, Devon, and Rusty, none of whom I knew very well. We listened to Rusty's music on the way there, and some of what was played included Rubber Soul, A User's Guide to They Might Be Giants, and Still Alive. I was a little impressed, I took him as a Black Sabbath kind of guy. It's a little too bad I never knew he had good taste until after I won't see him regularly anymore.
We also had a three hour lunch break. Felisha and I thought we could walk to Barnes & Noble and get Starbucks. We might have made it back with more time to spare if we hadn't gotten terribly lost in MSU's huge campus. Not only did we earn the dissaproval of our director, I still have huge blisters on my feet from traipsing about in heels. But, the coffee made everything better, and MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNT FTW!
Also worth mentioning: Mrs. Pierson bought pizza for all on the way back. And enough pizza for an entire choir is a lot of pizza.
So there. I hope this write-up of the day was terribly more coherent than my twitter updates.