FORWARDMOTION - JANUARY 2009.PUB

Year’s end is neither an end nor a begin-ning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.

~Hal Borland

I hope that each and every one of you had a wonderful holiday season filled with joyful music-making and festive celebrating. With the New Year comes a renewed sense of spirit and energy to set and reach new goals. November was busy with convention in Hawaii, a huge success. Congratula-tions to Jim Arns and the Melodeers as well as to the Moxie Ladies and all of the competitors who inspired us so. December was full of meetings here at International Headquarters: IMAP, 2010 IES Global Planning Committee and Judge Specialists. This month we have the YWIH Task Force and Edu-cation Direction Committee Meetings. Each of these meetings has an impact

A NEW YEAR, A RENEWED SPIRIT JANUARY 2009

Intuition or ESP? By Harriette Walters

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real women. real harmony. real fun: The Care and Feeding of New Members By Paula Davis

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Real Women: Who IS that Masked Woman? By Joan Boutilier

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Real Harmony: Interpretive Directing By Marge Bailey

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DCP Advancements 9

Real Fun: Barbershop Tag Teaching Guidelines By Darwin Scheel

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Voice Training in the Choral Rehearsal By Dr. Ann Howard Jones

12-16

ACDA Convention 2009 17

Side By Side 17

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

A Sweet Adelines International Newsletter for Members of the Director’s Certification Program and Front-Line Directors

upon you, the directors. You are the ties that bind members to each other and to the organization as a whole. With that in mind, we hope you all have marked your calendars for Side By Side: Directors’ Seminar/Judge Training in Detroit, July 22-25, 2009. It will be a dynamic weekend emphasizing the skills that you need to inspire and connect with your singers. Registration opened Janu-ary 5th. If you didn’t received an e-mail invitation, please visit our Web site to register or contact Meetings and Corporate Services: [email protected] In addition, if you’ll be attending the ACDA National Convention in Oklahoma City in March, please let me know. Wishing you each prosperity, abundance and continued success in 2009,

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Our goal is to make this newsletter for directors, by directors.

We’d love to hear your suggestions for topics of interest.

Got something to add? Write an article to share with your fellow directors and DCP participants.

Send your suggestions and submissions to: [email protected]

Forward Motion

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AULD LANG SYNE By Charlene Yazurlo. This is a ballad in the key of E flat, rated easy, not suitable for competition.

JEEPERS CREEPERS (YWIH) By Marsha Zwicker. This is an uptune in the key of G, rated medium and suitable for competition.

THE LORD’S PRAYER By Anna Maria Parker. This classic by Albert E. Malotte has been arranged in the key of A flat, rated medium, not suitable for competition.

Based on recommendations from the Judge Specialists and Education Direction Committee, the International Board of Directors has approved three significant enhancements to the rules regarding Harmony Classic Competitions. Effective with the 2009 Harmony Classic Competitions in Nashville, Tenn., the maximum number of singing members on stage for Division A (small) choruses has been increased to 40 and for Division AA (midsize) to 75. The Board recognizes that once a chorus wins an opportunity to compete at the International level, this is used as a membership recruitment opportunity. The rule change supports a chorus’s opportunity to grow, but still maintains the integrity of the two divisions. This rule change does not affect regional competitions. Small choruses still compete with 15 to 30 singing members, and midsize choruses with 31 to 60. In addition, the highest scoring contestant in the Harmony Classic Competition is invited to mic-test at the chorus semifinals on Thursday of the convention week. If that chorus is unable to accept the invitation, the next highest scoring competitor will be asked. Also, effective with the 2009 competitions in Nashville, an Audience Choice Award has been established for Harmony Classic competitors. A random selection of 100 members of the audience will be invited to vote for the one chorus, of the 10 competing choruses, they find to be the most entertaining. The audience members are not provided with any criteria for their vote, nor does this award have any effect on the outcome of the two contests. The winner of this award will be presented with a plaque and ribbons for each member of the chorus that performs on the international competition stage.

Questions? Please contact April Slezak: [email protected]

2009 NASHVILLE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION NEWS

January 2009

DEC Mission Statement We believe that happy, healthy choruses are the heart of Sweet Adelines International and that the director IS Sweet Adelines in the eyes of its members. Since director education and support is paramount to the success and future of the organization, the mission of the Director Education Coordinators is to design educational programs and strategies to develop, nurture, cultivate, recognize, and applaud excellence in directing.

We were all born with natural instinct. We cried when we were hungry...not because we were taught to, but because it was our instinctive response to our physical need. Emo-tion calls on instinct too. Our natural instinct is definitely used in our leadership, and in our music. For some unknown reason, it tends to be suppressed as we mature. Instinct, or intuition, remains in us as adults, but is usually underdeveloped and under-recognized. You’ve surely had the experience of meeting someone new in both personal and professional situa-tions— and having a gut feeling about them. Or of walk-ing into a room and sensing the vibes or energy— good or bad. This is your instinct speaking to you, giving you a chance to trust your gut and listen to the vibes. Instinct is insight based not on reason but on awareness. When we allow it back into our consciousness, we can be-come more effective in many parts of life, including our role as a leader. Allowing it back calls for a heightened sense of openness to ourselves and others.

Openness to ourselves To draw instinct into play is to increase our self-awareness. Suppression of feelings is an impediment in this quest and your first step must be to abandon any reluctance to rec-ognize your feelings. Rather, embrace them, learn about them, and experiment at living with and by them. This first step can be hard to do. Many people are unfamil-iar with this part of themselves. Acknowledging and iden-tifying your feelings is much of this ongoing process. Check yourself throughout the day, in any and all settings, by asking yourself: “What am I feeling now? How am I reacting to this person? To this situation?” Some answers will be positive: you may feel joyful, generous, or creative. These are usually the easiest ones to admit. Others are not: you may feel angry, worried, or depressed. While these are harder to acknowledge, they are equally valuable in your effort to gain access to your instinctive self.

Openness to others To effectively apply your instinct in your interactions with others, you need to be aware of their feelings, motivations and sensibilities as well as your own. To do this, one key quality is to be a good listener, an invaluable and under-employed skill fundamental to effective leadership.

Being able to listen well means paying close attention not just to words, but to the nonverbal communication that accompanies them...and often speaks more loudly than the words themselves. Listening well helps you to become more aware of others people’s feelings and how they influ-ence their actions. This is called empathy. Empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position and to intuit what that person is feeling. It is something we do pretty much spon-taneously, an act of instinct rather than the product of deliberation. It is feeling with someone else, sensing what it would be like to be that person.

Instinct in Leadership Using your instinct in your role as leader means develop-ing a keen awareness of those we work with, recognizing that each person is different, and different from you. It means understanding what they go through on a day-to-day basis and yields insight into their strengths and weak-nesses. Using your instinct, you are able to walk into any setting and be aware of how others are feeling and reacting around you. An effective leader blends strong leadership skills with this empathetic awareness, guiding others to meet challenges and opportunities for their own benefit and the benefit of the organization. When such a leader takes the time and effort to know all personally on this level, the results show in our culture, in our empowerment, in our performance, and in everything we do. The majority of all critical decisions are based on our intuition. Others define you as a leader by what they see you do. Your actions are based on your decisions and your deci-sions can be influenced favorably by your instinct. As a good leader, you can use instinct in making decisions that align your personal and organizational values and lead to your desired outcomes. Allow yourself to be enlightened. Your journey may never be the same again.

Intuition...or ESP? By Harriette Walters, Moderator, Director Education Coordinators, Director of Greater Nassau Chorus, Region 15

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Clichés speak to us— quick, memorable and inspiring. What better way to teach our new mem-bers and remind ourselves of what we really believe is important? Training and orientation of our “rookies” is our privilege and re-sponsibility. As the saying goes, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Your new chorus members need preparation to meet the demands of chorus life successfully and the opportunity is yours to give them a great beginning. Let the fun begin! “Walk a mile in their shoes”— How long has it been since you were a new member? Sweet Ade-line ways and lingo are second na-ture to us now, but how will we transfer all that knowledge and love to our newest members? New member classes are invaluable time spent preparing them to step into your chorus with confidence and comfort. Fifty percent of new members leave our organization within the first five years of mem-bership. Your strong and thought-ful guidance can change that statis-tic. You may find that they are so new, they don’t even know what to ask yet! To prepare, spend time with your members that have joined in the last year or two – What ques-tions did they have when they joined? What has helped them most to assimilate into the chorus? What “terms” and expectations have been confusing to them? What has helped put them at ease? After doing some ground work, prepare your “rookie” classes around the areas that concerned them most. Typical conversation starters around which you can build a fun and effective class may

be questions like these: “How do I get a costume?” “How will I ever be able to learn all this music?” “How do I qualify on my songs?” “What happens at contest?” Patient guidance and plenty of hu-mor will help them navigate that first year with ease.

“The quickest way to a new mem-ber’s heart is…” —Food! Perhaps the most effective bonding tool any-where in the world is to eat together. Research shows that sharing a meal together builds closer ties and more open communication. And we all love to eat! Plan and prepare a sim-ple meal for your first meeting to-gether— what you eat isn’t impor-tant; what you do with that time is! Ask questions, get to know one an-other and then give them time to divide into teams to plan the future meeting’s meal or snacks – one team for each meeting. Not only will you share the intimacy of eating to-gether, they will also share phone numbers, e-mails and get to know their fellow “rookies” while they plan and work together. Building relationships is what will keep them coming when the schedule gets hec-tic. As the saying goes, “We come for the music and stay for the friendship.” Help them begin to develop those personal ties by in-volving them in the process with other women that are walking the

real women. real harmony. real fun. THE CARE AND FEEDING OF NEW MEMBERS By Paula Davis, International Faculty and Certified Judge, Velvet Hills Chorus, Directors Coordinator, Region 8

same path. It’s fun, it creates fam-ily and it’s FOOD! “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” — Do you remember the first thing you learned in Sweet Adelines? I don’t, but I certainly remember my director and the peo-ple that helped me begin this won-derful journey. They were fun, authentic, open and encouraging, always available to help or address my concerns. As directors and new member coordinators, we need to choose wisely those who will work with our newest members. Choose that “people person” that sets a relaxed, supportive atmosphere around others, can lead/teach with ease and can organize others. It may be a group of people that reaches those goals, but as long as they have a heart for new mem-bers, there will be plenty of tasks for each personality. New members need to know you value and appreciate them for who they are – not only for what they will bring to your chorus. Most women today don’t need or want another job, but we all desire ap-preciation, recognition and some-one who believes in us. Once they know you care about them person-ally, they will eagerly join in wher-ever you lead. They may even be-come your rookie coordinator-in-training! “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” —Now that you’ve bonded, make sure you’re ready to deliver efficiently all the information needed to answer their questions, calm their fears and fuel their hopes and aspirations. Plan each class carefully and give them an

“New members need to know you value and appreciate them for

who they are – not only for what they will bring to your chorus.”

The Music of our Friendship

There’s a rhythm when friends talk, a back and forth, a give and take,

crescendos of laughter— Nothing phony, nothing fake.

There’s a melody to friends’ voices,

tones of comfort and care, of sincerity and honesty,

And secrets meant to share.

There’s a harmony in friendship, a blend of attitudes and views,

an acceptance of each other, and support we’ll never lose.

There’s music to our friendship,

a joyful song from year to year— and the music of our friendship

is a treasure I hold dear.

—Virginia White

ion

January 2009

outline of what each class will cover. Plan to bring informative people in weekly: costume, make-up, finance, section leaders, tape listeners, etc. Give them proven methods of successfully qualifying on songs. With humor and clarity, walk them through confusing words, phrases and finally the en-tire contest or show experience. Communicate information in every method available to you. Create weekly e-mails for new members on vocal production, showmanship, etc. Call them when they’re not at chorus— a personal touch means so much. Running new member classes is much like the duck— above the water you’re cool and in control; under the water, you’re paddling like crazy!

Working with new members is much like parenting— many joys and lots of commitment, creativity and effort. Our job is to encourage them to find and experience weekly the joy of our hobby while urging them to dream big dreams and be the best that they can be. The best

“Our job is to encourage them to find and experience weekly

the joy of our hobby while urging them to dream big

dreams and be the best that they can be.”

The Red Rose City Chorus recognizes its rookies twice a year. Just before going on stage at the annual show, the show rookies (those members performing in the first show with the chorus) are called to the front and given a special memento.

At the traditional Friends and Family Event (just before contest), the contest rookies (those members competing in their first contest with the chorus) are given beautiful long stemmed red roses with a ribbon that matches the part they sing while the Director reads a personalized poem about each singer.

Have rookie tips to share? E-mail them to [email protected]

A Rookie Toolkit for Chapters is currently in development and

will be available soon!

we can do is to help them develop the tools to accomplish their dreams. As they grow, you feel the pride of knowing you were there to help them take flight. Helping new members grow and acclimate is fun, rewarding and challenging. “The long and short of it” is that “time is of the essence!” “Put your shoulder to the wheel” and you’ll find that it’s actually as “easy as pie!” “Make tracks” and you’ll find that “Lady Luck was smiling on you!” “Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)!” Paula Davis taught “Development and Implementation of a Success-ful Rookie Program” at IES 2008 in San Antonio. You can download the handouts from that class from our web site, by clicking HERE. The Director Education Coordina-tors have polled Sweet Adelines Directors for feedback on the rookie programs they use in their choruses. In the coming months, they will develop a new rookie tool kit and make it available to all choruses to use to develop a rookie program or enhance the one they already have in place. Stay tuned, there’s much more to come!

http://www.sweetadelineintl.org/Handouts/Development%20&%20Implementation%20of%20a%20Rookie%20Program%20-%20Davis.pdf

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week. Why? Simple. I love being the one in front facing the singers. My mentors and cheerleaders have told me that what I do is nothing short of heroic. If I’m to believe them, then what IS the difference between the “Caped Crusader” nights and the “Underdog” nights? The rehearsal plan. First rule: Get one - have one. Second rule: Vary it. Third rule: Make it meaningful. And then I skip to Rule Number Six: “Don’t Take Yourself So Seri-ously.”

In real life when I drop the cape and mask, rehearsals fall somewhere in between that Super Hero place and Underdog. Let’s face it, there’s noth-ing terribly thrilling or mysterious about planning a rehearsal. It takes thought, homework and a bit of crea-tivity. I’ve heard Sharon Babb say that every rehearsal needs moments of “Ha Ha, ah HA, and Awwwww,” i.e., laughter, light bulb moments

It’s Monday. I wake up ready and already I’m rarin’ to go to rehearsal that night. It’s as if thoughts of cho-rus and the songs have been simmer-ing in my head since last week’s re-hearsal and I know exactly what I want to do and exactly how to do it! I’ve done my homework, I have a plan and it’s a good one! I feel fear-less and prepared for chorus! I don my Super Hero cape and mask and fly off to chorus to conquer such mu-sical villains as: dropping key center, lowered palates, forward motion, dropped phrase endings and—EEK, the worst of them all—inconsistent tempo! With my mask and my cape and my phenomenal plan in place, the rehearsal minutes whiz by! My singers follow my leadership bravely and boldly where no singer has gone before! They sing with joy, with lift, with resonance, and they eagerly follow my every instruc-tion! We go out after chorus and I receive massive amounts of praise such as “Great rehearsal, Joan!” or my favorite, the HIGHEST form of Director praise, “Rehearsal was FUN, Joan!” I’ve done it! I’ve made Monday night the best night of the week for my singers and me! Then, next Monday. This time it’s “little ol’ me, Underdog” —with a capital U. EEK! Gotham City is dark and the villains lurked like shadows under the risers, in the water bottles and sometimes, even in (gasp) the windows! I go home ex-claim to my cat, “Holy Harmony, Batman! That was a horror show rehearsal!” What a roller coaster. And, still, I go back to do it all again next

and tugs at our heart strings. These moments can happen on purpose or by chance, but the likelihood of them happening at ALL is severely reduced without a purposeful plan for the evening. I never go to rehearsal without SOME kind of plan for my 180 minutes of making music with my singers. And if I’m on top of the game, I share that plan with my chorus, before and during rehearsal, and I recap it afterwards. It’s not hard to do this, takes very little time, but it does require a conscious action each week. All I ask of my singers is to hang loose with the plan and sometimes we laugh together when I literally tear up my plan right before their very eyes (like the night of the tornado warning when we all sat in

the basement of our church for an hour). Have you heard your singers complain, “I get tired of just standing on the risers for three hours!”? I’ve heard that be-fore. And ignored it be-fore. After all, I have a big responsibility to take care of. The fall show is just six weeks away. Contest is in May. Please, reassure me that I’m not the only one who’s ever uttered these excuses... whoops, I mean phrases. It’s easy for me to stand in front for three hours. I hear all, I

tell all, and I expect all. What I for-get is that rehearsals really aren’t all about me. Ego aside, I have to ex-periment with ways to teach what I want to teach while letting the sing-ers do what they need to do to grow and perform. At my very first Direc-tors’ Seminar in 1997, Karen Brei-dert (master director of Spirit of the Gulf Chorus, and my predecessor at Choral-Aires Chorus) gave us direc-tors in attendance a clever way to

REAL WOMEN WHO IS THAT MASKED WOMAN? By Joan Boutilier, Director, Choral-Aires Chorus and River City Sound Chorus, Region 3 and Tenor, Four Bettys

catalog the things we learn at schools or from other directors. She said to put creative rehearsal ideas on recipe cards, stick them in a recipe box and simply pick one out every now and then to use for rehearsal. The late Vicki Wonders-Foltz (then visual coordinator, Metro Nashville Cho-rus) used simple, short theater games to transition from one song or activ-ity to the next. At a minimum, I make sure that my rehearsals have a variety of activities such as: sec-tional work, choreography review, new song teaching, and repertoire review. Every now and again I get the singers off the risers to sing on the floor, or I mix them up on the risers, or we sit while a small group performs— something to break the “standing for three hours syn-drome.” My challenge is to make sure that these are focused activities which accomplish my musical goals for the evening. Which leads me to my third rule... Make the plan meaningful. I have become a calendar-based planner. I keep in mind three calendars: Long-range (two - three years out): contests, shows, coaching, retreats, banquets/parties, schools Mid-range (12 months): chapter show, guest nights, community per-formances Short-range (two - three months): timeline for introducing new songs, new choreography The weekly rehearsal is used to pre-pare for upcoming events and to also allow time to work on elemental skills of our craft, or to layer skills for advancement in our judging cate-gory requirements. Because I’ve chosen to be a dDirector in an or-ganization that holds annual compe-titions, the way I detail my weekly rehearsals is not only calendar based, but category-based. As an ACJ (approved candidate judge) I under-stand that the requirements of our

judging categories were put in place to help us understand and preserve the means by which we create the music of our art form, barbershop harmony. These requirements also guide my weekly planning. A sample of a weekly rehearsal is: 6:50 p.m.: Pre-chorus meeting con-cludes 7:00 p.m.: Gina: physical warm-ups 7:05 p.m.: Joan: Vocal warm-ups: reminders and instruction for Vocal Skills (posture, breathing, pho-nation, resonation, articula-tion); warm-ups progress from sim-ple to more complex; this week, focus on interval accuracy and vowel match for the [a] vowel since our bal-lad is Chase the Rain Away. 7:20 p.m.: Repertoire: As Long as I’m Singin’ (brush up for perform-ance next month) 7:30 p.m.: Run contest set: allow chorus to perform! 7:40 p.m.: New song: sit in voice part sections; Music Team sings new song; members record; talk through the interpretation plan and traps and have members mark music; teach intro by rote using section leaders as demonstrators. 8:15 p.m.: Choreography team: Review choreography coaching from previous week. 8:45 p.m.: Business 8:55 p.m. : Jane do Vicki Wonders-Foltz’s theater exercise to assist with character development of new up-tune. 9:00 p.m.: Duet rehearsals on new uptune: Joan works with leads/baris, asst. director works with tenors/basses: focus on interval accuracy, octave locks, matching [a] vowels 9:20 p.m.: All sing new uptune; use

Jim Henry’s kinesthetic ideas from IES, focus on keeping a consistent tempo. 9:35 p.m.: Ballad work: Leads stand on floor and sing first 16 measures of Chase the Rain Away, have basses sing with the leads on their part to give basses feeling of singing melodically, do same with baris. Others listen to blend. Allow few minutes for feedback/discussion; sing song all the way through. 9:50 p.m.: Sing It’s Only a Paper Moon (brush up for performance next month). 9:55 p.m.: Final thank you to guests and members; Birthday girl directs How We Sang Today. Some nights I plan what I feel will be the best rehearsal of the year, but occasion-ally “Underdog” appears and I scratch my head in bewilderment on the drive home. That’s when I recall rule number six— not to take myself too seriously. I only have so much power and magic up the sleeves of my cape. EEK, I’m not a Super Hero, but me and that’s okay. Then I go home at least knowing that my chorus members appreciated my intent and preparation. I have comfort in the knowledge that I can take the Super Hero Challenge again next week— “Same bat time, same bat channel.”

A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself. —Maya Angelou, Author & Poet

January 2009

The mere application of time-beating technique to a cho-rus can, metaphorically speaking, “beat the music to death.” Notwithstanding the need for sound directing techniques, the goal is to free the chorus and the music from a strait-jacketed directing format and allow the free unfolding of the essence and life of the music. The concept of the interpretation of a piece of music can be divided into two parts. The first is planning the inter-pretation of the song. The second is conveying that inter-pretation to the singers. The director can use verbal ex-planations in rehearsal, but she/he must depend solely on her/his gestures, stance and facial expression during a performance. Fortunately, we have been able to develop some hand and body signals that are universally recognized as non-verbal communication. For example, hold your hand up, elbow bent, palm out, and all humans will recognize this symbol for “Stop.” Music has developed a similar hand language and the barbershop world has further refined it to suit its needs. The classical approach to directing is that the right hand is used to direct tempo or meter and the left hand re-mains free to mold the dynamics, suggest accents and indicate shading. The right hand has been called the “time-beating hand” and the left hand the “hand of the heart.” Believe it or not, this is the approach for both left- and right-handed directors. This consistent right-hand approach has, fortunately, been part of the singer’s training since grade school and helps the direc-tor in her/his signals. In barbershop music the left hand becomes important when there is a large group (for ex-ample, singing Harmonize the World at a regional event or directing the mass sing at an international function). The left hand is also very handy to have when the direc-tor wishes to interpret a swipe. A. DYNAMIC GESTURES 1. To alter dynamic levels, palm up indicates crescendo, palm down indicates decrescendo. 2. “Soft” is usually indicated by small move -ments; “loud” by larger movements. 3. For extremely soft (pp) use fingers only. For soft (p) use the fingers and wrist. For medium (m), use fingers, wrist and some forearm. For loud (f) use the whole arm. For dynamically

REAL HARMONY

loud (ff) use the whole arm with shoulder involvement. 4. Bringing both hands close together and into the body indicates a soft passage done with intensity — adding musical support to the execution. In barbershop we aim for a fluid flow of music, whether an uptune or a ballad. Because our music is a cappella in style, this constant flow of sound gives a forward flow without the accompaniment available in other forms of music. Therefore, the flowing motions, relatively con-tinuous with strength in the wrist and forearm, will give a legato feel to the music. One of the hallmarks of barbershop music is syncopa-tion. A use of the body and body langauge will help set up the counter beat. The phrasing that is so important to barbershop can be greatly enhanced by the director’s technique. In a long passage, anticipate the place where the singers want to breathe and start a continuous mo-tion before the danger point is reached. Since all singing is based on breathing, and since breathing together unites the singers into a unified body, it also helps to unite them musically. A circular motion toward the singers will remind them that a phrase is to be extended and breath must not be taken. An upward motion (as in crescendo description) will help lift the end of the phrase to add forward motion to the song. B. UPTUNE DELIVERY In a barbershop uptune the meter is often the message of the song. A strong downbeat is important, but directing of words or syllables will cause choppiness to occur and result in an inconsistent tempo. C. BALLAD DELIVERY The barbershop ballad is usually performed ad lib or rubato. The implied meter remains but is obscured by the acceleration and ritard of the rhythm and tempo. Use of flowing motions, relatively continuous, will add flow and consistent sound. To read the rest of Module 1, Directing Skills, please see the DCP Resource Materials Binder or contact the

INTERPRETIVE DIRECTING An excerpt from DCP Module 1: Directing Skills by Marge Bailey, Certified International Faculty, Judge, and Arranger, Chapter-at-Large, Region 24

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DCP ADVANCEMENTSDCP ADVANCEMENTSDCP ADVANCEMENTS

MASTER DIRECTOR Mo Field, Stockholm City Voices Chorus, Region 32

CERTIFIED DIRECTOR Lynda Keever, Spring Valley Chorus, Region 3

Jean Morris, Sweet Sensations Chorus, Region 25 Meg Richens, Brindabella Chorus, Region 34

Joanne Oosterhoff, A Cappella West Chorus, Region 34 Kim Palermo-Bogardus, Long Island Sound Chorus, Region 15

Sharon Pelton, Kawartha Music Chorus, Region 16 Cindy Raskin, Scarborough Chorus, Region 16

Margaret Wong, Adelaide Sound Connection Chorus, Region 34

sales department to order the latest version, released in June 2008, which includes an interactive DVD. The DCP Resource Materials are a valuable collection of all things barbershop that not only directly benefit Sweet Adelines Directors and DCP participants, but all members of the organization. The Education Direction Committee and Director Education Coordinators highly recommend that you encourage members of your chorus to study the in-depth information available in these modules, whether they intend to participate in the Director Certification Pro-gram or not.

International Sales Department: 877-545-5441 or online at www.sweetadelineintl.org

January 2009

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BARBERSHOP TAG TEACHING GUIDELINES Darwin Scheel, Director of Columbia River Chorus, Region 24

Tag (Definition): A tag, in barbershop music, is the last section of the song. Its rough analog in Classical music is a coda. Tags are characterized by a heightening of the dramatic tension of the song, frequently including a hanger, or posted note. In addition, good tags can be sung as short, stand-alone works. Tags may be soft and tender but are typically characterized by loud, "paint peeling," ringing chords. Purpose of this Barbershop Tag Teaching Guidelines Promote Tag singing and to get more singers teaching Tags. Tag Teaching Guidelines (Items 1 – 5 are critical for successful Tag Teach-ing) 1. Know the words to the Tag; without the correct words, no Tags can be taught. A Tag list is helpful. 2. Know the starting chord with reference to the key or tonal center; this is impor-tant for teaching the individual parts and to help give, if needed, everyone’s start-ing pitch before beginning to sing the Tag. 3. Know the individual parts: Tenor, Lead, Bari, Bass, and if applicable, any addi-tional parts. 4. Know the sound of each individual chord in the Tag being taught; knowing when a chord is incorrect can be helpful in indentifying appropriate part corrections. Learn the sound of each chord by playing the chords on a piano or listening to a group sing the Tag.

5. Know the unique characteristics for the Tag; Examples: Bass pick-up, Tenor has the melody, Lead post, Bari solo, individual parts singing different words at the same time, contrapuntal part movement , etc. 6. Always start with a simple, easy Tag for each new Tag session or when inviting another singer with unknown singing abilities to sing a Tag . Result: Instant chords sung with a successful and fulfilling outcome for all singers and listen-ers. 7. Always invite other singers to sing a Tag; those individual singers who are listening to those singing Tags. 8. Only one singer per part is allowed to sing a Tag unless the Tag is being taught to a group or Chorus of singers. 9. Use the following teaching aids when teaching Tags: a. Vocally give the key or tonal center before

teaching individual parts to the Tag; find an appropriate key or use a pitch pipe.

b. Teach the Tag at the intended singing tempo or word rhythm interpretation; do not short cut and sing the part fast when teaching the individual parts; this helps everyone sing the Tag together.

c. Use audible pulsing of held notes and visual hand gestures (horizontal pulsing) to identify other moving parts.

d. Use visual up and down hand gestures to show the different pitches as you teach the individual parts.

e. Use number or solfeggio language to de-note the notes of the scale for those who know the appropriate language; this can be done audibly or by using visual hand/sign language.

f. Teach one section of the Tag at a time for longer Tags; greater than two to four bars

or measures. g. Let singers know if they are singing unison or

octave/doubling another part; if they do not know, they may be temped to avoid someone else’s part by finding another note other than the intended notes to be sung.

h. Reading (singing) written Tags are helpful but it is encouraged that singers learn the Tag quickly so they are not reading but focus-ing on listening to the chords, tuning, balanc-ing, interpreting, matching vowels, visually connecting with the other Tag singers, etc. as they sing the Tag.

i. If singers are successful at singing their part correctly by themselves but struggle when singing against the other parts, tell them to not listen to the other parts, only their own. After successfully singing/experiencing the Tag sung correctly, they can then carefully listen to the other parts and chords.

10. Always encourage and invite new or experi-enced singers, who have not experienced Tagging, to teach or sing Tags. Tag – Why Teach or Sing Tags? • Instant Fun, blending your voice with others while locking and ringing chords. • Learning the Barbershop craft; fine-tuning of chords, vocal production, balance of chords, vowel matching, interpretation, diphthongs, singable consonants, exercises and improves tonal memory, etc. • Learning to hear and identify chords and chord progressions used and not used in Barbershop singing. • Getting singers hooked on Barbershop singing. • Tag teaching/singing improves the Barbershop knowledge and vocal and listening skills of Chorus singers, Quartet singers, Directors, Coaches, and Judges.

REAL FUN

January 2009

Have a REAL FUN story to share? Please send it to: [email protected]

Here are some standard barbershop tags to inspire you and your singers! HAVE FUN SINGING AND RINGING!

more, all of the musicians (not just the conductors) I knew were teach-ers. That’s what I thought people did who studied music. It was only after I conducted and taught for several years that I encountered the “conservatory”, where students were preparing for professional careers in music, and music education was only one option for them, and in most cases, not the first. The students in voice at Boston University, where I presently teach and conduct, for ex-ample, are studying and preparing for careers in vocal performance. Very few intend to teach in the school classroom or conduct choirs. Of course, we can point out the harsh realities of the professional perform-ance world. All of us can relate sto-ries of the promising and talented young singers who are in the city working in restaurants and audition-ing while they wait for their big break. Some of them even sing in choruses to earn money as they wait! (Sadly, there are few professional choruses in the country now employ-ing singers full time—Chanticleer, Cantus, to name two—you may know others.) Few make it and have a career singing professionally, as we all know, but some do and that gives others hope! It is not my intention to discourage them. Rather, I am aware that sitting in front of me as I con-duct choruses are singers with a wide range of career intentions, some of which will include the career-minded vocal performance major and the music education student with a cho-ral emphasis, to the non-music ma-jor, the child or youth, and the aging singer. What is my responsibility to their vocal development? (In view of some of the literature with which I am acquainted, the care of the voice is not my responsibility. I happen to

disagree vigorously with that view.) How am I to care for the voice in the rehearsal? What can I do that will assure the students (and our voice-teaching colleagues) that I have their healthy singing paramount in my mind? There are some limiting factors. Some conductors have insufficient knowledge of appropriate repertoire for the young singer or the singer with the “million dollar” voice who is concerned about manipulating it too much in choral rehearsal; some are not well prepared to analyze a score to figure out how to minimize the amount of time a singer spends in the extreme of the range, for example, or at a demanding dynamic; still others are pianists or composers first and have limited understanding of the voice and feel uncomfortable training and developing it in the rehearsal. It is also important to recognize that some lack the necessary skills to manage the rehearsal itself and so singers are allowed to develop un-healthy habits. On the other hand, and thankfully, many of us are sing-ers and have had a great deal of ex-perience with the voice. One crucial element in the process of dealing with the voice in the choral rehearsal is identifying our own strengths and weaknesses and then working to rem-edy the weaknesses while continuing to explore our strengths. Recently, I have been given a manu-script to review on the subject of the solo singer in the choral rehearsal that raises many issues with which I am uncomfortable. So today I am going to address the basics of voice-building for the choral conductor. There are so many things about which the voice teacher and the cho-ral conductor might disagree, that I

It is wonderful to be back in South-ern California where, many years ago, my career as a choral conductor began. Those days were rich and wonderful. It was my good fortune to be in this region when Charles Hirt and James Vail were at Southern California—Hirt conducted the first festival performance in which my choir sang. In addition, Howard Swan was active at Occidental Col-lege, and, for a convention meeting, he agreed to do the first rehearsal of the year with his choir; Paul Salamu-novich was teaching at Loyola Mary-mount; Jane Skinner Hardester was at El Camino College; and other dis-tinguished conductors were at work in other colleges and universities. All of these fine professionals had an enormous influence on me as a young teacher. It was also a time when the Southern California Vocal Association meet-ings organized sessions around the latest research in Vocal Technique and Vocal Science. It was in those meetings that I saw the early pic-tures of the vocal folds in action, and I learned from the vocal scientists a great deal about the technical aspects of voice production. (I must also quickly acknowledge the enormous contribution of William Vennard, whose book Singing, the Mechanism and the Technique, was prominent on my shelf.) It was my experience at the time that the voice teacher was a choral conductor and the choral conductor was often a voice teacher. My first serious voice teacher was the conduc-tor of the university’s large chorus and the opera productions. He also participated in the early research in speech pathology and audiology ex-ploring sinus resonance. Further-

Forward Motion

VOICE TRAINING IN THE CHORAL REHEARSAL by Dr. Ann Howard Jones, Director of Choral Activities at Boston University Used by permission, from the May 2008 American Choral Directors Association’s Choral Journal

Author’s note: The following remarks are edited from a keynote address given at the 2008 ACDA Western Division Convention in Anaheim, California.

January 2009

am going to attempt to speak about the things with which most of us agree— mindful of the fact that voice teachers as a group agree about very little! I am also mindful of the fact that the sound of the choir is personal. Each of us has his or her own way of working on the special sound we hear for our own choir. The fact remains that some of us need some guidance and all of us need an occasional reminder on how that sound comes into being and how we can monitor it and train it to make it more beautiful, more expressive and health-ier. As a start, there are some things we can do: • Study voice. •Ask successful colleagues for help. • Attend conferences and conventions where you can learn-not simply by lis-tening to great choirs, but also by at-tending rehearsals and sessions where techniques are taught and explained. • Watch a skilled and experienced con-ductor build a choir’s tone. (Isn’t that one of the benefits of an all-state or an honor choir?) • Learn the International Phonetic Al-phabet. Correcting vowels and standard-izing them is a major part of improving singers’ sounds. • Encourage members of the choir to study voice privately. It is still true that the best choirs are made up of the best voices. • Organize a voice class for your choir. Most people who sing want to sound better themselves and would appreciate the opportunity to learn. (In Atlanta, with the Symphony Chorus, Robert Shaw enlisted the assistance of Florence Kopleff, distinguished soloist with the Robert Shaw Chorale and now-retired professor of voice at Georgia State Uni-versity, to teach a voice class every Monday night before rehearsal. Singers would come with an art song prepared;

they would sing for Miss Kopleff and she would comment. Scary, but invaluable, and most who ventured forth found the experience worth the anxiety. The idea, obviously, is to improve the sound of the chorus by increasing the capacity of each singer to sing with more beauty, more color, more control, more dynamic variation, more expressive phrasing, etc.) • Read the appropriate material in the professional journals. The Choral Jour-nal frequently contains a column called "On the Voice," Sharon Hansen, editor, which can provide significant informa-tion and assistance. I recommend enthu-siastically the writings of Stephen F. Austin, associate professor of voice at the University of North Texas. His arti-cle "Building Strong Voices: Twelve Different Ways!" is in the Choral Jour-nal of December 2007. There are many others. • Invite a trusted voice teacher/friend to attend a rehearsal. Think of them as voice builders in the old German sense. I remember two such voice teachers who came to choral rehearsals specifically to assist with vocal issues: Who can forget Frauke Haasemann, and many of us knew Molly Rich who assisted Robert Rich at Stetson. I am sure there are many others. These voice teachers came into the rehearsal to assist with vocal matters and the conductor was left to shape the music itself. It is much the same procedure as that used with an orchestra where the conductor is not expected to teach the musicians how to play the individual instruments, but to shape the music and create the ensem-ble. The private teacher is the person responsible for the player’s technical skill. • Program quality literature that gives your singers a vehicle for singing well. I have great admiration for my friend and colleague at Harvard University, Jameson Marvin, who has such intelli-gent singers, but no performance ma-jors. He chooses a lot of early music and sharply dissonant 20th century music—music that suits the color palette of the

voices he has. If the goal is to enable the chorus to make a beautiful, communicative, sensitive and expressive sound in health, then all the differences that exist among us—the amount of rehearsal time, the objectives of the particular program, the priorities of the singers in the chorus, the train-ing that the singers bring to the chorus, and the kind of literature that we sing—must serve that end. We as conductors have a crucial role in the development of the en-semble and its sound. Here are some suggestions to help us be more effective. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR THE REHEARSAL Model appropriate postural mechan-ics. • Be centered. • Keep your torso long, not col-lapsed. • Convey energy; buoyancy in your body. • Monitor tension in your head, mouth, neck, face, hands. Elimi-nate it if you can. Watch for gestural interference as you conduct. • Preparatory gesture must not stop. • Take care that cut-offs are not unusually abrupt. • Remember that a cue is an invita-tion. • Keep the gesture full of breath and use the horizontal space to en-courage line in the voice. Singers must stand and sit well.

pitch, beautiful tone, good diction, accurate rhythm, healthy singing and leave the vocal or physical ma-nipulation and the words describing those things to the studio teacher. The following ideas describe good singing for me: • Body Attitude Proper vocal technique depends on good postural mechanics. Rather than talk about the elements of good posture by speaking about the vari-ous body parts, I try to talk about the body’s energy. I think it is important to emphasize the active engagement of the body with the mind. The singer should think about being connected. I suggest they stand as if they are about to walk on a tight rope. (It should pull the torso up and lengthen it. It gives the body the feeling of suspension.) Spring up on the toes. Feel as if you could stride from your singing readiness. Jog lightly to keep the mind and the body engaged. Singing does not come out of a static body. Run. Step. Stretch. Feel a connection to the core. Be ready. Think about a posi-tive connection between the body and tone production. Like an athlete, the singer in the wrong alignment is going to compensate in some way that is likely to cause problems. Great assistance can be provided by work on Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais, obviously, but the atti-tude of the mind with the body is important. • Appropriate Work For me, it is impossible to think about singing as a relaxed activity. Singing is physical. It is athletic. It requires the action of appropriate muscles and the releasing of others. Some are voluntary, some are invol-untary. The diaphragm, for example, is an involuntary muscle. The neck, mouth, shoulders and head should be released so that the muscles of inha-lation and exhalation can do their work. Managing exhalation is impor-tant. Expansion in the area below

the rib cage is inevitable as the lungs fill. These are things about which most of us would agree, but all of this is a complex coordination of muscu-lature, and it is not “relaxed.” The muscular activity required in singing is explained differently by different singers and teachers and people ex-perience different sensations when they sing. So I think it is less contro-versial and less difficult for the singer if I emphasize releasing the muscles that interfere (jaw, throat, neck, shoulders, face, legs, etc.) and let the studio teacher emphasize the muscu-lar sensations after that. There is too much room for misinterpretation and misunderstanding in this area for me to wade in casually! Many vocal exer-cises are designed to emphasize the release of the muscles that are work-ing when they should not be (“ya,” “ma,” and “pa” to release the jaw, “la” for the tongue, “ng” for the pal-ette and the tongue, etc.). Stretching, moving, swinging the arms and all kinds of physical activity can help release the inappropriate muscles so that the appropriate ones can work. • Tone That Is In Motion The sound should spin, the breath should be moving. Forcing air and pushing breath is to be avoided, in my opinion. The sound progresses through a phrase because the breath is allowing the tone to move. I use the phrase "on the breath" to try to help the singers keep the tone and the breath connected and moving. Hissing, humming, and then opening to a vowel can be helpful because one cannot hiss or hum unless breath is flowing through the mechanism and then the vowel can ride right on the hiss or the hum. In this area, I might venture into the concept of the “sleeve” of the sound of a section. Singers need to be aware of the sound of the chorus and to sing within that sound. One of the biggest voices I have ever had in a chorus told me she thought about focusing the energy of the sound more and singing with a tone that is less “blowzy” (her word— I certainly wanted the sound

• Because we do so much work with the singers seated, be careful to moni-tor their seated posture. (Simon Carrington, our distinguished col-league from Yale University, led a session at the Eastern Division con-vention in Hartford this spring where he emphasized helpful singing pos-ture especially while the singer is seated.) PRINCIPLES OF GOOD SINGING Some years ago, I had the good for-tune of hearing a wonderful talk on good singing by Elmer Copley, a teacher of voice in the Midwest. I have added to his basic ideas (so much so that sometimes I can’t re-member what is his and what is mine!) and found that they have been helpful to many people, so here are six principles of good singing that I think will help anyone who is inter-ested in vocal development for sing-ers in chorus. A cautionary note: Re-member that singers in the chorus do not always hear the precise thing you are saying. They might not under-stand; the words might not mean anything to them; they might hear something that you are not saying; they might misinterpret your mean-ing. Be especially careful when you are discussing technical matters. If you are in doubt, check your ideas and the words you use to express them with a colleague you know well and respect. Ask for help to make your language more precise; educate your own ear to hear sounds that need adjusting. I think it is impor-tant to stay out of the voice teacher’s way. The young voice in performance programs is working very hard to develop technical expertise to serve the repertoire that they are singing. I don’t think it is in that voice’s best interest, or our own, for that matter; to interfere with that. This is NOT to say that bad pitch, aberrational vibrato, excessively bright or dark tones, forced singing and other vocal faults are to be encouraged—even allowed—in chorus. But, I do try to emphasize unison singing, excellent

Forward Motion

January 2009

of her voice in the choir; but she could have out-sung all of us without her at-tention to the “sleeve.” • Breath As Energy The concept of “support” is an elusive one for many people who are trying to sing. It seems to imply something static. I prefer to think of something more ac-tive. The breathing mechanism is a natural one; it functions without our giving it any thought. To extend it for singing, a deeper sensation and a more controlled release are required. But the main thing for me is to think about the breath being the activator of the tone and the breath serving the phrase. Air needs to flow through the cords before there will be tone; impedance in this area will be troublesome, but I try to talk about breath energy and I use exer-cises that connect the breath to the tone without much explanation to avoid us-ing words that will cause the singers to have questions. Staccato and other ar-ticulations, especially the tenuto, hum-ming and hissing again, tongue and lip trills, and many other exercises will help. It is useful to me to remember that singers will take in the breath that is needed to sing a phrase. It is therefore necessary to rehearse in phrases and not in little spurts so the singer can learn to take in and release breath to manage the phrase. It is analogous to a string player and the bow. • Radical Vowels The following words describe a radical vowel for me: focused, centered, and accurate (i.e., not modified too much or too soon). Remember that the vowels carry the tone. In the chorus, vowels are first of all correct (check IPA) and then unified. (Vowel unification and color can be dramatically affected by the place-ment of the singers in the chorus. Ex-periment to see if you can find an opti-mum arrangement for the singers’ sounds or give them so much space around themselves that they are singing like a soloist! For me as a singer; the worst thing that can happen to me is to have another singer breathing right down my neck. I feel as if I can’t sing my own sound, and that is usually be-

cause I can’t hear it.) Vowels can have varying colors depending on the text or the mood or the dynamic. Modification is needed to create more space to accom-modate the vowel in the extreme of the range. Too many singers modify too soon and too much without realizing it so the vowel loses its definition, its shape, and its “radicalness.” A five-tone descending scale with the vowels oo [u] and ee [i] alternated rapidly on each pitch is good and I like to exercise on the ee [i] vowel in general. Singers can use their hands moving from low at the back of the head to the front and top while singing to suggest the vowel’s mi-gration up and over and out. I am lis-tening for a vowel with a lot of “dome,” lots of space and a lot of ring—whatever the vowel. I think it is up to the conduc-tor to decide what the correct vowel is and then work to get everyone to pro-duce that vowel in the center of the same pitch. A unified, correct, ringing, and well-shaped vowel does a great deal for the choir’s sound. I like the “yawn-sigh” exercise of William Vennard to work on this. It is also a great exercise to release the energy in a rehearsal. It can help singers release tension. If you need help in knowing what vowels are the correct ones in singing, there are many sources for guidance on the Inter-national Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and many writers on the subject of diction in various languages that can help. Con-ductors are urged not to neglect excel-lent English diction. We absolutely should be able to be understood when singing in our own language! The writings of Madeleine Marshall, Joan Wall, John Moriarty, and many others are available to provide assistance. • Breath And Text As Rhythmic Events Robert Shaw always used to say, “The right note at the wrong time is the wrong note.” One of the reasons the right note is at the wrong time is that the consonant hasn’t been placed ahead of the beat or the onset of the breath is too relaxed and too late. In both cases, the vowel sounds late and it is often out of tune. Inhalation affects the onset of the tone; the onset affects rhythmic precision. Often a

“lazy” breath can be remedied by encouraging rhythmic breathing. Some of my voice teacher col-leagues would not necessarily advo-cate a rhythmic breath if the singer has time to take a longer one, but a rhythmic breath can help an onset have more precision. The more precise the en-semble rhythm, the more concen-trated the sound. The more rhyth-mically precise the vowel and the pitch, the more convincing the sound. Singers need to practice the so-called “catch breath”, fast rhythmic breathing, that can some-times cause problems in the produc-tion of a free sound. Rhythmicizing text is an important element in the famous count-singing exercises of Robert Shaw. Utilizing this tech-nique, consonants, especially final consonants at the ends of phrases or before breaths, are placed rhythmically. For example, to practice a [t] release on the “and” of four, the singer counts aloud 1 and 2 and 3 (we always substitute “tee” because the initial “th” takes too long) and 4, with the placement of the final consonant [t] in the place of the “and” of 4. Any final consonant can be rehearsed this way. One of the benefits of this rhythmic treatment of text is preci-sion of releases, obviously, but it also can have a positive effect on the breath that follows the release. In the interior of a text, rhythmic precision of pronunciation can help to unify a chorus, transmit text more clearly, and create a more convincing sound. As Shaw used to say, “clarity of enunciation not only clarifies ‘meaning;”it enhances and enriches choral “color.” (Robert Shaw, in a letter to the chorus from October 2, 1991. Read that same letter for Shaw’s interesting comments on vibrato! Cited in Blocker: The Robert Shaw Reader, page 87.) This precision needs to be rehearsed. We spent hours in the Atlanta Symphony Choruses count singing for preci-sion, believing as our leader did,

that rhythmic precision could hardly be precise enough! The ideas I have just talked about have been learned and assimilated from years of my own study and teaching of voice; from my own singing, both as a soloist and as a member of a chorus; from forty years of conducting every kind of chorus imaginable; and from endless discussion with colleagues who are sing-ers, teachers and conductors, and who themselves have grappled with these concerns. All of us have the singer at the forefront of our thinking. Many of these colleagues have observed the rehearsals I have con-ducted and collaborated with me in developing these concepts. I owe them my thanks. Remember this quotation from Leonard Bernstein: “In spite of nature’s ills and man’s inhumanities, there are baser and nobler options of action. And it is part of being human to choose the nobler. War may continue to exist; we will continue to sing.” Let’s try to make the singing more beautiful and nobler. Thank you. Ann Howard Jones (DMA, University of Iowa) is professor of music and director of choral activities at Boston University, where she conducts the Boston University Symphonic Chorus and Chamber Chorus, teaches advanced choral conducting, and serves as conductor of the Boston University Tanglewood In-stitute Young Artists Choruses. She was assistant conductor for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, where she was associated with the late Robert Shaw. In addition, Jones served as conductor for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Chorus, and was Musical Assistant for the Robert Shaw Singers, the Festival Singers, and the Robert Shaw Institute. She has taught at the Universities of Iowa, Georgia, and Illinois, as well as at Wittenberg and Emory Universities; served as a musical emissary to Germany and France; and was a Fulbright Professor in Brazil, lecturing in choral arid vocal pedagogy. Jones has conducted over twenty all-state choirs, and is a life member of ACDA. Ms. Jones may reached via email: [email protected]

Forward Motion

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The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) will host its 50th Anniversary National Convention in Oklahoma City, March 4-7, 2009. Over 4,000 choral directors, industry representatives, choirs and observers will gather for the biennial conference, using the Civic Center Music Hall and Cox Convention Center as anchor venues for the various events. Highlights of the 2009 National Convention include a citywide concert premiering the commissioned composition Cenotaph for choir and orchestra by internationally acclaimed composer Dominick Argento, a peace event for the city and convention atten-dees at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, performance from over 30 of the world’s greatest choirs, including Vocal Majority, the first barbershop ensemble to be featured at an ACDA National Convention since 1988. There are a number of interest sessions including Benefits of Barbershop in the Choral Classroom taught by Rick Spencer. There will also be a host of ceremonies and receptions to celebrate ACDA’s 50-year history. With this year’s spotlight focused on the art of barbershop harmony, International President Peggy Gram and Director of Education Lori Decter Wright will be networking with convention attendees during the week’s events. In addition, Director of Music Services Carol Schwartz and Education Department Associate Manager Janell Mason, will be exhibiting a Sweet Adelines International booth at the convention, enhanced with live performances by quartets from the local Sweet Adelines Interna-tional Chapter, O.K. City Chorus, in an effort to reach community directors and music educators as well as potential members. If you are a member of ACDA and/or plan to attend this convention, please let us know by contacting Lori Decter Wright, [email protected]. We’d love to have as many Sweet Adelines as possible represented at this historic event. If you are also an educator, you may earn continuing education units (CEU) as a registered attendee by contacting ACDA. For more information about ACDA, joining as a member or attending the convention, please contact the ACDA National Headquarters in Oklahoma City: www.acdaonline.com or 405-232-8161. You may also download their Convention Registration Brochure from their Web site.

AMERICAN CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION (ACDA)

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Registration materials were sent to all directors and judges via e-mail on January 5, 2009. Please be sure that we have your current e-mail address on file.

If you haven’t received your materials electronically by January 31, 2009, please contact us: [email protected]

January 2009

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