Festival Repertoire...

So let me spend a moment talking about music and education.

Today I spent time preparing music for a festival I am conducting in a week and a half.  The festival is for high school students who auditioned and were selected.  When I was selecting music, I really debated about the type of music I should select.  Should I choose quality literature I believe has some great teaching and musical value, but they might know?  Should I choose literature that is unknown completely to them?  How "teacher-y" should I get?  How predictable should the repertoire be?  If it's too outside the box, will the students not enjoy it?

Lots of considerations.

So I decided on:
- A South African Freedom song... there is a piece I'm going to teach by rote.  I hesitated on this for two reasons.  1) I hated learning by rote when I was younger.  It's frustrating.  2) I didn't want it to seem hokey.  BUT... 1) learning by rote is not a skill many musicians end up honing.  It was GOOD for me to practice learning by rote when I was younger, no matter if it was frustrating.  Plus learning by rote is part of the tradition of the music. And 2) It's not hokey.  It's part of history, and we can share in the understanding of history and the world at large by singing music like this.
- The Heavens Declare (Haydn)... This is a great piece.  I'm concerned that some of the singers may have already sung it.  There are also some great arrangements out there of it.  So, if you have a larger program, this is something a high school choir could easily pull off.  But, we have a lot of students from small programs, who maybe wouldn't get a chance to sing this.  So I took a chance.
- Kyrie from Mass in E flat by Amy Beach... I doubt many, if any, of the high schoolers have sung this.  I love this piece for many reasons.  1) It's easy to make music quickly on this piece.  There is SO much meat to it.  2) There are a variety of solos.  3) There are definitely tricky bits, but it's rewarding.  4) It's by an early American woman composer.  How many high school students know who Amy Beach is?  How much attention do we give her as a composer of large forms?  It's such a neat part of our music history.
- Goodbye, Then by Timothy Takach... I'm really excited about this work, but a little nervous.  The notes and rhythms aren't super tricky, although if not taught well, the notes could be a disaster.  I really like Tim's music.  I think more people should be singing it.  I enjoy the way the piece builds.  Plus, the text is wonderful.  I chose it partly because I think the text is relatable.  It's real.  It would be easy to sing this piece and not really commit.  But if the singers can commit vocally, emotionally, and musically, this will be an extremely rewarding and moving piece for them.  I suppose the success of this one comes down to how good of a job I can do at teaching and relating it.
- John the Revelator arr. Caldwell & Ivory... This is the type of piece one might expect to end a concert with.  I don't mean to be so predictable, but it's a great closer.  With my small tenor section, this will work well.  It's energetic and "fun," yet there are some interesting stylistic things I can teach.  Not to mention, we can work on subdivisional pulse and rhythmic precision.

Every festival is different.  Every ensemble is different.  I had ideas outside of these, but these were the pieces I decided on programming.  If they don't work, then I will learn why.  But I will do my best to teach well and to provide a good musical and education experience for these young singers.

Planning for the Unpredictable

Well, this spring is turning out much differently than I envisioned.

I like to plan.  But it's tricky to plan for things that are inherently unpredictable.

So, I make a plan and then expect the plan to not work out.  This might sound frustrating to most people, but for me, as long as I have an initial plan, I can work around it.  Perhaps it's a learned skill from teaching.  I always plan and expect each rehearsal to get away from my initial rehearsal plan.

This next week is an intense "planning" week.  I'm spending more time prepping music for not only the February concert (which is planned, but can always use work), planning for April and making marks in music- which is the REAL work related task this week, finishing up a large chunk of my thesis document, and catching up on some emails.

I have already lost 3 rehearsals this semester and will lose rehearsals this next week.  That means I have very few rehearsals between now and our next concert (February 24).  But, at least there is a lot of time between that concert and the April masterworks concert.  And let's be honest, singing Mozart can be hard.  And that is what we are doing in April.

It is always hard for me to lose rehearsals.  Of course, nobody likes it, but I don't want my students to lose progress and lose momentum.  They ended first semester on such a great note (no pun intended).

Next time, hopefully a post on music.

Prep for the Week

I will miss teaching advanced conducting this semester.  I am glad I don't have to prepare for the course, considering everything else that is happening this semester, but I really love teaching conducting.

I have one week before second semester begins.  Aside from dissertation fun (which I finished the first draft of my second chapter today), this week is focused on music preparation and a few logistical things I have to follow-up on.  I have a lot of music preparation to do, although I'm feeling closer to prepared for the music on our first concert this semester.  I'll spend more time on it this week, but I will also continue preparing the Mozart the choirs will be singing in April.

What a fun few months coming up!

I really did chose the right career path.  I love teaching.  I love music making.

Two Months of Hard Work?

I have not been able to find the time to work on my music preparation for second semester.  Now, second semester starts January 11, so I still have time.  And yes, I have the music picked out.  And to be fair, I've looked at all of it and have started marking some of it.  And some of it is easy to prep.  But still, I would like to be able to spend more time on it over the next week without compromising the time I write my dissertation.

Speaking of which, I'm almost done with the first draft of my second chapter.  And then- I plan on hitting my third chapter hard this month.  Then when that is done- great!

I will be quite irritated if anyone on my committee wants me to change the entirety of how I arranged my chapters... or if my topic isn't approved as I submitted it.  Because I wrote my proposal in June.  And submitted it in August.  And I don't have time (really, the patience) to let it continue at this pace.

I feel very helpless in moving the process along.  I'm working on my stuff, but I'm waiting on others. Unfortunately, when my stuff doesn't get done, the onus is on me, no matter if I've done my work.  And it's my future and my career that is affected.  It's those jobs I don't get or become unqualified for if my dissertation defense is pushed off another semester.  And it's the almost $500 of student fees on top of my dissertation credits that I have to pay a semester.

So, music preparation.  That's my focus.  And my dissertation.  And then come March, I'm taking a little more time off.