Honing Skills
students, but have a variety of pieces and difficulty levels. If you have recruited strong leaders you can count on, this beGaffney’s camps are generally repcomes easier.” ertoire-focused, with an emphasis on As for the specifics of the technique, skills such as sight-singing, vocal techMarsh uses Kodaly solfege syllables nique, and interpretation. “This means to aid in sight reading and in learning that choristers are expected virtually all of their music. to leave choir camp with “During vocal camp, we ofthe ability to perform new ten learn four or five of the literature, but also with new pieces on solfege,” he notes. or refreshed choral skills,” “So we spend part of the he says. “Sometimes a choir first day teaching students to camp might even be focused write in solfege syllables and on a specific aspect of choral using it in rehearsal. We also craft, such as sight singing or use the camp to teach our Allenhanced vocal range, using State audition piece to give Michael Gaffney full group, small group, and students a head start. Each individual sessions designed morning we use extended to enhance this focus.” warm-up time like a group voice class to Ryan Marsh also has specific goals teach vocal techniques as related to posregarding skills and technique that he ture, breathing, tone, and so on.” hopes to demonstrate, and that starts with choosing repertoire. “I try to choose a variety of repertoire that is of high quality and will challenge students – accessible yet challenging,” he says. “Foreign language (Latin excluded) pieces are great fun and offer a good challenge, especially in pieces with fast tempi. I always choose one very fast foreign language piece – the more obscure language, the better. I also limit popular or show tune selections to one or none. It may be difficult to predict the ability level, especially with many new
Staffing Bringing in the right amount of staffers and counselors, and finding knowledgeable and trustworthy individuals, can be a huge relief for the choral director running the show. “Be sure to hire enough adult help,” advises Ryan Marsh. “This might include private voice teachers, hired section leaders, assistant directors, and/or accompanists. Bring back former students who might now be studying music or music educa-
tion to give them an opportunity to lead sectionals, vocalizes, and do some teaching. Involve newly graduated seniors to be student section leaders. We hire one recently graduated senior in each section, in addition to any college students serving as section leaders. We pay them each $100. It’s a good idea to involve parents in organizing and delivering food, taking money, registration, and so on. Having extra people around is good practice and makes life easier for the directors. One director should not do it all.” Steve Lorenz starts his search for help early. “I start securing cabin counselors in January or February, as soon as we’ve nailed down dates for the summer,” he says. “Most of the counselors are alumni of my choral program, although not necessarily music majors or professional musicians. However, they’re all people who have kept music in their lives in some way, and that serves as a really good for our high school students, most of whom will not pursue music professionally.”
Work vs. Play One challenge directors must decide is the balance between choral activities and other forms of recreation or teambuilding activities. “It’s always a hard balance for the kids,” confirms Lorenz. “When the kids walk out of the end of
Choral Director, January 2012 7