NDACDA Chorister - Winter 2023 Issue

North Dakota ACDA Leadership

Dean Jilek, president, University of North Dakota Connie Stordalen, president elect, Horizon Middle School Cheryl McIntyre, past president, Jamestown High School Sheldon Weltz, treasurer

North Dakota Repertoire and Resources Committee

Repertoire Specific Coordinator: Tom Porter University of Mary Men’s Choirs: Christopher Loeffler, Women’s Choirs: Lauren Brandenburg, Fargo South HS/Eielson MS Vocal Jazz: Mike Seil, Bismarck Legacy High School Showchoir: Connie Stordalen, Horizon Middle School

Ethnic/Multicultural Music: Phillip Voeller, Beulah Middle/High School

Youth Coordinator: Sarah Barnum, Discovery Middle School Children and Community: Brady Gudgel, Mandan Middle School Middle School/Junior High: Paige Bondley, Mandan Middle School

Rachel Schaffner, Bismarck Legacy High School Senior High School: Brian Saylor, Bismarck High School

Collegiate Coordinator: Chris Redfearn, University of Jamestown Youth College/University: Chris Redfearn

Student Activities: Melanie Popejoy University of North Dakota

Life Long Coordinator: Sara Lichtblau, Fargo South High School Community Choirs: Sarah Barnum Music in Worship: Traditional: Vicky Boechler, St. Mary’s High School, Contemporary: Sara Lichtblau

Brent Rogers, Dickinson State University Patrick McGuire, Sts. Anne and Joachim Editor and Designer, The Chorister Content Coordinator brent.w.rogers@dickinsonstate.edu

Contents

State Conference 2023

Connie Stordalen, Horizon MS

What’s in the Folder?

Brady Ritland, West Fargo HS

It’s Time to Warm Up!

Patrick McGuire, Sts. Anne and Joachim, Fargo

State Conference 2023

It’s the final countdown ….

North Dakota ACDA conference will be in Bismarck, ND February 3rd and 4th, 2023! Honor Choir rehearsals and teacher conference sessions will be held at Bismarck High School. The NDACDA board and honor choir chairs are putting together the final touches to make this a wonderful event for all. We are creating opportunities not only for your amazing students to learn and grow as musicians but for teachers to share and spark new ideas in their classrooms.

The Friday sessions will begin at 1:15 pm with Whitney Mayo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Music Education, UND on the subject “Examine your Narrative: Considering the story of your program”. What is the story of your music program? In this session, Mayo will discuss the importance of narrative and engage participants in the exploration of program narratives from various perspectives, including the teacher, the students, administrators, and community stakeholders. In addition to Whitney Mayo’s presentation, we will have a session starting at 2:30 pm from Justin Montigne, DMA Assistant Professor of Voice, UND on “Dynamic Vocal Warmups for the Choral Rehearsal”. Montigne's presentation will focus on BBVB (Body, Breath, Voice, Brain), individual technical growth through group vocalization, repertoire-focused warmup creation, setting expectations, group agreements, and building community through group vocalization. Session attendees should be prepared to sing ! A full list of session presenters and the conference session schedule can be found online at ndacda.com. We have a wonderful lineup of presenters and a wide variety of presentation topics for the 2023 conference you’ll not want to miss!

A big thank you goes out to Poppler's Music in Grand Forks for providing our reading session packets and to all the presenters for their preparation of session material. See you February, 3rd!

Connie Stordalen Horizon Middle School NDACDA President-Elect/Conference Chair

connie_stordalen@bismarckschools.org

What ’s in the Folder?

As we get back into the swing of classes at West Fargo High School, the choirs are currently working towards their Spring concert on March 2nd , as well as the WFPS combined high school choir concert currently slated for mid-May. As much as they have a time and place, my kids are extremely excited to be done singing Christmas carols and songs about winter, so morale in the department is very high! Here’s a couple pieces from the folder and my thoughts on them:

One piece that I am extremely excited about is “O Love,” by Elaine Hagenberg. From the first read through my kids were hooked, and now they exclaim with excitement whenever they see it listed on the daily schedule. Hagenberg has crafted such a sublimely beautiful piece with a painfully gorgeous text by George Matheson, it’s sure to be a hit with your group. My SATB Concert Choir is currently learning the piece, but it is available in multiple voicings that are equally beautiful.

One piece that will be a challenge for my singers is “Il est bel et bon,” by Passereau. My Madrigal Singers group is tackling this piece currently, and it is a departure from the style of music we have done in that ensemble this year so far. The Madrigals transition to The Carolers during the holiday season, so going from homophonic settings of “Let it Snow” to a fast, polyphonic madrigal such as this will be a bit of a mental switch for them, but I know they are up for the challenge. This piece will also be a challenge for me as a teacher, as my experience with teaching imitative polyphonic music is not as padded as some other genres of choral music, but I am also excited for the challenge!

One piece that is “different” for my singers is Russ Robinson’s arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” (score preview) (recording). As I’ve stepped into my first year at WFHS, the choral tradition laid out by my predecessor is very evident; the sense of community and belonging that my choirs have make my job very easy, and I feel blessed every day to come to work in such a wonderful program. But of course, as a new teacher I just HAVE to switch things up a little and give a choir that has never sung jazz a very crunchy and shimmery tune that makes their faces scrunch up. They have latched on immediately and it is becoming one of their favorite songs, but I hear the choir say things that prove they haven’t had much exposure to music like this in the past. Talking about a major 7th chord, one of my altos told me: “I wrote ‘ugly’ in my music, so I remember that I have the note that makes the chord sound the way it does.” They’ll learn soon enough that dissonance is their friend…

It’s going to be an amazing spring semester at WFHS, and I wish a wonderful back half of the year to all of you choristers out there!

Brady Ritland West Fargo High School

It ’s Time to Warm Up!

Brr! It’s cold outside, better warm up! We do a lot of things in this part of the country to ‘warm up,’ so I thought it might be a good time to talk about how we warm up. Of course, now I’m talking about our singers. What goes into making a ‘good’ warm up? What are some tried and true exercises to help our groups get better? I asked a smattering of vocal teachers across the region, and here’s what they had to say:

“Warm-ups are more than just preparing the voice to sing. Creating repertoire influenced warm-ups can be a great way to reinforce melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic elements you are currently rehearsing.”

-Brandon Hurley, Choir Teacher, Dawson-Boyd HS (Dawson, MN)

We can’t warm-up for the sake of warming up. Our students need purposedriven learning to stay engaged and make progress. When they can connect what they do in warm ups to what they are singing in the rest of rehearsal, they synthesize the information presented to them and internalize it very effectively.

“SOVTs (semi-occluded vocal tract exercises) can include lip trills; exercises using nasal consonants [m], [n] [ŋ]; "blow fish" (vocalising through a narrow opening of the lips, like a tight [u] shape; anything that occludes the vocal tract and therefore the air. Using SOVTs helps moderate breath flow, aligns the vocal folds, and allows the student to concentrate on other technical aspects like alignment and inhalation, [which] at the same time are effective and gentle vocalises for warming up, intermediate work, and cooling down.”

-Dr. Holly Janz, Professor of Voice, Concordia College

This is a great nugget of wisdom! Intentional exercises like these lead to intentional progress. When we break it down and isolate techniques for our singers to practice, we help them cultivate more ownership of their instrument. Be sure to talk through this at a level appropriate to your ensemble, to help them take ownership of the work they are doing too.

“I have some young students that need help waking up in the morning

before they can output anything to me. If I get them up and moving it helps them when they come in sluggish. Stretching at the beginning of a rehearsal is a great way to get them started and help them focus. I especially like to count down starting from 8 and shake each arm and leg as the countdown goes; 8 on each arm, then each leg. Then we restart the countdown at 7, then 6, and so on until you get to 1 and everyone shakes their arms/legs once super fast. I also like “Toxic Patterns” as a warm up game to get them engaged and listening. We use hand signs with solfege, and I tell them what the ‘toxic pattern’ is that they should avoid, and then we do call and response on various short solfege patterns. I throw in the toxic pattern, and they have to avoid singing it back to me. It’s a great way to get them engaged and listening. This activity also works when you have 5 minutes left of rehearsal and you need something to wrap it up, or use it in the middle of rehearsal as a mini-brain break from the music you’re learning!”

-Taylor Huwe, General Music, Prairie Elementary, (Worthington, MN)

Physically engaging our singers is so important! Taylor is working exclusively with Kindergarten-2nd grade students, some of the youngest among our school-age singers. The foundation that is being laid for them to be “whole body” singers will impact them forever, it is crucial to have good development for our youngest singers! All of us can benefit from a little more physical engagement as well, whether it’s helping your brain to process solfege syllables by adding a hand gesture, or waking up your body and getting the blood flowing at the beginning of a rehearsal, it’s good for all of us!

“If I had to choose one exercise over any other (aside from breath preservation/SOVT onsets) would be octave sirens. [u] or [i] to [a]. Sirens help to unify the voice with the body, and show the singer the amount of breath pressure needed. Also, I have found that singers in this regional area tend to have difficulties singing a true legato, and this frees the voice up to create a smooth line. It really frees the sound!”

-Robin Allebach, Director/Founder of Robin’s Nest Music Academy

So there’s two votes for SOVT’s from two incredibly knowledgeable professionals, I think I’m going to do some research and prep more of those for my next rehearsal! I love the octave sirens as well, not only do they have the benefits Robin lays out above, but most of my singers love doing them, they’re fun! I think one of the main reasons singers think they are fun is because they are very freeing for the voice, like Robin mentioned. We like to be free and open, so does our voice!

By simply asking the question, “What’s a warm up or a guiding principal for your warm ups that you like?” We have four great examples in the article above. I love hearing what other people are doing for their groups to cultivate successful development. It gives you an opportunity to authentically integrate that success into your own program. There are so many great ideas out there to be shared in our community, never hesitate to reach out, or to share!

Patrick McGuire

Sts. Anne and Joachim, Fargo Content Coordinator, The Chorister

Photo Credit: Joel Walters