CCDA Cantate (Winter 2020)

DISCOVERY. DIVERSITY. DISTINCTION.

FRESNO STATE CHORAL PROGRAM

Fresno State Department of Music • 2390 E. Keats Ave M/S MB 77 Fresno, CA 93740 • 559.278.2654 • www.fresnostate.edu/music

Fresno State is located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. Our program provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in music for those planning professional careers as performers, composers, educators, and studio teachers, as well as those preparing for advanced degrees. We focus on broadening students' intellectual horizons, fostering lifelong learning skills, developing the leaders of tomorrow, promoting community involvement, and instilling an appreciation of world cultures. We nurture cultural competence by celebrating the rich diversity of the campus community and welcoming the participation of all. The Fresno State Choral Program maintains an active performing profile. Our ensembles, composed of students of all majors, have been received enthusiastically by audiences at home and abroad.

Financial packages available for undergraduate and transfer students.

Teaching assistantships and scholarships available to graduate students.

FACULTY Dr. Cari Earnhart, Director of Choral Activities Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, Masterworks Chorus, Conducting

Dr. Emily Mason – Choral Music Education, University Singers

DEGREES OFFERED Bachelor of Arts

Master of Arts

Music Education Music as a Liberal Art Vocal Performance

Music Education Choral Conducting Vocal Performance

Dr. Tony Mowrer – Choral Music Education

PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES

PROFESSORS EMERITUS

Chamber Singers Concert Choir Masterworks Chorus Opera Theater University Singers

Dr. Anna Hamre Dr. Arthur Huff Dr. Gary Unruh

MUSIC MAJOR/MINOR AUDITIONS FOR FALL 2020 Feb 8, 2020 March 14, 2020 or by appointment

Scan here to receive more information about our program

http://www.fresnostate.edu/artshum/music/scholarships.html

@FS Choirs

Dr. Cari Earnhart: cearnhart@csufresno.edu www.fresnostate.edu/artshum/music/ensembles/major/concertchoir.htm

2 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

IN THIS ISSUE 5 | 2020 VISION

from the president’s pen

6 | AAAAND....GO! letter from the editor

· by jeffrey benson

· by eliza rubenstein

8 | MUSIC IS FOR EVERYONE inclusion choir directors on the inclusive choral experience

· by anabel martínez pauline

14 | SEASONS AND SPIRALS the composer’s voice · by dale trumbore 16 | CALIFORNIA ALL-STATE MUSIC EDUCATION CONFERENCE 17 | WESTERN REGION ACDA CONFERENCE 19 | CCDA STATEMENTS ON TRANSGENDER EQUITY AND 2021 ACDA NATIONAL CONFERENCE 21 | CCDA SUMMER CONFERENCE AT ECCO 22 | SEEN & HEARD 25 | VISION FOR THE FUTURE scholarship fund donors

28 | NEWS AND NOTES happenings from around the state

31 | TOP FIVE: TTBB CHOIRS by melchor carrillo

32 | TOP FIVE: LGBTQ PERSPECTIVES by josh palkki

34 | TOP FIVE: HIGH SCHOOL CHOIRS by stacey kikkawa

BYE-BYE, 2019! Soli Deo Gloria (Julie Carter, Director) celebrated the holidays and rang in the new year. There’s lots to look forward to in 2020—See inside!

37 | TOP FIVE: COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY by corie brown

38 | TOP FIVE: CHORAL COMPOSITION by david montoya

41 | TOP FIVE: TWO-YEAR COLLEGE by arlie langager

42 | CCDA DIRECTORY

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 3

CANTATE Volume 32, Number 2

Official publication of the California Choral Directors Association, an Affiliate of the American Choral Directors Association Eliza Rubenstein, editor

cantate.editor@gmail.com

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS We welcome and encourage CCDA members to contribute articles, announcements, music and book reviews, job vacancy listings, photographs, and other items of interest to Cantate!

Please send queries and article ideas to You are also welcome to submit completed articles, but please note that not all articles received will be published. cantate.editor@gmail.com.

Deadlines for publication are as follows: August 15 (Fall issue); November 1 (Winter issue); March 1 (Spring issue).

The editor reserves the right to edit all submissions.

ADVERTISING IN CANTATE Please visit our website (www.acdacal.org) or e-mail us at cantate.ads@gmail.com for complete information on advertising in Cantate, including rates, deadlines, and graphics specifications.

Advertisements are subject to editorial approval.

On the cover: Members of the CCDA Coastal Honor Choir take a rehearsal break. Photo by Robyn Peters, courtesy of Genevieve Tep.

4 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

WHEREAS, the human spirit is elevated to a broader understanding of itself through study and performance in the aesthetic arts, and WHEREAS, serious cutbacks in funding and support have steadily eroded state institutions and their programs throughout our country, BE IT RESOLVED that all citizens of the United States actively voice their affirmative and collective support for necessary funding at the local, state, and national levels of education and government, to ensure the survival of arts programs for this and future generations.

California Choral Directors Association empowers choral musicians to create transformative experiences for California’s diverse communities.

CCDA is a 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt corporation and an affiliate of the American Choral Directors Association.

UPCOMING EVENTS CA All-State Music Education Conference February 20-22, 2020 (Fresno) ACDA Western Region Conference March 4-7, 2020 (Fresno)

California Choral Directors Association

From The president’s pen:

2020 VISION

Jeffrey Benson is Director of Choral Activities at San José State University. The

Washington Post hails his choirs for singing

“with an exquisite blend, subtlety of phrasing, confident musicianship and fully supported tone…that would be the envy of some professional ensembles.”

He is also the Artistic Director of Peninsula Cantare, a community chorus based in

Palo

Alto. He received his Masters degree and his Doctorate in Choral Conducting/Music Education from The Florida State University and his

Bachelors

degree in

Music

Education from New York University.

Leading the Way

ife is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments “L that take your breath away.”

—Maya Angelou

appy New Year! Welcome back to this amazing profession we all share. I hope H you’ve had a terrific start to 2020 and you’re

feeling inspired to continue furthering your vision with all of your choirs. On a daily basis we sing together to create beauty with all of the musicians who show up to our rehearsals.

I’m inspired to keep focusing on that vision!

I turned to Maya Angelou to begin my new year because I desperately wanted help seeing more clearly. When we’re in the thick of the school year and we’re overwhelmed with planning for festivals and concerts, it can sometimes be difficult to perfect our vision (or to even see clearly at all). But our singers rely on each one of us to inspire them.

Many of them may lean on us more than we realize. The world has changed dramatically in the past few years, and our singers need us more than ever to transform their world into something more loving and kind. As routine can often pull us into complacency, it’s more important than ever to “zoom out.” I often need to be reminded to stop counting breaths and to look for those moments that take my breath away.

Dr. Josh Palkki, our new LGBTQ Perspectives representative to the state board, often talks about creating safe spaces for our singers vs. being a safe person who they can trust. The space itself cannot be safe on its own. However, we create an atmosphere where students know that we’re on their team and will support them no matter the challenge. California is leading the way as the first state in the country to create this LGBTQ Perspectives position on our board, and we must continue to fight for all minorities and marginalized voices who are in need of being heard. You are the safe person in your organization. You are the safe person

for all your students. You are transforming lives. Never lose sight of your purpose; it will help you see more clearly!

CCDA’s mission statement reminds me about the transformation that is a major part of who we are as conductors, singers, teachers, and humans. I will continue to work to empower each of my singers and together we will transform each other and our audiences!

“California Choral Directors Association empowers choral musicians to create transformative experiences for California’s diverse communities.”

CDA’s mission was clearly on display this past September for our Fall Regional C Conferences at Cal State East Bay and Cal

State Fullerton (thank you Alissa Aune, Buddy James, and John Russell for creating fantastic conferences once again)! If you’re looking for a way to open your eyes to more transformation and inspiration, please consider attending our California All-State Music Education Conference (CASMEC) in Fresno, February 20-22, 2020. It will be an exciting weekend for you to connect with colleagues, listen to fabulous performances, and attend informative interest sessions.

Kristina Nakagawa and Molly Peters have been working tirelessly to plan a transformative conference for conductors and students, as we improve and change our joint conference with CMEA, CBDA, CAJ, and CODA. Please consider joining us in Fresno!

you with one final Maya Angelou quote: “We are only as blind as we want to Ibe.”leave Angelou reminds me that I always have the choice to see more clearly. I simply need to take the time to open my eyes, take a deep breath, and listen! 

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 5

letter from the editor:

AAAAND....GO! reetings, colleagues! I’d like to program a concert for my SATB choir on the theme G of love. Can anyone think of any repertoire Eliza Rubenstein is the Director of Choral and

Vocal Activities at

Orange Coast College, and the

Artistic

Director of the Orange County Women’s Chorus and the

Long Beach

Chorale & Chamber Orchestra. She holds degrees from

Oberlin College and UC-Irvine, and she is a former animal shelter supervisor and the co-author of a book about dog adoption.

Eliza’s family

includes her partner,

Julie Fischer; a yellow Labrador named Dayton; and a cat named

Wilbur. She’s

passionate about grammar,

Thai food,

photography, and the

St. Louis Cardinals and

St. Louis Blues.

that would fit the bill? Aaaand....go!

I’m kidding, because not only would I not ask you to do my work for me, but I’d hate to give up one of the most enjoyable parts of my job—treasure-hunting for creative repertoire.

You’ve seen these posts on the internet, though, haven’t you? The ones that ask for help with (often) fairly basic choral tasks, usually without indicating any prior research on the part of the poster? Repertoire isn’t the only topic; I’ve recently scrolled past three students asking what they should write their papers about for their pedagogy classes, and two, astonishingly, soliciting suggestions for subjects for their master’s theses.

Feel free to “ok, boomer” me for this, but I’d love for 2020 to be the year when we collectively decide to use technology—and the broad choral community it’s opened up to us—to enhance and expand our curiosity, not to circumvent it.

It’s partly a work-ethic issue: We all have elements of the job we love and elements we’d rather avoid, but choosing music, for example, is so fundamental a responsibility for choral directors that I’m both annoyed and puzzled by those who would outsource it. Some years ago, I responded to a conductor’s post seeking treble music on a particular theme (my chorus happened to have performed a concert on the same theme not long before) by sharing a repertoire list from our program. The conductor replied, “Thanks. Could you please send me one copy of each of these titles?”

Nope, sorry! My name isn’t J.W. Pepper, and I had plenty of my own work without doing hers.

ut my reaction to these appeals runs B deeper than mere irritation, too. There’s something profoundly sad about replacing

research and exploration with Facebook posts.

I remember the moments when I “discovered” many of the pieces that became part of my personal choral canon. Some were on LPs I found by rooting around in the Oberlin Conservatory library or the UC Irvine Music

6 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

Media Center (I still remember which chair I was sitting in, in a building that no longer exists, when Helmuth Rilling’s recording of the Brahms Zigeunerlieder changed my life).

Some were titles I circled or dog-eared during reading sessions or conference performances.

Some were the last stop on a winding internet rabbit hole or the reward for a hundred keyword searches.

And, yes, some came as suggestions from fellow conductors online! I’d never suggest that we shouldn’t use our choral community as a rich resource; I’ve been especially grateful to fellow musicians who have alerted me to obscure works or unpublished manuscripts I’d never have found otherwise, and I’m happy to do the same for others when I’m able. I understand, too, that burnout and overwork can leave any of us devoid of energy and desperate for an injection of ideas from time to time. But when a conductor in 2020 can’t find SATB works “with poems as texts,” or a student can’t think of a single interesting topic for a graduate paper, I begin to wonder about the nature and quality of their artistic and intellectual process. o here’s to flipping endlessly through S octavos in search of the perfect piece, scrolling through YouTube videos and audio

tracks at midnight to find the one that works, poring through books and articles to feel the spark of inspiration that prompts us to investigate more closely. It feels like panning for gold sometimes: dipping into the muck, sifting out the sludge, looking for the golden nugget that may or may not appear on our preferred schedule, or at all.

It’s the time-consuming part of the job, but it’s the fun part, too—and the rigors and rewards of intellectual pursuit are among the greatest gifts we can pass on to our students as they move through a world eager to offer them technological shortcuts. Let’s teach the singers in our care the pleasures of pursuing an idea or tracking down a gem. Let’s make 2020 a year of asking the challenging questions and seeking the interesting answers.

Aaaand....go! 

California Choral Directors Association

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Leading the Way

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Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 7

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California Choral Directors Association

MUSIC is for EVERYONE Inclusion Choir directors on the Inclusive Choral Education Experience

T

eaching an inclusion choir—a choir in which, by definition, all students

of all ability levels are given the opportunity to receive a choral education and performance experience in the same environment, together, and all at the same time—is something that fell into my lap when I started working at Los Amigos High School. I have now co-taught this class with my amazing colleague Ashley Bremmer for two and a half years, and in that time, I’ve seen the transformative power of inclusion in choral music.

It’s not lost on me that people are moved by the work of the students in our inclusion choir, be it in the classroom or in performance. I myself find deep meaning and fulfillment in guiding their learning, witnessing their willingness to help each other out, and cheering them on to the finish line of their success as they face their challenges head on. But one of the most important lessons I have learned is that this experience doesn’t have to be unique; our work isn’t something special. It’s simply what’s necessary in order to serve all students who walk through our classroom doors. Inclusion should be the norm in choral music education; there should be a place in every program for all students to have equitable access to a quality music education.

Many of the barriers that limit students with special needs from participating in music often really exist only in the eyes of the educator. While having a special education co-teacher in the choral classroom may not be an option for all choral music programs, we as choral educators are capable of breaking down barriers in our own teaching, so that we can ensure that our music is accessible to everyone. Here are some of the things we’ve learned and the practices we’ve implemented to create bridges for our students.

Establishing an inclusive vision for your program

H

aving an inclusion choir means having an inclusive choir program, in which all choirs are approached with the same mindset and vision. In our program, all students enrolled in a choir during the school day (Vocal Ensemble, Treble Choir, and A Cappella) are expected to perform at all school assemblies, concerts, other performance events, holiday gigs, and district and SCVA festivals. We ensure that our students are able to meet these expectations by means of additional support if necessary, but we primarily focus on the idea of student success. For us, success means growth; we focus on students’ growth each day as a means to the final product.

By Anabel Martínez Pauline, in collaboration with Ashley Bremmer Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 9

Building the support system

ostering the teacher-staff-parent-student partnership F is imperative in ensuring all students are capable of success in choir. This year, our inclusion choir, A

relationship with your students’ case managers, instructional staff, admin team, and parents. By building relationships with the interdisciplinary teams supporting students, we can align instruction and support across disciplines so that support is consistent and clear.

Questions you might consider discussing within the partnership include: • What is the vision for student success in this program?

• What are the perceived challenges inhibiting student success?

• How can we work collaboratively to support student success?

Cappella, has 38 students enrolled, 3 of whom qualify for services under a mild/moderate special education eligibility category, and 17 of whom qualify for services under a moderate/severe special education eligibility category. Communication is crucial to ensuring student success, especially when it comes to after-school rehearsals and performances. Ashley attends every after-school rehearsal and performance and secures instructional staff to support during such events. She calls the families of Creating an inclusive culture our students with special needs with additional reminders stablishing an inclusive culture starts with the of rehearsals and performances and clarifies details language and design of your program. Our choirs are regarding transportation and supervision situations on the classified as “auditioned” and “non-auditioned” choirs day of an after-school rehearsal or performance. If there rather than “beginning,” “intermediate,” or “advanced.” are any scheduling conflicts, we collaborate on solutions Transforming the language of the program has fostered for each student to ensure they have fair and equitable a culture that values all members. It focuses on process opportunities to meet the participation standards. rather than product—“how to It takes a village to help get in the choir” rather than students succeed, and I “am I good enough to get in the rely on this support system choir.” In our non-auditioned constantly to support choir, A Cappella, any student student participation in our is welcome, with or without program. As an educator, previous musical experience. it’s easy to feel pressured to Since each choir is free of “know everything” about judgement based on experience teaching diverse learners in level, A Cappella ends up being your classroom, as you are a mix of veteran choir students the resident expert in your who want to be in more than discipline. The pressure one choir, and new students was lifted for me once I who have never been in choir started asking questions, before. This variety of learners doing research, and not only makes the experience consistently communicating fun, but also creates an ideal and with each students’ support ABOVE: Members of Los Amigos High School’s meaningful learning experience. system. When I didn’t inclusive choral program prepare for a holiday performance.

New students learn from veteran know how to approach a choir members, as veteran situation or how to meet a choir members hone their leadership skills, creating an specific need, I asked Ashley for advice. She not only environment of universal growth. Students are each holds a Master’s degree specializing in special education, other’s support system on the path to success for their but also a Bachelor’s degree in vocal music. This unique choir, and the program as a whole. blend of specialization has been incredibly helpful to our For programs without a co-teaching situation, having co-teaching relationship, as we were able to start with non-auditioned choirs promotes inclusivity. Students of much shared knowledge about the choir classroom, vocal various experience levels are able to interact with each technique, and music literacy. other, learn from one another, and build meaningful While not every campus will be as fortunate as I am relationships. Often, I’ll catch our students greeting each to have a Special Education Specialist who is also a other in the hallways, hanging out together during lunch, choral musician, I’ve learned that the communication or chatting about how they hung out together at the piece is more important than the shared knowledge with football game. which we started our collaboration. Build a collaborative

E

10 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

Program curriculum

For choirs that are not in a co-teaching situation, it is still possible to design whole-class instruction to serve the special needs of the students in your classroom. If it’s helpful for one student, it will be helpful for all students.

at the start of class; they all sing in rehearsal; they check each other’s work after writing in counts or solfege; they quiz each other when studying for music theory exams; they collaborate during sectionals; and the teachers guide the learning process as needed. All students participate to the best of their ability in all activities, in and out of the classroom setting, and all students learn how to collaborate and be kind and helpful to one another as they get to know each other’s needs and personalities.

Lessons should be designed in a way that the material is accessible for all learners. As we worked collaboratively to ensure this was happening in our program, we were actually adapting the framework of Universal Design for Learning. The basic idea behind UDL is that the strategies you would think of as “accommodations” are now the rule, not the exception; they are not “special additions” to your lesson, but rather a new way to think about approaching lessons. There are 3 key elements to designing a UDL lesson: providing multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression. The biggest change I made was that I expanded the way I represented content in all choirs. For example, last year, while teaching the lines and spaces on the staff as a precursor to learning treble and bass clef note names, Ashley wrote a couple of sentence-starters on the board to help students provide an answer in a complete sentence: The note is on line _____.

The note is in space _____.

This simple sentence frame helped all students use academic language to show their content knowledge.

While sentence starters were not a new concept to me, seeing how they could be used in my classroom sparked my curiosity for the multiple ways I could represent content during instruction, and allow students to express their musical knowledge and skills. Providing visual aids in the form of a Google Slides presentation is now a daily practice in our classroom. The set-up of our room makes using a document camera difficult and timeconsuming, so the most efficient way to project multiple visual aids throughout our lessons is using a presentation and a presentation clicker with a laser pointer. Our daily powerpoint is filled with our agenda, objectives, visual aids for musical excerpts, and timers.

When I saw how helpful it was in A Cappella, I realized it was simply a better way of serving all music students as they learn new music or new music concepts.

Enjoying the journey

t may surprise you to know that our inclusive choir Iexactly. rehearsal mirrors its auditioned counterparts almost Each day, students lead stretches and warm ups

Leading the Way

T

he Los Amigos High School Choral Music Department is committed to ensuring that each of us is able to take part in the learning experience. We learn from our students just as much as they learn from us, if not more. Sometimes it’s a well-oiled machine, and sometimes it’s chaos.

Either way, the best life lesson I’ve learned is to trust the process and enjoy the journey, no matter where you are. This year, as we do every year, our entire choir program performed at the homecoming assembly. Eighty students on our senior stage singing and dancing to Ariana Grande’s “Break Free” was far from the easiest performance to coordinate. Eighty students’ formations had to be readapted to a new venue in a short amount of time, including the practice of smooth transitions for students in and around a wheelchair into various formations, entrances, and exits.

I approach the puzzle with curiosity and openness, because at the end of the day, the challenge of it all never lingers in my memory. The part of that day’s performance that plays over and over in my mind is the celebration in the audience as our inclusion choir made their transition to the front of the stage for their featured moment in the song. It is the congratulatory high fives they share with each other as they walk offstage. It is the joy on our students’ faces as they step into their moment in the sun. It is the feeling of being fully included.  Anabel Martínez Pauline is in her third year of teaching choir at Los Amigos High School. She graduated from CSU Fullerton with her Bachelor’s Degree in Choral Music Education in 2015 and earned her teaching credential in 2016. In her four years in the profession, she has taught music at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.

Currently, she teaches 4 choirs at Los Amigos and 2 sections of Life After High School. Her program currently consists of 3 auditioned choirs (a mixed choir, a treble choir, and a mixed show choir competitor team) and a non-auditioned inclusion choir co-taught with her colleague, Ashley Bremmer.

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 11

PACIFIC CHORAL DAY Saturday

April 18, 2020 Faye Spanos Concert Hall, Stockton

Inviting all high school students Register by March 13, 2020 go.Pacific.edu/ChoralDay $45 registration fee Rehearsals, workshops and sessions with the conservatory faculty and current students Closing concert featuring the High School Festival Chorus and Pacific Conservatory Choirs

12 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

Vocal Music

See yourself in music …

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 13

the COmposer’s voice:

SEASONS AND SPIRALS or years, my professional calendar has followed roughly the same schedule: A F deadline or several the first week of January, Dale Trumbore is a Los Angeles-based composer and writer whose music has been performed by organizations including the

Los Angeles

Children’s Chorus, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Modesto Symphony, Pacific Chorale, Pasadena Symphony, The Singers, and

VocalEssence.

How to Go On, Choral Arts Initiative’s album of

Trumbore’s

choral works, was a

#4-bestselling Classical album on iTunes the week of its release.

Hear Dale’s music at daletrumbore.com.

followed by a lull in performances. A spring schedule busy with travel and premieres. In May, score sales dip, but July and August bring more plentiful royalties. I spend the end of each summer composing frantically, because my deadlines tend to cluster around the start of school semesters. A new piece, or several new pieces, are inevitably due around September 1. A final push for deadlines comes in mid-November through mid-December, before everything slows down at the end of the year.

Then the cycle begins again.

I know these patterns now, but I never saw how clearly this calendar affected my own state of mind until I started keeping a five-year journal. In that journal, each page is dated and leaves space for five years’ worth of brief daily entries. 2020 marks my fifth year of the journal, and by now, I can revisit my exact thoughts from up to four years ago each day.

At the start of the second year of keeping this journal, I noticed that while seasons without new work always worried me, those seasons of stress happened around the same time each year. Looking at, say, the second week of January, I can see remarkably similar entries over the last four years: “Feeling really anxious and stressed lately.” “Such an unproductive week.” “Another useless day.”

I used to believe that these barren or anxious seasons reflected some career misstep on my part. I panicked when a creative or financial dry spell arrived, berating myself for not composing more each day, sending more emails to conductors, or posting about my work more frequently on social media.

But in this five-year journal, it’s so easy to see that these worries pop up around the same time every year. I may feel anxious in January, but a productive February inevitably follows.

May will have fewer score sales than other months, but score sales and commissions will reliably pick back up in July and August.

For better or worse, this is the shape of my creative year, and so many aspects of that cycle

14 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

are out of my control. But at least this creative cycle—and within it, the deadlines and income that make composing my livelihood—is reliable, even steady. ach year, I’m better at passing through these seasons. I’ve been trying to view E my own personal “concert seasons” less as a

human-made musical concept and more as a natural phenomenon. Just as a tree shedding leaves in winter is not actually failing to thrive, a lack of productivity or income during certain months does not indicate a professional failure.

Given that August/September and January/ February both see a spike in commissioning payments and royalties, I’ve also learned to stash money away during these more fruitful months to cover any months that naturally dip in income. I use quiet, barren periods to reassess personal goals and consider future projects I’d like to initiate on my own, like forming another commissioning consortium or writing another book. I may not have control over these seasons, but now that I know their form, I can shape my creativity around them.

As a whole, I’ve come to view each passing year as not only a cycle, but part of an upward spiral. A circle is the same each time you loop around it, of course, but a spiral has direction.

A spiral can still ascend overall even if it dips down before it rises. And even with an occasional barren spell, a creative career that spans years and years can still spiral up, up, up.

As a result of keeping a five-year journal, I’ve also learned to look at my worst moments of self-doubt and anxiety with, if not perfect solutions, then at least the perspective of time.

Now, when I write something like “What a horrible day” in that journal, it’s as if I can already feel my future self over my shoulder.

Even in the present, I can sense what she’ll think as she rereads today’s entry a year or more from now. An incoming wave of future days, blank lines ahead, are ready to sweep each new entry into the past. Even the most fruitless seasons pass. 

California Choral Directors Association

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 15

CASMEC 2020 California All-State Music Education Conference Fresno, California

Fresno Convention Center Conference & Performance Venue

February 20-22

Saroyan Theatre Performance Venue

Featuring Performing Choirs, Interest Sessions, and the California All-State Honor Ensembles • • • •

Jeffrey Ames, Belmont University, TTBB Janet Galvan, Ithaca College, SSAA Pearl Shangkuan, Calvin College, SATB Andrea Ramsey, Junior High/9th Grade Registration begins September 1, 2019 at www.casmec.org

Active Members: $195 Retired Members: $35

16 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

Non-Members: $340 Collegiate Student Members: $25

California Choral Directors Association

Plan to attend the next

ACDA Western Region Conference in

Salt Lake City, Utah

March 4-7, 2020

Join us for incredible Interest Sessions, Roundtables, SMART Talks (Seminars in Music, the Arts and Related Topics), Composer Chats, a College Fair, Workout Choirs, Exhibits and networking with colleagues.

Concert Sessions include: • a performance by the BYU Choirs & Orchestras

• The Choir School from the Cathedral of the Madeline in Salt Lake • The Tabernacle Choir • BYU Vocal Point • The Real Group • KammerChor Saarbrucken (Germany) • “The Sacred Veil,” written and conducted by Eric Whitacre

Make arrangements to attend this amazing conference!

Conference Honoree: Don Brinegar

Professor Emeritus, Pasadena City College

• High School Honor Choir (Dr. Steve Zielke) • Middle School Honor Choir (Laura Farnell) • Youth/Treble Honor Choir (Kellie Walsh)

Accommodations at the Grand America and Little America hotels provide a wide range of rates with free parking and Wi-Fi, and transportation to the venues is free on light rail. Venues include Assembly Registration opens October 1 at acdawestern.org Hall and The Tabernacle at Temple Square.

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 17

California State University, Bakersfield

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC & THEATRE VOCAL ENSEMBLES Chamber Singers Opera Theatre University Singers Treble Choir

VOCAL AREA FACULTY

Prof. Heather Chu, Instructor of Voice Dr. Rene Ferrell, Professor Emerita Prof. Katherine Kiouses, Instructor of Voice & Voice Class Dr. Soo-Yeon Park, Director of Opera Theatre & Diction Prof. Peggy Sears, Instructor of Voice Dr. Angel M. Vázquez-Ramos, Director of Choral & Vocal Studies

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR PROGRAM OR TO LEARN ABOUT AUDITIONS, PLEASE GO TO WWW.CSUB.EDU/MUSIC

Auditions: February 1 & April 4, 2020.

9001 Stockdale Hwy. | Music Building Room 102 | Bakersfield, CA 93311 Phone: (661) 654-3093 | Email: csubmusic-theatre@csub.edu | @csubmusictheatre C S U B . E D U / M U S I C

18 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

CCDA Position on Transgender Student Equity The California Choral Directors Association commits to be inclusive for students who identify as transgender or gender-expansive. CCDA affirms that students of any gender may audition for any CCDA honor choir that matches their vocal range. Thus, transgender and gender-expansive students may be placed in any honor ensemble in which they feel comfortable. However, it would be expected that the student meets all of the expectations for that ensemble, including demonstrating the necessary vocal range for the voice part for which they are auditioning as part of their audition.

CCDA encourages its members to work with their school and county administration to ensure a positive and inclusive environment for transgender and gender-expansive students. This may include placing transgender and gender-expansive students in voice-specific ensembles (SSAA or TTBB) for which they identify, modifying vocal parts slightly, modifying uniform expectations for all students, and increased awareness of how hormone therapies may affect the singing voice.

CCDA Statement on California AB 1887 and the 2021 Texas National Conference

The California Choral Directors Association (CCDA) stands in solidarity with the LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, agender/aromantic/asexual/ally) community. We are the first state ACDA affiliate to create an LGBTQ Perspectives Repertoire & Resources position on our state board.

The State of California bans official travel by state employees to eleven states with laws that discriminate against the LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, agender/aromantic/asexual/ ally) community. Among these states is Texas, the site of the 2021 National ACDA Conference. The State of California stated: “In AB (Assembly Bill) 1887, the California Legislature determined that ‘California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.’

(Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (a)(5).)” In practical terms, AB 1887 means that any public employee, including P-12 public school teachers, California State University employees, and University of California employees, may not spend any California taxpayer money to attend professional events in these eleven states. As an affiliate organization, CCDA supports National ACDA—but also respects the current laws of our state. Thus, the CCDA board does not support fundraisers for CCDA members to travel to Texas.

The CCDA board acknowledges that its members will need to make an individual decision about whether or not they will attend the national conference and that some members will choose not to spend personal funds in a state that has laws that discriminate against the LGBTQA community. The board also recognizes that National ACDA events are important professional development opportunities for our membership.

Thus, we encourage CCDA members who choose not to travel to Dallas to seek out alternative professional development events including, but not limited to: possible online attendance at ACDA National 2021; California All-State Music Education Conference (CASMEC); ACDA Division Conferences; and those sponsored by Southern California Vocal Association (SCVA), Chorus America, National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO), and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).

CCDA is the second largest state ACDA organization in the country and has been a major contributor to the lifeblood of the National ACDA Conference. At the past three national conferences, California has provided 13 performing ensembles, 20 interest session presenters, and 1,100 attendees. The CCDA board is encouraged that, according to an Open Message to the Membership in the December 2019 Choral Journal, ACDA has vowed to do “our absolute best to make sure that our future national conferences are chosen so that all members feel welcome and all members are able to use their states’ travel funds” (p. 7). This statement says more broadly, “The American Choral Directors Association and its member musicians, artists, scholars, and citizens stand in solidarity with the LGBTQIA community against hate, violence, exclusion, or discrimination in any form” (p. 7). CCDA is appreciative of these statements and hopes that they result in tangible future action, including thoughtful consideration about holding ACDA-sponsored events in states without discriminatory laws.

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 19

Since 2015, Vox Peregrini has been offering professional singers, conductors, and experienced musicians a new way to experience choral music. Past singers have found the unique experience of walking every day from village to village, rehearsing along the route, culminating with a performance at the end of the journey to be exhilarating, exhausting, and transformative.

Upcoming Pilgrimages Camino de Santiago (June 21 - July 4, 2020) Wicklow Way (June 20 - July 3, 2021) Camino de Santiago (June 26 - July 9, 2022)

Past Pilgrimages Wicklow Way, 2019 Wicklow Way, 2017 Þórsmörk, 2016 Wicklow Way, 2015

I love singing with Vox because it reminds me that making music is about more than simply preparing for a concert.

It is more than notes and rhythms. It is a time for self-discovery through music. It is an opportunity to learn more about myself through the process of making music in a completely unique and beautiful place.

-Chris, Ph.D. Student, Vox 2019

To learn more, including how to join, visit us online.

www.voxperegrini.com

20 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

Save the dates…

CCDA Summer Conference At ECCO

July 26-29 2020 Headliner:

Judy Bowers

University of Louisiana Monroe

Registration Opens April 1 Visit calcda.org for more info

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 21

SEEN & HEARD Clockwise from top right: The San Diego North Coast Singers’ Caprice ensemble rehearses their scarf choreography (photo courtesy of Melissa Keylock); the Repertoire ensemble of the Peninsula Girls’ Chorus gets ready to take the stage (photo courtesy of Karyn Silva); Jeffrey Lédon and the Newport Harbor High School choir spread some holiday cheer around Orange County; and the North High School Chamber Singers prepare for their upcoming journey from Bakersfield to Carnegie Hall (photo by Makenzie Hollar, courtesy of Jack Bertrand). Send your best photos of your choir’s activites—musical or extra-musical—to cantate.editor@gmail.com if you’d like them to be considered for publication in a future issue!

22 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 23

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Music in the City of Angels The USC Thornton School of Music is located in the heart of Los Angeles, one of the world’s most vibrant music centers.

MUSIC.USC.EDU

24 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

DEGREES OFFERED Choral Music BM, MM, DMA Sacred Music MM, DMA APPLICATION DEADLINE DECEMBER 1, 2020 visit music.usc.edu/choral

@USCTHORNTON

California Choral Directors Association

Vision for the

Future

Scholarship Fund Donors special care has been given to the preparation of donor acknowledgments. We regret any errors or omissions. please contact us at (657) 217-0767 or exec_admin@acdacal.org with corrections. Thank you for your support!

President’s Circle Diamond ($1000 and higher) Jeffrey and Jose Lédon President’s Circle Platinum ($500 and higher) Daniel Afonso * Tammi Alderman * in honor of the past and present CCDA board Lou De La Rosa * in memory of Jim Heiner John Sorber in memory of Clark Skogsberg President’s Circle Gold ($300 and higher) Kenneth J. Abrams Dr. Robert Istad and David Navarro * Duane and Linda Lovaas * Lori Marie Rios and Bryan Walker * Nick Strimple * Dr. Jonathan Talberg * Burt and Polly Vasche * President’s Circle Silver ($100-$299) Anonymous Irene Apanovitch and Alexander Leites

Charlene Archibeque Kyle Ball Jeffrey Benson * Jenny Bent Jack Bertrand in honor of Kimberly Dunn Adams and Jennifer Garrett Glenn Carlos Mike and Julie Dana * Rodney Eichenberger Roger Emerson * Angelina Fitzhugh Brandon Harris Mark Hulse Joseph Huszti to honor Howard Swan, mentor and colleague Buddy James Anthony Lien * in honor of Buddy James, Michael Najar, and Matthew Potterton Michael Mares MaryClare Martin in honor of Lena and Art Babin and Signe Boyer Mary Monaghan Kristina and Ryan Nakagawa * in honor of Lois Caran, Joe Huszti, and Charlene Archibeque National Concerts Genevieve Tep Andrea and Mike Townsend

Sponsor ($50-$99) Dana Alexander Clement Cano Dr. Jennifer Garrett Albert Mabeza Jeff Morton Brianna Mowry Olga Spriggs Carolyn Teraoka-Brady * Dr. Angel M. Vázquez-Ramos and Jody R. Vázquez * Supporter (up to $50) Anonymous Karen Garrett Debra Golata Caitlin Guista Anonymous Othello Jefferson Anonymous Heather Mitchell Joshua Palkki Jason Pano in honor of Lou De La Rosa, Robert Istad, and Christopher Peterson Susanna Peeples * Jared Pugh Peter Reinman Zanaida Robles Gavin Spencer Dwight Stone

* Founder’s Circle

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 25

CCDA MEMBERS ON CCDA MEMBERSHIP ACDA was the professional network and support I was looking for as a young conductor. So many people were willing to collaborate, help, and share. Now, I am part of that network and am in a position to support other young conductors. It’s a great feeling to be able to give back!

—Stacey Kikkawa, Fullerton

I first attended an ACDA conference in 1999 in Chicago. It changed my life as a high school choral director. I had already been a choir director for about 10 years at that time. But that experience transformed my thinking and understanding of what young students are capable of achieving and how they can create great beauty through singing together in a choral ensemble.

Since that time I have found my greatest joys in experiencing the friendships and camaraderie that exist among ACDA members, as well as the absolute beauty of the choral art. Now retired, I still find such pleasure in watching this love of the organization being reborn in our new and younger members. GO ACDA!!

—Ken Rawdon, Hayward

Joining ACDA was a lifeline to the world of choral music after 18 years of teaching junior high band, orchestra and one period of choir. I requested a transfer to the high school choral program, became a member of ACDA and went to my first ECCO with Weston Noble as the headliner.

Without the support of the ACDA/CCDA family I would never have understood the true practice and art of choral music. And I continue to learn from the publications and through camaraderie with my CCDA peers at conferences.

—Carolyn Teraoka-Brady, Santa Barbara

In the 20 years that I’ve been a member of ACDA, it has been a win-win for both me and my students. Honor choirs have given my students life-changing musical experiences as well as the opportunity to create music with the best of the best. ACDA conferences inspire me to be a better artist, teacher and conductor, and to realize the vision of what is possible with a choir. Most importantly, all these experiences provide me the opportunity to feel the genuine spirit of music.

—Gavin Spencer, Shasta

My college choral conductor encouraged me to join ACDA in 1972. I was mesmerized by the beautiful concerts and illuminating sessions at the conferences, and even more so by the Honor Choir conductors and the exquisite performances they achieved with teens and even younger singers. In my enthusiasm for the organization, I gave a membership to a friend as a birthday gift, and she became very active in leadership as well. I remain indebted to ACDA for a rewarding and joy-filled career.

26 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

—Polly Vasché, Modesto (CCDA Membership Chair)

California Choral Directors Association

CCDA’s George Heussenstamm Choral Composition Contest at ECCO is in its fifth year! Last year’s winner was Townsend Losey’s Hosanna: Psalm 118 for eight-part choir and baritone solo. We add his name to the growing list of previous winners—Mark Growden, Jasper Randall, and Nancy Reeves—who all attended ECCO for free! Could you be next?

Find that piece you’ve been developing, or start fresh, and get ready to submit your composition with the chance to have it distributed to and read by 175 choral directors next summer.

Visit www.GeorgeHeussenstamm.com to learn more about the talented and generous composer who funds this competition!

Current CCDA members who are able to attend the 2020 Summer Conference at ECCO are invited to submit a single score. (Previous winners are not eligible to apply.) Submissions will be accepted from Feb. 15, 2020 through Mar. 15, 2020, 11:59 p.m. PST. The winning composition will be chosen by a committee of three CCDA members and will be announced on the CCDA website on April 15, 2020. The winning composer will receive a scholarship for tuition, room, and board at ECCO 2020 and will have their composition read at the conference.

The winning score may also receive consideration for inclusion in the CCDA Choral Series.

For complete submission guidelines and more information, visit www.calcda.org/repertoire-resources/choral-composition.

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 27

News and notes

from around the state SOUTHERN REGION Brandon Elliott and Choral Arts Initiative performed a concert in November featuring the premiere of a commissioned 30-minute secular cantata, What Color is the Dawn?, for chorus and marimba by Del Mar-based composer Jordan Kuspa. The performance on November 17 also featured additional West Coast premieres by composers Andrew Maxfield, Edie Hill, and Elaine Hagenberg.

Retiring after this year, Michael Hayden, Director of Choirs at Mira Costa High School and 2014 California Teacher of the Year, and pianist Mark McCormick will take the 64-voice Mira Costa Festival Choir to Italy for Holy Week, April 3-13, 2020. They’ll begin by performing their first concert in Rome at Chiesa Sant’Agnese in Agone on Palm Sunday evening. The next day the MCHS Festival Choir will be singing Holy Monday Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. The tour continues through Florence and Venice.

In fall 2019, Matthew Kellaway stepped into the interim choral music position at Fullerton College. Matthew is conducting the Fullerton College Men’s Chorale and Fullerton College Women’s Chorale, as well as the newly formed Musical Theatre Ensemble.

With a continuing passion for helping choristers to become musically literate, Karen Garrett has written Sight Singing for Festival Choirs. This course is aligned to the Choral Sight Reading Festival Adjudication Rubric available at SCVA Festivals, some Northern CMEA sections and four other states.

The course is currently available for High School levels 1-3, with other levels

Send news of hirings, retirements, awards, commissions, premieres, collaborations, or projects to your regional representative!

and a Middle School volume in the works. The 12-week all-inclusive course is available at www.festivalmusicpress. com. Thank you, Karen, for making these music literacy materials available and accessible to all!

Donald Brinegar’s newly published book, Pitch Perfect: A Theory and Practice of Choral Intonation, is now available on Amazon. There will also be a Kindle version, a website with sound and video examples, and a teacher’s edition with lesson plans for AP music classes, undergraduate choral music classes, and graduate choral seminars.

Don will be presenting on the topic of intonation at the ACDA Conference in Salt Lake City on March 6, 2020.

FAR SOUTH REGION The Far South Region welcomed Dr. Arian Khaefi as the new director of choral studies at San Diego State University. Dr. Khaefi comes to San Diego after serving on the faculty at Fullerton College.

In October, the San Diego Master Chorale and Palomar College Chamber Singers (under the direction of John Russell) and the San Diego State University Symphony Orchestra (under the direction of Michael Gerdes) gave the San Diego premiere of Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed. The program, titled “Truth and Reconciliation,” also featured a premier of Swedish composer Henrik Dahlgren’s “Son to Mother” on a text

by Maya Angelou.

In November, the San Marcos Unified School District celebrated its 3rd annual Elementary Honor Choir with a culminating concert at Double Peak

28 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

School. SMUSD’s Elementary Honor Choir is a 6-week program, including 3rd- through 5th-grade students from each of the district’s 12 elementary schools. Students audition and are chosen by their teachers to participate.

The choir includes approximately 100 students. The SMUSD Honor Choir is under the direction of Pam Lindamood with pianist Suzy Bohling.

NORTHERN REGION Ken Rawdon was the guest conductor and adjudicator for the Redding Choral Festival in November.

Approximately 250 students worked on two selections together throughout the morning, followed by individual choir performances throughout the day. Deborah Divine accompanied throughout the morning, as well as for eight of the local choirs!

The California Music Educators Association recognized our Northern Section Representative, Alissa Aune, as the CMEA/Pearson/Scott Foresman/ Silver Burdett Choral Educator Award for 2020. She will receive her award at CASMEC in February 2020.

BAY AREA

Angel Vázquez-Ramos encouraged middle school students in Palo Alto to “feel what the words mean so your audience can be inspired by your sound.” Dr. Vázquez-Ramos visited seven classrooms and conducted an evening concert on October 2 featuring Palo Alto Unified School District’s choir students in grades 7-12.

Hundreds of singers attended the “Sound Off ” at San Jose State in October and the Tenor-Bass Choral

California Choral Directors Association

Festival at CSU East Bay in November. These yearly events, each surpassing 300 singers, provide an opportunity for basses and tenors to refine their skills and enjoy singing together in a massed choir.

The West Valley College Choirs (Lou De La Rosa, director) hosted the collaborative concert “Light Out of Darkness: A Choral Response to Violence” on October 25th with the choirs from Gilroy High School and Christopher High School.

Volti, San Francisco’s professional choir dedicated to new music and led by Robert Geary, kicked off its 41st season with a concert titled “The Path of Miracles,” performed at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco on October 11.

WomenSing, led by Ofer Dal Lal, premiered a commission by Shawn Kirchner, “The Light of Hope Returning,” on December 11 and 15.

CENTRAL COAST REGION

Swing Time. Congratulations to a well earned 18th place in the world at the Sweet Adeline International Competition in New Orleans. Courtney continues to invest her daytime hours inspiring her vocal jazz choir students at Dos Pueblos High School, Santa Barbara.

Welcome to Maxim Kuzin, new director of the Chamber Choir at UC Santa Barbara!

CENTRAL REGION

The annual Messiah Sing-Along was held at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Modesto including soloists and chamber ensemble under the direction of John Carter, recently retired from Columbia College in Sonora.

The 2020 San Joaquin County High School Honor Choir met in early January at Delta College in Stockton, conducted

by Polly Vasché of Modesto.

The California State University Stanislaus Chamber Singers have been selected to appear in concert in February at CASMEC, conducted by Dr. Daniel Afonso.

In the late spring of 2019, the ABOVE: Womensing and Condcutor Ofer Dal Lala received congratulations from Stevenson School Chamber composer Shawn Kirchner after their premiere Singers from Carmel were Abigail Sorber was the 2019 of his commissioned work. honored to sing in the Choirs recipient of the Dr. Randi of America Nationals for Top Choirs 2019 at Carnegie Carp CMEA Choral Music Education Scholarship. She Hall, New York. This event included a choral exchange was accepted to California State University Fullerton and is with other select U.S. and Canadian high school pursuing her dream of becoming a choral educator. students, workshops with world-class clinicians, and a final performance with director/composer Z. Randall Patrick Burzlaff completed his term as chair of the Central Stroope. Bravo to Willow Manspeaker for her Region High School Honor Choirs. Thank you, Patrick, for inspired teaching and her dedicated singers. your service and dedication!  The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Choirs and Symphony are preparing for a performance tour of France in June 2020. Under the direction of Dr. Scott Glysson, they will perform in venues as La Madeleine Church in Paris, Bayeux Cathedral, Chateau Chambord, and other venues in Loire. Included in their tour concerts will be a new commissioned work by Stacey Gibbs, which will have its San Luis Obispo debut on their June 6 spring concert.

Thanks to our Regional Representatives (Alissa Aune, Buddy James, Angel Vázquez-Ramos, Carolyn Teraoka-Brady, Tina Peterson, and John Russell) for collecting and sharing news from their areas! Send your news to your regional representative if you’d like to be included in a future issue.

In Ventura, the Pacific Sound Men’s Chorus debuted their concert season with a new director, Courtney Anderson. Courtney is also the director of the women’s chorus Carpe Diem and a member of the exciting quartet

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 29

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ChOral faCulty Joseph Modica, Christopher Gabbitas, Nicholle Andrews VOICe faCulty Melissa Tosh, Marco Schindelmann, Patricia Gee, Cynthia Snyder, Donald Brinegar

30 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

Top Five for your Choir:

TTBB CHOIRS T Melchor Carrillo is the director of choral and music at

Redwood

High School in Visalia.

He holds a Bachelor of

Arts degree in

music education from

Anderson University (Anderson, IN), and a Master of Arts degree in

Choral Conducting California State

from

University, Fresno.

He has presented interest sessions at the

2019 CCDA Summer Conference at ECCO and at

CASMEC 2011.

He has also served as chairperson of the

ACDA Central Region Honor Choir and co-chair for the

2013

National ACDA HS Honor Choir. Mel resides in his wife

Visalia with

Kim, and their

three children,

Noelle,

Lauren, and Melchor.

Leading the Way

he power of choral music never ceases to amaze me. The ability of a choir to instill hope into the hearts of their audiences is unparalleled. I’ve selected these pieces of music because they have inspired hope in me, my choirs, and the audiences for which we sing.

Arr. Shawn Kirchner Brightest And Best TTBB with piano, fiddle, and string bass Boosey & Hawkes M051480357 Kirchner’s exciting arrangement of an American hymn tune is a great opener or closer for a holiday concert. The opening verse is in unison, and the subsequent verses are arranged in canon and overlaid with countermelodies.

The piano accompaniment mimics a banjo, while the fiddle and string bass add the feel of Americana. This arrangement is sure to be a favorite with your choir and audiences.

Sarah Quartel The Parting Glass TTBB a cappella Oxford University Press 9780193527461 “The Parting Glass” is a traditional Scottish song, often sung as a farewell at the end of a party or gathering. The voicing is primarily homophonic with close harmonies. The piece explores the themes of regret, lost love, and friendship. Each verse ends with the hopeful text “So fill to me the parting glass, goodnight and joy be with you all.”

Rollo Dillworth Travelin’ Train TTBB with piano accompaniment Hal Leonard HL08749860 This is an accessible TTBB piece that my choir loved performing. The text focuses around friendship and travel, and the musical palette consists of blues, gospel and jazz.

The vocal lines are mostly homophonic with locomotive sounds added for effect.

Michael Engelhart Gaudete!

TTBB unaccompanied Walton Music HL08501830 The musical material of “Gaudete!” comes from Piae Cantiones (1582). This piece begins chant-like but quickly turns into a driving, rhythmically intricate composition.

The score is marked “strong and biting.” The text reflects the events of the nativity. The percussion parts are an absolute necessity to make this piece effective in performance. 

Arr. Michael Barrett Tuba TTBB a cappella Walton Music WW1701 This South African protest song was performed during the era of Apartheid. The piece is scored as a “call and response” with baritone soloist. “Tuba,” a Bantu word (Bantu is a South African dialect), is translated as “a dove,” and references the Old Testament story of Noah. The dove with the olive branch signifies peace and hope that the worst of the hardship is over.

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 31

Top Five for your Choir:

LGBTQ PERSPECTIVES I Joshua Palkki joined the faculty of the

Bob

Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach as Assistant Professor of

Vocal/Choral

Music Education in

Fall of 2016. At

CSULB, he leads the University Choir, teaches courses in music education (including choral repertoire and pedagogy), interfaces with the

College of

Education, and mentors graduate students in music education.

Dr.

Palkki is passionate about teacher education and preparing preservice teachers to be competent and caring teachers with the knowledge and skills to address issues of social justice through music

’m thrilled and honored to be the first person to hold this new position on the CCDA board. I want to thank the visionary leadership of Dr. Jeffrey Benson, CCDA President, in creating this R & R post. LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, asexual/agender/etc.) issues are increasingly prominent in choral music. Queer identities have always existed in choral music education, even though they have not always been discussed. But because queer identities become real though dialogue, we must talk about them—now more than ever.

In a national survey conducted by Paul Caldwell and myself (2018), 63% of respondents answered False to the prompt: “If I had a friend at my former high school who was questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity, I would suggest they speak with the choir teacher.” We as choral conductor-teachers can be safe people for queer students—but we must be open to discussing these issues openly.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact me. In this new role, I’m here to help.

Stephen Schwartz Testimony TTBB and SATB Hal Leonard 00109772 The Trevor Project is a non-profit organization founded in 1998 focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.

Through a toll-free telephone number, it operates The Trevor Lifeline, a confidential service that offers trained counselors. One of the Trevor Project’s major initiatives is the “It Gets Better” project—an effort to show young queer youth that, although their lives may be challenging at the moment, change is possible. The piece draws on and reflects these messages. “Testimony” is a dramatic choral work, with the first half drawn directly from the experiences of queer people who have struggled and the second half providing comfort using the text “it gets more than better…”

Joan Szymko Quite Regularly Gay SSAA with soprano solo and piano or SSSATB with soprano solo and piano Graphite Publishing Commissioned by the Portland Lesbian Choir, this spritely (and rather cheeky) piece is rhythmically active yet harmonically quite simple. Here Szykmo sets text by Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector who moved to Paris in 1903. The description below from the Graphite Publishing website perfectly sums up the piece: Gertrude Stein said: “A sound, a whole sound is not separation, a whole sound is in an order.” “Quite Regularly Gay” is indeed “in an order.” Part minimalist round, part Gilbert and Sullivan, this lively piece is a setting of an excerpt from a Stein essay that is believed to contain the first modern literature usage of the word “gay” in the context of homosexuality.

While the score looks very dense and complicated, the primary theme it is constructed as a round that comes to gather rather quickly. The challenge lies in part independence.

Craig Hella Johnson Considering Matthew Shepard Excerpt: “All of Us” SATB Hal Leonard 00243350 (full score) Hal Leonard 00217196 (All of Us) Considering Matthew Shepard commemorates the tragic murder of a gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998. It is a “three-part fusion oratorio [that] speaks with a fresh and bold voice, incorporating a variety of musical styles seamlessly woven into a unified whole. Johnson sets a wide range of poetic and soulful texts by poets including Hildegard of Bingen, Lesléa Newman, Michael Dennis Browne, and Rumi. Passages from Matt’s personal journal, interviews and writings from

education.

32 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

his parents Judy and Dennis Shepard, newspaper reports and additional texts by Johnson and Browne are poignantly appointed throughout the work” (Conspirare website). “All of Us” is the last movement, which juxtaposes a soulful, uplifting melody with a Lutheran-sounding chorale and features a treble trio that opens the piece. This can be a powerful and uplifting closer! The full score of Considering Matthew Shepard is now available.

Mari Esabel Valverde Our Phoenix SATB Chorus, piano, and trumpet www.marivalverde.com/order/ This piece was co-commissioned for The Esoterics of Seattle, One Voice Chorus of Charlotte, One Voice Mixed Chorus of St. Paul, River City Mixed Chorus of Omaha, Singing Out of Toronto, and Voices of Kentuckiana of Louisville for the GALA (Gay and Lesbian Choral Association) Choruses Festival 2016. The text is an excerpt from “Our Dangerous Sweetness” by Amir Rabiyah (b. 1978) which uses the image of a phoenix as a metaphor for a mass social movement of

queer people. The last lines of the text read: “My beautiful people I can taste our honeyed victory. My beautiful people our dangerous sweetness is our rebellion.”

Stephan Moccio and Lauren Christy, arr. Roger Emerson Stand in the Light SATB, SSA, or SAB with piano Hal Leonard 00202485 This inspirational piece was made famous by Jordan Smith, winner of Season 9 of The Voice. This is a message that all queer students (well, all students, really) need to hear!

Harmonically simple with some pop rhythms (which might be effectively taught by rote before transferring to notation), this would be a great piece for middle and high school students.

It has a similar feel to “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman. The text of the chorus reads, “This is who I am inside. This is who I am, I’m not gonna hide, ’Cause the greatest risk we’ll ever take is, by far, to stand in the light and be seen as we are.” 

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Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 33

Top Five for your Choir:

HIGH SCHOOL CHOIRS S

Stacey Y. Kikkawa is the director of the

Choral and Vocal Music Program at Fullerton Union High School, and the current

California

Choral Directors Association Repertoire and

Resources Chair

for

High School.

Ms. Kikkawa has led high school programs in

Northern and

Southern California including

Campolindo

High School (Moraga, CA), and Beverly Hills High School.

Ms. Kikkawa completed her masters degree in choral conducting performance at

California State University, Fullerton under

Dr. Robert Istad.

oftware Update: Stacey Kikkawa 3.0: Update will modernize classroom management skills, rehearsal techniques, and communication style. Includes restoring emotional and stress management coping mechanisms from 2006. Reduced battery life will occur with older models; charge when necessary. Repertoire choices may remain constant depending on the user.

As I begin my third teaching position since 2006, I have allowed myself to reuse some tried and true repertoire choices from my past.

These pieces have allowed me to acclimate to my new choirs and communities with quality performances while I process through the glitches in my new update.

Giovanni Gastoldi (c. 1550-1609), ed. Jim Leininger Amor Vittorioso SSATB/SATB or TBB a cappella CPDL/Alliance Music Publications AMP0095 This Italian balletto is incredibly accessible, and contains every opportunity for your choirs to practice their solfege and simple rhythms.

All of the arrangements on CPDL are in 5 parts (mostly SSATB with multiple editors), but Jim Leininger’s edition for Alliance Music Publications is simplified into SATB. Bob Chilcott (b. 1955) Five Songs for Upper Voices SA/3 part/4 part, piano Oxford University Press 9780193359208 My favorite pieces in this book are “All for Love of One” (unison or SA), and “Circles of Motion” (SSA). I originally found them on the album Making Waves, a selection of Bob Chilcott’s treble pieces sung by The Sirens (which I highly recommend to all repertoire junkies). Each song contains a nice balance of unison moments and harmony. “All for Love of One” has a romantic 15th-century text with a cantabile melody and a descant for your floating sopranos. “Circles of Motion” uses Native American poet Joy Harjo’s “Eagle Poem” and sets a simple melody eighth-notes in the piano to symbolize the circle of life.

34 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

Paul Basler (b. 1963) Gloria from Missa Kenya SATB a cappella with tenor soloist, percussion Colla Voce Music, LLC. 36-20102 This piece has continued to inspire me ever since I sang it as an eighth grader in the SCVA Middle School Honor Choir. The repetitive rhythms and chord progressions are catchy, which allows you to to teach classical Latin text that your students will remember forever. You will need a dynamic tenor soloist, but you can substitute a soprano if needed.

The percussion calls for congas and large drums, but you can easily add more to fill out the sound. This is an appropriate opener or closer for your concert or festival set.

Russian folk song, arr. Constantine Shvedoff Oy polna, polna moya korobushka (Oh, How Full is My Bundle) SATB a cappella Musica Russica FS010 Most of your students will recognize this folk dance from Tetris!...or they won’t, and you’ll have to explain what Tetris is and why it is/ was fun for anyone who was alive before 2000.

Even though the Russian pronunciation might be difficult, the parts are not. Chanticleer has a wonderful rendition of this, in which they repeat the song slowly and ramp back up to a tempo to add audience clapping participation.

Neil Ginsberg (b. 1969) We Sing of Golden Mornings SATB, piano Santa Barbara Music Publishing SBMP525 Every time I program this piece, the singers leave with joy in their hearts. The song is mostly SATB, with short moments of divisi (which can be avoided if necessary because the piano part is written so beautifully to support the singers). The pastoral text by e.e. cummings is given a contemporary, quasi-musical theater feel. This is a perfect selection if you are looking for a piece for your musical theater or pop crossover students. 

California Choral Directors Association

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 35

Building bridges and transforming lives through the power of music

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36 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

California Choral Directors Association

Top Five for your Choir:

College AND UNIVERSITY

Corie Brown serves as Professor of Choral Music Education at San José State University.

She brings diverse conducting experience in both public and community settings, and leads the

SJSU Concert

Choir and Treble Choir.

Her scholarship focuses on collaboration in higher education, as well as how to better serve marginalized students in the choral classroom.

As

conductor and choral mentor, she aided in the creation of the choral department of the

Fundación Nacional Batuta in Colombia, South America from 2012-2014, after teaching in

Chicago

and in her home state of

Michigan.

Leading the Way

T

he following works are appropriate and timely and could easily be incorporated into a variety of programs for the upcoming season! Representing diverse eras, ability levels, and composer identities, they all speak to the inherent good we find in the practice of music, and in our students. Enjoy!

often wrestling with ambition and identity, as well as empowering and celebratory of African American culture. The movements are easily excerptable, singable, and filled with lush, blues-inspired harmonies and rhythmic vitality that prove a healthy challenge for ideally a larger SATB ensemble.

Vittoria Aleotti Io v’amo vita mia SATB a cappella CPDL As we bring to the foreground names that are often omitted from the classical choral canon, the Augustinian nun Vittoria Aleotti (1574-1646) is a composer I turn to often.

Her works are accessible, artfully composed, and, in my opinion, contenders with many of the great Renaissance madrigal composers.

This lively SATB work is incredibly accessible, and it’s available, along with over twenty other Aleotti editions, on CPDL. Notably, Aleotti possibly published under the names of both Vittoria and Raffaella.

Trad. Arabic muwashshah, arr. Shireen Abu-Khader Lammaa badaa yatathannaa SATB a cappella (SSAA available directly from arranger) Earthsongs Having both sung and conducted this sensual traditional Syrian work various times, I’ve found it to be a compelling, emotional addition to any program. In 10/8 meter, the popular muwashshah strophic form originated in Cabra during Muslim rule of Spain in the 15th century. “Lamma badaa” is part of oral tradition, and can be accompanied by unpitched percussion instruments, such as the riq or tableh. Tactful movement, or the addition of colored scarves for the singers to use while performing, can be a nice visual addition.

M.E. Valverde Cloths of Heaven SATB and piano Earthsongs This William Butler Yeats text, in Valverde’s words, “draws [you] fiercely inward.” The accompanied, mostly homophonic setting is filled with intimate moments, most notably in the middle of the piece, on the text “but I, being poor, have only my dreams.” The short octavo is appropriate for developing ensembles and beyond, allowing singers to develop a sense of line and tone through an exquisite setting. I have seen it used successfully as a combined selection as well.

William Averitt The Dream Keeper SATB (divisi), four-hand piano E.C. Schirmer The Dream Keeper is a set of four movements setting poignant Langston Hughes poems. I found the text to be fitting for collegiate singers

Stephen Leek Wirindji SATB a cappella www.stephenleek.com, SL198 A challenging piece, filled with moments of overtone singing and exquisite text painting, “Wirindji” is a work for the advanced collegiate ensemble. Leek, the renowned Australian composer, brings to life an Australian Aboriginal creation story of the women of the Wirindji who lure nomadic men to their camps through stomping their feet in order to turn up a magical red dust that rises into the evening sky. The first movement of a larger set of iconic works called Great Southern Spirits, this is a fascinating and fun, albeit difficult opener or closer.

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 37

Top Five for your Choir:

CHORAL COMPOSITION S David V. Montoya has been teaching music in the

California public

schools for

26 years,.

He currently teaches at both and

La Habra

Sunny Hills High

Schools, and he is a published composer.

Learn more about him and explore his compositions by visiting his website, www. montoyamusic.com.

erving CCDA as the R & R Chair for Choral Composition has allowed me so many opportunities to connect with wonderful composers and explore their music.

Composers in California are extremely active in creating new music to further the choral art, though these pieces are often excluded from traditional publishing catalogues. It is exciting to see choral publishing taking new direction, from traditional publishers offering PDFs or print-on-demand scores, to composers’ personal websites. MusicSpoke.com is one website that exclusively promotes the work of living composers, and their catalogue of amazing musicians and incredibly innovative new pieces is growing every month. Here are a few selections for your perusal.

Arr. Lucas Bok; transcribed by Kurt Runestad Khumbaya SSATTB with djembe This incredibly beautiful rendition of the familiar tune has been made available in sheet music for the first time. Soft, gentle and prayerful, this will make your audience melt. It can be heard with a full band accompaniment, but it is also just as effective when sung a cappella with only a djembe added.

Allyson Reigh, arr. Jennifer McMillan Don’t BE Afraid SATB, SSA, or TTBB with soloist(s) and piano A profound message is powerfully communicated in this anthem for chorus and piano, commissioned by Oran (Kathleen Skinner, conductor) in support of the Don’t BE Afraid Campaign. Don’t BE Afraid works to eliminate fear surrounding homophobia and transphobia and promote acceptance for all through honest conversation and creative expression. This moving piece, written with lovely pop-style harmonies, will stir every heart in the room.

38 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

J. Reese Norris Paper Crane SSA or SATB with piano This beautiful piece honors the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima bomb survivor, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1954 at age eleven. In the hospital, she was told of a great legend. If a person folded one thousand paper cranes, their wish would come true.

This wonderfully crafted piece of music is her true story. “Paper Crane” is the selected song for the 2019 Voice For Peace project.

Rachel DeVore Fogarty i carry your heart with me SSATB a cappella Based on the e. e. cummings poem of the same name, this short and sweet piece uses lush harmonies and beautiful text settings to express the feelings of deep love and connection between two lovers. A challenge to sing, but well worth the effort.

Kile Smith The Consolation of Apollo SATB with crotales and bass drum (played by singers) Honoring the astronauts of Apollo 8 as they rounded the moon and saw the earthrise, and contemplating our place in the universe, this multi-movement work for SATB choir and percussion will inspire your singers and audience to new heights. The bass drum drives the rhythm here and there and the crotales punctuate the music. The long, sustained tones of the choir, the dynamic rhythmic choices, and even some instances of bitonality transport us musically into the beautiful void of space.

And the idea at the heart of the piece: “Merry Christmas to all.” Most of the text is derived from secular sources, but there is also a quote from Genesis (1:1-10), which was read to the world by the astronauts on Christmas Eve 1968. 

California Choral Directors Association

CHORAL/ VOCAL PROGRAM

Dr. Robert Istad Director of Choral Studies

Dr. Christopher Peterson Choral Music Education/ Choirs

Recent performances and recordings include: 2018 Performance at ACDA Western Division Conference, 2018 Performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, and with Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 2017 recording with Yarlung Records, 2016 Recording with John Williams for Sony Classical, 2016 Performance with Kathleen Battle, 2015 ChoralOrchestral Performances in Paris, France.

Recent repertoire highlights: Mahler Eighth Symphony, Lang The Little Match Girl Passion, Mendelssohn Elijah, Bernstein Chichester Psalms, Howells Requiem, Bach St. John Passion, Händel Israel in Egypt, Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, Lauridsen Lux Aeterna.

Annual performances: the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, and Andrea Bocelli at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and major arenas.

Annual performance tours: including, Spain, Scandinavia, the Baltics, Russia, New York City, Paris/ Northern France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Australia.

Annual, fully-staged operatic productions with orchestra.

Distinguished alumni: Deborah Voigt, Rod Gilfry, Charles Castronovo, Rene Tatum, Jubilant Sykes, and Christopher Job. Graduates from our Master of Music in Choral Conducting program are successfully conducting performances with collegiate ensembles, professional choruses and orchestras, and opera companies throughout the world.

M.M. Choral Conducting graduates gain real-world experience leading performances with CSUF’s awardwinning choirs, orchestra, and opera theater program.

100% employment rate for choral music education graduates.

Students perform, rehearse, and record in the superb, astonishing acoustics of Meng Concert Hall.

music.fullerton.edu Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 39

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40 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

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California Choral Directors Association

Top Five for your Choir:

TWO-YEAR COLLEGE CHOIRS

I Dr. Arlie Langager has been the of

Director

Choral Studies at

MiraCosta College since

2008. She holds

undergraduate and graduate degrees from the

University of

Calgary and the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Langager was the

Artistic

Director of the Calgary Boys’ Choir and the

Mount

Royal Youth Choir, and for nearly a

f you are looking for a few pieces that are a little under the radar, here are five great choices that can fill a number of different programming needs. Most are unaccompanied and use some divisi. All of the composers are contemporary, with texts ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to Dorothy Parker.

J. Michael Saunders Ignea vis (“The Fiery Force”) SATB with piano Walton Music WJMS1144 The dynamic piano part and dramatic vocal lines capture the ecstasy of a vision from Hildegard von Bingen. The lengthy Latin text is skillfully set over sweeping lines, interspersed with chant-like passages and whispers. The piece is impressive and sounds complex, but is reasonably intuitive for singers.

Jennifer Higdon Telegram SATB a cappella Lawdon Press (J.W. Pepper 10628322) Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon is perhaps more well-known for her major works, but her one-movement setting of Jeanne Minihan’s playful text is a lovely challenge for more advanced choirs.

Jean Belmont If Music be the Food of Love SATB a cappella Alfred Publishing VEI1103 This tender setting by California-born composer Jean Belmont Ford sits comfortably within the vocal ranges of most college choirs.

Her translucent voicing can work well for newer singers with lighter tone qualities, but the luscious harmonies from the occasional divisi voicing anchor best with fuller bass and baritone voices.

Paul Sjolund Love Lost SATB unaccompanied Walton Music W2702 These “Four Satirical Poems on Love” are a delightful addition to any program. The most popular piece to perform independently is the setting of Dorothy Parker’s clever poem, “One Perfect Rose” (search online to hear the poet recite it herself), but the complete set takes only 4 minutes to perform…depending on audience laughter. 

decade she directed the award-winning

University of Calgary Vocal Jazz ensembles.

Rudi Tas Ave Maria SATB a cappella with soprano solo Annie Bank Edition #AB11900383-1 This contemporary motet begins with a soprano soloist singing the familiar Gregorian chant. By following the syllabic stress of the Latin text, the choral parts fall more naturally in the frequent mixed meter. The ending is most powerful when the choir and soloist take their time between the chords in the final cadence.

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 41

CCDA BOARD Directory EXECUTIVE BOARD President Jeffrey Benson (408) 924-4645 jeffrey.s.benson@gmail.com President-Elect Chris Peterson (657) 278-3537 cpeterson@fullerton.edu Vice President Robert Istad (562) 822-5952 robert.istad@gmail.com

REPERTOIRE & RESOURCES

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES Bay Area Buddy James (510) 885-3128 buddy.james@ csueastbay.edu Central Angel Vázquez-Ramos (714) 305-1087 vazquezramosa@gmail.com

Development & VFTF Lori Marie Rios (818) 679-7463 lmrdiva1@gmail.com

Central Coast Carolyn Teraoka-­Brady (805) ­689-­1780 cteraokabrady3@gmail.com

Treasurer Jenny Bent (707) 664-3925 bentje@sonoma.edu

Far South John Russell (917) 686-­0110 johnkrussell@gmail.com

Membership Polly Vasché (209) 526-9692 pollyvasche@pacbell.net

Northern Alissa Aune (530) 277-6691 aaune@suhsd.net

Executive Administrator Kathleen Preston 921 N. Harbor Blvd., #412 La Habra, CA 90631-3103 (657) 217-0767 exec_admin@acdacal.org

Southern Tina Peterson (562) 453-9681 tgpeterson@me.com

EVENT CHAIRS Summer Conference at ECCO Jeffe Huls jhuls@smmusd.org CLA Coordinator John Sorber (559) 303-9961 johnso@cos.edu All-State Honor Choirs Molly Peters (213) 880-7597 mepeters79@gmail.com

CCDA State Conference at CASMEC Kristina Nakagawa (408) 205-6050 artistic@ resoundingachord.org

Children’s & Community Youth La Nell Martin (510) 350-6639 lanellmartin7@gmail.com

Ethnic & Multicultural Perspectives Anthony Arnold (408) 799-5867 arnold_anthony@cusdk8.org

Junior High & Middle School Angelina Fitzhugh (650) 387-6730 afitzhugh@pausd.org

LGBTQ Perspectives Josh Palkki (202) 679-3350 josh.palkki@csulb.edu

Senior High School Stacey Kikkawa (310) 551-5100 skikkawa@fjuhsd.org Two-Year College Arlie Langager (858) ­774-­0412 alangager@miracosta.edu College & University Corie Brown (541) 743-6335 corie.brown@sjsu.edu Student Activities Susie Martone (415) 735-0910 susie.martone@gmail.com Choral Composition David Montoya (626) 419-8031 davypavy@aol.com

Music in Worship Christy Rohayem (510) 908-3047 crohayem@gmail.com Pop & A Cappella Bret Peppo (925) 808-9689 bpeppo@dvc.edu SSAA Choirs Lauren Diez (714) 904-1035 laurendiez415@gmail.com TTBB Choirs Mel Carrillo (559) 827-3560 mpcarrillo03@gmail.com Vocal Jazz Michelle Hawkins (650) 738-7134 hawkinsm@smccd.edu

Community & Professional Choirs Tammi Alderman (626) 299-7020 x3615 tammialderman@gmail.com

COMMUNICATIONS Cantate Editor Eliza Rubenstein erubenstein@occ.cccd.edu cantate.editor@ gmail.com

42 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020

Webmaster & Graphic Design Anthony M. Lien (530) 204-8512 amlien@lienhome.net

Social Media Coordinator Jason Pano (408) 768-0733 jasonpano@yahoo.com

California Choral Directors Association

SJSU welcomes

Dr. Corie Brown, Professor of Choral Music Education

Pictured: Dr. Jeffrey Benson and Dr. Corie Brown

Follow your passion! performance opportunities Concert Choir Choraliers Vocal Jazz Ensemble Treble Choir Spartan Glee Club Opera Theatre

degrees offered Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of Music in Performance Bachelor of Music Education Master of Music in Choral Conducting Summer Masters Degree in Music Education

SUMMER CHORAL WORKSHOP July 13-17, 2020 sjsu.edu/music/choralworkshop

Leading the Way

contact us Dr. Jeffrey Benson, Director of Choral Activities jeffrey.benson@sjsu.edu Dr. Corie Brown, Professor of Choral Music Education corie.brown@sjsu.edu

SJSU Choirs SJSU Choirs @SJSU Choirs sjsu.edu/music

Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 • 43

California Choral Directors Association 921 N. Harbor Blvd., #412 La Habra, CA 90631-3103

Jessie Shulman

Professional Mezzo-Soprano Los Angeles Master Chorale Hollywood Studio Musician

VJ Rosales

Singer /Arranger “The Filharmonic” Staff Arranger The Late Late Show with James Corden

Simon Barrad

Professional Baritone in Opera Oratorio and Choral Music Soloist on Conspirare’s new album The Hope of Loving

Leeav Sofer Honey Whiskey Trio

Harmony Sweepstakes National Champions Voice Educators and Arrangers

Congratulations to this year’s distinguished alumni in Voice, Opera, and Choral Music.

We would love to welcome your students to our nationally recognized program.

CSULB is ranked America’s 13th Best Value in education by Money Magazine.

Founding Director, Urban Voices of Los Angeles Singer and Conductor “Mostly Kosher”