CCDA Cantate Fall 2021

2 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

California Choral Directors Association

IN THIS ISSUE 5 | A LONG, STRANGE TRIP from the president’s pen · by chris peterson 6 | WHAT SURVIVES letter from the editor · by eliza rubenstein 8 | CAR TUNES how one family’s ingenuity made music during a pandemic · by kathryn denney 16 | ALL-STATE HONOR CHOIRS by angelina fitzhugh and susie martone

17 | 2021 HOWARD SWAN AWARD WINNER 19 | HEY, JEALOUSY the composer’s voice · by dale trumbore 20 | SEEN & HEARD 26 | CASMEC & ACDA WESTERN DIVISION CONFERENCE 30 | VISION FOR THE FUTURE scholarship fund donors and new vftf awards

32 | NEWS AND NOTES happenings from around the state

34 | TOP FIVE: COMMUNITY COLLEGES by kellori dower

sunnier days are ahead! On page 8, Look back on some of the creativity that got us through 2020 as we look to better times.

37 | TOP FIVE: SSAA CHOIRS by lauren diez

38 | TOP FIVE: VOCAL JAZZ by andreas preponis

40 | TOP FIVE: MIDDLE SCHOOL & JUNIOR HIGH by emelynn montoya

41 | TOP FIVE: CHILDREN’S & COMMUNITY YOUTH by la nell martin

42 | CCDA DIRECTORY

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 3

CANTATE Volume 34, Number 1

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.calcda.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: The Tesoro High School Madrigal Singers gather in Big Bear for a summer retreat.

Image courtesy of Keith Hancock.

4 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

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 Regional Honor Choirs October 9 CASMEC Conference February 17-19, Fresno Western Division ACDA Conference March 2-5, Long Beach

California Choral Directors Association

From The president’s pen:

A LONG, STRANGE TRIP or those of you that are anywhere close to my age (official age undisclosed at F press time), you will likely remember the

old Grateful Dead song “Truckin’,” which includes these words:

Christopher Peterson is

Professor of Choral Music Education at CSU Fullerton and a teacher, conductor, choral clinician, author, editor,

composer, and choral arranger of music and books published in the

U.S. and around

the world. In his over thirty years as a music educator

Chris has

taught in elementary, middle school, high school, church, community, festival, and collegiate settings. received his

He

BS in Music

Education from the University of Southern Maine, the MM in Choral Conducting from the of

University

Maine, and his

Doctorate in Choral Conducting/Music Education from The Florida State University.

Leading the Way

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me Other times, I can barely see Lately, it occurs to me What a long, strange trip it’s been.

While I can’t say that I’m a major Deadhead, that song resonates in my imagination when I think back over the past sixteen or so months and reflect upon how COVID-19 has changed the landscape of not just the choral world, but the entire world. None of us could have predicted the extent to which our teaching and artistic lives would be upended, and many of us are still wondering “what the heck just happened?” When the world shut down in March of 2020, we all did our best to become online teachers and to make the best of a terrible situation, learning new skills and doing all we could to engage and retain students who were likewise shell-shocked in the new (but hopefully temporary) paradigm.

I felt so bad for all teachers and their students.

But there were two kinds of teachers, I thought, who were especially challenged: online Kindergarten teachers for the challenge of engaging those tiny, short-attention-span humans through remote video screens, and choir directors who were reduced to teaching choir in an environment in which no two people could sing together in real time.

I know in my heart that we all did our very best. We did what we had to do. On the bright side, I am hopeful that we may be emerging into some sort of new normal...a different environment where singing together can recommence with certain careful precautions, and with vaccines to help us when we need them most. What a long, strange trip it’s been. s I start my Presidency, I want to thank our past President, Dr. Jeffrey Benson, A for his able and steady leadership these past

two years. He kept our organization moving ahead during these strange times, and he helped usher in important projects to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) in choral music across California, including a new CCDA DEIA Committee.

Under his leadership we created a new CCDA Choral Equity Scholarship to aid in the musical or communal benefit of underrepresented choral directors in California. He also ushered in new scholarships from our Vision for the Future fund so that everyone who is passionate about choral music can request funds to help provide transformative experiences for our diverse California communities. There is not enough space here to detail everything he accomplished together with the Board, but you can look through our website and find a number of amazing changes and initiatives. Thank you, Dr. Benson, for your work and dedication! o where do we go from here? Is this long, strange trip over yet? As I write this S article, I have no idea if COVID will shut

us all down again, or if we will be able to sing together and manage the virus safely this year. I am cautiously optimistic, and I know that CCDA is here to help. Together we are stronger than any of us alone could ever be, and our new CCDA Board (see the Board Directory in this issue for the roster) is made up of many new faces as well as some who have served so ably in the past. Each person is committed to helping you be the best you can be through ideas, posts, workshops, communications and “Making a Difference” projects that you will hear more about as the year unfolds. I want you to know that you are not alone, and that when you need us, we will be here for you.

Working together we can make CCDA an even more powerful force for positive change in our state. Even if the trip gets a little stranger, let’s take that journey together and make it a great year of singing, come what may. I am so honored to be your President, and I look forward to what we can do together going forward. 

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letter from the editor:

WHAT SURVIVES here’s a silly sci-fi B-movie—perhaps T a B-minus-movie—called Night of the Comet that used to turn up a lot on basic cable

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. 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; four dogs; and a cat named

Wilbur.

She’s passionate about grammar,

Thai food,

photography, and the

St. Louis Cardinals and

St. Louis Blues.

when I was a kid in the mid-’80s. The plot (the ending of which I won’t spoil here, in case you’re compelled to stream it some slow day or sleepless night) involves two teenaged sisters, Reggie and Samantha, who discover that they’re among the only humans still alive after the earth passes through the tail of Halley’s comet, leaving most folks dead and a select handful transformed into zombies.

Adventures ensue. A subterranean radio station proves to be an oasis of life amid a landscape of people vaporized into piles of clothing and dust. Mad scientists and soulless flesh-eaters and, spoiler, hunky love interests take their turns onscreen. Reggie’s and Sam’s emotions wheel and reel through moments of elation (“The stores are open!”) and desperation (“There’s nobody around!

Nobody!”).

I’m not proud that pulpy cult films are the cinematic references my mind reaches for in strange times, but I won’t lie to you, either: During the first few weeks of school on our mostly deserted campus, where only 15% of classes have returned to in-person instruction, I’ve felt a little like one of the sisters in Night of the Comet. I don’t have the big ’80s bangs, and thus far we’re happily zombie-free, but I do have the same odd dual sense of desolation and liberation, of alienation and homecoming, of fear and freedom. The choir room, alive with songs and laughter, is our underground radio station, a hub of high spirits in a still-quiet world; COVID is the menace that could appear in the doorway at any moment to shut it all down.

“They said you were dead!” says Reggie to Samantha at one point in the film, after the mad scientists have meddled in their affairs.

“They were exaggerating, totally,” Samantha replies in full Valley-Girl inflection.

Relatable, ladies. We didn’t know what we’d be returning to this fall: Was choral singing dead? Would we be able to sing in person at all? Would we even have students and programs to come back to, or would they have vaporized into dust during our eighteen long months of isolation?

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Turns out the reports of choral music’s death were, indeed, totally exaggerated. Here in my corner of the choral world, at least, we’re all a bit bruised and edgy, rusty in voice and conducting gesture, still adjusting to singing in masks and (in my case) not being able to see the back row of the chorus thanks to the combination of social distancing and fogged-up mask-adjacent eyeglasses. It’s weird. It’s stressful, when we hear reports of COVID cases among friends or colleagues elsewhere on the campus or in the choral community.

But it’s freeing, too—not just because we can sing outdoors without bothering anyone and find an open practice room at any hour of the day, but because the past year has stripped our music-making experience down to the essentials and unchained us from the traditional expectations of concerts and festivals and adjudications. We are here to sing, to sing together, to sing for ourselves and one another. ast week, word came down from our L college administration that the ban on live audiences we’d been told to plan for this

fall might be lifted; we might be allowed to perform for a theater full of people after all, if we wanted to. I asked my choir students how they felt about that, knowing that some were itching to have fans again, some were already maxing out their risk tolerance just by taking this one in-person class, and many were somewhere in the middle.

We had a good discussion, a lengthy and kind and constructive discussion, with lots of earnest wishes shared and creative ideas proffered. As our class time waned, a young bass raised his hand.

“I don’t have a suggestion, specifically,” he said. “I just wanted to say that....I don’t care what we do. I don’t care if we have an audience, or where or how or if we perform.

I’m just so happy to be back here singing with everyone, because this is the part I love and the part I missed.”

Everybody clapped. We were friends, survivors, humans in a world that sometimes tries to turn us to zombies. And we’re still here. Totally. 

California Choral Directors Association

It’s time for our annual SingUp membership drive!

Do you know a new choral educator in your area, or someone whose ACDA membership has lapsed for at least three years? We have free memberships to give out faster than Oprah can say “YOU GET A MEMBERSHIP!” Please e-mail me at mepeters79@gmail.com with the new member’s e-mail address and teaching location so I can invite them to join us.

I am excited to re-engage and expand our amazing organization!

Molly Peters CCDA Membership Chair

Leading the Way

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8 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

California Choral Directors Association

CAR TUnEs How a family’s ingenuity made music during a pandemic

By Kathryn Denney Editor’s note: Kathryn Denney and I have been friends since the early 1990s, when she was a star soprano and I a nondescript alto in the Oberlin College Tappan Singers. After nearly thirty years of witnessing her talent and tenacity (and that of her husband and fellow “Obie,” Bryce), I wasn’t a bit surprised when the Denneys emerged as pioneers of one of the cleverest soutions to the problem of COVID-era choral singing—an endeavor that took them from their Massachusetts home all the way to the Today show. I asked Kathryn to tell the story of their “driveway choirs” for the members of CCDA, and I’m grateful to her for doing so. —ER

sang in Labyrinth Choir, too, which planned to record an album and take a concert tour of Spain in July.

On Thursday, March 12, I was directing a rehearsal of Beauty and the Beast with a wonderful group of high school students. They had just finished blocking the last remaining scene when, at 8:30, every phone in the auditorium rang at the same time as the administration told the whole community that there would be no school the following day. I looked around the room and did not see the elation that usually comes with news of a snow day or a water main break.

We all knew, whether for certain or as a hunch, that we would not be coming back anytime soon.

I crossed all the remaining Beauty and the Beast rehearsals and n a normal year, I direct performances off my calendar. The musical theater: Gilbert and next day I crossed off everything having Sullivan, Broadway shows, children’s theater, public school Kathryn (front) and THE DENNEY FAMILY to do with James and the Giant Peach.

The trip to Spain was canceled, then productions, adult community the March 28 band concert. My children, in 8th and groups, sometimes five shows at a time. On February 10th grades, had two weeks off from school; their 29, 2020, I finished a run of HMS Pinafore with the extracurricular events were also canceled. A few weeks Sudbury Savoyards, while also in the polishing stage later, the governor of Massachusetts closed all schools of a high school production of Beauty and the Beast, through the end of the year. and just starting rehearsals for a multi-generational My children continued private music lessons over community production of James and the Giant Peach. I

I

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Zoom, which worked pretty well for demonstrating and performing music, but, as we all discovered, could not accommodate real-time ensembles that needed to stay together. We began making more music together as a family, and, of course, we had plenty of practice time. On March 28 we gave an online recital that was so popular (because, let’s face it, did anyone have any events to attend?) that we decided to learn some more music and perform from our living room again in April, May, and June. On May’s program, we included some choral music, which provoked envy (“I miss singing in harmony sooo much!”) from more than a few friends who didn’t happen to have a built-in SATB chorus in their family or quarantine pod.

By this point, the concept of a virtual choir was ubiquitous. Nearly every singer can attest to having found a well-lit place in their home with a selfie video recording them singing their part while listening to a guide track, watching a video of a conductor, and reading music on a different device or taped to the wall.

Everybody knows how to upload said video into a google drive, wait a month, and receive an awesome recording that is heavily mixed and edited. But the experience is nothing like creating harmony at the same moment as other singers, breathing together, locking a chord in tune, and feeling the collective pulse of an ensemble adjust to a common pace.

We started experimenting with the idea of bringing the gift of SATB music to people outside our family, even as the news from Skagit Valley the ACDA webinar in May made singing indoors with others feel too risky. My husband, Bryce, is an engineer with an insatiable curiosity for experimenting as well as a musician, and he was not going to stop thinking until he found a COVID-safe way to sing together

10 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

in real time. We asked three of the other members of Labyrinth Choir if they were game to try singing at a distance. How about separate rooms in a building?

How about one person on the porch and another inside the house? (A pane of glass should be enough of a barrier to keep aerosols apart!) We couldn’t invite friends to each other’s houses at that point, but what about our yard? Or....our driveway?

We bought inexpensive gaming headsets and cables and adapters, and we already had a small mixer.

Thaddeus Bell, Lisa Bloom, and Daniel Rosensweig were our Beta testers, who drove into our driveway and sang from inside their cars. We started with music that we had recently sung in Labyrinth Choir. It sounded surprisingly good, and we were able to joke, banter back and forth, rehearse, build harmony, and enjoy each other’s company from a distance. Everything was great, except that there were a lot of wires. Our headsets had two cords each, one for the microphone and one to hear the mixed sound. We learned how to wrap the cords for minimal tangling, but we couldn’t imagine how tangled things would get with eight or ten singers instead of only four.

As often happens when you learn something new, we posted a video of this new experiment on Facebook.

Within five minutes, I received a comment that there was a musician in Virginia named David Newman who was conducting similar experiments in parking lots and publishing videos to demonstrate. He enabled far more than four people, he used wireless microphones so that there were no cords, and he allowed the singers to hear each other through their car radios using an FM transmitter. The following day, we Zoomed with David, who is an incredibly delightful person as well as a brilliant one, and we each had ideas that allowed the other’s systems to get better

California Choral Directors Association

Leading the Way

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and easier to use. We started a Facebook group called “Making Music Together during COVID” to share ideas and meet other interested people.

To accommodate more singers, Bryce ordered a bunch of equipment, including the exact wireless mics that David had suggested, and he wrote documents to help other groups build their own system. The director of Labyrinth Choir gave us an old 24-port Mackie mixer from 1996, which was in excellent condition (despite lacking a USB port because of its age). If we had capacity for 20 singers, we figured we’d see who else was interested in joining us!

O

n July 2, we had 18 singers come to our road and park within sight of our driveway. I stood in the center of the driveway where everyone could see me, and Bryce had the audio equipment and our electric piano at the bottom of the driveway. Cars lined both sides of the street and the base of our driveway. We sang “We Shall Not Give Up the Fight,” Cantique de Jean Racine, a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan favorites, and “Onward Christian Soldiers,” because the New England Gilbert and Sullivan Society was hosting an evening of Sullivan hymns and we said we would contribute something unique but familiar.

Word quickly got around, and other friends decided to come the following week. We hosted one event per week throughout the summer. Many of the people who attended were there to check out our methods because they intended to build a system for their own choruses.

I would choose my favorite choral literature, and each time there were tears, goosebumps and sighs of relief.

Some people didn’t find it satisfying to sing sitting

12 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

down, or they were happy to help us learn what works but not independently excited about “driveway choir.”

But many of our singers wanted more, returned week after week, and invited friends to join them.

One of our guests, Jay Lane, decided that he wanted to try this with his church choir, and wondered if we would be willing to put our considerable amount of equipment into a car to take it half an hour away.

We could all see that our neighborhood did not have much capacity for further growth, so we would have graduated to a parking lot anyway, but the choir of St. Anne’s Church in Lincoln provided our motivation to buy bins, organize our equipment, and learn to program the wireless mics for other areas in Massachusetts. Visiting St. Anne’s was a turning point for me, because when their choir got together after months of singing on mute, there was palpable emotion and incredible gratitude. Their director chose the perfect music for that moment: “How Can I Keep from Singing?” and “With a voice of singing, declare ye this, and let it be heard.”

And that is exactly what we did, as we took video of the elation, the reunion, and the awe at how easy it is to rehearse and warm up and sing in harmony when you are together in person. We made a how-to video that described exactly what was needed to build this system, and every useful step of our learning process.

Two things happened around the same time at the end of August. First, at a “friends and family” event in our neighborhood, someone walked by and asked if she could write about us in a local newspaper. Would we be interested? Of course! Also, the leadership team of Somerset Hills Harmony in New Jersey

California Choral Directors Association

contacted us to say that when one of them came across one of our videos, they started furiously texting each other and within three days had purchased an FM transmitter and began doing car choirs of their own.

They scaled up and did several rehearsals and an FM radio performance at a retirement home. They wanted to tell the rest of the Barbershop Harmony Society about this exciting way to continue singing together, and planned a series of five webinars to teach everyone how to run their own parking lot choir.

In the Denney home, our conversation was something like this: “Five?”

“Yeah, they think it’s that important.”

“But literally five separate evenings? Who is going to come to that many Zoom sessions?”

“Hey, they asked us to come, and we’re free. Can we hop on?”

“Sure, I’ll be one of six people in attendance.”

Little did we know: Christian Hunter and Charlie Ross had close to 100 people come to their first webinar, and they started a Facebook group, “Hot Rods & Harmony: Drive-In Rehearsals,” which grew to over 200 members. Through social media, we saw daily posts from all over the country, in which people would announce their first rehearsal with a system they had copied from David Newman/Bryce/Somerset Hills, including some groups in California that built driveway choir systems for choral rehearsals: • Douglas Morrisson Theater Chorus, Castro Valley and Hayward • First Congregational Church of San Jose

Leading the Way

• • • •

Gold Standard Chorus, Santa Cruz AHH!cappella Chorus, Thousand Oaks San Jose Pop Up Choir Song of Sonoma Chorus, Santa Rosa

The calls and e-mails started coming to the Denneys several times a week. The calendar came back out, as every weekend in September and October filled with an off-site event for a community chorus, a church choir, a shape-note group, a gospel choir, or a theater company. Having outgrown our driveway, we started scouting out parking lots. It was clear that the world was not in need of better quality entertainment to consume online, but it was absolutely crying out for safe opportunities for singers to participate in musical activities together. This process became a gift we could give choruses.

In late September, we received an e-mail from a frustrated singer in the Barbershop Harmony Society who missed singing and happened to write for the New York Times. He wondered if we had any events coming up. Why....yes, a few, actually!

Four in September and six in October. He joined us one night at First Parish Unitarian Church in Stow, Massachusetts. Music director Michael Pfitzer wanted to rehearse three pieces in detail and record them for a future church service. Bob Morris of the Times was one of the 27 singers who participated that evening. His article put into words something that I had been feeling: that creating harmony with a group of people is something that a human soul needs. It is the most natural thing in the world for a group to resolve a dominant seventh chord together. Watching

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a conductor, breathing as a unit, and pronouncing vowels uniformly can be a visceral need.

A few weeks later, we received an e-mail from a producer at NBC’s Today show, saying they would like to do a spot on Sunday Today with Willie Geist.

(Wow, people were really desperate for good news.)

As we got good at the 20-person events, Bryce’s engineer mind was always another step ahead.

Couldn’t we do a big piece from start to finish, just for fun? Our system could accommodate 32 microphones, but what if a group of 50 singers wanted to sing? My favorite large choral work is Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, which was sadly appropriate for late October. I didn’t know that piece well enough to conduct it without a rehearsal, so we asked Michael Pfitzer, who referred us to his friend Jamie Kirsch, whose Chorus Pro Musica was eager to use our 32 mics. His board quickly pulled together, searching for parking lots, making a parking plan, collecting participants, and making sure everyone had scores.

(Yes, of course, let’s do it in German.)

I’ll be honest: We had plenty of new challenges related to putting on a Big Brahms Requiem Sing even before the Today Show asked us not to pack our car until they had arrived that morning to film us doing it. They insisted upon coming to “the driveway where it happened,” which meant I had to put in extra time to make my landscaping not embarrass me.

And wow, my garage door could use another coat of paint! Our children wanted to come with us this time, which meant we needed two cars, and with so many cars, we needed to elevate the conductor. I found an old toy box for Jamie to stand on. Bryce drove to the parking lot first, shortly after the home crew left, while the kids and I packed the toy box and a large conductor’s music stand into the second car. As soon as I arrived, Harry Smith wanted to interview us, and I was behind. I hadn’t even laid out the microphones and prepared the assignment lists; the extra radios needed to be programmed to the unused station Bryce had found when he had arrived. During our interview, I could see the cars arriving in the parking lot, not paying any attention to the plan we had in our mind as to how they should be arranged. I needed to be helping them! My mind was on everything but what Harry was asking me, and the second he was done with our interview, I literally ran to the car to start doing all the pre-event set up jobs that I usually do.

I didn’t find out until later than Bryce had forgotten an essential cable, without which our system

14 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

would not work. Luckily, one of the Today crew had a cable that fit. But that afternoon, as the righteous were in the hands of God, all I could think about was that my husband’s ingenuity and my persistence in gathering people together to make music had combined to create a magical experience for 50 singers paying tribute to the grief and loss that the world had endured during the past seven months. The producer of the show wanted everyone to take a selfie during “Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen,” and several of the singers freely wept as they sang these glorious words in harmony with their friends, behind their steering wheels.

There was something addictive about bringing choral music to groups who wanted to sing together.

We continued facilitating events multiple times a week all the way through November, thinking we would probably do a Messiah Sing sometime in December.

But how would we adapt to New England snow and cold, when all of our events had to be outdoors?

Through our online community, we learned several helpful tricks. Christian suggested a propane space heater that reminds us of a horizontal gas grill. We put it inside a pop-up tent, which we had purchased in order to keep the sun off us in the summer, and to which we’d added sides to create a little cove that could be heated. This was helpful, but on really cold days (under 30 degrees) we would rent a U-haul and the space heater would keep the pianist toasty! The conductor typically generated enough heat through exercise that they didn’t need a heater. We added to our list of things singers should bring: • • • • •

a sleeping bag baked potatoes extra blankets warm boots a hot beverage

We grew skilled at letting people know where to park for optimal view of the conductor, and at packing a lot of people into a small parking lot. We did have a Messiah Sing, conducted by Michael Pfitzer, with his wife and a group of her opera-singer friends performing the solos and duets as the 160 singers in attendance belted out the choruses. A local high school lent us a marching band podium; to our own list of equipment, we had occasion to add jumper cables, wind clips, hand and foot warmers, towels, and a sun hat.

By June, we had facilitated 62 events with about 50

California Choral Directors Association

different groups. Some highlights included: • running through the entire show of The Pirates of Penzance, • piping the Mozart Requiem into a hospital for behavioral medicine from their parking lot; • hosting two consecutive church choirs the week before Easter on a Sunday in a torrential downpour with the only power source 400 feet from the parking lot, and calling my sister to see if she could pick up 400 feet of extension cord; • a children’s choir singing Christmas carols in cars with their parents and grandparents; • the first hot event after a winter and spring of chill, when we had to decide which window everyone could roll down and which would keep a pane of glass between each two voices; • the ensemble numbers of a virtual production of Frozen, performed by kids at our older daughter’s high school.

The salient feeling we have about this project surrounds the huge community that developed during a time when most of us experienced isolation.

Problem-solvers shared ideas over the internet and challenged each other to go bigger, get smarter, work more quickly, expand our repertoire, and feel connected. On the www.drivewaychoir. org website, you can find articles and videos about choruses across the U.S. and Canada who learned how to sing from their cars during the pandemic.

We are working on a documentary, which is in post production and will be released in Fall 2021.

We all look forward to being able to walk into a room, get out our music and start singing, without hooking up a single microphone, but we are so grateful to everyone who put their minds together to allow live, safe choral music to continue through a period when nobody expected it would be able to.

Be safe, be musical, be connected. 

Study Music in L.A. At LMU Music, we offer a personalized approach to music education, housed in stateof-the-art facilities in the second-largest U.S. music market. Offering concentrations in Contemporary Styles and Practices, Instrumental Studies, Vocal Studies, Theory/ Composition, Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Conducting, Dr. T. J. Harper, Director of Choral Activities

cfa.lmu.edu/music

Leading the Way

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ALL-STATE honor choirs

by Angelina Fitzhugh and Susie Martone ello CCDA! We are your new All-State co-chairs, and H we’re excited to take on this role as we navigate our way back to transformative in-person choral experiences!

As of this publication, we are moving forward with plans for in-person regional events in October and in-person All-State Honor Choirs at CASMEC in February. Due to the ever-changing pandemic protocols, the events will look a little different this year, but we’re thrilled to bring back in-person honor choir opportunities for our students.

Fall Regional Workshop Choirs, October 9, 2021 Central Region Chairperson: Susanna Peeples Coastal Region Chairperson: Katrina Brekke • Participation not required for All-State audition eligibility • One day, one group, in-person with guest conductor Honor Choir Audition Online Workshop October 13, 2021, 4:00-5:00 p.m.

• Participation not required for All-State audition eligibility • Procedures and tips for submitting audition recordings • Breakout room sectionals for rehearsing audition excerpts • Will be recorded and posted on the CCDA website • Zoom link will be sent to directors the prior weekend

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All-State Honor Choirs, February 17-19, 2022 CASMEC Conference, Fresno Detailed audition instructions will be posted on the CCDA website by September 1.

• Middle School/Junior High: All-State auditions will be online via OpusEvent; due date: November 5 • Roster, sheet music PDFs, and part learning tracks will be sent to directors by December 17 • Coastal and Central region members: All-State auditions will be online via OpusEvent • High School Round 1 due date: November 5 • High School Round 2 live online auditions: December 3-4 • Southern region members: auditions for SCVA honor choirs will be held in person (information at scvachoral.org) We are pleased to welcome these guest conductors for our All-State Choirs: Dr. Felicia Barber, Middle School/Junior High SATB; Dr. Andrea Ramsey, High School SSAA; Dr. Jeffery Redding, High School SATB; and Dr. Jace Saplan, High School TTBB. We will keep you informed through e-mail, social media, and the CCDA website, and you can e-mail us with any questions at honorchoir.allstate.ca@gmail.com. 

California Choral Directors Association

2021 Howard Swan Award recipient

MARY BREDEN The California Choral Directors’ association is proud to bestow its highest honor Dr. Mary Breden for her decades of service to the choral profession.

She is Director Emerita of choral activities at Loyola Marymount University, past president of the Western Division of the American Choral Directors’ Association, and a pianist, writer, and passionate teacher. CCDA thanks Dr. Breden for her contributions to our art and congratulates her on this award.

Leading the Way

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Artistic and Academic Excellence School of Music BACHELOR OF ARTS BACHELOR OF MUSIC MASTER OF MUSIC ARTIST DIPLOMA

Graduate Degrees Music scholarships & graduate assistantships available → Composition → Performance → Conducting → Vocal Chamber Music → Pedagogy Choral Faculty → Nicholle Andrews Voice Faculty → Melissa Tosh → Marco Schindelmann → Donald Brinegar

→ Christopher Gabbitas

→ Patricia Gee → Cynthia Snyder

WWW.REDLANDS.EDU/MUSIC

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California Choral Directors Association

the COmposer’s voice:

HEY, JEALOUSY hen you’re jealous of someone else’s W success, it’s possible that everything you tell yourself about the person is true. Maybe 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.

Leading the Way

you’re worthier of the grant or the contest that they just won. Maybe you wanted, needed, and deserved it more than they did.

Dwelling on this will do nothing for your career, though. If anything, intense jealousy threatens to derail your work, as you’re spending your time and mental energy on those feelings rather than your own art.

Of the two best solutions I know for jealousy, neither one will cure it permanently, but they both help a lot. The first is to imagine the other person in a car passing you while you’re both driving on a long highway. If their car is going very fast, it can make you think that maybe you need to go faster, too, or that if you’d been going faster in the first place, they wouldn’t have passed you. But if you’ve ever been passed by a car only to later pull up next to the same person at a traffic light, you already know that just because someone is going faster now doesn’t mean you won’t both end up at the same place later. You’re probably not even driving toward the same destination. How quickly they arrive at their goal has nothing to do with how soon you arrive at yours.

Your time is better spent focusing on where you’re going and how you’ll get there. You may even realize, down the road, that you never had any desire to go where that person ended up anyway, so going quickly wouldn’t have served you even if you had gotten there first.

When you’re driving safely, you leave enough space between your car and the next.

You leave space for minor mishaps, like if the car ahead of you brakes unexpectedly, or someone abruptly cuts into your lane.

You can leave this kind of mental space for feelings of jealousy, too, by acknowledging that these feelings are perfectly normal and often inevitable. Whenever someone’s moving faster in their lane and receiving high-profile gigs, prizes, or grants that you covet, practice noticing and acknowledging your feelings, then consciously redirect your attention to your own work. This strategy works for procrastination, self-doubt, anxiety, and jealousy, too.

The second technique I use to mitigate

jealousy is this: When you’re experiencing jealousy, consider why you’re feeling that way, then flip that statement back onto yourself.

In this way, you allow jealousy to write a prescription for action and changes to make within your own life. “Why does she get so many more performances than me?” becomes “Do I want to book more performances? How could I go about trying to make that happen?”

“His website looks so much more professional than mine” becomes “What do I wish was different on my website? What easy changes can I make to it this weekend?” “Ugh, her new headshots look so good!” becomes “Should I look into getting new headshots?”

As soon as you view your own life through the lens of that reversal, every bitter complaint turns into a specific action you can take. “Why does that person get so many more commissions and performances than me when my work is so much better than theirs?”—my own personal source of jealousy—turns into “How can I make sure I’m putting my art out into the world in a way that might get me more commissions?” and “How can I put myself in real and virtual situations—conferences, coffee dates, and e-mail introductions—in order to meet more people who could potentially love my work and commission me in the future?”

As you drive along your personal career path, maybe you’ll catch up to people you’ve been jealous of in the past. Maybe you won’t.

Does it matter?

I know, I know; sometimes it really feels like it matters. But if you train yourself to recognize and redirect your jealousy every time it emerges, it will pass as quickly as your anger at someone cutting you off in traffic. When that anger flares up, it feels all-consuming and real. But a week later, do you still remember the color and make of the car that cut you off? While jealousy might feel important in the moment, it’s just as inconsequential. The only purpose it serves is to encourage you to shift your attention back to your own life and your own journey. It’s not a sign that you’re doing something wrong or that you’re a failure. Once you’ve identified it, the quickest way to get back on the road to your destination is to shift your attention back to your own art. 

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California Choral Directors Association

SEEN & HEARD Our CCDA Summer Summit was online, but our Regional Representatives organized in-person get-togethers all up and down the state! Our meet-ups were a time to reconnect with old friends and new.

Thanks to everyone who organized, hosted, attended, shared photos, and/ or baked elaborate tarts that spelled “CCDA” in blackberries on top (looking at you, Daniel Afonso)!

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 21

Clockwise from above: The CSU San Marcos Cougar Chorus takes part in an African drumming workshop with master drummer Nana Asiedo (photo courtesy of Justine Hansen); Tammi Alderman’s Contemporary Pop chamber ensemble rehearses at the Pacific Chorale choral camp in Orange County (photo courtesy of Molly Pontin); and the CSULB Bob Cole Chamber Choir welcomes the new year with a pool party (photo by Sean DuFrene, courtesy of Jonathan Talberg).

Next page: The Fresno City College choir rehearses beneath the trees (photo courtesy of Julie Dana). Thanks to everyone who contributed photos!

Send your favorite shots to cantate. editor@gmail.com if you’d like them considered for publication in a future issue.

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California Choral Directors Association

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 23

Save the date for the premier one-day vocal jazz workshop for teachers and students!

CSU LONG BEACH (Host - Christine Guter)

Vocal Jazz for every voicing, style & ability

LAS POSITAS COLLEGE (Host - Ian Brekke) AUGUST 2022 | vocaljazzacademy.com

ANCHORMUSIC.COM Dozens of arrangers, hundreds of charts!

Owner/operator: Matt Falker (Director, 2022 California All-State High School Vocal Jazz Ensemble)

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California Choral Directors Association

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 25

WELCOME BACK TO CASMEC!

by Julie Dana

C

CDA, the California Band Directors’ Association, the California Music Educators’ Association, the California Alliance for Jazz, and the California Orchestra Directors’ Association are excited to welcome you all to Fresno on February 17-19, 2022, as the California All-State Music Education Conference returns in person! There are wonderful new things coming to CASMEC 2022, including a new venue for our Friday Choral Performances at Fresno City College’s beautiful Old Administration Building Auditorium. This venue is a wonderful place to experience choral music, and we are excited to be hosting our invited choirs in this glorious space!

As in the past, this conference offers attendees interest sessions, guest ensemble performances, and reading sessions for every level and musical interest.

We are pleased to announce our 2022 guest performing choirs and their conductors: Ayala High School Women’s Ensemble (Robert Davis, director) Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Women’s Chorus (Dr. Scott Glysson) Clovis North High School Women’s Chorale (Heather Bishop) Fresno State University Concert Choir (Dr. Cari Earnhart) G Clef from Bullis Charter School (David Belles)

experience is open to university, community college and high school students. Space is limited, so start considering whom you might encourage now.

Please tell any instrumental colleagues who are also teaching choral music that several of these sessions would be a wonderful information source for them as well! There are some exciting and innovative sessions being offered this year, including: Better Together: Strategies that allow choral directors and voice teachers to work cohesively toward the creation of fulfilling, healthy, diverse, and inclusive experiences for our students (Jenny Bent, Justin Montigne) Musical Ice Breakers for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (I.D.E.A.) (Carlin Truong) Tools of the Trade: Utilizing Kodály Method Strategies in the Secondary Choral Classroom (Angel M. Vázquez-Ramos) Never Gonna Give You Up: CTE and music technology beyond COVID (Molly Peters) A Special Session with Dr. Kevin Fenton Inclusive Vocal Pedagogy for the Choral Rehearsal (Olga Perez Flora, Desiree La Vertu, and Lori Marie Rios) Honoring Trans and Gender-Expansive Singers (Joshua Palkki and Matthew Garrett)

Los Osos High School Chamber Singers (Bethany Encina)

No Frills Family Time: 5 Keys to the Connected and Plugged-In Choir (Corie Brown)

Once again the conference will host our All-State Honor Choirs and the Choral Leadership Academy. We are grateful to Fresno State for hosting the honor choir rehearsals as they did in 2020. The Honor Choir concerts will be on Saturday, February 19 at Saroyan Hall in downtown Fresno. For more information, check out the Honor Choir article in this issue!

The Choral Leadership Academy, led by John Sorber, is a wonderful way to engage your student choral leaders with hands-on experiences they can carry into their future profession. Dr. Kevin Fenton from Florida State will be this year’s headliner for the two-day CLA. This experience has been an amazing opportunity for participants to learn not only from their headliner, but from one another as they interact and collaborate to bring choral music to life. This

This conference brings together all of us in music education, and it’s an important and rewarding time to experience concerts, sessions, and fellowship that celebrate music education in our state! We look forward to seeing you in Fresno for CASMEC 2022 February 17-19! 

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California Choral Directors Association

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 27

UNIVERSITY of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THORNTON SCHOOL of MUSIC

choral& sacred music

DEGREES OFFERED Choral Music BM, MM, DMA Sacred Music MM, DMA APPLICATION DEADLINE DECEMBER 1, 2021 music.usc.edu/choral

MUSIC.USC.EDU

28 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

@USCTHORNTON

California Choral Directors Association

California State University, Bakersfield

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC & THEATRE VOCAL ENSEMBLES

VOCAL AREA FACULTY

Chamber Singers Opera Theatre University Singers

Prof. Heather Chu, Instructor of Voice 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: November 1, 2021 (online only) February 12 & April 2, 2022 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

VOX is honored to perform at the 2022 ACDA Western Division Regional Conference next March!

Join us for our anniversary season: CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF GIVING WOMEN VOICE

SING ON! Saturday, November 6th, 2021, 7pm Music They Wrote Saturday, February 26th, 2022, 7pm No Place Like Home Saturday, June 11th, 2022, 7pm Digital content will be available for all three concerts For more information, visit voxfemina.org

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 29

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@calcda.org with corrections. Thank you for your support!

President’s Circle Diamond ($1000 and higher) Lori Marie Rios and Bryan D. Walker, in honor of Shirley Nute, Don Brinegar, and Bruce Mayhall President’s Circle Platinum ($500 and higher) Daniel Afonso * President’s Circle Gold ($300 and higher) Anthony and Cassie Arnold Dr. Robert Istad and Mr. David Navarro *

Buddy James, in honor of Joseph Huszti Duane and Linda Lovaas * Dr. Jonathan Talberg *

Lynn Spafford Olga Spriggs Dr. Angel M. Vázquez-Ramos and Jody R. Vázquez *

President’s Circle Silver ($100-$299) Jenny Bent Mary Hamilton Brandon Harris Albert Mabeza Dr. Chris and Tina Peterson *

Sponsor ($50-$99) David Morales Burt and Polly Vasché *

* Founder’s Circle

Supporter (up to $50) Anonymous Lauren Diez Emmelyn Montoya Susanna Peeples *

VISION FOR THE FUTURE ANNOUNCES TWO NEW AWARDS CCDA’s Vision for the Future committee, chaired by Lori Marie Rios, is proud to announce two new awards supported by your generous contributions to our VFTF fund!

Vision for the Future Creativity Grant Supporting ideas that focus on “creating opportunities promoting excellence” Vision for the Future Equity Scholarship Intended to support and encourage choral directors who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) Thank you to Chris Peterson, Christy Rohayem, and the CCDA Diversity and Equity Committee for developing these new scholarships.

Visit calcda.org to learn more about how to apply or how to donate!

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California Choral Directors Association

Vocal Music

See yourself in music …

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 31

News and notes

from around the state BAY AREA As schools are starting and church and community choirs are returning to in-person rehearsals, we don’t have any performance news to share just yet, but the choral arts are alive and well in the San Francisco Bay Area!

In conjunction with the CCDA Summer Summit 2.0, we hosted meet-ups in the South, East, and North Bay regions. Thank you to Bret Peppo, Julie Ford, LaNell Martin, and Jenny Bent for organizing and hosting! (See photos from meet-ups from around the state on pages 20-21!)

With the new school year there are also a few job celebrations to mention. Congratulations to Bruce Koliha on his retirement from his long-term church position at San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church. We know Bruce will be missed! Kristen Redaniel will be teaching elementary and middle school music in Hayward, and Noah Rulison is directing the choral program at Menlo-Atherton High School. We are also overjoyed to welcome Christy Rohayem back to the Bay Area as choir director at Mt. Eden High School.

CENTRAL COAST REGION Cricket Handler and Jill Anderson, directors of the Canzona Women’s Ensemble, have been attending the bi-monthly “Living with the Pandemic: Safety Guidance for the Arts” webinars hosted by Dr. Neha Nanda (Director of the Center for Emerging Pathogens at the Keck School of Medicine) and sponsored

by Californians for the Arts. Cricket and Jill also meet regularly with a group of directors of women’s choirs

32 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

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

in weekly Zoom meetings organized

by Morna Edmundson, director of Elektra Women’s Choir in Vancouver, Canada. The choir directors involved are from across Canada and around the US, and cover a variety of topics related to music-making in the COVID era.

Vocal Arts Ensemble director Gary Lamprecht has announced dates for the Central Coast Spring Choral Festival: March 17-18, 2022. Find more details on the Central Coast Regional page on the CCDA website.

CENTRAL REGION In July about half of the 120-member Modesto Symphony Orchestra Chorus met for the first time in sixteen months. Socially distanced in a church parking lot and under the direction of Daniel Afonso, the Chorus learned four short works and “performed” them at the conclusion, to the great delight of all involved.

Amanda Marsh was named the new choral director of Clovis High School. The position was previously held by Jennifer Appleby, who has taken a position in elementary music with Houston ISD. Dylan Walters was named director of Choral Music at Culter-Orosi School District. Dylan is an alumnus of the Fresno State Choral Department.

The Bakersfield City School District hired Maritza Borja as a Visual and Performing Arts Department Academic Coach. She will be providing education and training to choral directors and spending time in classrooms to assist new teachers.

In the Kern High School District, Christy Rohayem will leave East High, and recent CSUB graduate Neiman McDuff will become the new director at East.

Ridgeview High director Elizabeth Provencio will be moving to pursue her master’s degree at CSUF while Ryan Clippinger, former director at Arvin High, will be taking over at Ridgeview. Arvin’s new choral director, Abbie Rosenthal, is a recent alumni of CSULB, and Michael Ellsworth moved back to Bakersfield just in time to become the choral director at Frontier High.

Jenepher Lapp retired in June after 37 years of teaching (35 of those at East Bakersfield High School). Throughout her teaching career she served in several roles for California ACDA and within Kern High School District. She was a recipient of many awards including the CMEA California State Choral Music Teacher of the Year, and the Kern County Choral Music Educator of the Year. Although she retires from active teaching, she plans to continue adjudicating, clinicing, and guest conducting.

The Bakersfield Master Chorale, now it its 89th season, recently announced that Jennifer Garrett will serve as the new Artistic Director, with Ryan Clippinger and Braeden Addison as Assistant Directors. Thank you to Robert Provencio for his years of service with the Bakersfield Master Chorale.

SOUTHERN REGION Two choir camps were able to offer a summer camp experiences for young choral musicians in July and August: Pacific Chorale and Fullerton

California Choral Directors Association

College. The Fullerton College Summer Camp was led by camp director Nicola Dedmon, collaborative artist Samuel Grodin, voice instructors Krystle Menendez and Tyler Alessi, and section leaders Ariel May, Stacey Kikkawa, Stacey Oh, and Alan Garcia.

The Pacific Chorale Summer Camp was run by camp director Molly Pontin; camp staff Chris Peterson, Tammi Alderman, Patricia Prunty, Mark Goodrich, Na-Young Shin; college student leaders Ayanna Delk-Lewis, Cameron McKay, Rigo Orozco, Jocelyne Ramirez; and camp host John Tebay, whose Fullerton Free Church donated the location for the camp.

Aaron is a Director of Choral Worship at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church and Yewon is a Music Director at San Diego Festival Chorus.

Best wishes to these directors who are starting new jobs in the region: Rob Blaney at University High School (Irvine), Jim Blackett at Woodbridge High School; Ryan Clippinger at Ridgeview High School; Michael Fenton at Yorba Linda High School and Yorba Linda Middle School; Steven McCann at Redlands East Valley High; Reina Salcedo at Arbolita Elementary Schoo; Krista Scharf at Cope Middle School; Kelly Self at Westminster High School; Antone Rodich at Anaheim High School; Katie Villarreal at El Dorado High School; and Ryan Yoder at Bonita High School.

Cynthia Frank, conductor of the Mendocino Women’s Choir, reports that they participated in a parade for the postponed 100-year anniversary celebration of women’s suffrage. They sang songs from the Kansas Historical Suffrage Songbook, Dame Ethel Smyth’s “March of the Women,” Judy Fjell’s “One of us Can Make a Difference,” Melanie Demore’s “You Gotta Put One Foot in Front of the Other,” Elizabeth Alexander’s “This is What Democracy Looks Like,” and “America, the Beautiful.”

FAR SOUTH REGION SACRA/PROFANA (Juan Carlos Acosta, Artistic Director) will make their debut on the St. James Music Series in La Jolla, performing music on the topic of stars, nighttime, and celestial bodies with an emphasis on recently composed music. The series will also feature VOCES8 with a program of “Choral Dances” and Chanticleer performing music by William Byrd, Claudio Monteverdi, and Augusta Read Thomas, as well as new commissions by Steven Sametz and Ayanna Woods.

During the summer, the San Diego Master Chorale, under the direction of Dr. John Russell, collaborated with The Voices of Chennai in their virtual performance to raise funds for those suffering from COVID-19 in India. This season, their annual Messiah Sing returns to St. Paul’s Cathedral as an in-person event in December.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Choir San Diego (Pastor Ken Anderson, director) will appear with Bodhi Tree Concerts’ Tenth Anniversary Celebration at St. James By the Sea Episcopal Church in La Jolla. The Choir has raised funds through a series of concerts for educational grants to distribute to aspiring college-bound high school majors in Visual and Performing Arts from the San Diego County area.

The Choral Consortium of San Diego resumed their “Conversations with Conductors” series with guests Aaron Burgett and Dr. Yewon Lee in August.

Leading the Way

NORTHERN REGION The Northern California Children’s Chorus (Judy Britts, Artistic Director) is in their 14th season!

They will perform John Rutter’s Visions on November 21 (location TBD). Judy will also have the honor of conducting a treble choir festival for Mid-America Productions in April 2022.

Dr. Donald Kendrick, conductor of The Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra, have commissioned a new piece from composer Dr. Scott Perkins, a professor at Sacramento State School of Music. This new Christmas carol will receive its official premiere in December 2021 at SCS’s annual Home For The Holidays Christmas concert in Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium.

Dr. Art Lapierre and the American River College Vocal Jazz Ensembles won two DownBeat Awards (their 21st and 22nd!). Vocal Jazz II took top honors in the community college small group category. Vocal Jazz I has been invited to Long Beach to sing for the ACDA Western Region Conference. They also performed at the 5th Sacramento Jazz Coop Celebration on September 25th in the Folsom Amphitheater, and at a Sacramento River Cats game.

Dr. Brett Judson has joined Dr. Andrew Kreckmann and the choral team at Sacramento State, and will conduct Sac State’s Choral Union. The Sac State choirs will also live-stream the closing concert for FeNAM (Festival of New American music), featuring music two brilliant trans composers: Mari Esabel Valverde & Michael Bussewitz-Quarm.  Thanks to our Regional Representatives (Andrew Kreckmann, Northern; Kristina Nakagawa, Bay Area; Jennifer Garrett, Central; Carolyn Teraoka-Brady, Central Coast; Tina Peterson, Southern; and Yewon Lee, Far South) 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.

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 33

Top Five for your Choir:

COMMUNITY COLLEGE I Dr. Kellori Dower is the

Dean of Fine

and

Performing

Arts at Santa Ana College. She was the 2016 recipient of the California Outstanding Music Educator Award for CMEA Southeastern Section and is an accomplished choral conductor and composer.

She

currently serves as the

Community College Repertoire & Resources Chair for CCDA and is an executive board member for the

National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO).

reached out to the composers below (with one exception) to ask them “Which of your compositions would you like to hear a community college choir perform?” The result is this short list of pieces for a variety of levels of community college choirs. I hope you enjoy the links, and please let me know if you’d like the entire list!

Rollo A. Dilworth Text by Paul Laurence Dunbar When Dreams Take Flight SATB and piano Hal Leonard Publishing HL 00325494 With 2022 marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, this piece could be a wonderful addition to your programming in celebration of American poets.

This gospel-style and accessible piece contains simple harmonies with a touch or two of more complex harmonies. Highly recommended!

(Note: The composer also recommends “Bye and Bye,” HL 00325494.)

Dominick DiOrio You Do Not Walk Alone SATB a cappella Carl Fisher Publishing, HL 50600396 If you don’t know the work of Dominic DiOrio, get ready to fall in love with his music. He is a former community college choral conductor and understands the unique ensemble challenges that face our groups.

This piece would be a great addition to your end-of-year concert, or any time of the year when students or the community need to be reminded of the deliberate interconnectivity of our human experience. Beautifully composed with lush harmonies. (Note: The composer also recommends “An Irish Blessing,” available at dominickdiorio.com.)

34 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

Jason Max Ferdinand Safe In His Arms SATB divisi, a cappella Walton Music Publishing WW1776 This jazz-inspired piece would be a great addition to an advanced choral ensemble with great basses! Jason has a knack for bringing a cultural and family connection to his pieces, and this one is no exception. His wife, Meka, wrote the text. Consider rehearsing this one with a drone pitch throughout to help center the pitch in rough places. A good challenge for a strong ensemble.

Marques L.A. Garrett Sing Out My Soul SATB, piano Beckenhorst Press, BP118 Need an opener with a unique beginning to grab the audience’s attention? Look no further! Garrett weaves an uncomplicated text supported by complementary harmonies into a fabulous and exciting journey that inspires healthy singing. The big ending will have your audience on their feet. (Note: The composer also recommends “Rise and Shine,” available at mlagmusic.com.)

Z. Randall Stroope The Pasture SATB and piano Aberdeen Music Publishing 45-21102 This is a beautiful piece for any community college ensemble. Emotional connection is at the center of this performance. If you seek to get your ensemble to emote with a simple text and lots of unison, this would be ideal. This is one of my personal favorites. 

California Choral Directors Association

At the CSU Fullerton School of Music,

We Believe …

…that people learn and perform best in a safe and positive environment. …in student-centered teaching and learning. …that developing musicianship is key to your future success. …that Everything we do, we do Together. …that the quality of your musical training really matters. …in the power of music to change lives for the better. …that professionalism is a teachable skill. …that great conductors and singers must also be great teachers. …that how you do anything affects how you do everything. …in Reaching Higher to help you achieve your goals. …that Everything relates to Everything. …that together we are stronger. …that you will teach the way that you were taught. …that where you have been is much less important than where you are going.

WHAT we do is important.

WHY we do it, is for YOU!

music.fullerton.edu Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 35

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California Choral Directors Association

Top Five for your Choir:

SSAA Choirs A

Lauren Diez is an active choral musician and educator in the

California Bay Area.

She currently teaches Choral Music at Los Altos High School. In addition to being the

SSAA R&R chair on the CCDA board, Lauren serves as the

Choral

Representative for CMEA Bay Section. She enjoys singing regularly with the

San Francisco

Symphony Chorus and other local choirs.

Ms. Diez holds an MM in

Choral Conducting from

San José State

University and a BA in Music Education from UCLA. In her spare time she loves tending to her houseplants, cooking,

s I struggled to come up with a timely theme for this Top Five article, “Livin’ on a Prayer” kept popping into my head as an encapsulation of what we are collectively experiencing this fall. For many of us, seeing and hearing our singers in person again has given us renewed energy and optimism for a grand comeback. Yet, the road out of pandemic purgatory remains unclear, and if you’re like me, you have absolutely no idea what to expect and plan for in the coming months. You won’t find a snazzy SSAA arrangement of the Bon Jovi classic on this list, but I hope you will discover a new idea or two for your treble choir on the themes of courage, prayer, and abiding hope. We’ll make it, I swear!

Elizabeth Alexander Faith is the bird that feels the light SSA a cappella Seafarer Press #SEA-068-00 “Faith is the bird that feels the light, and sings when the dawn is still dark.” This poetic quote is from Rabindranath Tagore’s Fireflies, a collection of epigrams and short verses from Southeast Asia. Elizabeth Alexander’s setting is energetic and lush with bluesy solo lines and rich harmonies. The piece ends unexpectedly on a glorious six-note chord that, according to the composer, offers “not resolution but possibility.”

Carlos Cordero Salve Regina SSAA a cappella E.C. Schirmer #8699 This one is a literal prayer, and a hauntingly gorgeous one at that. This supplication to Mary journeys through moments of adoration, pleading, and serenity, all of which Carlos Corderos captures through lyrical lines, chromatic tension, and meditative chant-like phrases.

Elaine Hagenberg Song of Miriam SSA and piano Elaine Hagenberg Music #G-EH1001 The poem “Song of Miriam” by Rabbi Ruth Sohn gives voice to Miriam’s inner thoughts as she bravely faces uncertainty and fear. Elaine Hagenberg portrays Miriam’s simultaneous doubt and courage with rich text painting and expressive piano accompaniment. This is an absolutely beautiful piece that resonates with singers and audiences.

Zanaida Robles She Lingers On SSAA with piano Pavane #00368487 “She Lingers On” opens up an opportunity for important conversations about mental health and feelings of loneliness and depression that many have experienced throughout the pandemic. Zanaida Robles creates a dreamlike soundscape that is unstable and unsettled, as though underwater. Languishing sadness is portrayed through harmonic instability and a roiling piano accompaniment. The ending drifts off simply with an unresolved but hopeful “She lingers on.”

Andrea Ramsey Hope Lingers On SSAA and percussion MusicSpoke I’m sure many of you are already familiar with this piece, but I included it because it continues to feel right these days, and it’s just a winner. Andrea Ramsey knows how to write music that feels organic and is accessible and rewarding, all while sharing an important message. This song is genuinely inspiring, and I’m sure it will remain a favorite when pandemic times are a distant memory. 

and traveling with her husband.

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 37

Top Five for your Choir:

VOCAL JAZZ D Andreas Preponis is the director of vocal jazz ensembles at

Cal State Fullerton, Pasadena City College, and

Santa Monica

College, and teaches voice and theory at

Cypress College. He holds bachelor and master’s degrees in music education from the

Hochschule für Musik, Trossingen in Germany, and a master’s degree in choral conducting from

Cal State Los

Angeles. Andreas is a vocalist, multiinstrumentalist, arranger, and composer.

uring the past 18 months, the lack of synchronous singing created a space that needed to be filled with content other than performance repertoire. Many resources were readily available, others were created in reaction to the new situation. Some of them were so successful, I imagine they will find a permanent place in our future curricula. Here are my top five resources that provide vocal jazz charts and so much more.

Anchor Music Publications (AMP) anchormusic.com The Don Corleones of collegiate vocal jazz, Frank DeMiero and his wife Yvonne passed on Sound Music Publication, aka SMP Jazz, to Matt and Jessica Falker. Under the new name Anchor Music Publications, this publisher provides information on vocal jazz festivals in the US and Canada, and a link to the Vocal Jazz Academy (VJA), an educator support institution. I recommend joining the Vocal Jazz Academy Educator Support group on Facebook. During the summer of 2020, VJA offered weekly exchanges and webinars on distance education and racial justice, and monthly zoom hangs. My pick from AMP’s catalogue: “Strength of Love” (SATB), gospel, arranged by Jamie Dyer.

Kerry Marsh kerrymarsh.com Has anyone not heard of Kerry Marsh? Kerry is a prolific arranger, and he and his wife, Julia Dollison, produce demo recordings for every chart, which you can listen to while perusing the scores. They offer part tracks, minus-one tracks, and even sky track mixers, a simplified DAW that allows customization of the mix—a popular service during the pandemic. Besides his own, Kerry features charts by a variety of arrangers. My pick from his catalogue: “Satellite” (SSATB), uplifting pop dressed in contemporary jazz with a hint of samba, arranged by Julia Dollison.

Michele Weir michmusic.com The fairy godmother of vocal jazz education

38 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

has a vast catalogue of arrangements, and her instructional books are standard literature all over the world. Michele created ScatAbility, a vocal improvisation practice app (Apple only). She has a well-organized collection of instructional videos available on YouTube, where you can also find a podcast and the series Just One Question, in which Michele interviews vocal jazz luminaries. Under the name MusicHabit, she offers online courses taught by her and other notable educators.

My repertoire pick (first arrangement of Michele’s I ever sang): “Do Nothin’ Til You Hear From Me” (SATB), samba, arr.

Michele Weir, available from UNC Jazz Press.

Rosana Eckert rosanaeckert.com Rosana is a fabulous vocalist, arranger, songwriter, and educator. Her compositions range from heartfelt to clever, and her choral arrangements are by now standard repertoire for middle school, high school, and collegiate vocal jazz ensembles. Check out her book on song interpretation, Singing with Expression.

All through the past year, Rosana, along with Darmon Meader from the New York Voices, offered a monthly zoom class, the Vocal Jazz Improvisation Boot Camp, which received highest marks by students and educators alike.

Follow Rosana on social media to find out about upcoming opportunities. My repertoire pick: Haven’t We Met, SATB and SSAB, jazz waltz, Arr. Rosana Eckert Aimee Nolte youtube.com/c/AimeeNolte Aimee is a pianist, vocalist, composer, educator and YouTuber. On her channel she offers hundreds of videos on jazz piano, jazz singing, vocal technique, theory, improvisation, interpretation, reharmonization, analyses of songs, solos, and harmonic progressions.

Aimee shares stories, talks about her favorite artists, and gives repertoire recommendations.

You can watch her performances or her YouTube Live shows. My pick from Aimee’s music is her original song, “I Gotta Get,” SAB/SATB/SSA/TTB, bossa, arr. Matt Falker, available at Anchor Music.  California Choral Directors Association

Resonance: The Art of the Choral Music Educator

by Dr. Christopher W. Peterson

is a new collegiate choral methods textbook written speciÞcally for today’s emerging music teachers, guiding their growth as curious students while enriching their passion for changing lives through music. Practicing educators may want to use these resources and refer back to this book throughout their professional career.

• Becoming a Professional Educator • Career Paths in Music Education • Teaching for Transfer • Managing the Choral Classroom • Lesson Planning • Rehearsing the Choir • Developing Musicianship within the Choral

Rehearsal • Materials for the Choral Music Educator • Gender Identity in Choral Music Education • Recruiting for the Successful Choral Program • Assessment Strategies for the Music Pavane Publishing Catalog No. P5029 Classroom Hal Leonard Catalog No. 00365359 • And much more....

ISBN 978-1-950736-01-0

•

CHRISTOPHER W. PETERSON is Professor of Choral Music Education at California State University, Fullerton and is a teacher, conductor, choral clinician, author, editor, composer, and choral arranger of music and books published in the United States and around the world. In his over thirty years as a music educator Dr. Peterson has taught in elementary, middle school, high school, church, community, festival, and collegiate settings.

Distributed by Hal Leonard

Order TODAY from your favorite music retailer.

See sample pages online: pavanepublishing.com/resonance

Leading the Way

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 39

Top Five for your Choir:

MIDDLE SCHOOL/JUNIOR HIGH

W

Emelynn Montoya (she/siya/hers) currently teacher choir and music appreciation

Sierramont Middle

at

School. She earned a

BM with a double emphasis in

Music

Education and Vocal Performance from San Jose State University and is back as a graduate student in the

Music Education Summer Master’s

Program. Emelynn serves as the

Middle

School Resources and Repertoire chairperson for the

CCDA as well as

Area VIII Represen-

tative for

CMEA Bay

Section. In her free time, Emelynn likes to bake

e are all eager to get back to singing in person, but many of us will have to rebuild a choral program that has decreased in enrollment. I know mine certainly has! Here are some pieces and an excellent resource to help your singers sound and feel successful.

India.Arie, Arr Darita Seth I Am Light SSA Self-published; available at Sheet Music Plus Darita Seth arranged this after hearing this song come up on his playlist. The words “I am light” are a mantra to be repeated in the meditative and healing mood of the piece and are relevant for the trauma-informed choral classroom.

Pinkzebra Amazing SATB, SAB/3-part mixed, two-part, SSA Pinkzebramusic.com I used the SAB/3-part mixed version with my choirs. This upbeat, inspirational piece features a pop feel with syncopations, soaring soprano line, as well as melodic alto and baritone lines.

I still find myself singing this song to myself in the car!

Audrey Snyder and John Jacbson Come to Shore SSA, SATB Hal Leonard HL.8551947, HL.8551948 This Audrey Snyder piece features beautifully legato and singable lines in each vocal part.

Changing voices will still be able to feel successful as each vocal part feels melodic.

Resource: Roger Emerson’s Sing 6-7-8! sing678.com This is a one-stop shop for middle school choir directors! Are you searching for warm-ups to help your unchanged/changing-voice baritones?

Are you trying to work on sight-reading? Are you looking for festival piece suggestions to challenge sopranos and altos while somehow giving your baritones the melody? Roger Emerson has compiled this website for you!

When you visit the website for the first time, you have the option to join the mailing list to receive a free PASTA (Posture, Air, Shape, Tone, Articulation) poster download. 

Susan LaBarr Hold Fast to Dreams SATB, SSA Santa Barbara Music Publishing SBMP1136 This is a beautiful setting of Langston Hughes’ poem. The SATB version features an accessible tessitura for developing 7th- or 8th-grade baritones.

for her partner and their effervescent and outgoing toddler.

40 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

California Choral Directors Association

Top Five for your Choir:

CHILDREN AND YOUTH S La Nell Martin is an Oakland native and has taught grade levels

K through 12 in the Bay Area for over 25 years in both private and public schools.

She holds a B.A. in Voice from California State University East Bay, M.A. in Music Education from San Jose State University and a

Level One

Certificate in Kodaly from

Holy Names

University. La Nell is currently the

Artistic Director for the

Oakland Youth

Chorus and pianist and choir director for the

Bethany Baptist

Church. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Holy Names University in

Oakland.

Leading the Way

electing and preparing scores for the children’s/youth community choir is a task conductors place in high regard. We plan our concert themes, assess our singers, pore over new music scores, and sometimes return to some tried and true pieces that never fail to support our need to educate our singers.

Repertoire is the building block for all the learning in the rehearsal hall. The score is the road map for the student’s music education and discovery. Our music selections are the catalyst for building the respect of self and community.

I hope the following selections pique interest for you to continue to pore a little more.

Linda Hirschhorn Circle Chant 2-part with piano Vocolot.com This beautiful folk song found its roots when the composer joined a protest at the Livermore Labs in California. “Circle for the planet, circle for each soul. For the children of our children, keep the circle whole.” Although written in 1982, it’s still an appropriate message for today’s issues. The song starts with a simple melody that builds to complementary harmonies. Please reach out to Ms. Hirschhorn when purchasing the music.

She was able to tailor the key to the needs of my choir.

Alysia Lee Say Her Name SSA and SATB a cappella and body percussion Mark Foster Music 00355414 Powerful! If you are looking for a piece that the singers will gravitate towards, I think this is the one. The heartbeat of this song is evident through the intense solo. Using elements of the breath to continue to tell the story speaks volumes. Every section is an essential layer towards a build-up of gratifying intensity, and the body percussion drives the message. If you want to open a social justice conversation, please check out this piece.

Shirley Erena Murray and Marty Haugen Sing for Peace 2-part with piano accompaniment GIA Publications, Inc. G-8840 The text pleads for peace and social justice for all. For me, pulling out the elements in the rhythm supports student discovery in the music. This is a charming piece of music that could be considered sacred but can serve many functions in your concert (or wherever you choose to have your group perform!).

Michael John Trotta Ubi Caritas 2-part and 3-part with piano Hampton Road Music Group HRMG2044 This piece is traditional Latin text with simple rhythms—a plus, as many of us are rebuilding our choirs! The singing range is not exhaustive, with most of the movement in the soprano line. However, the cluster chords and harmonies are powerful. There is accompaniment included, but you may choose to prepare this as an a cappella piece. I am preparing this work a cappella with an oboist performing the solo portion of the song. This collaboration will allow singers to focus on their sound and showcase our talented local youth orchestra.

Nathaniel Brenner and Merrill Garbus, arr. Kristopher Fulton Water Fountain SATB Divisi Percussion and Electric Bass Mark Foster Music HL00300240 An energetic piece with a message for your advanced choir. From the very beginning, this piece tests the choir with rhythmical clapping throughout, which creates the driving force as the melody weaves into harmonies that set the message on fire. “All at once, it is an eclectic, youthful celebration and protestation.” This one is a showstopper. 

Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 41

CCDA BOARD Directory EXECUTIVE BOARD President Chris Peterson (562) 453-9851 cpeterson@fullerton.edu President-Elect Arlie Langager (858) ­774-­0412 alangager@miracosta.edu

REPERTOIRE & RESOURCES

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES Bay Area Kristina Nakagawa (408) 205-6050 artistic@

resoundingachord.org

Central Vice President Jennifer Garrett Jeffrey Benson jennifer.garrett@ (408) 924-4645 bakersfieldcollege.edu jeffrey.s.benson@gmail.com Central Coast Development & VFTF Carolyn Teraoka-­Brady Lori Marie Rios (805) ­689-­1780 lmrdiva1@gmail.com cteraokabrady3@gmail.com Angel Vázquez-Ramos Far South avazquezramos@csub.edu Yewon Lee Treasurer yewonlee98@gmail.com Jenny Bent (707) 664-3925 Northern bentje@sonoma.edu Andrew Kreckmann (973) 903-0466 Membership a.kreckmann@csus.edu Molly Peters (213) 880-7597 Southern mepeters79@gmail.com Tina Peterson Executive Administrator Kathleen Preston 921 N. Harbor Blvd., #412 La Habra, CA 90631-3103 exec_admin@acdacal.org

(562) 453-9681 tgpeterson@me.com

CCDA State Conference at CASMEC Julie Dana jreydana@comcast.net CLA Coordinator John Sorber (559) 303-9961 johnso@cos.edu

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

Junior High & Middle School Emelynn Montoya emcollado5@gmail.com

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

Senior High School Stacey Kikkawa (310) 551-5100 skikkawa@fjuhsd.org

Music in Worship Christy Rohayem (510) 908-3047 crohayem@gmail.com

Community College Kellori Dower drkellori@gmail.com

Pop & A Cappella Anabel Pauline apauline2@ggusd.us

College & University Corie Brown (541) 743-6335 corie.brown@sjsu.edu

SSAA Choirs Lauren Diez (714) 904-1035 laurendiez415@gmail.com

Student Activities Alan Garcia garcia_al@auhsd.us

TTBB Choirs Albee Mabeza amabeza@prioryca.org

Choral Composition Zanaida Robles znrobles@gmail.com

Vocal Jazz Andreas Preponis apreponis@fullerton.edu

Community & Professional Choirs Brandon Elliot belliot@vcccd.edu

EVENT CHAIRS Summer Conference at ECCO Alissa Aune sorcerermusic@gmail.com

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

All-State Honor Choirs Angelina Fitzhugh (650) 387-6730 afitzhugh@pausd.org Susie Martone (415) 735-0910 susie.martone@gmail.com

COMMUNICATIONS Cantate Editor Eliza Rubenstein cantate.editor@ gmail.com

42 • Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021

Webmaster & Graphic Design Josh Small webmaster@calcda.org

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

California Choral Directors Association

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Leading the Way

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Cantate • Vol. 34, No. 1 • Fall 2021 • 43

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

The Bob Cole Chamber Choir, Fall 2021. Photo Credit: Sean DuFrene

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