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10 | Composer-in-Residence Programs: Choruses as Incubators for New Choral Work

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columns 3

From the President & CEO

by Catherine Dehoney

Milestone Moments

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from the president & ceo

Milestone Moments Chorus America’s strategic plan helps us chart the future—and measure our progress.

W

hether 2020 is the official beginning of a new decade or not, it’s certainly a personal milestone for me: March 2020 will mark my fifth year as president of Chorus America.

I feel lucky that a good portion of my tenure in this role has been guided by a strong strategic plan that the Board adopted in 2017. At their worst, strategic plans run the risk of feeling ponderous and impractical, and ultimately being ignored. But when done well, they provide both inspiration and guidance. Far from being a dusty document tucked away on a shelf in my office, Chorus America’s plan has provided our “true North” as we make decisions about how best to serve the choral field.

The Chorus America Board and staff have worked together to bring the strategic plan’s five primary goals to life and make the plan a useful document that we refer to often. Each standing committee of the Board oversees one of the strategic plan goals, and at least once each year the full Board reviews progress towards the objectives under each goal. Accountability has become an organic part of the process.

Measuring progress relative to these objectives is also part of the staff ’s annual performance reviews and goal setting. And when we get into the nitty-gritty of the next year’s organizational calendar, each department maps its work against the objectives in the strategic plan.

Monitoring our progress has also helped us recognize and celebrate some meaningful milestones—something all too easy to neglect during the frenetic pace of the year. Here are a few “milestone moments”: Goal One: Strengthen the capacity of choruses and choral artists to consistently achieve their missions.

In 2017 we piloted an expansion of our choral-orchestral conducting masterclass into a week-long Conducting Academy, providing an all-too-rare opportunity for emerging conductors to have podium time working with instrumentalists and singers under the coaching of master conductors. This July will be the Academy’s fourth year.

This fall, we introduced a 13-week Online Chorus Management Institute based on our popular in-person workshop, with even more in-depth learning and the opportunity to earn a certification.

Goal Two: Be the primary source of information on the choral field, and a spokesperson and leading advocate for the impact of singing communities.

When done well, strategic plans can provide both inspiration and guidance.

Published last summer, the new Chorus Impact Study: Singing for a Lifetime report updates our groundbreaking data on the benefits of choral singing for people and communities and adds new information on the impact of choral singing on older adults.

Thanks to our new partnership with SMU DataArts and the Cultural Data Project, the Chorus Operations Survey Report gives choruses access to a wider range of comparison data.

Goal Three: Advocate for and promote strategies to ensure all children have access to music education and to encourage lifelong singing for people of all ages.

We’ve shared the exciting work happening in the field through webinars, conference sessions, and Voice articles focusing on educational partnerships and best practices in community engagement.

Our partnership with AARP has helped amplify the findings from the Chorus Impact Study related to the benefits of singing for older adults.

Goal Four: Promote and demonstrate progress in addressing issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.

We’ve established a new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board Committee to oversee and assess Chorus America’s progress in this area. Committee members help identify field-wide issues related to DEI and make recommendations about Chorus America’s role in addressing them.

Our Conference better reflects the diversity of our field through the speakers and performing ensembles featured, and we now offer scholarships to emerging leaders of color.

Piloted in Philadelphia, the Voices of Change program brought together a cohort of diverse chorus leaders for a series of in-person and online activities focused on addressing DEI in their own organizations and the chorus community.

Goal Five: Increase Chorus America’s capacity to accomplish its goals and model best practices to ensure effective management, operations, and governance.

Chorus America’s Board and staff are constantly focused on increasing our value as your professional association. Together we completed a deep look at our capitalization, expenses, and opportunities for earned revenue. While holding the line on expenses, we are developing sources of earned revenue through services such as the affinity insurance program for chorus members we launched last year.

Strategic planning hasn’t always come naturally to me, but thanks to this process, I’ve become a true believer in what a good strategic plan—along with engaged and inspiring members—can do. Thank you for being such an important part of Chorus America’s progress.

Catherine Dehoney President & CEO, Chorus America www.chorusamerica.org

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Awards

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he ASCAP Foundation presented Francisco J. Núñez, artistic director and founder of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, with the foundation’s Life in Music Award for his “outstanding accomplishments as a composer, music educator, and conductor” at its ASCAP Foundation Honors event on December 11 at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Pacific International Choral Festivals (picfest) presented the inaugural Royce Saltzman Artistic Leadership Award “to publicly honor the contribution of artists whose contributions have had a profound impact on picfest and its 6400+ young singers.” The award was established to recognize Saltzman (pictured, left, with picfest

co-founder and artistic/ executive director Peter Robb)—co-founder of Oregon Bach Festival and a former president of both the International Federation for Choral Music and the American Choral Directors Association—for his 22 years of service as the first member of picfest’s artistic advisory board. The organization named him as the award’s first recipient.

Picfest also announced Lori Schmelz as its first general manager. Schmelz was most recently director of operations at the Maine Arts Commission.

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e welcome your news and photos any time. Post them to the Member News area of our website at bit.ly/CAmembernews.

Submit news to the Voice: voice@chorusamerica.org You may also post your concert and auditions announcements at bit.ly/ChorusAmericacalendar.

The Voice EDITORIAL DEADLINES: Spring 2020: January 24, 2020 Summer 2020: April 24, 2020

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The Voice, Winter 2019/20

K

ey Chorale collaborated with the Sarasota Ballet to present “Winter Dreams,” a holiday performance of music and dance anchored by Karl Jenkins’s composition Stella Natalis. The concert also featured works by Kim André Arnesen and Antonio Vivaldi and performances by musicians from the Sarasota Orchestra.

Chorus Impact Study Findings Featured at NCCO8

I n M emoriam

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Dehoney spoke to open a panel entitled “Considering Culture in Programming and Performance,” moderated by Wendy Moy, director of choral activities and music education at Connecticut College and co-artistic director of Chorosynthesis Singers. The panel included Jace Saplan, director of choral activities at the University of Hawai‘i; Kellori Dower, dean of fine and performing arts at Santa Ana College; and María Guinand, artistic director of Schola Cantorum of Venezuela.

Alexander Lloyd Blake, founder and artistic director of Tonality, and Stephen Marc Beaudoin, executive director of the Washington Chorus, were named to Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year for 2019. Musical America asks the industry each year to name professionals “who deserve major kudos for all they have done and are doing to keep the performing arts vibrant.”

Choral Arts New England awarded grants to 15 New England choruses, including the follow-

© Pa u l GR o ve r

resident and CEO Catherine Dehoney (pictured) was invited by the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) to present remarks on Chorus America’s 2019 Chorus Impact Study: Singing for a Lifetime at NCCO’s 8th National Conference, November 7-9 in College Park, Maryland.

More information on the Chorus Impact Study, including new downloadable infographics, is available on our Impact Study web page at bit.ly/CIS-2019.

ing Chorus America members: Cantilena (Arlington, Massachusetts); ChoralArt (Portland, Maine); Commonwealth Chorale (Newtonville, Massachusetts); Coro Allegro (Boston); Fairfield County Children’s Choir (Trumbull, Connecticut); Greater Boston Choral Consortium (Boston); Lorelei Ensemble (Cambridge, Massachusetts); South Shore Children’s Chorus (Quincy, Massachusetts).

The organization also presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Marguerite Brooks of Yale University at its 35th annual awards ceremony and reception on November 3. n

Premieres

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n November 9 in New York, Ember presented the world premiere of Mending Wall, a commission from composer Bill Heigen based on Robert Frost’s poem. The premiere was part of a concert entitled “Civil Discourse,” themed on exploring different ways of listening to one another.

Los Angeles Children’s Chorus gave the world premiere of Silent Ceremony, commissioned from award-winning Spanish composer Juan Colomer. The premiere was part of a unique twist on Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, interspersing musically or thematically related works among its 12 movements.

Voices Chorale NJ presented the world premiere of “Before the Paling of the Stars”, commissioned from assistant conductor Laurel Christensen, on December 20 in Pennington, New Jersey.

Harmonium Choral Society gave world premieres of “In the Beginning Was the Word”, a new commission from Sarah Rimkus, and ”The Children of All Others” by composer-inresidence Mark Miller on December 7 in Morristown, New Jersey.

On October 4, the Atlanta Master Chorale premiered a new interpretation of the spiritual ”Little Innocent Lamb” commissioned from composer Stacey Gibbs. u

Sir Stephen Cleobury (pictured), who was director of the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge from 1982 until his retirement earlier this year, died of cancer on November 22 at age 70. Under Cleobury’s direction, the worldrenowned choir sang for the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast live on BBC Radio on Christmas Eve. Baltimore Choral Arts Society music director Anthony Blake Clark, who as a student was the recipient of generous guidance from Cleobury on many occasions, shared a few words about the impact of his mentorship.

It is difficult to adequately drive home the prominence that the King’s College Chapel Choir holds in the global fabric of choral music.

In my view, none have enhanced the profile of this choir like Sir Stephen Cleobury has since Boris Ord, who in 1928 invited the BBC Radio microphones into the chapel to broadcast the Christmas Eve service for the very first time. The boys of the choir called him simply “Mr. Cleobury,” forgoing his many honorific and academic titles.

This is how Stephen operated in all facets of his professional life: completely unassuming, softspoken, and without pretense. I had the immense fortune of knowing him, and looking back I am continually shocked at his willingness to open doors for me at a young age and to treat me as a colleague. But it is also completely unsurprising because that was his nature. We all were amazed at the musical mammoth in our presence, while he was happy to be Stephen—simply, authentically, and quietly.

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chorus connections Cantus premiered the winning entry in its Young and Emerging Composer Competition, “Discoveries” by St. Olaf student Grace Brigham, on September 19 in St. Olaf ’s Boe Memorial Chapel, Northfield, Minnesota. The competition was planned in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the ensemble, which was founded at St. Olaf.

On December 4 in Los Angeles, the National Children’s Chorus premiered “Flames”, a wildfire-inspired contemplation of creation, destruction, and rebirth, by

ecspublishing.com

Christopher O’Brien, a 15-year-old student in NCC’s intensive composition workshop.

On December 15, San Francisco Choral Artists presented world premieres of “Pedacitos de Cielo” by Bay Area composer Alexis Alrich and “Cradle Song (Dormi Jesu/A Child’s Blessing)” by Illinois composer Timothy Kramer.

Eric Whitacre conducted the Los Angeles Master Chorale in the December 7 world premiere of his musical adaptation of The Gift of the Magi—part of LAMC’s Festival of Carols at Disney Concert Hall. n

Appointments and Retirements

KEVIN SIEGFRIED Composer-in-residence Capitol Hill Chorale

Music of the Spheres Songs for the Journey

8837 8784

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horus America has welcomed two new staff members to its team: associate director of development André Coleman (pictured) and advertising and development associate

KellyAnn Nelson (pictured).

Coleman most recently served as the institutional giving officer at Washington Performing Arts, while Nelson comes to Chorus America from several roles with the Cincinnati Boychoir

Choruses Take Part in New York Fashion Week

MELISSA DUNPHY Composer-in-residence St. Louis Chamber Chorus

Suite Remembrance

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W I L L I A M AV E R I T T

Black Pierrot 6

The Voice, Winter 2019/20

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everal choral performances graced the runways at New York Fashion Week 2019. Designer Michael Kors enlisted the help of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (YPC, pictured) for the release of his new collection inspired by the American Dream. YPC accompanied Kors’s show with a range of American tunes including Don McLean’s “American Pie,” the O’Jays’

“Love Train,” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” Designer Kerby Jean-Raymond, founder of the fashion label Pyer Moss, formed the Pyer Moss Tabernacle Drip Choir Drenched in the Blood, a feature in his shows since 2015.

This Fashion Week marked the chorus’s biggest appearance ever, boasting 90 singers, including Brooklyn Youth Chorus conductor Eric Williamson.

© Sea n Jo h nso n, Mesa Creati ve So lu ti o ns © Steve Sh erma n

and still serves as founding artistic director of Young Professionals Choral Collective in Cincinnati.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles appointed Ernest H. Harrison (pictured) as music director and conductor. Harrison is also associate conductor of the National Children’s Chorus Concerto Ensemble, conductor for the Pasadena Conservatory of Music’s Cantare Chamber Choir, and assistant conductor at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church. He will soon receive his doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Southern California.

The Phoenix Chorale announced the appointment of Tom Peterson (pictured) as assistant conductor and outreach coordinator, effective January 2020. Peterson is music director at Christ Church of the Ascension in Paradise Valley, Arizona, recently served as artistic director of the Master Chorale of Flagstaff, and was also a fellow at Chorus America’s 2018 Conducting Academy.

The Santa Fe Desert Chorale announced the appointment of Emma Marzen (pictured) as executive director. A former Desert Chorale staffer who held multiple positions, Marzen returns to the organization after having served as board relations manager of the Santa Fe Opera. She is also co-founder of Mesa Creative Solutions, a media, web, and marketing consulting firm based in Santa Fe. Marzen succeeds Janice Mayer (pictured), who ended her five-year leadership tenure on January 15, 2020.

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus has welcomed three new leaders: its first full-time executive director, Miriam Sharton (pictured), conductor Hani Kreitem (pictured), and assistant conductor fellow Jared Michaud (pictured). Sharton was previously director of resource development at the Jerusalem Conservatory Hassadna; Kreitem teaches music theory and directs the choir at Jerusalem’s Magnificat Institute of Music and serves as a music teacher for Israel’s Ministry of Education; and Michaud recently graduated from Yale with a BA in theater studies and conducted research on using the arts to bridge the rural-urban divide in America. u

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chorus connections Karen Lane was appointed executive director of Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus (SMC/SWC). A veteran of the Seattle theater community, Lane served as interim executive director starting in July, and joined SMC/SWC as director of development in April 2018.

Brian Mummert (pictured) was named music director of the Ars Musica Chorale of Paramus, New Jersey. Mummert is the artistic director of the New Consort and a co-founder of the LGBTQ+ focused chamber music collective ChamberQUEER. The Bellevue Chamber Chorus in Bellevue, Washington, recently appointed Ben Luedcke (pictured) as artistic director, succeeding Fredrick Lokken after 19 years of service. Luedcke is also minister of music at Seattle First Baptist Church.

Kantorei of Denver, Colorado, has named a new business manager, Sara Michael (pictured), and a house manager, Lizabeth Barnett (pictured). Both Michael and Barnett previously held roles with the organization. In addition, Joel Rinsema has taken on additional responsibilities and has been named managing artistic director.

Wendy Moy (pictured) was selected as the new artistic director of the Hartford Gay Men’s Chorus.

Moy is the co-founder and coartistic director of Chorosynthesis Singers, director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus, and director of choral activities and music education at Connecticut College.

This fall the University of Redlands (Redlands, California) welcomed Christopher Gabbitas (pictured) as artist professor for the inaugural semester of its new Master of Music in Vocal Chamber Music program. Gabbitas also serves as the artistic director of the Phoenix Chorale.

Mario Garcia Durham will leave his post as president and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), based in Washington DC, in April 2020.

Durham and the APAP board and staff are all working on a transition plan for this planned departure. n

Releases

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ogether with Eri Yamamoto Jazz Trio, Brooklyn’s Choral Chameleon unveiled its first commercial release, a live recording of the world premiere of Yamamoto’s Goshu Ondo Suite. The seven-part suite is based on the “Goshu Ondo,” a traditional circle dance song from Shiga, Japan.

True Concord of Tucson, Arizona, released its second album, Christmas with True Concord — Carols in the American Voice, a collection of arrangements of sacred Christmas carols, most of which received their world premiere recordings.

Seattle Pro Musica released Silent Night, a CD of holiday choral music from England, France, and Germany.

Recorded live in 2018 to mark 100 years since the end of WWI, the album also includes readings from soldiers who lived through the famous Christmas Truce. n

National Lutheran Choir Invites Audience to Witness Recording Process

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he National Lutheran Choir’s latest CD, Carols We Love to Sing, was recorded during a live, participatory concert that gave its audience a firsthand experience of the recording process.

At the concert in February, audience members were invited to sing along to familiar Christmas hymns and listen to special arrangements of carols performed

by NLC, all of which were included on the recording. Part of the marketing message for the concert was that multiple “takes” might be needed for some selections, providing authentic insight into how the choir records. The CD is the third and final volume in NLC’s Hymns We Love to Sing series, all of which were recorded in similar concert formats.

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Composer-in-Residence Programs:

Choruses as Incubators for New Choral Work As with any long-term relationship, a successful composer-in-residence program is a feat of clear communication, planning, and faith. We spoke with composers and choral directors across the country about best practices, cautionary tales, and assessing whether a residency is right for your ensemble.

would have written those specific pieces for any other group,” she says of working with both choruses. “If you’re writing with a certain group in mind, you can really pour your heart into the pieces, and other ensembles will be able to feel that warmth.”

For choruses, residencies are a chance to have music written that is expressly tailored to their needs. Members have the opportunity to interact with a composer whose mission is to know their voices as intimately as possible, which in turn improves their musicality. In the Torontobased Oriana Women’s Choir, the composerin-residence, Matthew Emery—now in his fifth season with the ensemble—attends at least one rehearsal, often more, before the

W

hile creating a composer-in-residence program for your chorus is no casual project, the benefits to composer and chorus make it an appealing goal for many groups. “So many of our ideas for programming require music that hasn’t been composed yet,” says Samuel Grace, director of the Minneapolis-based chorus MPLS (imPulse). Grace says he dreams of finding “composers who are excited about working on our projects, paying them well, and establishing a real relationship.”

It’s a dream for composers too, says Vince Peterson, artistic director of the Brooklyn-based chorus Choral Chameleon: “I think that a composer-in-residence 10 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

program is the most intimate, most trusting experience a conductor can offer to a composer.” During residencies, composers become deeply acquainted with every facet of an ensemble, as well as the creative freedom to marshal the group’s potential.

“When you’re working in a vacuum, you’re trying to make something” that singers will generally find accessible, says composer Melissa Dunphy. Working directly with a chorus, however, can yield a uniquely personal, meaningful product. Composer Dale Trumbore has been a resident with Choral Chameleon as well as Nova Vocal Ensemble, based in Glendale, California.

For Nova Vocal Ensemble, she wrote one work with the voice of one of the ensemble’s sopranos in mind. “I really don’t think I

©Lucas Hausrath

BY JENNIFER GERSTEN

“If you’re writing with a certain group in mind, you can really pour your heart into the pieces, and other ensembles will be able to feel that warmth.”

–Dale Trumbore

Composer residencies with the St. Louis Chamber Chorus and artistic director Philip Barnes typically last three years.

premiere. “Initially, there was a lot of nervousness in the rehearsal room about ‘performing’ for Matthew Emery,” says Oriana board chair Susan Astington. “But thanks to his ongoing enthusiasm and genuine appreciation for our bringing his music to life, we look forward to his visits and the opportunity to dig into the details of what he has written for us.”

Know Thy Chorus, Know Thy Composer “Before you go out and find a composer, know your choir,” says Philip Barnes, director of the St. Louis Chamber Chorus—and vice versa. When establishing composer-inresidence programs, good relationships begin with ensuring musical compatibility.

For both sides, that means careful research into the other’s perspectives, preferences, and strengths. A composer whose wheelhouse includes experimental techniques and

complex rhythms, for instance, is unlikely to be a good fit for a community chorus comprising volunteer singers with limited new music experience. Dunphy, who served in residence with St. Louis, advises composers to listen to recordings of the choir and speak with the director about possible directions for the residency before deciding whether to accept the invitation. Composers who don’t go to the effort of learning a chorus’s strengths risk presenting works that the chorus cannot bring to fruition.

Especially for nascent residencies, prioritize how you feel about the composer’s music over the composer’s reputation.

“People think it’s not worth having a composer-in-residence if they don’t get Eric Whitacre, but nothing could be further from the truth,” Peterson says. Groups that are new to residencies should be most concerned with finding composers whose work is personally resonant. “Pick a composer whom you really love, and be sure to let them know it,” Peterson says. “Ask yourself,

‘Can I live with this for an entire year? Am I really eager to hear what they’re going to do next?’ The answer has to be ‘Hell, yes!’

It can’t be ‘Yes, sort of.’”

Building Relationships While many choruses do review cold score submissions, composers-in-residence are rarely, if ever, sourced from directors’ inboxes. “Cold submissions don’t generate the trust and empathy that is required for a yearlong commitment—you have to know the person,” Peterson says. Anthony Trecek-King, director of the Boston Children’s Chorus, advises composers seeking residencies to be persistent in building relationships with people who might be able to recommend them. One of Peterson’s strategies for building relationships with composers is Choral Chameleon’s yearly institute, an intensive eight-day program in which composers and conductors can use Choral Chameleon as their lab choir. In u www.chorusamerica.org

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Second Presbyterian Church Presents

BRAHMS

Ein deutsches Requiem March 1, 2020, 3 p.m.

Dr. Michelle Louer conductor

Second Presbyterian Sanctuary Choir University of Indianapolis Choral Ensembles Festival Orchestra In Memory of Our Mentors

Joseph Flummerfelt Fiora Contino February 24, 1937 March 1, 2019

June 27, 1925 March 5, 2017

Indianapolis, Indiana SecondChurch.org (317) 253-6461

12 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

Composer-in-Residence Programs general, asking other directors and composers for composer recommendations will yield a number of workable names.

Composers will occasionally benefit from serendipity. Dunphy’s first residencytype experience was with the San Francisco-based Volti, after she answered a call for scores. A year later, she was approached by Philip Barnes of the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, with which she began a three-year residency entailing a single commission per year. Composers with limited or no history of choral writing might approach a community group and offer to write one or a series of works before attempting their first residency.

“A composer-in-residence program is like me inviting a person into my house and letting them play a custom instrument that I’ve built for myself,” Peterson says.

“You have to really trust a person to let them drive your fancy expensive car— and to me, Choral Chameleon is like my Maserati. They’re the car to end all cars.

I have a duty to protect them and honor their voices and the time and the money they give to be a part of this.”

Stay Organized Successful residencies rely upon advance planning and conscientious organization.

The longer the residency, the more likely the composer is to develop a strong sense of the chorus’s needs, and the more likely the chorus and composer are to form a good relationship. But strategies vary widely for ensuring residency bliss. At the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, Barnes says the program is less a residency than it is working with an “associate composer,” as most of its chosen composers live far from the Midwest and cannot accommodate frequent commutes in their schedules (or

Dale Trumbore’s What Are We Becoming is the product of a 2018-19 residency with Choral Chameleon, which premiered the piece last April and recorded it as well.

the chorus’s budget). And so the St. Louis program lasts for three years, a result of balancing the chorus’s financial constraints with a wish to have composers as immersed as possible in the chorus’s culture. Near the premiere, the chorus flies in composers for an extended weekend to attend the dress rehearsal and offer feedback, see the performance, and acquaint themselves with the chorus community over dinner.

At Choral Chameleon, the model is as follows: during the planning stages, typically 18 to 24 months in advance, Peterson speaks with the incoming composers-in-residence about his vision for their season and outlines specific guidelines for where they might source their texts. The composer then returns to Peterson with texts they have found personally resonant, and the two volley until they reach a decision. Once the texts have been established, they settle on how many pieces the composer will write, which is usually from two to three in some combination of short and long. In his contracts, Peterson sets deadlines on “dummy” dates about a month before he needs the piece to allow for unanticipated delays.

“Pick a composer whom you really love, and be sure to let them know it. Ask yourself, ‘Can I live with this for an entire year? Am I really eager to hear what they’re going to do next?’ The answer has to be ‘Hell, yes!’ It can’t be ‘Yes, sort of.’”

–Vince Peterson

Find Your Process

© Bo nni e O’ Su lli va n

A mutually satisfying score requires giving composers freedom—but not too much. “I think the mistake comes sometimes when a conductor looks at the composer and says, ‘Write whatever you want,’” Peterson says. “The more specific the interaction I have with the composer, the better it goes.” While a chorus could find itself in possession of a score whose unexpected challenges prove edifying, just as likely is that the composer will turn in a work poorly tailored to the chorus’s abilities and perspectives. Many composers interviewed indicated the usefulness of themes and a general direction for where to source their texts. In advance of any work, choruses should be sure that composers have knowledge of the style, text, difficulty level, length, method of distribution, and due date.

“Working directly with a composer has broadened our singers’ appreciation for what goes into any composition.”

–Susan Astington

Unlock the expressive BeaUty in all choral MUsic Yet specificity of a different sort can be a turn-off: “If a choir came to me and said, ‘We sing just this kind of music and we want you to write this same kind of music,’ that’s less enticing than a choir saying, ‘We’re really interested in what you’re doing and we want to help you develop your skills,’” Dunphy says.

Choruses and composers should aim for affirming, open communication during longterm residencies. In rehearsal settings, composers who are able to attend should expect that the choir and director will want to carry out their usual learning regimen, but the performers will most likely welcome the unusual opportunity to hear a composer describe how their approach is matching up with the original intent. Astington describes the ideal interaction between composer and chorus as a “two-way conversation,” where both feel at liberty to offer feedback directly during rehearsal. Emery, her current composer-in-residence, talks to the singers about his decisions to set the text in certain ways and his ideas for how the group might phrase a certain passage. Discussion can also happen behind the scenes, over either u

Emotion in Choral Singing

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A particularly noteworthy feature of this book is its emphasis on polyphony, which, Marvin reminds us, encourages an individual expressivity and musicality in singers that can be applied to all styles of choral music, making it as relevant and vital today as ever. Links to recordings included within this book provide a range of examples from throughout Marvin’s career. G-9607 (290 pages) $24.95

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14 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

email or coffee, with various chorus personnel.

As composers shape their works, they should take care to indicate their appreciation for the conductor and chorus’s efforts. “Imagine cooking dinner for your fiancée and they go, ‘Oh, it was okay,’” quips Brandon A. Boyd, a composer based in Missouri who has served in residence with various groups, including the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. “No matter what, find a way to communicate what you really liked.”

Composers should also take heart in the knowledge that residencies offer the time and space to extract themselves from their comfort zones, as the extended duration for writing means more time for composers and choruses to consider what works and try new possibilities. “In a residency situation, I’d be much more open to a conductor saying, ‘Why don’t we try this?’—as opposed to how, in a nonresidency situation, there would be a lot less back-and-forth,” says Trumbore. “It’s like, ‘You trust me and I trust you, and so I’m going to write this really adventurous piece.’” Composers interviewed also advocated for meeting with the choruses’ various directors over the course of the residency to confirm expectations and discuss future paths. In cases where the composer cannot be present, email is composers’ and directors’ preferred mechanism for sharing feedback.

Connect with Your Community A residency is an obligation to the community as well as the chorus, says composer Bill Banfield, a professor at Berklee College of Music who has served in residence with the Boston Children’s Chorus. “The composer needs to be committed to understanding how the music is going to impact the people being served,” Banfield says. “That commitment comes out of being in a dialogue between the composer, the institution, and the community.”

A chorus might organize a talk about the significance of the residency’s music to the community or invite local schools, religious organizations, and other neighborhood groups to an open rehearsal.

Dunphy also advocates thinking locally when organizing a residency. Her commission with the Philadelphia-based community choir PhilHarmonia was not a residency per se, but “felt like one” on account of how frequently she was able to attend rehearsals as a Philadelphia resident herself. Choruses, particularly those

© Ma rk F i e rst

MPLS (imPulse) is a project-based choral ensemble based in Minneapolis and founded in 2014 by Samuel Grace.

outside major metropolitan areas, might be tempted for prestige’s sake to initiate residencies with composers who are based elsewhere. Choosing a composer from the neighborhood, however, can yield meaningful results for both the music and your wallet. Composers will have deeper relationships with the chorus, as they will likely be able to attend more rehearsals, and choruses will save on transportation and accommodation costs. “If you’re working with local composers, you can foster them in a much closer way, and you’re raising the profile of your city,” Dunphy says. “If regional choirs look for emerging composers in their backyards, they’ll find amazing talent.”

Don’t Plan Outside Your Means Chorus directors warn against making promises to composers that they can’t necessarily keep. “Any choir needs to 100 percent understand that this is a legal relationship,” Barnes says. “You can’t mess with people.”

Late—or worse, non-existent—payments to composers of reputations big and small have been an unfortunate footnote to the industry. Be aware of what your coffers can support and don’t issue contracts unless you currently have the means to fund them in their entirety. Most composers will quote rates per minute of music, so be mindful of what lengths of music you’re asking for before getting started. “If you don’t have the means, then don’t [start a residency],” Barnes says. “If you really want to do it, you will raise the money and you will hammer out the details.”

No uniform approach exists to fundraising and paying for residency programs.

Some choruses pay composers over the course of two years; others will pay the composer half their fee at the outset, then the other half upon receiving the score; others have ready commissioning budgets.

When soliciting donors, composers and choruses advise that you establish naming gifts in which donors can have the residency

“The composer needs to be committed to understanding how the music is going to impact the people being served. That commitment comes out of being in a dialogue between the composer, the institution, and the community.”

–Bill Banfield

named after their families or in memoriam.

While selecting a more visible composer can simplify fundraising, chorus directors say that projects of a certain level will speak for themselves where donors are concerned. “If you’re making compelling work that people respond positively to, then people will support it,” Peterson says.

Reap the Fruits With these foundations in place, both choruses and composers can anticipate a productive, considered exchange of ideas likely to affect their work for a long time to come. “Working directly with a composer has broadened our singers’ appreciation for what goes into any composition,” Astington says. “We are able to take our experiences from our interactions with [Emery] and extend that thinking to pieces written by composers far away or long since departed.”

Sometimes the interaction inspires deeper responses. In the Boston Children’s Chorus, Trecek-King says a few members began composing for choir after working with resident composers, even having their work premiered—proof that composers might already exist within a chorus’s ranks.

Far from signaling the end of a relationship between composer and chorus, the end of a residency often galvanizes future collaborations and programming. Many composers interviewed attested to the longevity of these relationships: Emery, for u www.chorusamerica.org 15

instance, who has been in residence with Oriana for five seasons, has had his work featured on numerous concerts by the group, and Dunphy has been asked to produce more work for St. Louis.

Residencies often mean increased attention for choruses and composers alike.

Of St. Louis’s Philip Barnes, Dunphy says “I couldn’t ask for a better champion of my work, and I don’t say that lightly. I’ll go to conferences and people will stop me and say, ‘You’re Melissa, Philip Barnes’s composer-in-residence. He cornered me at some other conference and has been recommending you.’” Bringing residencycommissioned works to conferences can also create excitement in the choral community at large about new works.

To reach the general public, advertising through the usual channels—social media, email newsletters, and press releases—is as important as ever, but Barnes offers this additional tip for encouraging media coverage: Take advantage of the composer’s presence in your community. During resident composers’ visits to St. Louis, they

© Mat t Bi sh o p

Composer-in-Residence Programs

Members of the Oriana Women’s Choir, based in Toronto.

give interviews on local radio stations and lectures at local schools, and, of course, they are in attendance at the premieres.

With the excitement of a new piece, Barnes says, one can only take heart in the work that lies ahead. “It’s a huge boost to perform a piece of music that was written for you,” he says. “You were in the birthing room the first time the world heard that

music,” and it all came about “because of something you did. It really establishes you in your community as an advocate for fresh new art.” n Jennifer Gersten, a violinist and writer from Queens, New York, is pursuing a DMA at Stony Brook University. She is the 2018 recipient of the Rubin Prize in Music Criticism.

yale glee club Je≠rey Douma, Musical Director

Emerging Composers Competition First Prize: $1,500, premiere performance by the Yale Glee Club, and possible future publication Compositions for a cappella or accompanied SATB Choir Please visit gleeclub.yalecollege.yale.edu/new-music for details and submission info

Submission Deadline: April 1, 2020

Yale Glee Club New Classics Choral Series A source for new music that will engage your singers and your audiences Dominick Argento Cristian Grases Jocelyn Hagen James Macmillan Michael Gilbertson Eric Banks Dale Trumbore Je≠rey Douma Dominick DiOrio Kathleen Allan Brandon Waddles

16 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

MARCH OF THE

Women

This March, the Cathedral Choral Society celebrates the passage of the nineteenth amendment by recognizing and empowering women in music. Composers Lisa Bielawa, Jessie Montgomery, and Augusta Read Thomas headline this powerful weekend of events.

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COMPOSITION MASTERCLASS WITH AUGUSTA READ THOMAS Sponsored by the Boulanger Initiative and featuring the Artifice Ensemble, Casey Cook, Artistic Director.

To mark the 19th Amendment’s 100th anniversary, Cathedral Choral Society has commissioned three new works by some of today’s most exciting composers: Lisa Bielawa, Jessie Montgomery, and Augusta Read Thomas. Featuring a range of powerful female voices, the program includes Ruth Crawford Seeger’s ethereal Three Chants and famed British suffragette and composer Ethel Smyth’s rousing March of the Women.

For more information, visit cathedralchoralsociety.org/marchofthewomen or call 202.537.5510

CATHEDRAL CHORAL SOCIETY Steven Fox Music Director

What’s in a Brand?

By any other name (or brand identity), your chorus would sound as sweet. So what’s there to gain by making a change?

The reasons your chorus formed 30, or 15, or even five years ago may not be the same factors that drive your mission, membership, or audience engagement today. If that’s true for your organization, it may be time to take a fresh look at your brand, including the name the public knows you by. Do your name and branding still fit? Rebranding can be a difficult, even risky, process. Seven choruses that have gone through it share some important lessons.

B y M AT T S C H L E C H T

18 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

S

chola Cantorum on Hudson, a semi-professional choral ensemble based in New Jersey and New York, had a problem. The organization had been moving toward a different, more innovative kind of programming. Although the staff and singers still loved classics like Handel’s Messiah and Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, the group had begun working almost exclusively with living composers. Concerts were programmed around a theme of social or historical awareness. It was a heady time.

The problem was with the ensemble’s name.

“We found ourselves saying, ‘Our season theme this year is immigration, and our name is Schola Cantorum on Hudson…,’” notes artistic director and founder Deborah Simpkin King. “It was difficult because people made some assumptions, and very logical ones: that we are a church choir, and we are not. They assumed that we sing ancient music in Latin—we don’t.

It was making it really difficult to explain, and of course that translates directly into impossible to market.”

At the Cincinnati Children’s Choir, managing artistic director Robyn Lana faced a similar concern a couple of years ago. “One of our early high school singers told me that a bunch of her friends were coming to our concert that day and she was so excited.

She said, ‘I tricked them into it. I just told them to come to my choir concert. I knew if I said “children’s choir” they wouldn’t come,’” Lana says. “And I thought, ‘Oh, she’s hiding who we are. That’s not good.’”

Many choruses today are taking a hard look at their relevance to their communities, at their inclusivity in attracting singers, and at ways to engage new audiences. For those considering the possibility of a rebrand, there are choices to be made about the way forward.

The Colorado Children’s Chorale performs in T-shirts that show off the group’s new logo, representing Colorado’s state bird, the lark bunting.

A Lot to Lose As William Southerland, artistic director and conductor of the Triad Pride Men’s and Women’s Choruses in Greensboro, North Carolina, puts it, “A lot of choruses may be hesitant to rebrand, even if they’ve maybe outgrown the words of their brand in terms of the identity of their singers or their audience—because if your organization suddenly becomes something unrecognizable, then you lose whatever power your brand had in the first place, and you basically have to start from ground zero. It’s hard to get people in the doors these days.”

Despite the desire for a refresh, King’s chorus was very aware of its more than two decades of brand equity, and it found a solution that connected its history with the future. The group ended up deciding to keep Schola Cantorum as the name of its umbrella organization, which also runs a catalog of contemporary choral music called Project Encore, while changing the name of its choir to Ember—a brand within a brand.

“We had a lot to lose, and we discussed it for a number of years and kept chickening out,” King says. “We knew it was a problem with marketing, we knew it was a problem with messaging and having our mission

understood, but we frankly were scared of it.

And I think legitimately so.” King and company understood the risks involved with the significant step they were about to make.

The conductor Robert Shaw, winner of 16 Grammy Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and Kennedy Center Honors, founded the Collegiate Chorale in 1941. The chorale’s name was tied to its first rehearsal space, Marble Collegiate Church. Although the ensemble never actually performed there, the appellation stuck—for 75 years. Nearly 20 years ago the board hired a branding firm to explore a change. “‘Collegiate’ in particular was not an accurate description of what we were,” says executive director Jennifer Collins. In fact, the name misled producers of the 1996 Barbra Streisand movie The Mirror Has Two Faces. They asked the chorale to appear in a scene set at a college campus and then were surprised when the singers who arrived at the shoot were not college-aged. “There was just confusion about the name,” Collins says.

The initial attempt to find a new name fell through. “I think people just weren’t quite ready,” Collins says. “There were enough original members who had sung with Shaw, there was just a fear that we would lose our audience or that there would be some nega-

tive perception. It was also right after 9/11 when the presentation was made, and I think there was just a feeling of [not wanting] radical change at that moment.”

Knowing When It’s Time With its long history and ties to one of the American chorus world’s greats, perhaps that reluctance was understandable.

Eventually, however, the group decided a rebrand was necessary and has been known as MasterVoices since 2015. “There was a new energy approaching the 75th anniversary to think about. This was the moment to have a name that is more reflective of what we do and doesn’t confuse,” Collins says.

For MasterVoices, clearing up the confusion did not mean forgetting about the past.

“We make sure that we have a robust timeline on our website that we always reference when there’s an opportunity to remount a work and celebrate its history with the organization,” Collins says. “We are still doing classic choral works. We’re doing new work, which is something that Robert Shaw championed, commissioning great composers.”

The focus on new work and new audiences is something that many choruses have in common these days. But a rebrand can u www.chorusamerica.org

19

also be a way to attract new voices to the choir. In the case of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, there was never a discussion about a name change. It is a true children’s choir; kids join between second and fifth grade and graduate in eighth grade. Instead, the organization sought to make its brand more attractive to a younger generation.

“Things have changed over the more than 20 years [since our previous branding] quite substantially,” says marketing director Cheryl Shoemaker. “Our last logo was pre-internet, pre-email and digital marketing. We were trying to come up with a way to keep ourselves fresh to new potential members and donors.”

The board-driven face-lift ended up delivering a new logo, which features the Colorado state bird, the lark bunting, and new messaging. “When we had our stakeholder meeting we discovered that we have, if you will, different audiences. One would be the committed audiences of our trustees, our major donors. And we have our community partners, that’s another audience. Then we have our families, that’s a different audience. So [the creative agency] didn’t change our message too much, but they did help us develop messaging specific to each of those communities,” says executive director Meg Steitz. “We’re implementing that now, and it’s really helpful.

We just developed a brochure that is going to potential donors, so we already had the wording to plug into that specific audience.”

The process that led the Cincinnati Children’s Choir to become the Cincinnati Youth Choir in 2018 was a more organic one. “It wasn’t a purposeful decision; it’s just something that evolved,” Lana says.

“We found keeping ‘Children’ in there was inhibiting some of our marketing to the upper ages.” When she realized the problem, she spent three years on research— interviewing singers and parents, discussing with colleagues, and looking at national trends, especially noting the names being used by new programs.

As the group celebrated its 25th anniversary, Lana, with approval from the board, decided it was the perfect time for a change. Indeed, many choruses find that an anniversary provides an opportunity for a refresh. “We had gone through a quarter of a century and now we were ready to 20 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

© E ri n Ba i a n o

What’s in a Brand?

At the time of this 2010 Carnegie Hall concert performance of Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera “The Grapes of Wrath,” the chorus—founded by Robert Shaw—was called the Collegiate Chorale. Five years later, as the group approached its 75th anniversary, it changed its name to MasterVoices.

embark on our future—who we are, who we have become,” she says. The organization partnered with a marketing company, which helped guide the transition, but most of the work was done in-house.

The intensifying focus on gender and sexual identity is driving a conversation in the GALA choral community about how branding affects representation and accessibility. As community education advisor for GALA Choruses, William Southerland has been actively involved in those discussions.

In 1978, when the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus was founded, he says, “using the name ‘gay’ on anything, anywhere was about the most radical act you could do. It was dangerous. It was dangerous for people’s safety, it was dangerous for people’s professional reputations.” Other organizations at the time and in different parts of the country declined to use the term, because they were worried that audience members who might otherwise attend a concert would be kept away by the word “gay,” he says. Southerland’s own group, Triad Pride Performing Arts, which was founded in 1999, chose to go with “pride” instead of “gay” for similar reasons, he says.

Southerland continues, “Understandings of gender and sexuality are changing rapidly (for the good, in my opinion). Where does a trans woman or a bisexual or straight person fit into a ‘gay men’s chorus’? Older choruses are the ones most struggling with this issue.

Going back in history, using words like ‘gay chorus’ were incredibly radical in 1978.

Changing that name now, from one perspective, could seem like they are abandoning the history and legacy of radical queer visibility which [they] were founded on.”

The question is whether such markers truly represent the membership of their organizations, including singers, volunteers, committee members, and administrators.

“That’s where a lot of choruses maybe are choosing to maintain the name but then be very, very clear in their mission and values what their membership is,” Southerland says. “For example, a chorus could be called ‘gay men’s chorus’ in the name but have a mission that explicitly describes a tenor-bass chorus for all LGBTQ people and their allies.”

Managing the Process Most groups find achieving brand clarity much easier with the help of an agency.

The Colorado Children’s Chorale board contained members who worked in the PR and marketing fields and who helped identify and vet different branding agencies.

“We did a pretty formal RFP. We contacted eight agencies and sent them the RFP and I think we got five proposals back,” Steitz says. The various proposals quoted costs in a range from $10,000 to more than $100,000.

Based on those proposals, the group invited three of the agencies to present samples of their work and their initial vision for the new branding.

After an agency was chosen it was time to gather feedback, feelings, and experiences from within the organization. “We held stakeholder meetings where we brought in people from our community, our tribe, and we just talked through what we were wanting to get from this whole process,” Shoemaker says. “It was pretty in-depth.” Once that information was collected, the agency presented a few different “looks,” with options

for everything from colors to fonts. Staff members then selected their favorite and asked for changes to really make it “the one.” “It was probably a year and a half, if you want to start with the whole strategic part, until we actually had a logo [and messaging],” she says.

Board members played an even larger role for Ember: They both initiated and finalized the renaming project, making the hiring of an agency unnecessary. “Our board members brought business awareness where rebranding had been conducted,” King says. Once they knew the time was right for a change they didn’t feel the need to look for ideas outside the organization. “We did some brainstorming with the singers. We did all kinds of things….

Frankly, once the right name came up, it came from my board chair. She texted me one day and she said, ‘I have it.’…It was an aha moment, there’s no doubt about it.”

Feedback from chorus members can certainly influence the rebranding process. When the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus began taking steps last year that eventually led to becoming the Tulsa Chorale, the group looked at many different examples from across the country. “A lot of people are doing some neat, abstract, hip names. So we thought about that in the beginning,” says marketing manager and board member Hayley Wheeler. “I think part of the reason that we ended up taking it pretty literally was because of the pushback that we had internally. [Members] said, ‘This is who we’ve always been,’ and some of them had been in the choir forever and they were really hesitant to change the name.” The group landed on Tulsa Chorale as a happy medium between radical change and the need to reach out with a more recognizable name to the general public. Both the board and the membership felt it was a better description of the organization’s accomplishments and ambition.

Once the Tulsa Chorale’s board had approved its rebranding project, the group’s artistic director, Tim Sharp, informed the members what was going on and solicited feedback.

Wheeler says the organization surveyed singers, asking questions like “What does Tulsa Oratorio Chorus mean to you? What would you like it to look like? Do you have any ideas for a new name, a new look?” Then a board committee worked with a local agency throughout the research phase—conducted both within the organization and outside— that took place over the course of a season.

A successful rebrand is the result of a combination of many factors. The Tulsa Chorale found the task to be an exciting and affirming one. “It kind of confirmed, at least internally, how we thought that our chorus members u

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What’s in a Brand? think of the organization,” Wheeler says.

“They work really hard and so they think really highly of what they do. We confirmed the investment that they had in the look and the sound of our name.”

For the Colorado Children’s Chorale, the importance of the board of trustees was a main takeaway. “When it comes to funding, this process is not inexpensive. So to have board buy in is really important,” Steitz says.

“And I also think that it is really important to hire a creative agency that you’re comfortable with, that can think differently about things.”

Shoemaker adds: “We actually chose to not go with an agency that designs for art organizations, because we feel our competition now isn’t just with other art organizations, it’s with community-wide activities in general.”

Defining Success Not long after Robert Geary founded the San Francisco Chamber Singers in 1979, the disconnect between the name and its artistic identity became obvious. The group was focused on new music, but “‘chamber

22 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

singers’ sort of implied European salons,” Geary says. Seeking a name that was more forward-looking, the group renamed itself Volti, as in volti subito, the indication in a score to turn the page quickly.

Volti has since grown into a West Coast powerhouse for new music collaboration, but looking back, Robert Geary cautions against giving the name change too much credit for the group’s success: “I can say that the financial stability and the demands of the group have risen dramatically…but really a name change is an organic part of the evolution of an organization. From my point of view the name change was really just part of the progression; it did not suddenly make the group look sexier.” Geary pauses for a moment. “Well, it might have, but that was also part of an incremental process, not some big dramatic shift.”

For the Cincinnati Youth Choir, the name change has made all the difference.

In fact, it was an instant success. At the closing performance of the organization’s 25th anniversary season, Robyn Lana announced to the audience it was the final concert of the Cincinnati Children’s Choir.

There was a collective gasp. But when a banner that announced the new name was

revealed, the older singers in the group led the house in cheers. “It’s helped us a lot with high school and middle school kids,” Lana says. “When we go in and talk [with them] we don’t have to disguise the [former Children’s Choir] name.”

Reflecting on her group’s experience, Jennifer Collins of MasterVoices says, “I would certainly encourage those that have a name that they feel doesn’t reflect who they are to at least consider the process. I think it’s been helpful and will continue to be and is certainly no indication that we are letting go of our past…It’s just helpful to have a name that is more reflective of who we are today.”

“All I can say is that it resonates,” King says of her group’s new identity. “Our singers are able to talk about [the organization] with greater clarity. It’s easier for me to talk about—whether it’s with finances or a possible new board member. People have something to latch on to…. It’s not like, oh, all of a sudden our concert halls are filled to bursting. It’s not that. But it’s that things line up. They feel right…. Ember is set and we’re really happy with it.” n Matt Schlecht is a writer and editor who lives in Brooklyn, New York.

2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES Spokane, WA March 10 -14, 2020 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES Rochester, NY Milwaukee, WI March 4 - 7, 2020 2020 ACDA REGIONAL March 4 - 7, 2020 CONFERENCES Salt Lake City, UT 2020ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES March 4 - 7, 2020 2020ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES Little Rock, AR March 4 - 7, 2020 2020ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES Mobile, AL March 10 - 14, 2020 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES 2020ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES 2020ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES NORTHWESTERN REGION SOUTHWESTERN REGION 2020ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES EASTERN REGION WESTERN REGION SOUTHERN REGION CENTRAL REGION AND 2020NORTHACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES CENTRAL REGION 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES 2020 ACDA REGIONAL CONFERENCES ✪

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A Century of Affirming

African American Musical Identity For 100 years, the National Association of Negro Musicians, whose ranks include numerous choral conductors and composers, has played a vital role in preserving and building on African American music traditions.

B y E ugene H olley J r .

24 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

branches around the country, subdivided into 36 local branches. NANM’s annual conventions, including the centennial gathering last July in Chicago, feature workshops, seminars, lectures, masterclasses, performances, and, perhaps most important, opportunities to forge connections with colleagues.

Throughout its history, the organization has

What sets NANM apart from other organizations? What benefits does it offer its members that they can’t find anywhere else?

David Morrow: What it does do for African Americans is give us a connection

©C ar ne gie M useum of Ar t, Char le s “T een ie” Harr is Archive

T

he year 2019 marked the 100th anniversary of the country’s oldest organization dedicated to the preservation, encouragement, and advocacy of all genres of the music of African Americans.

The National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) was founded in 1919

by Henry Lee Grant, a music teacher from Washington DC, and Nora Holt, a composer and music columnist for the Chicago Defender. NANM was chartered in Chicago, where it held its first convention that same year. As editor Doris Evans McGinty noted in her 2004 documentary history of the organization, “The major issues that drove NANM at its inception … were the promotion of African-American performers and composers of classical music, the encouragement of fellowship among them, the preservation of the Negro spiritual, and the development of young African-American musicians.” Forty-two musicians attended the inaugural convention.

Today NANM claims a membership of approximately 800 and has plans to continue to grow. It has established five regional

actively supported emerging artists with scholarships and venues for performance.

It holds an annual scholarship competition that alternates between vocalists and instrumentalists. Its first scholarship winner, in 1919, was the great contralto Marian Anderson. In addition to Anderson, some of its best-known members have been composers R. Nathaniel Dett and Florence B. Price and baritone William Warfield.

We asked six present-day choral musicians affiliated with NANM how the organization has carried out its mission through a century of change in American music and culture.

NANM Board Members Blanche K. Thompson, Josephine Inness, Henry L. Grant, Mary Cardwell Dawson, Clarence Hayden Wilson, and Florence B. Price pictured in Foster Memorial Hall, Pittsburgh, 1941

to our heritage, in terms of music born out of slavery, spirituals, and other music like that. The whole idea of the organization is to foster African American composers and performers of all kinds of music, but they’ve been particularly successful with African Americans in classical music … So it’s a good way for African Americans to galvanize their musical heritage.

Zanaida Robles: It provides a unique, affinity group experience that you just can’t get anywhere else. It affirms African American musical identity on multiple levels and challenges us to acknowledge our diversity in the context of our unity as Negro musicians. For example, for African American musicians who participate with NANM at the national level, there’s a warm, welcoming feeling; you don’t have to worry about explaining how to sing a spiritual.

It is more than likely that you will have a musical experience that is more authentically innate and happens more naturally, and that allows us to reach deeper into our musical experience. And we’re able to have a more emotionally satisfying experience because we don’t have to constantly navigate differences with race and ethnicity.

Brainerd Blyden-Taylor: At the time NANM was formulated, NANM was doing the work that a lot of other organizations were doing for the white community. It was all of that for persons of color. It provided opportunity, support, and nurture for Black musicians of all stripes.

How did you first learn about NANM, and what led you to get involved?

Roland Carter: I was approached by Theodore Charles Stone, who was president of NANM in 1966-67, when I was a choirmaster at Hampton University, where I just graduated. We had tremendous performers and artists…who were all a part of NANM, participating: Leontyne Price, William Warfield, Dorothy Maynard, people I was able to meet at that time. To go to a conference and be around them was so invigorating and encouraging for us, because they were our idols. The organization opened up a world of performances and workshops. It contributed to who I am and what I’ve been able to achieve.

Robles: I first became acquainted with the organization when I was a sophomore in college. So I’ve been involved with them for 19 years. NANM has a robust way of getting involved with African American youth in the local schools. And so they reached out

to my school, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. They were looking for people to participate in their scholarship program. I was recruited to be a participant by the time I got to college.

Anne-Marie Hudley Simmons: I’m from Chicago, and when I was a student, I ran into Dr. [Theodore] Charles Stone, and that’s how I heard about the National Association of Negro Musicians. And when I came to New York to work on my masters and my doctorate, I ran into some people in Queens, and they invited me into their club, called the B-Sharps of Queens [the Long Island branch of NANM]. They invited me to their meetings, and I became a member.

The lifeblood of the National Association of Negro Musicians is in its branches, and if you don’t have a healthy branch, you don’t have a healthy organization.

How do you explain the importance of the branches in the context of the larger organization?

Brandon Waddles: My work is mainly with the Detroit musicians branch. I’m a native of Detroit. These local branches make the dream work throughout the year. They are crucial forms of recruitment, especially because a lot of younger collegiate branches form under the wings of these larger branches. And they help to fundraise to bring these students to the national convention. They are part of the scholarship efforts—all of the scholarship competitions first happen at the local branch level. They are so important for creating visibility for the organization at large.

In its earlier days, one of NANM’s focuses was the concern that popular culture at the time was corrupting the spiritual tradition. How has that focus changed— and not changed—over the years?

Carter: The preservation of the spiritual, in my estimation, was not a topic or a subject until probably after the 40s or 50s. Earlier the intent was to raise the level of appreciation for the spiritual, but not necessarily to preserve, because we weren’t afraid of losing it at that point. People were singing the spiritual up until we get into the ‘60s and ‘70s and the Black Power movement. Then the spiritual became a concern for people— it was not seen as a treasure but as a reminder of slavery. So it was not really appreciated during that period.

It was then that we became concerned about the spirituals—preserving that music

Our Interviewees Brainerd Blyden-Taylor Founder and Artistic Director, Nathaniel Dett Chorale, Toronto Roland Carter Professor Emeritus, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, former President and life member, NANM David Morrow Director, Morehouse College Glee Club, Atlanta; former President, NANM Zanaida Robles Composer, conductor, singer; Board Member, NANM Anne-Marie Hudley Simmons Choir director, pianist, and marimbist; President, NANM Brandon Waddles Composer; former Conductor, Westminster Jubilee Singers, Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ; former Southeastern Region Board Member, NANM

and the arrangements of composers and trying to celebrate African American music in connection with other movements in music.

Blyden-Taylor: Now we’ve got a younger crop of musicians like Marques Garrett and Brandon Waddles who are helping to refresh the spiritual and keep it alive. And that’s important. First of all, I think it’s important for young men and women of African heritage who need to be empowered by the roots and the message of this and not see it as something that just drags us back into the dark ages or drags us back into that period of slavery, which has sometimes been a sentiment of the younger generation—like, “Why do we still have to keep singing this?”

Well, you know, there’s a reason why you do that. u www.chorusamerica.org 25

African American Musical Identity Waddles: Today we’re utilizing everything that we’ve grown up with. And so I utilize gospel, I utilize jazz. Because as Black music evolves, everything must evolve with it. I believe that there are some very inherent qualities of the spiritual that must be maintained. I cannot fully identify with what it means to be a slave. However, I can create my own parallels to the text.

One of NANM’s goals was to “foster a broader understanding of the contributions of persons of African descent in all fields of music.” That was understandable in 1919, given the level of racism in that era. Why does it remain important today?

Robles: Because there continue to be inequities in the field of music and in classical music in general. And there continue to be stereotypes and assumptions made about Black music that affect the experiences of our aspiring youth in music across genres.

And to be a youth of African descent trying to play music in the United States means that our youth have to get authentic training. You still have to supplement your

26 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

education as an African American musician because you’re still not getting it all [in a mainstream setting]. You’re still viewed a certain kind of way, because of the way you look in this country. It’s crucial to my understanding of my own work as a Negro musician to have that supplementary support and exposure to the history of our music in this country. What NANM does is as vital now as it’s ever been, because we have a responsibility to uplift and educate those in our community.

Waddles: I don’t believe there is another organization like NANM that really seeks to instill all forms of music of Black descent, and so I think that we must be the leaders in terms of educating our people and those outside of our race on how to do so. And it’s not just the music, it’s the history behind the music. It’s the social context behind the music. So much of our music is almost fight- and struggle-driven, and so you can’t just come to it and sing it and play it. You’ve got to know something about it. Like Charlie Mingus said in that album [Mingus Ah Um], “Better Git it in Your Soul.” It’s got to be there.

Blyden-Taylor: It remains important today, and it’s one of the reasons I founded

the Nathaniel Dett Chorale in Canada. We’ve made it our business to specialize and program Afrocentric choral music. Members of NANM and even past presidents of NANM have been very helpful and very supportive of this idea, given that Nathaniel Dett was, I think, one of the founding members and a past president. There has still been a lack of widespread familiarity with that music and his legacy, certainly in Canada and I think in the United States too. [NANM’s work] allows us to showcase composers, musicians, and the music that has come out of the African heritage tradition.

The organization still uses the word “Negro” in its name, despite the fact that “Black” and “African American” are the widely accepted terms today. Has there been any impetus to change that word?

Robles: I think one of the key tenets of the National Association of Negro Musicians is the understanding of the historical context of the word “Negro,” and the vital role the name of our organization has, with regard to our heritage, and how we came about.

The organization every year undergoes a lot of scrutiny and endures some amount of criticism over the name. And every year

NANM’s mission is to support all genres of music, but vocal music and vocal musicians seem to be especially prominent.

If so, why is that the case?

Morrow: Vocal music has always been the forefront, and that comes as a result of our first scholarship. Choral music has been extremely important in the African American community in so many ways.

From the church choirs all over the country, to the choirs at historically Black colleges and universities. And the choirs sing some of everything, from European classical music to music by African American composers, to world music, to gospel music.

And there are many community choirs. So to that end, yes, choirs are important.

Carter: I think the focus of NANM was more vocal and choral because that was easier to do. We didn’t have the instruments to pull together. Because many of the presidents were also college people and there weren’t big orchestras in their colleges, the easier part was the singing and the vocal piece.

Many of the presidents were indeed choral composers: R. Nathaniel Dett, Clarence Cameron White. In my time, there was Kenneth Billups, and in more recent years, you’ve got the last four presidents: me, Uzee Brown, David Morrow, and Byron Smith. So there’s nearly a quarter century of choral experience.

Waddles: It will always be a matter of who and what the majority represents. If you have a majority that is steeped in vocal forms, then that’s what you’re going to see.

But I hope in the future NANM can create more of a space [for instrumentalists].

[Musical genres] of African descent are the building blocks of all American music.

I think about what musical genres were prevalent [in 1919], and I think about what’s prevalent now, and I think an organization like NANM is imperative … because our musical acumen has expanded.

So we must continue to be an organization

© D r. D a rryl Tayl o r

the membership comes back with a vigorous response that there is really a need to keep that [word] as a part of our name, and to reclaim that as a part of our identity, as a people, and as musicians, connecting back to those musicians who are a part of our cultural heritage who identified themselves as “Negro.” So it’s a point of pride. In honoring that word, we honor those who came before us.

Performers in the Collegiate/Young Artist Concert at NANM’s 2019 Centennial Convention in Chicago

that supports whatever musical form African Americans can create, emulate, arrange, and compose.

How has NANM contributed to your life as a musician?

Morrow: It’s been wonderful! I’ve had the chance to meet and talk with some of the greatest African American musicians in the world. In the last convention, I talked with the up-and-coming choral conductor Marques Garrett; he did a wonderful workshop and lecture on R. Nathaniel Dett. So I get to talk to him about his research. Then I get to talk to Roland Carter, who’s known worldwide for his choral music, including his setting of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” I got to meet William Warfield, one of the bestknown African Americans of the 20th century. And then I meet the young, up-andcoming performers whom I’m going to hear about in the next five years. So [NANM] has helped me stay grounded as a musician and hear about things that are current.

Waddles: I would tell anybody that I would not be here today without [NANM National Program Coordinator] Nina Scott, a longtime director of choral music at Renaissance High School in Detroit. She’s more than a music teacher to me; she’s a mother figure. The late Dr. Brazeal Dennard brought me to NANM, but there were others in the organization that kept me there. They got me to Morehouse, where I started to compose. David Morrow and Uzee Brown were the first to help me get my music published, which led me to Westminster, which furthered my professional career, and even onward to Florida State University with Dr. André Thomas. Those people not only helped me professionally, but they helped

me understand the importance of being a Black man in music and the moral and ethical codes that surround all of that. So I owe my all to NANM. As NANM enters its second century, what needs are most important for it to address?

Carter: We still need to promote the work of young artists, although they are getting much more work these days. And we need to establish a quarterly publication. That’s what I attempted to do in my administration: a publication that shares information about artists and things that were going on.

That’s what I enjoyed learning about when I was a young person.

Robles: What’s most urgent right now is the issue of what I’d like to call authentic diversity: understanding that we as a Negro people are more diverse than we realize.

And we need to talk about inclusivity, with regard to religion, gender, and sexual orientation, and explore [the questions], who are we alienating, and whose voice isn’t present in our organization?

Hudley Simmons: My interest in moving NANM forward is that we have integrity.

If we consider ourselves people who support the arts and support young people and emerging artists, then we have to be competitive—even on this level. We have to be the backbone of our young people.

We have to make certain that all of our branches are strong, and we all have the same vision: that we reach out to every single child we can touch. n Eugene Holley Jr. contributes to DownBeat, Publishers Weekly, New Music Box, and Chamber Music magazines.

www.chorusamerica.org 27

The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NEGRO MUSICIANS, INC.

Congratulates Chorus America

Keep Singing in Harmony!

Anne-Marie Hudley Simmons National President BOARD MEMBERS Dorothy J. Canady, Executive Secretary Paul-Martin Bender, First Vice-President Alfrelynn Roberts, Second Vice-President Natorshau Davis, Secretary James Bryant, Assistant Secretary Dr. Henrietta Fortson, Treasurer Raymond Carroll, Assistant Treasurer The Reverend Glenn L. Jones, Chaplain

C h o r u s

A m e r i ca

2019 Honor Roll of Contributors We are pleased to present the 2019 Honor Roll of Contributors.

Gifts to Chorus America provide essential support for our programs, which benefit choruses everywhere. Generous individuals, organizations, businesses, foundations, and the U.S. government help ensure excellence in all that we do.

Chorus America recognizes with appreciation all those who gave $25 or more to support our activities between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019.

Chair’s Circle Millennium

($50,000 and higher)

National Endowment for the Arts Popplestone Foundation

Chair’s Circle Diamond

($10,000–$49,999)

ACFEA Tour Consultants Charles Andrew Berardesco and Jeffrey Thurston Hugh Davies Rollo Dilworth The D.J. McManus Foundation, Inc. Joy and Chester Douglass Elfrieda and Vern Heinrichs Anne B. Keiser Mary and Phillip Lyons Kay and Mike McCarthy National Association of Music Merchants Foundation

Chair’s Circle Platinum ($5,000–$9,999)

The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Jamie and Jeff Barnett Classical Movements Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) John G. Earls Encore Performance Tours (division of ACIS) Todd H. Estabrook George Frederick Jewett Foundation East John C. Griswold Family Foundation

Lori and John Loftus New York Choral Consortium Gayle and Tim Ober Catherine Peterson Dianne Peterson

Chair’s Circle Gold ($2,500–$4,999)

ASCAP Chorus Connection Mary Doughty Mauch ECS Publishing Kiplinger Foundation Manhattan Concert Productions Steven Neiffer Leonard Ratzlaff San Francisco Girls Chorus Duain Wolfe

Chair’s Circle Silver ($2,000–$2,499)

Anton E. Armstrong Roland M. Carter Tad Czyzewski Catherine Dehoney Corty Fengler Robert Istad Craig Jessop Kirkwood Baptist Church Allison McMillan and Mark Nickel

Chair’s Circle Bronze ($1,000–$1,999)

John Alexander The American University of Sharjah Choir

Apollo Chorus of Chicago Arts People, Inc. Mary Ann Aufderheide Ann Meier Baker and Robert Baker Bellevue Chamber Chorus Marguerite Brooks Philip Brunelle Cantus Novus The Choral Project Matthew Culloton Deer Creek Chorale Iris Derke Durham Community Chorale Morna Edmundson Hanover College Concert Choir David M. Hayes Hickory Choral Society Charisse and David C. Howse Brenda E. Kee and Wayne S. Brown Labyrinth Choir Robyn Reeves Lana and Tim Lana Mark W. Lawson Maestro by Tumlare, Performance Tour Specialists Luke McEndarfer Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia David Morrow Linda Moxley Musica Sacra MUSICFOLDER.com Frank Nemhauser Brian Scott Newhouse John Nuechterlein Elizabeth and Fransciso Núñez Orcas Choral Society Deborah and Jamshed Patel Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau Susan Erburu Reardon and George Reardon Resound Ensemble Earl Rivers Peter Rutenberg Marshall A. Rutter, Esq. Charlotte Sibley Sunnyvale Singers Syracuse Chorale Karen P. Thomas Sandra Timmons VocalEssence Ruth and Dale Warland Williamsburg Choral Guild Witte Travel & Tours

Benefactors ($500–$999)

Albany Pro Musica, Inc. Barbershop Harmony Society Patricia and Bruce Becker Berkshire Choral International Ragnar Bohlin Marie L. Bucoy-Calavan Cincinnati May Festival Chorus Fran Collmann Amanda and Shawn Crouch Mary Deissler Dominick DiOrio III Ellie and Tom Elkinton Miguel Felipe Catherine French Joyce Garrett Grant Gershon The Gothic Catalog (Loft Recordings) Lisa Graham James Grigsby Alan Harler Robert Harris Anne Heider Jeff Hunt Terry Knowles Josh Krugman Anthony Leach Alice McAllister-Tillman Douglas Platt Marilyn Pryor Benjamin Rivera Eugene Rogers Myguel Santos e Castro Marianna and Robert Simpson Frank Stubbs and Tom Lee Danielle Talamantes and Kerry Wilkerson Arlene Williams Worldstrides OnStage

Pacesetters ($250–$499)

Linda and Michael Anderson Liam Bonner Ryan Brandau Jeffrey Brillhart Andrew Brown Betsy Burleigh Paul Caldwell Cantate Carlisle Cincinnati Youth Choir John Cloak Richard Coffey u

www.chorusamerica.org 29

2019 Honor Roll of Contributors Jennifer Collins Colorado Children’s Chorale Columbus Children’s Choir Doralene Davis Debra Defotis Ellie Dehoney Rhett M. Del Campo Susan G. Duncan Bradley Ellingboe Floyd Farmer Brooks Firestone The Frederick Children’s Chorus Vance George Louise Greenberg Matthew Greenberg Jonathan Griffith Greg Harris Richard Hoffert Joseph Holt Kathleen Holt Huntsville Community Chorus Association Craig Hella Johnson Arthur Kaemmer Virginia Lange Mary and Bill Langsdorf Jacob Levine McLoughlin Middle School Treble Choir Alfred P. Moore Northwest Girlchoir Palm Beach Schools Alice Parker Pensacola Children’s Chorus Robin L. Perry Molly Buzick Pontin Portland Symphonic Girlchoir Doreen Rao Raymond Rhinehart David Richie Meredith Riekse Janet Sarbaugh Jeremiah Selvey John Slawson David Snead Eric Stark Barbara Tagg Brooke Bandfield Taylor Texas Lutheran University Choir Wendy D. White MyungJu Yeo and J. Andrew Bradford Youth Chorus of the North Shore

Sustainers ($100–$249)

Amanda Adams-Barney Frank Albinder Lauren Anderson Phyllis Anderson Leah and Bill Baskin Amanda Bauman Dodie and Wayne Bauman Stephen Marc Beaudoin Marina Belica Nicole Belmont Martín Benvenuto Liza W. Beth Harold Black Brainerd Blyden-Taylor Eric Booth 30 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

Mimi Bornstein Sarah Bowe Kathleen Bowen Paul Boykas Gregory Brown John Buehler Joan and Mark Calonico Frank Cassel Charles Cerf Lillie Claitt Teresa Coffman J. Coleman Craig Coogan Thomas Cooke Emily Crocker Michael Davis Mary Ann De Barbieri Jean Dowdall Rick Eisenhart John Elg Brandon Elliott Anne Erps Drew T. Estabrook Katherine FitzGibbon Julie Flanders Allison Fromm Doreen and David Fryling Justin Fyala Robert Geary Wanda Gereben Catherine Glaser-Climie Carol Gravagno Peter Gray Barbara Greene Glenn Gregg Joan Gregoryk John Haberlen Annie Hargraves Julie Haydon Rebecca Heindel Steve Hines Greg Hobbs Robert Holmes Honey Perkins Family Foundation, Inc. Ralph Hooper Kristine Howell Bruce Jackson

Michael Judd Arthur Kerr Deborah King Mary Beth Koehler Belinda Koenig Anita Kupriss Nancy Lackner Amelia J. LeClair Kathleen Leones Thomas Lloyd Margaret Loss Carol Manifold Nancy Maret Jameson Marvin Master Chorale of Flagstaff Marguerite McCormick Barbara McFarquhar Christie McKinney Nancy Menk Jonathan Miller Marty Monson David Morales Wendy Moy KellyAnn Nelson and Christopher Eanes Mark W. Ohnmacht Matthew Oltman Richard A. Pace Evan Padgitt Vince Peterson Mark Pinzur Patrick Dupré Quigley and Robert A. Peccola Paul Rabin Andrea Ramsey George Reiss Matthew Robertson Jen Rogers Valérie Sainte-Agathe Jan Pedersen Schiff David Schoch Mary Shaffran Phillip Shoultz Julie Skeen Katie Skovholt Ben Spalding Jan Špalek Jenni Stadtmiller Brett Stover Rana Strickland Donald Studebaker

Monthly Giving Club Donors We are pleased to recognize the current donors of the Monthly Giving Club whose recurring monthly gifts were made between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019.

Susan Astington Mary Ann Aufderheide Marie L. Bucoy-Calavan Roland M. Carter Tad Czyzewski Mary Deissler Dominic DiOrio III Catherine Dehoney Morna Edmundson Todd H. Estabrook Justin Fyala Vance George

David Hayes Elfrieda and Vern Heinrichs Jeff Hunt Terry Knowles and Marshall A. Rutter, Esq. David Morales Linda Moxley Frank Nemhauser John G. Slawson Arlene Williams Duain Wolfe

Averill and Robert Summer Steven Sunderman Linda Tedford Jane Thrall Jesse Thrall Gale Townsley Scott Tucker Gretchen Upholt Amie Vandersluis Gregory Wait Douglas H. Wilton Holly Wolff Hannah Won Michael Wu Burton Zipser

Friends ($25–$99)

Susan Astington Carol Barnett Carla Beauchamp Don Bee Christina Benson Dorte Bille Anne Born Watson Bosler Judy Bowers Elladean Brigham Andrea Burgoyne Karen Carp Jill Clymer Linda Coleman Casey Cook Ofer dal Lal Melanie DeMore Kathy Dilenschneider Rikke Eberlein Melissa J. Eddy Timothy Evers Kristen Fallon Kathleen Fargnoli Caroline Firman José Daniel Flores Caraballo Flo Gardner Judith Gary Bridget George Angie Godfrey Carey Grassinger Erin Guinup Jennifer Hayman George Heindel Barbara Heroux Stacey Hill Justin Hockemeyer Verna Holley Kathryn Hunt Anthea Jackson Cathleen Kalcic Joyce Keil Wes Kim Carol Kumar Don Lee Diana J. Leland Elaine Lind Katie MacDonald Chase Maggiano Jacob Mandell Anne Matlack Michael McCarthy Whitney McColley Daniel McKeever Ann P. McNair Scott Mello Robert Molison

Heritage Donors We are pleased to recognize the following donors who have provided consistent financial support to Chorus America for the past 10 years or more and thank them for their long-term investment in our work.

ACFEA Tour Consultants, Inc. John Alexander Michael J. and Linda L. Anderson The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Anton E. Armstrong ASCAP Mary Ann Aufderheide Anne Meier Baker and Robert Baker Wayne and Dodie Bauman Bruce Becker Watson Bosler Marguerite Brooks Wayne S. Brown and Brenda E. Kee Philip Brunelle William Clarke Richard Coffey Fran Collmann Alison Combes Concept Tours, Inc. Megan and Robert Cooper Lynda U. Crane Tad Czyzewski Hugh Davies Mary Ann de Barbieri Catherine Dehoney Rollo Dilworth

Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) Jane Dummer Susan G. Duncan ECS Publishing Rachel Eidbo Rick H. Eisenhart Ellie and Tom Elkinton Todd H. Estabrook Kristen Fallon Floyd Farmer Corty Fengler Brooks Firestone Catherine French Joyce and James Garrett Bridget George Vance Y. George Grant Gershon Louise H. Greenberg Barbara Greene Joan Gregoryk Alan Hair Annie Hargraves Alan Harler Robert A. Harris Julie Haydon James B. Heck Anne Heider and R. Stephen Warner

Elfrieda and Vern Heinrichs Kathleen Holt Don H. Horisberger Richard Hynson Bruce G. Jackson Arthur and Martha Kaemmer Anne B. Keiser Knight Kiplinger Terry Knowles and Marshall A. Rutter, Esq. Carol Kumar Anita S. Kupriss Kathleen B. Leones Thomas Lloyd Mary A. Lyons Kay and Mike McCarthy Marguerite McCormick Allison McMillan Albert McNeil Nancy L. Menk Melanie G. Messer Trudy Weaver Miller Robert Molison Robert Mortensen Lana Mountford MUSICFOLDER.com National Endowment for the Arts Frank Nemhauser Elizabeth and Francisco Núñez John Nuechterlein Gayle and Tim Ober Mark Ohnmacht Deborah and Jamshed Patel

Janet H. Perkins Robin L. Perry Dianne and Frank Peterson Douglas Platt Popplestone Foundation Marilyn Pryor Leonard Ratzlaff Susan Erburu Reardon and George Reardon Keith Scott Reas Raymond P. Rhinehart David Richards Earl Rivers Peter Rutenberg H. Royce Saltzman Patricia Sax Jan Pedersen Schiff Jane Shepherd Marianna and Robert Simpson John G. Slawson Eric Stark Frank Stubbs and Tom Lee Barbara M. Tagg Brooke Bandfield Taylor Linda Tedford Jesse Thrall Gale A. Townsley Gregory Wait Dale Warland Tracy Weisman Amy Goodman Weller Arlene Williams Duain Wolfe

Stephen Marc Beaudoin in honor of Dianne Peterson Mark Pinzur in memory of Bruce Tharp Molly Buzick Pontin in honor of Robert Penn Benjamin Rivera in memory of Karen Allina Janet Sarbaugh in honor of Corty Fengler Anne Sears in memory of Joseph Flummerfelt

Eric Stark in honor of Vance Y. George Danielle Talamantes in memory of Joseph Flummerfelt Danielle Talamantes in memory of Scott Calvert Brooke Bandfield Taylor in honor of Larry Bandfield

Gifts Made in Honor or in Memory Chorus America received the following gifts in honor of or in memory of special individuals.

Don Bee in honor of Ginny and Mark Lawson Liam Bonner in honor of Eric Stark Wayne Brown in honor of Brazeal Wayne Dennard Kirkwood Baptist Church in honor of Mark W. Lawson Ellie Dehoney in honor of Catherine Dehoney Julie Morgan Anne Moul Brian Moul Luanne Murphy Nora O’Sullivan Kevin Padworski Cheryl Parsons Lindsay Pope Mark Powell

Melanie DeMore in memory of Drena DeMore Drew T. Estabrook in honor of Todd H. Estabrook Kiplinger Foundation in honor of Dianne Peterson Belinda Koenig in honor of Rebecca Heindel Diana J. Leland in honor of Dale Warland Linda J. Randall Mary and David Richards Gregory Ristow Mona Roberts Marc Ross Mike Rowan Saginaw Choral Society Alisa and Ryan Saunders Lee Saville-Iksic

Anne Sears Karen Sessler Timothy Shantz Jane Shepherd Elizabeth Shepley Karen Siegel Alison Skinner Alyssa Stanton Edmund Stawick

Brandon Straub Susan Swaney Jeannette Taylor Nick Thomas Ryan Tibbetts Tia Titgemeyer Marjie and Gary Toops Lauren Walker Stephanie Webb u

www.chorusamerica.org 31

Chorus America Officers

Chair Brian Newhouse Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media (MN) Immediate Past Chair Catherine Peterson ArtsBoston (MA) Treasurer John Earls Prospect House (OH) Secretary Marie Bucoy-Calavan University of Akron (OH)

Members of the Board

Jeffrey Barnett Dorsal Capital Management LLC (CA) Charles Berardesco Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington (DC) Dashon Burton Professional Singer (NY) Roland Carter University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (TN) Shawn Crouch Frost School of Music at the University of Miami (FL) Iris Derke Distinguished Concerts International, New York (NY) Rollo Dilworth Temple University (PA) Mary Doughty Mauch Conductor and Community Organizer (IL) Joy Douglass Newton Public Schools, retired (MA) Morna Edmundson Elektra Women’s Choir (BC) Todd Estabrook Handel and Haydn Society (MA) Miguel Ángel Felipe University of Arizona (AZ) Corty B. Fengler Cappella SF (CA) David Hayes Mannes School of Music (NY) Elfrieda Heinrichs The Heinrichs Foundation (ON) Robert Istad Pacific Chorale; California State University Fullerton (CA) Craig Jessop Utah State University (UT) Robyn Reeves Lana Cincinnati Youth Choir (OH) Mark Lawson MorningStar Music Publishers (MO) David Morrow Morehouse College (GA) Linda Moxley Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (MD) Steven Neiffer Los Angeles Master Chorale (CA) John Neuchterlein Community Leader (MN) Elizabeth Núñez Young People’s Chorus of New York City (NY) Dianne Peterson The Washington Chorus (DC) Molly Buzick Pontin Pacific Chorale (CA) Andrea Ramsey Composer, Conductor, and Music Educator (MO) Leonard Ratzlaff University of Alberta (AB) Eugene Rogers University of Michigan (MI) Karen P. Thomas Seattle Pro Musica (WA) Anthony Trecek-King Boston Children’s Chorus (MA) Duain Wolfe Chicago Symphony Chorus (IL); Colorado Symphony Chorus (CO)

32 The Voice, Winter 2019/20

2019 Honor Roll of Contributors Lydia Weiss Lizz Wells Gayle Wieand Dorothy Wilson

Continuo Society Members

We are pleased to recognize our current charter members of the Continuo Society, Chorus America’s legacy giving society.

The Continuo Society was established to honor donors for their support of Chorus America through their estate planning, i.e., as a beneficiary under their will, IRS final distribution, pension plan, or insurance policy John Alexander Ann Meier Baker and Robert Baker Catherine Dehoney Rollo Dilworth Joy and Chester Douglass Todd H. Estabrook Floyd Farmer Corty and Alf Fengler Vance Y. George Louise H. Greenberg Alan Harler Elfrieda and Vern Heinrichs Anne B. Keiser Mary and Phillip Lyons Kay and Mike McCarthy Allison McMillan Sandy and Jonathan Miller Trudy Weaver Miller C. William Moody Jr. Alice P. Parker Deborah and Jamshed Patel Dianne and Frank Peterson Susan Erburu Reardon and George Reardon Earl Rivers Rosalind and Gregg Smith+ Barbara M. Tagg Judith A. Willoughby +Deceased

Sustaining Members We gratefully acknowledge the leadership of our Sustaining Members, whose additional $100 gifts as part of their membership go directly to support Chorus America’s programs. This list recognizes all Sustaining Members between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019.

Nicole Belmont Marguerite L. Brooks Andrew Brown John Buehler Lillie A. Claitt Fran Collmann Emily Holt Crocker Mary Ann De Barbieri Todd H. Estabrook

In-Kind Gifts

Floyd Farmer Barbara Greene Annie Hargraves Kathleen Holt Ralph Hooper Kristine Elizabeth Howell Robert M. Istad Bruce G. Jackson Arthur John Kerr Kathleen B. Leones

Charles Andrew Berardesco The Crossing Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) Joy and Chester Douglass Corty Fengler GALA Choruses Grant Gershon Ola Gjeilo Jacob Maarse Florist Mike McCarthy David Morrow Brian Scott Newhouse J. Reese Norris Alice Parker Doreen Rao Susan Reardon Joanne Schulte Kile Smith John I. Stewart, Jr./Crowell & Moring LLP

Matthew Oltman Richard A. Pace Evan Padgitt Marilyn Pryor Paul Rabin Peter Rutenberg Charlotte Sibley Frank Stubbs Gregory Wait Arlene Williams

Corporate Giving Council

We are pleased to recognize the donors on the Corporate Giving Council whose support made the 2019 Chorus Impact Study possible.

National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Cincinnati May Festival Chorus San Francisco Girls Chorus Choral Arts Society of Washington Colorado Children’s Chorale Encore Creativity for Older Adults Indianapolis Children’s Choir Kirkwood Baptist Church

Every donor is important to us. If we have not listed your contribution correctly, please let us know by contacting KellyAnn Nelson at 202.331.7577 ext. 247 or kellyann@chorusamerica.org.

Advertising Index ACDA Choral Journal................................................. 23 ACFEA Tour Consultants ........................................... 26 Berkshire Choral International..................................... 2 Chorus America................................................... C3, C4 Cathedral Choral Society........................................... 17 Concept Tours............................................................. 14 Cultural Tour Consultants............................................. 8 Eastman School of Music............................................ 7 ECS Publishing.............................................................. 6 Encore Tours............................................................... 13 The First Baptist Church of Worcester...................... 30 GIA Publications......................................................... 13

King’s Singers............................................................... 9 Manhattan Concert Productions................................C2 Melodious Accord...................................................... 14 MUSICFOLDER.com...................................................... 8 National Association of Negro Musicians................ 28 North Texas Metroplex Children’s Choirs.................. 21 Pacific International Choir Festivals.......................... 22 Second Presbyterian Church (Indianapolis)............... 12 University Music Service........................................... 30 Witte Tours................................................................. 21 Yale Glee Club............................................................ 16

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PAID CLEVELAND, OHIO PERMIT #498

1200 18th Street NW, Suite 1250 Washington, DC 20036

2020

Chorus AmericA Miami, FL | June 17–20

Conference Performances Include

Hosted by Seraphic Fire

• Amazonia Vocal Ensemble • Encantus Voices • The Girl Choir of South Florida • Master Chorale of South Florida • Seraphic Fire

Featuring

María Guinand on the role of choral conductors in today’s world

Lead Conference Sponsor

©Re becca Re id

Nonprofit leader Nina Simon on building strong – and radically inclusive – community partnerships The King’s Singers on harnessing the power of music as a tool for social unity

With generous funding support from

tion a r t Regisens in Op ary! u r b Fe a.org/ americ s u r o h c 20 conf20

Credits: Miami: ©Shutterstock/ventdusud; Seraphic Fire: ©Southern Land Films; Chorus America Conference attendees: ©MG Pictures

Conference