NDACDA Chorister - Spring 2023 Issue

North Dakota ACDA Leadership

Dean Jilek, president, University of North Dakota

Connie Stordalen, president elect, Horizon Middle School

Cheryl McIntyre, past president, Jamestown High School

Sheldon Weltz, treasurer

North Dakota Repertoire and Resources Committee

Repertoire Specific Coordinator: Tom Porter University of Mary

Men’s Choirs: Christopher Loeffler, Women’s Choirs: Lauren Brandenburg, Fargo South HS/Eielson MS

Vocal Jazz: Mike Seil, Bismarck Legacy High School

Showchoir: Connie Stordalen, Horizon Middle School

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

Youth Coordinator: Sarah Barnum, Discovery Middle School

Children and Community: Brady Gudgel, Mandan Middle School

Middle School/Junior High:

Paige Bondley, Mandan Middle School

Rachel Schaffner, Bismarck Legacy High School

Senior High School: Brian Saylor, Bismarck High School

Collegiate Coordinator: Chris Redfearn, University of Jamestown

Youth College/University: Chris Redfearn

Student Activities: Melanie Popejoy University of North Dakota

Life Long Coordinator: Sara Lichtblau, Fargo South High School

Community Choirs: Sarah Barnum

Music in Worship:

Traditional: Vicky Boechler, St. Mary’s High School,

Contemporary: Sara Lichtblau

Brent Rogers, Dickinson State University Patrick McGuire, Sts. Anne and Joachim Editor

and Designer, The Chorister Content Coordinator

brent.w.rogers@dickinsonstate.edu

Dear Teachers,

Please don’t ever feel guilty for resting during summer. Teaching is exhausting. You’ve poured your heart and soul into your job for months. You’ve earned your break. Seriously.

—

John Spencer spencerauthor.com

Singing Online

Is it still a thing?

During the height of the pandemic, almost all voice teaching and performing activities were conducted online. As we’ve almost fully resumed live performances and in person school, learning to manage COVID as a constant presence in our lives, the singing world seems to be stabilizing. Sure, we’ll have more performances canceled or postponed due to COVID, and we’ll have more performer substitutions due to illness, but those are manageable and perhaps inevitable outcomes in an increasingly complex world health landscape.

What about the important new digital and virtual tools that developed rapidly during the pandemic, and that remain in its wake? What about the students who found their progress better supported by online learning? There were more than a few within my teaching sphere who fit this category. And what about performers who found new creative outlets during the virtual performance boom of the past two years? In fact, many singers have worked digitally or virtually for the majority of their careers session singers for TV, movies, and video games, as well as self-produced recording artists, mixed media artists, and singers working at the edges of the technological frontier all may prefer to continue working in a mostly virtual or digitally contained way. As the amount of our lives lived online continues to grow, what place will the art of vocal performance hold in virtual spaces?

I think and hope that virtual vocal performance is here to stay, and that there are plenty of singers who want to learn and work in this medium. Online voice lessons can be logistically easier, more economic and ecologically friendly, and even creative and fun for those who enjoy working with technology. As a teacher, I enjoy the

focus I can place on a singer’s face and upper torso, without the distractions of a large room or too much movement out of my field of vision as I play the piano. Certainly if the student or teacher are sick enough to be contagious but well enough to want to work, a virtual option enables the lesson to safely proceed. Students and teachers benefit from the ability to share screens, view videos together, read and annotate scores together, and collaborate on documents in real time, allowing a much more flexible lesson format. I’ve found that virtual voice lessons continue to include a lot of singing, but also encompass study, research, exploration, and discussion in greater proportions than they did before, and both my students and I enjoy this dynamic, varied format.

Equity and access are important issues for voice study, and both can be partially addressed through online lessons. In a state like North Dakota, population centers can be several hours from one another by car. Travel is difficult or impossible for months of each year due to inclement weather, and driving to lessons and workshops can be expensive or unsafe. Students with less access to transportation or

who live far from major cities where singing events are usually held may find virtual voice study more logistically and economically attractive. The essential resources necessary for online study are a good internet connection and a device with which to connect. Faster, more stable internet like fiber and technology tools like microphones, sound interfaces, and laptops might be easier to source and share than transportation to distant lessons might be. There are also community and government programs that provide technology to under-resourced communities that can support virtual voice study alongside other online education access.

With all these ongoing reasons to continue virtual voice study and exploration, I am eager to keep working in this medium. Technologies like Zoom, Jacktrip, Dolby Atmos, and the numerous advances in AI intrigue me, and show incredible promise for singing online in fascinating and artistically vital ways. If you’re interested in being a part of developing future virtual voice study or performance opportunities, please let me know. I’d also be most grateful for feedback and suggestions from colleagues, so please be in touch if you’d like to share your thoughts. You can email me at justin.montigne@und.edu and find me online at justinmontigne.com.

Justin Montigne University of North Dakota

There’s a new choir in town...

Int roducing

There is a new professional choral ensemble in North Dakota called Dakota Pro Musica. The ensemble was founded in October 2020 shortly after I moved to Bismarck from Bronxville, NY (a suburb of New York City), where I had served as Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music and Humanities at Concordia College New York from 2007-2020. Dakota Pro Musica was created after the model of the professional church choirs which exist in nearly every church on the East Coast and especially New York City. Most churches in the City hire 8 professional singers and perform concerts as well as worship services. I was a member of the Christ Church Bronxville choir for nearly a decade, which was led by the renowned British composer Philip Stopford.

Dakota Pro Musica began with eight volunteer singers which rehearsed weekly from October until Christmas and gave their first concert in Dickinson in December 2020. After the first concert, I decided to change the rehearsal process into the standard of professional choir across the US. This typically means the singers learn the music on their own and have just 3-4 rehearsals the week preceding the concert. The first season included performing Dido and Aeneas with the Bismarck State Concert Choir at the Belle Mehus, and then our first annual Mother’s Day concert at Corpus Christi Church in Bismarck.

The ensemble became a fully professional ensemble beginning in the fall of 2021, and over the last two seasons Dakota Pro Musica has hired over 70 local musicians across 9 concert series. One of the unique goals of the ensemble is to bring our concerts to different venues across central North Dakota, and during the last two years we have performed concerts in Jamestown, Minot, Richardton, Fort Yates, Washburn, Mandan, and Bismarck. The philosophy of Dakota Pro Musica is that our concerts can “Build Community” through thoughtful programming and collaboration with other ensembles. In order to “Build Community” with our concerts, we only present performances that will enhance, honor, and highlight the celebrations, commemorations, and cultures of our community.

In Spring 2022, the ensemble collaborated with Bismarck State College to bring Dr.

Tim Sharp (former Executive Director of ACDA) to Bismarck to lead his High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass with the Cotton Wood Bluegrass band from Washburn. This concert was a unique combination of choir and bluegrass which highlighted one of the favorite ensembles of central North Dakota. In the fall of 2022, we collaborated with the Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra, Bismarck State College Choirs, and Native American musicians to present a concert to honor veterans that alternated between classical choral music like Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and the honor and veterans songs of Native American Powwow tradition.

Beginning in December 2022, Dakota Pro Musica began a secondary part of the organization’s Mission with “Raising Voices” outreach programming. We asked the question, “Who doesn’t deserve live music?” a fundamental question in creating these outreach programs. Our first program took place in April/May 2023 with a songwriting workshop at the North Dakota State Penitentiary, and a second program will begin in May 2023 with a parentinfant singing program which we will do in partnership with Burleigh Public Health, and local churches and organizations.

Dakota Pro Musica strives to be a vital part of the music making in North Dakota by:

• offering professional choral and vocal concerts which bring new and unique repertoire to our communities while using that music to Build Community and relationships, and

• finding ways to help others in the community to “Raise their Voices” in outreach programming especially designed to reach underserved and marginalized communities.

In Fall 2023, Dakota Pro Musica is partnering with the Minot Chamber Chorale, Bismarck Mandan Symphony Orchestra, and the Bismarck State College Choirs to present “Considering Matthew Shepard” to honor the 25th anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of Matthew Shepard.

Jason Thoms

Dakota Pro Musica

Bismarck State College

Choosing to “recharge” isn’t a selfish act.

Self-care inevitably benefits all of your students.

— John Spencer