Opera Rehearsal - 4/3

Today was our first run through for Opera. I don't know if this really counts as an ensemble. But oh well. We did not warm up. We had a few announcements from Dallas and then we launched into our first run through. Nerves made me forget a lot of things! I was embarrassed at first, but as the show progressed I improved a lot. Now I know that I need to memorize this a lot more thoroughly because my nerves will make it harder to remember. That's the value of full run throughs like this in front of everyone else, because you really see how you are affected. We did not stop except to change the set. There were some very strong scenes and some not so strong scenes. Hopefully everyone got a better idea of what they need to work on (I know I did!). And hopefully the fact that it's only one week away will motivate us! Dallas decided to email us all our notes because we were out of class time. He is always very careful about not going over time. I wish he had in this case though, because notes are so much more effective in person. Oh well!

Chamber Choir - 4/3

Today we all wore our chamber uniforms so that we could record the Holst for Kevin. For the first few minutes we reviewed and ran through sections. Then we recorded. As I had expected, the quality of our production was not as good as it had been by the end of the previous class. I'm not even sure it was an improvement on the last recording. Unfortunately, the person recording the piece started making noise at the end so we had to re-record it. The second time we recorded the ending was much worse than the first time, especially for me personally, so I felt very badly about that. It was a real pitty. There were just some things that never did sound right! I hate that. Part of me wonders if Kevin should have assembled a smaller group of only the upperclassmen, because singing this piece correctly takes advanced technical skill that not all members of this choir have. After we recorded, Kevin gave us cookies and we went on our way, probably never to sing the Holst again. So tragic to leave such a glorious piece without really having done it justice! Ah well. Such is!

Chamber Choir - 4/2

This class time was devoted to Kevin's project for his graduate program. We have been learning Holts' Ode to Death. It's an incredible piece, and it's incredibly difficult so we've all been working very hard. Kevin recorded this piece a few rehearsals ago, so for the first few minutes we listened to the recording and took notes on what we could have done better. This was extremely helpful. The choir sounds very different from inside, and we were all surprised (for better and for worse) by how we performed. We didn't do any warm ups. After we listened through, we divided into sections. Section leaders were to lead a 15 minute review, focusing on the parts we thought needed the most work. I always get a little nervous leading sectionals because I feel a lot of pressure. Not only because I want us to be excellent, but also because I know that my section is full of capable and intelligent singers, and I know that they all have different ideas of how things should be done. It's definitely intimidating! I do not feel like I am so much better than them that I can be a perfect model. But I try to run the sectionals as gracefully as I can - inviting everyone to share their concerns and ideas. For this sectional I started by asking that we stay very quiet and focused so that we could accomplish all we needed to in 15 minutes. I then asked for comments about what we listened to. Specifically I asked for "one thing you think would improve our performance the most." I got comments on vowels, unity of sound, and onsets. I agreed with all these comments. We started by working on the difficult entrances at the beginning. I implemented speech-to-singing exercises that I think were very effective. Then we continued through the piece stopping at parts that I or a section member had circled. We moved quickly and found promising solutions to our problems. We didn't get through everything, but we accomplished some very important things. At one point we had a lot of differing opinions about vowel shape, and I gently stated that, as I am not the director I cannot settle the dispute with certainty, but I believed that an open vowel would serve us better. We went back to the choir room and went through the piece as a class. The sectionals had helped a great deal and by the end of class we were sounding much better. However, I am always skeptical of these sort of improvements. If it took us 45 minutes to get to that level, we will not be able to make the same sound at the beginning of the following rehearsal. Still, we made some progress. We will record tomorrow.

Chamber Choir - 3/25/14

Today Dr. Evans had us get into mixed formation in a big circle around the room. This was really great for the group in multiple ways; for one, it gets us listening to each other and blending really well, and for another it got people to SHUT UP for the most part. I don't know if that was Dr. Evan's motive in mixing us, but it worked. There was much less talking today. He also said at the beginning of class, "Let's have no sound come out of our mouths that isn't beautiful, rich music. That means less chit chat." So I appreciated that he said something. We did some really great work. We worked on phrasing and dynamics in our Chilcott hymn, and then we added percussion to the medieval sounding requiem. We also spent a lot of time working on the most beautiful latin peice! Oh man I need to learn the titles of these pieces. It was a really productive rehearsal either way.

Chamber Choir - 3/24

Today we started by singing a Chilcott piece, the name of which escapes me right now. The women were warned that solo auditions for the beginning of the piece would be next week. The piece went very well until the end. The women had an ascending interval at the very end and were not maintaining the same space in the high pitches as they had in the low. Consequently they sounded bright and pinched on the higher note. Dr. Evans spent some time trying to get them to have a consistent, round tone through the phrase. He fixed the vowel and tried to model the sound he wanted, but they still weren't getting it. After several attempts to fix the problem, the rest of the class had gotten bored and were talking. Chamber choir already has a talking problem, so this opened the flood gates. The problem did not go away, although it did improve slightly. After that we divided into sectionals to work on Chilcott's Spanish piece. The woman remained behind. After fixing some articulation and rhythmic problems, Dr. Evans turned to the Sopranos again and focused on them for a long time. The altos began talking more and more until it became a really big problem and the section leader (me) snapped. Dr. Evans did not, has not, will not address the talking problem and it is driving some of us to the edge. I was very unhappy with today's rehearsal.

Opera Rehearsal - 3/18

This is a college level performing group, so not a lot of time is devoted to teaching notes or techniques. The students are expected to be independent musicians, so Dallas doesn't teach the music. But I have still picked up some important directing tips from watching him.
1. Don't waste people's time. Honestly. Plan ahead, and make a clear schedule of what you are planning to do when - especially in a situation like this where not all students are required to be there every day. Dallas is really good at this.
2. Dallas has a really good balance of humor and focus. We are able to joke around a little and have some fun, so the rehearsals stay light and enjoyable. But we also get a lot done and we don't get sidetracked from the task at hand.
3. Play the piano! Dallas has absolutely incredible skills as an accompanist. I will NEVER be as good as he is, but watching him play really helps me realize how essential it is to have competent piano skills when you're working with singers.

Chamber Singers Rehearsal - 3/19

Dr. Evans did something new and different today! Instead of giving us our starting pitches, he asked for us to give our best guess at what the pitch is. A few students in the class nailed it! It was really cool. I think he picked it up in England while observing a boys choir. It's a really good idea. I love it when teachers try new things! To me that's a sign that they still really care about what they do.
I've noticed that students in the choir raise their hands and ask questions about the music (where to breathe, what the vowel sound should be, clarification on pitches and rhythms, etc.) more often than Dr. Evan's addresses problems. I'm not sure why Dr. Evan's chooses to run things this way, but I think it's really important to have a class atmosphere where students are comfortable asking questions and making comments.