I’d never mark my stamp on you
even if I thought I could
and with lessons drawn
from father’s “tool and die, ”
I know I’ll never try.
That stamping press he used
left only negative impressions, crushed in carbide steel, to mark the owner’s brand.
No, I’ll have none of that
I need your free undented souls
To sing both “I” and “we”
in mystic synchronicity: breathing life into the speckled pages.
But like my father at his lathe, I’ll ply my studied craft
and bid you do the same with yours
so that you and I
can find our truth among the spots and, with mysterious synchronicity, breathe radiant, illimitable life into the freckled, speckled pages.
Joseph Jennings has officially stepped down as Artistic Advisor of Chanticleer, to become Music DIrector Emeritus. Chanticleer is probably the best-known male chorus in the USA, perhaps in the world, and may be (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the only full-time professional choir in the United States. Jennings has been in ill health for some time, and uses a walker.
I was present the other day at what might be Jenning's last performance with the group, the final concert of an annual choral workshop Chanticleer hosts at Sonoma State University in California. As the concert finale, the entire group sang what has become Chanticleer's signature piece, Franz Biebl's Ave Maria. And there were tears, both from singers and from the conductor. The curtain call afterwards was very emotional, especially for the Chanticleer members, all of whom exchanged wet-eyed hugs with Jennings during an endless standing ovation.
By the time we reached the last song in the set, Franz Biebl's "Ave Maria", the conductor's eyes were full of tears. They trickled down his cheeks as he moved his body to shape our singing. And all around the stage, the chorus responded to his gestures, in turn giving voice to Biebl's angelic music and the spontaneous surge of his emotions.
Matthew Oltman, who has had the title of Music Director all this year, will continue to lead Chanticleer from this time on.
I brought my family to see this performance, and my 9-year-old son sat in the front row, right next to the conductor. Jennings shook his hand at the end. I'm glad he had the chance to see this concert, although he has no idea he just shook hands with a superman. We will miss you, Joe!
I guess I've been living under a rock . . . I've completely missed this sensation . . . so . . . Thank you to A Cappella News for pointing this story out to me. (video below)
The P.S. 22 chrous is lead by music teacher Mr. Breinberg, more fondly referred to his students as Mr. B. Mr. B, who arrived at P.S. 22 in 1999, convinced the administration to let him become a full-time music teacher and start a chorus choir at the school in spite of financial cutbacks in the arts. Instead of teaching traditional children's songs, he had his students singing contemporary adult songs. In addition to "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay, the P.S. 22 chorus have also tackled covers of songs by Tori Amos, Stevie Nicks, Bjork, Journey, and others.
One fateful day three summers ago, gossip blogger Perez Hilton came across the choir's cover of a Tori Amos song on YouTube and posted the video on his famous celebrity blog.
The rest, they say, is history.
The P.S. 22 Chorus have been aired on ABC News, written about in The New York Times, and -- as quite possibly the greatest honor of online fame one can achieve in this day and age -- tweeted about on Ashton Kutcher's Twitter. Tori Amos herself once came down to see the choir's live cover of her music, which immediately moved her to tears. As of last Sunday, P.S. 22 Chorus videos have been seen by 5 million viewers.
On June 15th, the federal government released a national report card on achievement in the arts among 8th graders. This long-awaited report finds that since 1997, our nation's students have not made significant progress in developing their skills and knowledge in the arts. A nationally representative sample of over 7,900 eighth grade students from public and private schools participated in the NAEP Arts Assessment in 2008. Students were measured on their ability to create and respond to the visual arts; whereas, the study scaled back on music questions and only measured a student's ability to respond and identify music. As reported in the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and USAToday, the findings are "mediocre," "lackluster," and "may make America's arts instructors kind of blue."
However, new U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave a strong reaction in support of arts education, "This Arts Report Card should challenge all of us to make K-12 arts programs more available to America's children ...We can and should do better for America's students."
Jeffery Thyer is leaving his position at ACDA to work with DCINY:
NEW YORK, N.Y. – June 25, 2009 – Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY), a New York City based classical music production company, has added a new member to its program development team – Jeffery R. Thyer. DCINY is proud to welcome Mr. Thyer, a dynamic choral music industry business professional who will help guide DCINY’s continued growth.
“Jeffery is an enormous asset to the Program Development Team,” said Co-founder and General Director, Iris Derke. “His extensive knowledge concerning the American choral world through his valuable experience at ACDA, and his passion for excellence with client services will offer great things to DCINY. We are very excited to have him join us, and look forward to his many contributions.”
I will greatly miss Jeffery - he is a quality human being and he's done a magnificent job in his years with the ACDA national office. He's blogged here from time to time as well . . .
Thanks for your incredible work, Jeffery. Enjoy New York!
The recent deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett has many people in the world looking backwards to some of their earlier roots - some musical, some not as musical.
In this post, ChoralGirl traces her musical development and features a video of Rene Clausen conducting his "Set me as a seal."
The music was originally written as incidental music for a play, originally by Jean Anouilh, adapted by Lillian Hellman in 1955. The play was about Joan of Arc and Bernstein was asked to write incidental music for it (Hellman was also the original librettist for the first version of Candide, done about the same time). Bernstein chose to use the pioneering early music ensemble, New York Pro Musica, for this, so the music was written for seven singers (one-to-a-part), plus hand-drum and bells. The music was, of course, recorded for the play (not done live). The seven singers were three women, three men, and counter-tenor (the pioneering American countertenor, Russell Oberlin). The music is recognizably Bernstein, but he borrows some of conventions of music of the period to create a wonderful hybrid of old and new.
I've done the work several times, once with a one-on-a-part ensemble, but more usually with chorus. One of the times we did it, the drama department at PLU was inspired to do the play in the following year and used our concert recording during the play--the music adds much to the "flavor" of the play. My last year at PLU we did it for our Scandinavian tour (2001) and I wrote a short narration that two singers read at performances, putting each of the movements into context within the action of the play.
Just before doing it with VAE I looked online to see if I could find the original recording anywhere. I couldn't, but found a recording by Robert DeCormier and his new group, Counterpoint, done one-to-a-part and with a narration (using Joan's words from the play) done by his wife. The narration is very effective, sometimes done over the ensemble singing. I bought it through iTunes just to hear the narration--the performance isn't terrific, but the narration is great.
It's the story of a haunting recording that he almost couldn't find again . . . one that provides "spiritual refreshment when I am travelling."
Here's how he describes the music:
There is a distinctive purity and beauty about this sacred music that reflects its Orthodox origins. But there is more than that; there is a sense of mysticism that may be explained by Armenia's land frontiers with Iran and Turkey, both countries with strong traditions of Sufism.
TALLINN (AFP) — Tens of thousands of Estonians and Lithuanians will sing in huge choirs this weekend as the Baltic nations host traditional song and dance festivals that thrived even during harsh Soviet times.
Estonia's "To Breathe as One" festival runs July 2-5 in the capital Tallinn with some 37,000 performers -- singers, dancers and musicians -- due on stage.
An audience of up to 200,000 is expected to watch two gigantic open-air concerts on Saturday and Sunday as well as dance performances involving thousands.
LOS ANGELES, June 28 (Xinhua) -- A 200-voice Los Angeles choir paid tribute to Michael Jackson Sunday by singing one of his hit songs as the family of the late "King of Pop" is planning a public funeral.
"Man in the Mirror" songwriter Siedah Garrett led the multicultural Agape International Choir to perform the song repeatedly at the Agape Spiritual Center to honor the superstar, who died Thursday here at the age of 50.
This weekend, the University of Santo Tomas Singers swept the California International Choir Festival and Competition, winning the People’s Choice Award as well as two other categories at the event that ran Friday through Sunday in San Luis Obispo.
The 26-member choir also took first place in the Folk and Required Pieces competitions.
Sikama Choir, which hails from the Republic of Congo, received the Judge’s Special Award.
The top spot in the Choir’s Choice competition went to the St. Zlata Meglenska Chamber Choir, an all-female ensemble from Macedonia.
The Central Coast’s own Cuesta College Chamber Singers took second place in all three divisions.
Joseph Jennings has officially 
