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Choral Caffeine: Value All Choirs

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There is a school that has been represented repeatedly on the ACDA conference stage by its woman’s choir.  The reason is simple: The institution made a conscious decision that the woman’s ensemble would be (to use the athletic term) the varsity team.  It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it?
 
Roberta Jackson explores the idea even more in her article, “Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride!” (Oregon Choral Focus April 2010).  However, she isn’t necessarily advocating on behalf of a single ensemble type, but believes that ALL choral ensembles in a program deserve the best:
 
“It is tempting for us to put the greatest emphasis and energy into the most advanced choir, usually the mixed concert choir. We tend to spend more time selecting music and planning rehearsals for it. Aren’t all of our choirs equally deserving of our time and attention? Perhaps, our priorities should be re-examined. There is an unspoken hierarchy supported by the belief that the oldest, most advanced choirs are the most skilled, and therefore, the most valued. Therefore, the conductors of these choirs appear to receive greater respect from the professional organizations and, in turn, their members.”
 
Undervaluing any but the top choir in a program seems a little short sighted.  Show a little love to ALL of your ensembles this week.
 
(To access the full article, simply click the highlighted title. For additional articles on a dazzling array of choral topics, visit  ChorTeach.)
 

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  1. I totally agree with this.  In the middle school where I currently teach, I came into a program where the mixed Concert Choir has long been considered the “top” choir, while the auditioned Girls’ Ensemble has been relegated to lower-level.  They also have non-auditioned choirs here, and forget about morale there.  I have spent most of the year trying to get them all to realize that one is not better than the other, they are all simply different.  Each has their own strengths and their own weaknesses.  When my students ask me which choir I think is best, I won’t give them the answer they’re trying to pull from me.  I recently actually gave a little speech about the “us vs. them” attitude, which I so strongly dislike.  (I have been on both sides of that, and it’s no good either way!)
     
    To mix it up a little this year, I did things like have the Concert Choir open a concert instead of close it, let the Girls’ Ensemble close a concert, feature the non-auditioned choirs together.  It’s been a long road and it’s had some bumps, but I think now, toward the end of the year, they are starting to see themselves as a choral PROGRAM instead of tiered choirs.  Yes, some of the choirs do have more skilled singers and musicians in them than others, but I have been trying to teach them to treat everyone equally instead of just being snotty to the other groups (something middle schoolers often excel at!).  I have been happy to see the results.

  2. I find it very interesting that directors do this. We were discussing this very thing in my conducting class this morning, and it was very interesting to hear all of my peers’ different experiences. I completely agree with Roberta Jackson on the fact that ALL choirs deserve to be treated with equal respect and for lack of a better term, “admiration”, even if they aren’t the “top” choir (ew, I hate that term). You can’t build a program if you’re not building up ALL of your ensembles. 

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