Honoring Jim Feiszli -Words of Wisdom and Praise

This is it, the last article in our series to honor our founder Jim Feiszli and the last day of the Showcase Dare.  Over 30 composers signed up to participate in honoring Jim by composing new works based on guiding elements of his life.  The deadline for submitting their first draft compositions is 11:59 PM tonight.  Voting runs from August 10-August 23.

 We need conductors and other ChoralNet users to look through the works and rate them on a 5 point subjective scale from low to high:

 

      Spark: Evident in concept or work 1 2 3 4 5

      Performability: Viral Quality/Overall Likability/ Uniqueness 1 2 3 4 5 

      Elemental Mechanics: Harmonic, Rhythmic, Form, Dynamics, Counterpoint etc: 1 2 3 4 5

      Text Setting: Prosody,Word Painting,Choice of Text 1 2 3 4 5

      Singability: Voice Leading, Range, Tessitura 1 2 3 4 5

 

Visit the composers’ contestant pages to give critique or you can check out the following post tomorrow for a list of all pieces that need voting on  https://choralnet.org/view/472261.  The post will be updated by noon August 10. 

 

Send me, Jack Senzig, a message with a copy of the above categories and your score for them.  Only the first two, Spark and Performability, are required but you are encouraged to rate all 5.  If you don’t have anything to say about the others just leave them blank.   More on voting can be found here and optional rubrics here.  This is not an official ACDA competition.

 

Some of the composers kept a record of their creative process and we have made the word trail available for you to view.   All are available under PAGES in the Showcase Dare August 2015 community. 

 

      Travis Ramsey: https://choralnet.org/view/472225

      Donald Patriquin: https://choralnet.org/470019

      Pamela Marshall: https://choralnet.org/469972

      William Copper: https://choralnet.org/470229

      Matthew Hill https://choralnet.org/469976

 

 

As we wind up the festivities honoring our founder, I asked a couple of other people who have worked with him to say a few words.   The rest of the interview follows their comments.  Keep reading to the bottom and you will find the sage advice that I feel makes what Jim has done, and what you and I do as choral directors, worth while.

 

 

 

When I started working on ChoralNet back in 2003 as a then-recently-minted university computing science graduate, Jim was one of the first people I talked to when I was interviewing to replace David Topping as ChoralNet’s Manager. While it would be a good year before I actually met Jim in person, I was immediately impressed with the common ground we shared: his technical vision as well as his genuine care and appreciation for all things choral.

 

ChoralNet at that time was a many-tentacled beast: there was the Web site, three lists running on a university server, at least three organizations that we hosted for (which meant more than a few 3AM support calls from Europe to my phone in Vancouver), and a plethora of other bits and pieces that had yet to find a central home—and designing and building that central place that could be the single port of call on the ‘net for the choral art—with a mix of what was then called a portal and what’s now called a social network—quickly became Allen Simon’s and my work. As the “new kid on the block”, it was at times difficult to figure out who was doing what, who could do what, and what needed to be done in an organization that had to run entirely over phone and email.

 

As I quickly found out, Jim provided the critical connection between everyone working on various aspects of ChoralNet across the world: a solid vision, a sense of institutional and missional history, and most importantly, a big Rolodex and a keen awareness of the choral world’s politics and how to go about getting the best work done. Being an engineering type myself, working with someone who could champion ChoralNet, find the right people, and create good relationships was a godsend both for me and for ChoralNet. Everyone seemed to know him and enjoy working with him, so he could assure everyone—myself included—that everything was going to be just fine and that the big changes we were making to keep up with the evolution of the Internet were all for the best, even though change is always hard.

 

 

 

Shortly after receiving training sometime around 1988 on my first ever new Mac SE computer complete with green letters on a dark grey screen I stumbled across this new medium of a professional email list and web resource called ChoralNet. Perhaps a hundred or so other choral conductors, mostly college professors, had connected with this already and it was intriguing. We were talking to each other about professional concerns and opportunities. It was stunning to think that suddenly I was connected to a hundred or so colleagues around the country rather than being alone in my office.

 

It was an interesting discovery that behind the genesis of this new paradigm was a new friend who worked at a school uniquely equipped to start such an enterprise in South Dakota, James Feiszli. Jim early on had offered the research resources of his library and soon had us all connected to the work of Jean Sturm in France who was working on the Musica project. Others came on board to design a website that began to build resources. Jim thoughtfully and selflessly helped guide and direct the work that needed to be done to moderate these efforts and help us work effectively together. He solved problems, soothed conflicts, answered questions, and gave wise guidance all along the way.

 

I was honored to be asked to join the leadership of this group and particularly so to serve for a time as President of ChoralNet to allow Jim to focus his energies on more technical and developmental aspects of the enterprise. Working with Jim to guide ChoralNet into the heart of the ACDA communications and resource apparatus showed the best of his patience, persistence and passion. Jim’s ideas continue to be bigger and broader than what has been accomplished to date, and that is exciting. Knowing that he will continue to press for the betterment of all of our futures is a very affirming thought. Thank you Jim for leading choral music into the digital age!

 

 

 

During the early 90’s, when the internet’s crust was first cooling, I received an email on my university-provided IBM 8088.  I don’t remember from whom it came, but it had something about this thing called a “list server” and the guys in charge included Walter Collins at the University of Colorado and a guy from South Dakota named Jim Feiszli.

 

As I began to participate in the leadership of the group as one of the first volunteer list moderators, it soon became apparent that Jim was the active leader of the effort.  It was an exciting time.  At one point we had by far the largest list on the Univ. of Colorado server, with over 3000 participants.  It was all uncharted territory and we were writing the rules as we went.  How to manage the list traffic?  How to keep the participants civil in their discourse?  How to keep people participating when the traffic reached really high levels?  Do we divide the list up by interest?  By the area(s) of one’s work?  There were lots of questions and Jim was always leaning in, gathering input, making sure we as leaders stayed engaged in our effort of providing unprecedented choral dialogue for the profession.

 

Then the world wide web came along.  It became clear that we needed more than a part-time choral director managing what was about to become a much wider range of internet communication for our colleagues.  It was Jim that came up with the idea of incorporating ChoralNet and eventually hiring a tech person to do our web design and list maintenance.  I was honored to be one of the original board members of ChoralNet.  It was so much fun working out the various problems of starting an internet non-profit.  Of course, we incorporated in South Dakota, at Jim’s address and with the help of his attorney.  We had to create the ability to take credit card donations to support our efforts.  The bank issuing the card was in San Francisco and they required a physical address for the account.  We sent in a picture of the treasurer’s house in Boulder, Colorado.  Being an internet non-profit, we really had no physical address.  

 

We had board meetings by email for the first few years.  No one seemed to have done that before.  Eventually, we decided that we needed to meet on occasion in person.  Jim led through all these years and challenges.  

 

My involvement in ChoralNet ended in 2007 when I left academia.  But through all those years, the driving force for ChoralNet was Jim Feiszli, a consummate musician, a talented internet technician (I think his expertise in transcribing early music gave him lots of experience working out tedious problems!), and a great person with superior people skills.  The choral profession owes Jim a huge thank you.  There’s no way to estimate how many concerts and choral experiences have been enhanced by the information shared through ChoralNet.

 

 

 

Having known Jim Feiszli for over 20 years, and spending at least half of those years in close communication and collaboration with him, I can confirm that he is deserving of the accolades and honors not only for his outstanding work in South Dakota, but especially for his visionary efforts to connect the world’s choral music community online.

 

Like Jim, I’m both a choral and computer “geek,” and happened to be present at the unofficial, but seminal gathering at the 1993 national ACDA conference in San Antonio when what was later to become ChoralNet was born.

 

During the years of our work together on ChoralNet, Jim’s leadership, creativity, and collegiality were essential driving forces behind the project’s many successes in connecting the choral directors of the world, but perhaps equally admirable have been his selflessness and modesty. I’m happy for the opportunity to publicly thank Jim for his support and trust during our ChoralNet efforts, and my only regret is that most of our time together has been only “virtual,” with very little of it actually spent in the same place at the same time.

 

 

 

 

A: For a while I thought it’d be my ticket out of SDSM&T. Glad it wasn’t. I have met many virtual friends. You are one.

 

 

A: Many, many.  Especially in the international community.  But many here in the U.S. as well. My wife likes to tell the story of how when we were first married, she came to the 2002 World Choral Symposium in Minneapolis. She got so sick of all the foreign women coming up and hugging me, saying “Oh Shjiim!” (including Karmina Šilec and Maria Guinand)  We were standing in the lobby of a hotel, and she grabbed my arm and whispered, “That’s Dale Warland!”. He, of course was coming over to say, “Hi Jim!” and mentioned that he was waiting for Gunilla (Luboff – of Walton Music, Norman Luboff’s widow). My poor wife. The last time I’d seen Gunilla, she was sitting in my lap in a taxi in Stockholm where we were celebrating Eric Ericsson’s birthday. So, of course, she hugged me, too!  But so many friends I can’t count them.

 

 

A: It was my idea. They were supposed to be LinkedIn before LinkedIn existed – a professional networking system for the choral world. Facebook was intended for social and there was a brief moment of opportunity for a professional alternative. It would have worked but ChoralNet communities were not adopted, used, or promoted well by the ACDA leadership.  By that time, I had a foot out the door.

 

Q: In 2013 when you helped ChoralNet become an asset of ACDA, what did you hope would happen here? 

 

A: ChoralNet needed to get out of the business of having to fund-raise every year.  I hoped that ACDA would recognize the opportunity in 1) generating funds through webpage advertising and 2) the potential in creating a professional network through ChoralNet communities.  They generate a lot of money through ads in the Choral Journal. Ridiculous, considering how many people view ChoralNet pages vs. Choral Journal pages. But, the old ways of doing things are hard to change. And now, the time has passed for ChoralNet Communities to corner the market. May as well let Facebook run the world and put up with their controlling the system.

 

Q: You have given us your life as an example of altruism especially within a professional community.  What advice would you give to ChoralNet users about volunteering to help each other?

 

A: You don’t lose out by volunteering. You gain. There are those people who are too near-sighted to see some contributions. On many occasions I have been taken aback by choral folks in Rapid City or South Dakota saying, “you need to get more involved in choral activity” and I’m always like, “You mean I haven’t done enough?”  J  But, did my investment in ChoralNet create good things? Yes. Are there some prickly memories? Of course.  But if I had kept a ledger, the benefits far outweigh the deficits.

 

Thank-you Dr. James D. Feisli.  You are the hero of ChoralNet!