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From Our Readers

For Singers: The Concert is WHEN?

November 26, 2016 by From Our Readers Leave a Comment

“Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” – Robert H. Schuller

There are two answers to the question, “What’s happening tomorrow?” if it’s posed to a member of a chorus the night before a concert:

  1. “We have a concert tomorrow night, I can’t wait.”
  2. “We have a concert tomorrow night…what do I do? AUGH!!!”

There are some simple answers to that second one; let’s explore a bit.

The night before the concert

It’s just another evening, you know. Tomorrow things are going to get a little bit nuts, but not tonight. Make an effort to keep it that way, especially if this is your first big performance. Some things that will help smooth the bumps:

– Have a good, healthy evening meal. There are those who would say “pound those carbs” and there’s nothing wrong with that. They create a little energy reserve you can use later…but I find I end up feeling a little sluggish if I have a big bowl of pasta. Regardless of the main course, make a point of eating fresh fruit and veggies. A little extra fiber is a good thing for that soon-to-be-a-little-fluttery tummy. Don’t go for crazy spicy…it can remind you of itself tomorrow.

– Prep your clothes for the concert. I always iron my shirt and pants the night before and hang them to wait for me. It’s one less thing to have to mess with the next day. Have your music folder and whatever else you need all set up and ready to go so there’s nothing to stress about.

– Don’t have that second glass of wine (even though it really sounds delightful). Have some extra water instead, you’re going to want to be nice and hydrated tomorrow and an early start on that is a good strategy. Even though alcohol helps you to doze off quickly it actually has a negative effect on the overall quality of the rest you get (I could rattle on about REM sleep and all that stuff, but just take my word for it). I’m also a big fan of decaffeinated mint tea.

– Speaking of rest, get a good dose of it. Tomorrow’s concert is after a full day of whatever it is you normally do and will get started at just about the time you normally put your feet up and watch a little TV or some other not-so-strenuous activity. If you can, go to bed a little early. A sneaky little trick I’ve learned over the years (because I’m one of those guys who can easily end up staring at the ceiling thinking about the show the next day): take a nice hot bath or shower a little while before you go to bed. Works like a charm. Zzzzzz.

The night of the concert

– Don’t skip dinner! Don’t eat an entire side of beef, but feed the machine. The only thing worse than butterflies is butterflies on an empty stomach. Stomach acid is no fun when you’re trying to sing. Been there, urped that.

– Keep the water flowing; you need to be hydrated more than you normally would be. All of the evil things that leech water out of you are coming to visit: adrenaline, extra exertion at a normally restful time of day, sweating for a good long time – you get the picture. Water is your very best friend.

– Don’t be late. Have all your stuff ready, but also think your way through the timing of things to make sure you have all the minutes necessary. Being on time is not only respectful to the rest of the group, it also avoids the first little nibble of anxiety that can creep in because you’re rushing.

“Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren’t enjoying today’s sunshine.” – William Feather

– Have fun! You’re surrounded by people who have become your friends in a special and unique way. You make magic together and call it music. You’ve been working to get to this evening for a long time and you’ve earned your place and deserve to be here (even if you don’t really believe it). Everybody else is amped up too; have some laughs.

Most importantly, at least in your Blogmeister’s humble opinion, take a moment to stop. Find a quiet spot and just stop. Not for long, just long enough to gather yourself into yourself and think about the journey that brought you to concert night. Hard work, a little frustration, lots of laughter, moments of emotion, singing “Happy Birthday”, the conductor’s unique style, the accompanist being grumpy. Enjoy that little smile it’s sure to bring and, just before you dive back into the craziness, remind yourself that what you’re doing is important. The arts matter and you are part of why.

You’re ready. Go and sing. It’ll be awesome.

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.” – Plato

___________________

Briggs Christie is a member and blogger for the Windward Choral Society in Kailua, O’ahu, HI. You can find the original post or more writings by Briggs here.

Filed Under: From Our Readers Tagged With: choir, Chorus, concert, concert prep, From Our Readers, preparation, singer, Singing

The Challenges…and Joys…of Traveling with an Older Choir

November 19, 2016 by From Our Readers 3 Comments

I’ve got the travel bug…and, luckily, I conduct an adult community choir filled with plenty of women who feel the same way I do about seeing the world. So many countries, so little time.

In the four years since I founded the Bucks County Women’s Chorus we’ve embarked on two international tours. The first took us to Northern Italy in 2014 and the second to Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg this past spring. Each trip had its special rewards and its unique challenges, and we certainly learned a lot about traveling with a choir with an average age of about 60-65.

As far as performance tour companies are concerned, my choir is rather an oddity. Many of them work primarily with high school and college musical ensembles, though most have had some experience with adult choirs. Nonetheless, to truly organize and pull off a tour that’s older adult-friendly, tour organizers need to listen closely about the limitations of the group and must consider a variety of issues as they craft the itinerary. Only then will you have a tour that fits your needs and makes your singers happy.

Here’s what I found to be the most important considerations when organizing a tour for “my ladies”, many of whom are already avid travelers but are largely used to touring at their own pace.

  1. Is your destination travel-friendly for older adults? In other words, will they be exhausted by the terrain (note: remind me to tell you about our day in Venice) and the demands of traveling in that particular location? Also, keep in mind issues such as if your buses can get close to the venues for your concerts/activities or if a long walk is required. Ask if there are ample places to rest during walks or other recreation. All these answers can help you decide whether you’re considering the right tour destination for your older choir.
  2. Is there enough downtime built into the itinerary? Look at the schedule for each day and compare sitting time to active time. If you’re going strong for more than four hours at a time, you may need to do some rearranging. Also, try not to stuff too much into one tour. On our first trip, we packed Verona, Venice, Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, Lucca, and Rome into 8 days. Too much, too fast! Not only were we exhausted but we never truly got to know any of those places.
  3. Is your tour guide/manager familiar with the needs of an older choir? This is a biggie! On our trip to Italy our lovely manager was a young woman who seemed not to be in tune with what was required to lead an older group through the rough terrain of Italy. While she was vibrant and excited and we all grew quite fond of her, we often found her literally two blocks ahead of us and simply couldn’t handle her pace. On our most recent trip, the tour manager – a young man of about 30 – seemed to understand that we had to make more bathroom stops, needed more time to get from one place to another, and required some extra pampering. (He even brought us cookies and other treats and travel books for our longer bus rides.) The result was a very happy group of travelers and a very large tip for the manager.
  4. Do the restaurants offer plenty of alternatives? With an older group, you’re more likely to encounter individuals with dietary constraints such as the diabetic, the person who is on a low-salt diet, or the vegetarian. Ask to see the menus for those who need special attention to determine that they’re not getting the short end of the stick, with meals that are less than appetizing.
  5. Are the hotels suitable for more discerning tastes? For adult choirs, you may need to increase the budget for hotels a bit. My choir – while not at all spoiled – wants a comfortable place to stay that includes some nice amenities. For example, our hotel in Budapest – the Radisson Blu Beke – gave us a killer buffet breakfast each morning and offered a beautiful restaurant and bar as well. Also, ask for hotels in the city center, whenever possible, which makes it easy for your singers to wander out of their own during free time without having to worry about public transportation.
  6. Are your concerts organized strategically? Older singers need some recovery time before launching into a concert. A day of travel demands some rest time afterwards when you’re over 50. Don’t plan a concert for your first tour day and – certainly – don’t plan one for the last either, when everyone is exhausted and ready to pack up and head home.

A lot of the things we did wrong on our first trip were corrected on our most recent tour, thanks to a tour company that truly took time to get to know us as they were penning the itinerary. Did we slip up here and there? Probably, but the joy of traveling together, singing for international audiences, and getting to know each other intimately far outweighed the mistakes. Now we look back at the photos and laugh, we remember the applause and smile, we recall the beauty of the places we visited and the people we met and a tear forms in the corner of our eye.

And even if our ankles swell to three times their normal size, chances are we’ll do it all again.

________________

pat-guth-headshot  Patricia Guth is the Founder and Artistic Director for the Bucks County Women’s Chorus in Holland, PA. More information about Pat and her singers can be found here.

Filed Under: From Our Readers Tagged With: adult choir, community choir, From Our Readers, tours, travel, travel tips, women's choir

Singing for a New World

November 13, 2016 by From Our Readers 1 Comment

At the most recent NATS conference there was a featured concert led by Met Opera star Renée Fleming. She often ends concerts with a sing-a-long number, and at this concert she led the audience of singing teachers in “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Then she spoke to the crowd about the most recent shooting incident in our nation, and how perhaps we needed to sing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” together. It was very moving. After the concert I immediately took to Facebook, declaring, “People who sing together don’t shoot each other.”

We know how important singing can be in the lives of those we teach. Whether they are aspiring performers, established professionals, or just enthusiastic amateurs, all of our students and choir members find challenges, opportunities for fulfillment, and moments of great joy in the act of singing.

Our culture has become less and less vocal: texting and e-mail are many individuals’ standard mode of communication. Even in traditional musical settings, people are less participatory as singers; there seems to be a division between those who perform and those who act as spectators to the performance. We Americans need to sing together more.

There are health, social, and spiritual benefits to singing. For example, Stephen Clift in the U.K. has been studying the use of singing classes to help COPD patients increase their lung function. Betty Bailey and Jane Davidson studied a choir in Montreal made up of homeless men. The men regarded the choir as the most meaningful thing in their lives. Closer to home, my friend Kittie Verdolini is organizing a choir in Pittsburgh comprised of prison inmates and police officers, all led by the music director of one of Pittsburgh’s largest African American churches. You may know of examples in your towns where singing is used to raise well-being and a sense of community in otherwise challenged populations. On a social level, who can forget the uniting power that singing had for U.S. civil rights advocates in the 1960’s, who sang spirituals as they marched for social change in the streets? And the healing power of communal singing as a spiritual force was clearly evident as President Obama led the singing of those gathered after the shootings at Emmanuel Church in Charleston. We sing to heal ourselves, to heal each other, and to teach our children how to pull together in times of great trouble.

In Wales, Ireland, and Iceland, people sing in choruses, in pubs, in churches, as they work, at soccer matches, you name it. My Kenyan and Nigerian friends tell me in Africa, the notion of “I don’t sing” or “I can’t sing” is completely foreign. Everyone can and everyone does sing. Our children sing songs to themselves as they play, but once they become adults, many of them stop singing – or worse, they have been told they can’t sing. Why can’t singing regain its prominence in our culture, and be a factor in creating healthier, more socially connected, more understanding, and hopefully less violent communities?

Below is a plan to get people all over the Americas singing more. The plan would commence in the U.S with the assistance of organizations such as NATS, MENC, ACDA, NYSTA, AGO, NPM, VASTA, Opera America, and Chorus America, but through sister organizations in other countries we could share the model throughout the Western Hemisphere. Calling upon individual efforts by directors like you, student and professional solo vocal performers, church leaders, and popular singers in jazz, folk, gospel, and rock, I propose we restructure traditional concert models to include inviting those attending performances to sing with those performing. At concerts, flash mobs, World Voice Day events, as well as informal sing-a-longs at sporting events, community celebrations, and religious gatherings, consider including audience participation numbers as a planned portion of the performance.

As vocal music educators, we have a vested interest in fostering more singing in society. Our very livelihood depends on having engaged audiences and an influx of new singers to our studios, choirs, and classrooms. And it’s the right thing to do.

So how do we start?  Here are some suggestions to get you started, and you may have several ideas of your own. That’s wonderful. Share them with me at , as I will be developing a website and a set of resource materials to help others. You can also visit our Facebook group Singing for a New World.

America needs to sing more. Singing together elevates us to that bessre Welt we all want for ourselves, for those we love, and for those we teach. Who is better positioned to lead this effort than us?

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Start simple: have your choirs and the solo performers you teach program participatory songs at the ends of concerts. Invite the audience to sing along. Print the words in the program.

Begin community meetings you are involved in with a song – like the Rotary Clubs typically do.

Start a Beer Choir in your favorite pub

Promote vocal music in schools in your community

Take your choirs to retirement centers, hospitals, nursing homes, or veteran’s groups. Share the love of music with our most “experienced” listeners.

Take your choirs to public places flash mob style, and spontaneously start songs at the same time all over a campus or town.

When your choir is going to a restaurant together, ask the host or hostess if you can help out with any birthday singing, and get the whole restaurant to join in.

MORE LONG-TERM AND BROADER IDEAS:

Encourage sing-a-longs of popular songs of various genres at ballgames, other sporting events

Singing at community celebrations, like July 4 picnics

Leverage social media, webcasts to spread the word

Engage popular artists to do sing-a-longs at concerts – classical, country, folk, popular

Opera companies and theaters could have concerts which would include singing along on popular choruses, or use curtain calls to invite audience members to sing (“Cast Karaoke”)

___________________

{lastName  John Nix () is Associate Professor of Voice and Vocal Pedagogy at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the founding director of the UTSA Vocal Arts Laboratory.

Filed Under: From Our Readers Tagged With: choir, community, community singing, Singing

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