choral conversation

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Choral Journal’s ongoing column called Choral Conversations” features interviews with noted choral conductors and composers. The second interview in this series took place with Paul Aitken in the June/July 2016 issue. This conversation examines what aspects of his work at a large, multi-campus church of 3,500 members and constituents could work in both large and smaller churches.

You can read the interview in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Click “Search Archives” and choose June/July 2016 from the dropdown menu.
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Can you describe the history of the music program at the Cathedral of the Rockies?

The music program at the Cathedral of the Rockies (COTR) has a more than sixty-year tradition of graded choir programming. In 1952, Rev. Herb Richards moved to Boise as a visionary senior pastor. His vision for building a strong church in Boise was the “build it and they will come” approach. Early in his ministry, he hired two full-time directors of music (a conductor and an organist) whose responsibility was to build a graded choir program that would provide music instruction and direction for all ages. COTR has been so blessed to have had pastors who have continued to support this vision and directors of music who have had the abilities to maintain it.

Describe the array of choirs and who directs and accompanies them. To what extent are volunteers used?

Presently, there are more than twenty different ensembles that function under the umbrella of the COTR Ministry of Music & Worship Arts: a Chancel Choir comprising ninety full-time singers, the Cathedral Orchestra (20 players), the Epworth Chorale (for teens in grades 7-12), Reflections (an auditioned youth choir), five bell choirs for age four through adult, three children’s choirs for ages three through twelve, and two worship bands.

We also have a number of small ensembles that are largely self-regulated by a handful of volunteers. Further, two years ago, we took under our wing a second campus in Southeast Boise, which meant the circle was drawn wider to include a second Chancel Choir and their worship band. Between the two campuses, we are blessed to have over 200 volunteers age three on up presently involved in music making at COTR.

How is the program staff ed?

The ministry has come a long way over the past sixty years. In fact, it’s come a long way in the past fourteen! In 2002, the program had been in fl ux for nearly a year, and so the program only necessitated a fulltime director of music, a part-time organist, a part-time contemporary director, and a part-time assistant. Over the years, the program has grown to the following:

• Director of Music & Worship Arts (full time): oversees all music programming, creates worship design for two traditional services, and directs seven ensembles.
• Associate Director of Music (full time): oversees children and youth and oversees all music at the Amity campus; oversees worship design at Amity campus; directs six ensembles.
• Two Assistant Directors of Music (both part time): each position oversees one of the two contemporary services.
• Organist/Accompanist (20 hours): plays two services, accompanies four choirs, and other duties as assigned.
• Volunteer Coordinator/Assistant to the directors (an invaluable player on the music staff).
• Volunteers: singers, instrumentalists, band members (we don’t pay any of our Sunday musicians outside of the professional staff ); music librarians (team of four who work in rotation) who maintain the library and assists the director of music with weekly rehearsal preparations; fundraising team (largely for youth choir tours); parent volunteers who are involved in assisting staff with children’s choirs on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evening rehearsals; and Cathedral Concert committee (staff and volunteers).
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Read the rest of this interview (and more!) in the June/July 2016 issue of Choral Journal.

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Choral Journal’s ongoing column called Choral Conversations” features interviews with noted choral conductors and composers. The first interview in this series took place with Joan Catoni Conlon in the February 2016 issue. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Click “Search Archives” and choose February 2016 from the dropdown menu.
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What inspired you toward your main areas of interest, Claudio Monteverdi and women choral conductors?

My first encounter with the Italian language outside of my home was in the poetry in Renaissance Italian madrigals, and it was just like discovering a beautiful new world of expression. After that, Monteverdi further fascinated me when I realized that he broke the rules of counterpoint perfected by Palestrina with such dramatic intensity. The first time I heard the exciting “Guerra” section of Monteverdi’s Hor che’l ciel e la terra, I thought it might have been written by Giuseppe Verdi. Then, other unexpected discoveries ensued, such as the outrageous voice leading in his madrigal Ohime, se tanto amate, which closes with a dominant thirteenth chord without the seventh. Of course, his word painting is simply over the top: the love madrigal Si, ch’io vorrei morire employs pitch clusters and notes rubbing against each other in major and minor seconds to convey physical proximity. I was surprised by how modern he was.

With regard to the book Wisdom, Wit and Will: Women Choral Conductors On Their Art, I thought it was time to add to the core of choral texts a set of essays written by some of my excellent women colleagues, many of whom were unpublished. In the 1970s, the core text revered by graduate students was the Harold Decker Julius Herford Choral Symposium, a wonderfully broad and intelligent assemblage of essays about such topics as conducting, analysis, editing, and choral styles. All the authors were men, of course, and we all read it. Since there now are more women in the profession than in the 1970s, I thought it was time to add to that fine Decker-Herford core of knowledge discussions that allowed women conductors to add their insights into such pertinent topics as raising a family while having a career, the differences between leadership styles in men and women, strategies for choral outreach, choral improvisation, a comparison of salaries earned by men and women in the profession, or misogyny in texts that, for some strange reason, we happily sing and program. Interestingly, despite containing chapters on such non-gendered issues such as conducting by Ann Howard Jones and Beverly Taylor, people think Wisdom, Wit and Will is to be read only by women, because the authors all are women. We never assumed that Decker-Herford was to be read only by men, even though the authors all were men. In fact, Wisdom, Wit and Will is written by women for ALL readers.

What’s the most significant live performance you’ve conducted in your career? I’ll always remember singing Les Noces with you at CU, and have to admit, I was a little disappointed to miss the St. Matthew Passion several years after I graduated.

I think conducting and getting to know Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was a life-changing experience.

Looking back over your career in higher education is there anything you’ve left undone? Something you wish you could have devoted some more time to?

Yes, I wish I had been able to write an ACDA monograph on the vocal music of Heinrich Schütz. And Gesualdo. Somebody should.

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Read the rest of this article (and more!) in the February 2016 issue of Choral Journal, available online at acda.org.