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ChorTeach

Spring 2021 ChorTeach Preview

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ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For submission information, to view the index, or to read the latest issue, visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is a list of the articles in the Spring 2021 issue!

Sharing through Song: Resources for Singing Migration Stories by Ethan M. Chessin
Camas High School
Camas, Washington


Addressing Racial and Cultural Challenges in Choirs by Baruch Whitehead
Ithaca College
Ithaca, New York


A Delicate Balance—Caring for the Music and the Singers by J. Dennis Morrissey
Heartland Community College
Normal, Illinois


Preserving the Choral Art in the Time of COVID—“How Can I Keep from Singing?”
David Howard
University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma

Jeffrey J. Gonda II
DMA Candidate in Choral Conducting, University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma

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Read or download ChorTeach online at acda.org/publications/chorteach or by clicking here

Sharing through Song: Resources for Singing Migration Stories

by Leave a Comment

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/publications/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For submission information, to view the index, or to read the latest issue, visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the Spring 2021 issue titled “Sharing through Song: Resources for Singing Migration Stories” by Ethan M. Chessin
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The 2020 NWACDA conference title was “Sharing our Story.” I love it when my students are able to tell their own stories through song. My problem, though, is that I teach in a school where the stories aren’t that diverse. How, then, can we use song to tell someone else’s story? Ignoring migration narratives is not an option in 2021 if we are to be relevant. In this article, I will provide resources for teachers and directors interested in using music to teach choirs and audiences about immigration.

I came to this project by accident. Every other year, I commission a local rock musician to write a concert-length program for my students to perform alongside a rock band and then take the show on tour. I use this material to teach my students about the business of music from local industry professionals, and the students end up writing press releases and booking the opening acts for the show. This year, we worked with Luz Elena Mendoza from the band, Y La Bamba. Mendoza wrote an incredible piece titled “El Agua De Mi Ser” centered on the story of her parents’ immigration from Mexico. Upon delivering the score, Mendoza urged me to teach my students to understand the truth of immigration stories rather than the political narratives they may have been more familiar with. As you already know, immigration is a huge topic! Fortunately, so is love, beauty, hope, music, or any of the other topics that we tackle on a regular basis in our choirs.

If I want to center a concert on love, I would much rather engage with a first-person text in which my students are singing love songs rather than singing about love. This is the magic of choir. Our choristers get to try on emotions rather than just describing them. To teach about immigration, then, I sought out first-person narratives of the immigrant experience, in story and song, with musical textures that matched the emotions of the text. At the end of this article, I will include a list of music that meets these criteria, including all voicings and levels of difficulty.

My primary source for this project was The Immigrant Story (www.theimmigrantstory.org). Sankar Raman runs this incredible project, which publishes short immigrant biographies online and hosts live storytelling events. The mission is to expand Americans’ understanding of the stories of immigrants. The Immigrant Story has begun developing a curriculum for teachers to engage students in oral history and journalism to tell the story of immigrants in their own communities. They are offering tremendous assistance to schools and teachers who would like to use the curricula, including months of lesson plans and editorial assistance. Though my school is in a predominantly conservative community, my students were eager to explore the stories of their neighbors who have immigration stories to tell.

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Read more in the Spring 2021 issue at acda.org/chorteach.

ChorTeach Replay: Incorporating Mindfulness

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ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/publications/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For submission information, to view the index, or to read the latest issue, visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the Fall 2019 issue titled “Incorporating Mindfulness into the Choral Rehearsal” by Lawrence E. Fisher
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As music teachers, we often have the advantage of being able to build relationships over several years with our students. We often see warning signs before others. We teachers are the individuals a student may confide in when he or she is struggling with anxiety or depression. We foster a sense of community and family in our ensembles that perhaps offers a safe space or a support network that our students might not have in other places in their lives.

Based on the programming I am seeing at other directors’ concerts, as a choral community we are doing our best to show our students that there is hope. We choose themes for our concerts such as light, dreams, social justice, and equality. The frequency with which we program works such as Andrea Ramsey’s A Letter from a Girl to the World or Jake Runestad’s Please Stay says to me that we are addressing some important issues head on in our rehearsals.1 This led me to wonder whether I could do more to explicitly give my students tools to help with challenging situations or feelings. Studies show that meditation can be just as effective at relieving anxiety in teenagers as antidepressants.2 I decided that I wanted to try to incorporate mindfulness into my rehearsals.

Of course, I was faced with many questions: How do I implement this? Would my students hate it? Am I taking too much time out of each rehearsal when that next performance is around the corner? I decided the best way was to start exploring. What better way than to use what I know. As a high school student, I participated in workshops on Creative Motion. A Dalcroze-related school of thought, it explores getting in tune with your body and deep breathing.

After week-long camps in these activities, I always felt at peace. Only recently did I make the connection that much of what I had learned there were mindfulness practices. I decided to start with some of the tools I had learned as a high school student. I decided to begin incorporating mindfulness into my rehearsals using a centering exercise that has students focus on the breath and deep breathing.

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Read more in the Fall 2019 issue at acda.org/chorteach.

NOTES
1Major Depression: The Impact of Overall Health. (2018, May 10). Retrieved from http://www.bcbs.com/the-health-ofamerica

2 Jamison Monroe (2015, August 18). The Adolescent Brain on
Meditation. Retrieved from www.psychologytoday.com

ChorTeach Preview: Healing Our Singers, Healing Ourselves–Social and Emotional Learning in Choir

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ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/publications/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For submission information, to view the index, or to read the latest issue, visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the current Winter issue titled: Healing Our Singers, Healing Ourselves—Social and Emotional Learning in Choir by Lindsey Blackhurst

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The value of choral singing is not found solely in its aesthetic or educational worth. Singing has been shown to positively impact physical health by improving the cardiovascular system, elevating mood through the production of oxytocin, and increasing the body’s immunological response. Singing with others in a school, community, or faith-based choir generates added benefits. In pursuit of a common goal—singing well together—the repeated acts of listening, creating, and experimenting bond choral musicians together, resulting in feelings of closeness, emotional connection, and inclusion.

Choral singers have described feeling supported, seen, valued, and loved by others in the ensemble.1 As singers self-identify as members of a particular group, a feeling of belonging emerges. At a fundamental level, choral singing reminds us that we are not alone. Another person hears me and responds to me. But since February and March of this year, our society has been grappling with a reality of social, or physical, distancing in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. Students, educators, singers, and conductors were thrust into new learning environments virtually overnight without knowing when or how we will return to normal.

Some of our students have been removed from a safe and supportive school environment to what may feel like a chaotic and less-supportive home environment. Educators similarly are faced with upturned schedules and new stressors as we strive to remain flexible during this uncertain time. This has been an isolating, lonely experience for many of us. In this period of physical distancing, when mental and emotional health have become a growing concern, the social, emotional, and spiritual solace of group singing is more important than ever.

The global health crisis caused by COVID-19 certainly has amplified the need to attend to our students’ physical and emotional needs. According to The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s (CASEL) website, “When physical distancing is deemed necessary, social and emotional connectedness is even more crucial.”2

Social and emotional learning helps people gain skills in five major competencies, as described by CASEL: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. SEL implements curricula and coursework to help students gain these competencies and must also be integrated by educators into their own lives, individual classrooms, and disciplines.

NOTES

1 See Bailey, B. A. & Davidson, J. W. (2002). Adaptive characteristics of group singing: Perceptions from members of a choir for homeless men. Musicae Scientiae, 6(2), 221–256; Bailey, B. A., & Davidson, J. W. (2005). Effects of group singing and performance for marginalized and middle-class singers. Psychology of Music, 33(3), 269–303; Creech, A., Hallam, S., McQueen, H., & Varvarigou, M. (2013). The power of music in the lives of older adults. Research Studies in Music Education, 35(1), 87–102; Murray, M. & Lamont, A. (2012). Community music and social/health psychology: linking theoretical and practical concerns. In R. MacDonald, G. Kreutz, & L. Mitchell (Eds.) Music, health and well-being (pp. 76–86). New York, NY: Oxford; and Strayhorn, T. L. (2011). Singing in a foreign land: An exploratory study of gospel choir participation among African American undergraduates at a predominantly White institution. Journal of College Student Development, 52(2), 137–153.

2 Niemi, K. (2020). Covid-resources. Retrieved June 30, 2020, from https://casel.org/covid-resources/

ChorTeach Preview: An Introductory Guide to Creating Virtual Choir Projects

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ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For submission information, to view the index, or to read the latest issue, visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the current Winter issue titled: An Introductory Guide to Creating Virtual Choir Projects by Wen Zhang.

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The global pandemic produced an unprecedented shift that elicited resiliency in higher education. Many colleges and universities required the use of remote education, and choral music educators needed to find new solutions to continue choral music instead of face to face instruction.

While many choral music educators have been trying different approaches to create their virtual projects, relying on a wide range of online tutorial videos to solve certain technical issues, finding a big picture, step-by-step guide for the entire creative process from start to finish has been difficult. This article aims to provide effective strategies and practical guidelines to those who wish to know what to do to be able to master the essentials of the virtual choir.

When my university decided to go fully online in mid-March 2020, as a voice professor and coordinator of the Music Department plus serving as director of a local community choir, I realized that I needed to make the best of an unusual situation and remain optimistic that something good might come out of such a difficult time in this country. I had virtually no experience in this technology, but it seemed to be a perfect time to train myself with new technology for creating virtual choir projects. Both the creator (me) and participants (students and friends) learned much during the creation of our three virtual choir projects. One of the proudest outcomes is that the final projects were posted on YouTube and broadcast on local TV channels. This attracted a much wider audience than any live choir concerts ever had at my university. Creating a virtual choir is not an easy task.

Although each of the three virtual choir projects I created was quite different in terms of quality and digital design, I hope that by sharing what I learned from creating these projects, I can provide an introductory guide to other choral music professionals who might want to take on the challenge. I believe this article will help them, accelerate the learning process, and encourage them to attempt the very promising journey of creation from start to finish. Four steps are offered in this article:

  1. Select a choral work and find the performers and the software for completing the project
  2. Create a singing plan containing the requirements for video recording. Provide a guide track (accompaniment track) for making individual videos. Send both to the performers.
  3. Provide guidelines for making video recordings. Include deadlines for submissions.
  4. Edit individual videos. Create a final version and publish it on social media.

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Read more in the Winter 2021 issue of ChorTeach, available at https://acda.org/publications/chorteach/

ChorTeach Preview: Healing Our Singers, Healing Ourselves

by Leave a Comment

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For submission information, to view the index, or to read the latest issue, visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the current Winter issue titled: Healing Our Singers, Healing Ourselves—Social and Emotional Learning in Choir by Lindsey Blackhurst.

 _____________________

The value of choral singing is not found solely in its aesthetic or educational worth. Singing has been shown to positively impact physical health by improving the cardiovascular system, elevating mood through the production of oxytocin, and increasing the body’s immunological response. Singing with others in a school, community, or faith-based choir generates added benefi ts. In pursuit of a common goal—singing well together—the repeated acts of listening, creating, and experimenting bond choral musicians together, resulting in feelings of closeness, emotional connection, and inclusion. Choral singers have described feeling supported, seen, valued, and loved by others in the ensemble.1

As singers self-identify as members of a particular group, a feeling of belonging emerges. At a fundamental level, choral singing reminds us that we are not alone. Another person hears me and responds to me. But since February and March of this year, our society has been grappling with a reality of social, or physical, distancing in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. Students, educators, singers, and conductors were thrust into new learning environments virtually overnight without knowing when or how we will return to normal.

Some of our students have been removed from a safe and supportive school environment to what may feel like a chaotic and less-supportive home environment. Educators similarly are faced with upturned schedules and new stressors as we strive to remain flexible during this uncertain time. This has been an isolating, lonely experience for many of us. In this period of physical distancing, when mental and emotional health have become a growing concern, the social, emotional, and spiritual solace of group singing is more important than ever.

The global health crisis caused by COVID-19 certainly has amplified the need to attend to our students’ physical and emotional needs. According to The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s (CASEL) website, “When physical distancing is deemed necessary, social and emotional connectedness is even more crucial.”2

Social and emotional learning helps people gain skills in five major competencies, as described by CASEL: selfawareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. SEL implements curricula and coursework to help students gain these competencies and must also be integrated by educators into their own lives, individual classrooms, and disciplines.

___________

NOTES
1 See Bailey, B. A. & Davidson, J. W. (2002). Adaptive characteristics of group singing: Perceptions from members of a choir for homeless men. Musicae Scientiae, 6(2), 221–256; Bailey, B. A., & Davidson, J. W. (2005). Effects of group singing and performance for marginalized and middle-class singers. Psychology of Music, 33(3), 269–303; Creech, A., Hallam, S., McQueen, H., & Varvarigou, M. (2013). The power of music in the lives of older adults. Research Studies in Music Education, 35(1), 87–102; Murray, M. & Lamont, A. (2012). Community music and social/health psychology: linking theoretical and practical concerns. In R. MacDonald, G. Kreutz, & L. Mitchell (Eds.) Music, health and well-being (pp. 76–86). New York, NY: Oxford; and Strayhorn, T. L. (2011). Singing in a foreign land: An exploratory study of gospel choir participation among African American undergraduates at a predominantly White institution. Journal of College Student Development, 52(2), 137–153.

2 Niemi, K. (2020). Covid-resources. Retrieved June 30, 2020, from https://casel.org/covid-resources/

Read more in the Winter 2021 issue of ChorTeach, available at https://acda.org/publications/chorteach/

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