SCVA Newsletter (on-line version) - January 2002

President's Message - Kenneth Tuttle

Greetings to all, and Happy New Year!! We find ourselves in the post-holiday time. In the old days, this would be a time to catch-up a little, and slow-down the pace a litle before busy spring festivals, competitions, and tours begin. But now, many of us are busy wrapping up holiday fundraising loose-ends, choosing festival literature, starting choreography rehearsals, locking in tour details, finalizing spring calendar dates, helping soloists prepare, writing college recommendations, and planning finals and grades as the end the first semester looms ahead. Catch-up? Slow-down? For your hard-working SCVA Executive Board, not a chance! Our Solo Vocal Festival mailer, the SPEBSQSA/SCVA Men's Honor Choir mailer; and this newsletter with choral festivals and the Show-Choir Spectacular shows the hard work these super volunteers continue to achieve! Add at least one of our events to your spring season!

The SCVA Board wishes everyone a peaceful New Year full of family, friends, and delicious music-making!

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Show Choir Festivals - Erin Crowe
NEW DATE FOR THE SHOW CHOIR FESTIVAL 2002!

Yes, that's right. The date for the show choir competition has been changed from March 8th to May 4, 2002 due to scheduling conflicts with other competitions. It is exciting to see so many competitions available to show choirs, however, it makes it difficult to find a date! As of now the venue for the competition will be at the Long Beach Poly High School Performing Arts Center.

Like last year, the format will be limited to 36 choirs, so you'll want to have your application fee in as soon as the official entry form is published in the newsletter. If you have more than one group participating, simply photocopy the application.

All schools will have the choice of performing with live or taped accompaniment. If you are using a tape or CD be sure to bring a back up copy. A drum set, piano, and amp will be provided for all combos.

Due to limited space, sets, props, boxes, platforms may only be stored during your division's performance time. All groups are responsible for loading and unloading their equipment from the stage area.

This will be a great event! Send in your application today!

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Fall In-Service In Review -- Mary Purdy, Past President

October 26th was a great day! I hope all of you who came to the In-Service enjoyed it as much as I did! Whenever a day begins with scrumptious fruit and muffins, you know it's going to be a good one. We had a great line up of presenters; food was excellent; performances were outstanding; getting to meet and become reacquainted with colleagues was the best.

Many thanks to Dr. Donald Brinegar, who did more than just present a wonderful session on bringing out the best in your choir. I know that each of us in attendance gleaned something from Don's session, from his "7 minute warm-up" to his tuning ideas. Added to all that, his help and encouragement throughout the day were invaluable to me!

Karen Garrett provided another terrific sight-reading session. For those of us who attended the In-Service last year, she gave us more valuable tips on teaching sight-reading using her pleasant manner and excellent, sequential, standards-based approach. Those who heard her presentation for the first time were truly inspired to try her techniques in their classrooms. Yet again, people left her session wanting more.

Isn't it great to have such terrific people as colleagues?

Speaking of great colleagues, I can't let this article be printed without an acknowledgement of Dave Buckeyne and the people at J.W. Pepper. Please support Dave and Pepper as much as he has supported SCVA. Besides helping us with our web site, all of the packets that you have received for, at least, the past three years have been provided to you, free of charge, by Dave. Just the packets from this year alone amounted to $1500 that Pepper has donated to us. We can't say enough great things about Dave Buckeyne and J.W. Pepper. Please remember Pepper when you are ordering music!

Another great colleague is Mark Freedkin. He, too, has done tons for SCVA. Besides being our web master, he added a new dimension this year by presenting some barbershop tips at the In-Service. With "High Fidelity" as his demonstration group, he taught us about great barbershop techniques that can be added to our classroom techniques.

On a side note, it is my understanding that the baritone in "High Fidelity" was one of Mary Ester Blakely's former students and was inspired to keep singing because of her. Isn't that the goal that each of us desires? Yay, Mary Ester!

The Roland Company is another example of people working to help teachers. The demonstration that Corey Fournier presented really opened up new vistas for some of us. His engaging manner and witty repartee made us feel like we could all be technologically literate!! At least, that's how I felt. Many thanks to the Roland Company for sending Corey and Debra Barbre and adding a technology component to our In-Service.

Finally, I can't say enough about Jeffery Huls and the Lincoln Middle School Concert Choir and Joe Modica and the East Redlands High School Advanced Women's Ensemble. Each of them led us in terrific choices of literature. And those choirs!!!! I think each of us was thrilled with the quality of the groups, especially this early in the year. It's no wonder that they keep getting asked to perform at local and regional conventions! Jeffery and Joe were both so gracious in accepting the invitation to perform and lead the reading session with some of their favorite pieces. I know that I have chosen several pieces from each of their sessions as I'm sure others have.

If you missed the In-Service, you can see that you truly missed a great day. Those of us in attendance went back to school inspired once again and able to start working for those holiday concerts with a renewed spirit. It is my hope that next year, you too will be able to participate in the Fall In-Service.

As we are approaching those holidays and life becomes rather hectic, I hope you all have a wonderful December. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

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Honor Choir Festival - Grace Sheldon-Williams

The 2001 High School Honor Choir Concert was a great success! 201 students, representing 64 southland schools, sang a beautiful and varied program under the direction of our esteemed conductors, Dr. Hanan Yaqub (Women's Honor Choir) and Dr. Ronald Kean (Mixed Honor Choir) with the assistance of accompanists Eddy Clement and Twyla Meyer. Both of the choirs had an excellent musical experience over the course of the weekend.

This event is one of SCVA's largest, and Randi Carp and I are grateful to all of the individuals who gave of their time and talents to help make it a success. We could not have done it without you!!

Audition Site Hosts: Tony Azeltine, Kerry Burtis, Kathy Cobb-Woll, Erin Crowe, Mark Henson, Patricia Maddaford, Merryl Nelson, Sheri Nelson, Mary Purdy, Nancy Shirley, Kenneth Tuttle, and Vance Wolverton

Audition Judges: Tony Azeltine, Sheridan Ball, Leslie Benjamin, Beverly Brule, Rich Brunner, Kerry Burtis, Jayne Campbell, Louise Carmon, Anne Cherchian, Jackie Doyle, Ruth Freiman, Karen Garrett, Pieter Goedhart, Nancy Gray, Craig Grueberg, Jason Harney, Bill Hatcher, Percy Hawkes, Brad Hayashi, Scott Hedgecock, Rob Hodo, Colleen Kennedy, Desiree La Vertu, Rachel Lee, Lisa Lopez, Tim Lutz, Sara Maloney, Rich Messenger, David Montoya, Shirley Nute, Ted Reid, Lori Marie Rios, Diane Rose, Jennifer Rowe, Jolene Sampson, Joseph Schubert, Mike Short, Richard Steffen, Shawn Taylor, Phil Theodorou, Karl
Thompson, Jim Tompkins-MacLaine, Bill Wagner.

Rehearsal Conductors & Accompanists: Ron Kean, Lori Marie Rios, Ken Tuttle, Randi Carp, Mary Purdy, Eddy Clement

Special thanks to those who helped during Honor Choir weekend: Ken Tuttle, Mary and Wally Purdy, Kathy Cobb-Woll, Joe Schubert, Sheri Nelson. Also, my personal thanks to Randi Carp, who was an immense help and who brought new energy to the project. I know she will coordinate an excellent honor choir experience for our students next year. In fact, she's already making plans! You may volunteer to help by contacting Randi at losalvocal@hotmail.com.

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Vocal Solo Competition 2002 - Scott Hedgecock, Coordinator

The 2002 Vocal Solo Competition is just around the corner. Preliminary rounds will take place on Saturday, January 19 at sites throughout southern California. Please make copies of the application form and get your students to fill them out, practice their best classical solo (art song or aria), and plan to participate in this SCVA tradition.

The application form, along with the $20.00 entry fee and a self addressed envelope (for receiving audition time and information) needs to be postmarked no later than December 15. Please note that the entry fee must be in the form of a school check or money order. Purchase orders or personal checks are not acceptable.

All participants must be currently enrolled in a choral ensemble. Be sure your students obtain your signature on the application or, if you are a vocal instructor and not a choral director, the signature of the director of the choir in which they sing. The Choral director or the private vocal instructor must be a member of SCVA.

In the preliminary round each student will have up to 5 minutes to present their solo. Please make sure that they time it and make any necessary cuts. The remaining time will be spent in a mini-master class setting with the adjudicator. Because the format provides a great listening and learning experience we ask that all singers be present for the duration of the competition. The announcement of the semi-finalists and most promising winners will be made at the completion, along with presentation of certificates and copies of the adjudication forms.

The competition is open to both Junior High/Middle School and High School students. Up to five semi-finalists may be sent from each preliminary site at the Senior High level, with one Junior High/Middle School finalist to be sent from each site. The semi-finals will take place on Saturday, February 9, from 9 am until approximately 1 PM. The same format will be followed with students performing one song and then having a mini-master class on stage. The announcement of the six finalists will be made at the conclusion of the competition. The six finalists must also be able to perform at the SCVA Junior High/Middle School Honor Choir concert on May 5. Their placements and awards will be announced and presented at this time.

Make sure that your students include the title and composer of their selection on the application form. If they find it necessary to change pieces at the time of their audition, then please have them inform the site host upon their arrival prior to the start of the competition. Make sure they include the entry fee in correct payment form along with their completed application and a self-addressed envelope (stamp not necessary).

Please encourage your students to send in their applications. I am looking forward to another great year of solo singing and am happy to once again be serving the SCVA membership in this capacity. Best wishes to all for a wonderful school year.

Vocal Solo Competition Application

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Barbershop News - Mark Freedkin, SPEBSQSA Representative

We are pleased to announce another unique opportunity for your young male singers which we hope will provide a positive boost for choral music at your school and throughout Southern California. To build on our highly successful Young Men's Honor Chorus programs during the past three years, the local chapters of SPEBSQSA and the Southern California Vocal Association (SCVA) are organizing a Young Men's Harmony Festival starting at 10:00am on Saturday, February 9, 2002 at Servite High School in Anaheim. The day-long event will consist of a morning and afternoon clinic and rehearsal, followed by a public performance in the evening with the Masters of Harmony, four-time International Barbershop Chorus Champions. In addition to providing an outstanding musical experience for your singers, all of the proceeds from this event will go to support choral music education program in our schools.

About 30 days prior to the event, we will provide sheet music and voice-dominant practice tapes for several songs in the Barbershop style.

The cost is only $20 per singer. Local Barbershop sponsors will cover the remaining costs for sheet music, practice tapes, rehearsal facilities, guest clinicians, and special performance costumes. A commemorative T-shirt will be provided to each singer. We will also provide lunch and dinner for the singers, as well as a catered dinner for any music educators who attend the rehearsal and clinic.

Please complete the enclosed application form for each singer and send payment by cash, check or money order payable to "Masters of Harmony" to the address below NO LATER THAN DECEMBER 21, 2001. Any male student who is currently enrolled in a school choral music program is eligible to participate. There is no limit to the number of students you can nominate from your choral program. We request that you select your better singers to represent your school. We can accommodate a maximum of 200 singers, so don't delay!

The Barbershop Harmony Society is dedicated to preserving and encouraging vocal music of all kinds in our schools and our communities, through financial support and by being strong advocates for the arts. In partnership with the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and other organizations, the Society is actively involved in the effort to help revitalize music education and to "Get America Singing...Again". Support from local Barbershop harmony programs has earned the enthusiastic endorsement of the SCVA.

We look forward to receiving your applications. Please contact me if you have any questions about the Young Men's Harmony Festival or any of our Young Men In Harmony programs.

Barbershop Festival Application

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Other Important Information
SCVA Membership Application
Show Choir Application Form
Festival Host Application Form