May, 2010

The Complete Choral Musician Workshop

The Offstage Group will be host to music educators, musicians and, students at the 2010 Complete Choral Musician Workshop on June 27 30 in New York City.
Emmy-nominated conductor and vocal educator, Judith Clurman, will lead the three-day intensive program. She will be joined by conductors, composers, scholars, choreographers, and vocal pedagogues, who will provide a hands-on approach between the faculty and students. Attendees will be encouraged to perform and conduct for each other, exchange ideas on the current and future choral and vocal trends, participate in discussions, and network with other conductors, music educators, singers, and composers. Classes include Conducting, Singing, The Art of Breathing, Sound Design, Managing a Chorus, and Meet the Composer. Students will have an opportunity to meet famous composers including Charles Strouse and David Langas.

For more information or to register for The Complete Choral Musician Workshop, visit www.ccmprogram.com

2010 World Choir Games

The World Choir Games will open in Shaoxing, China on July 15, 2010. The World Choir Games is a biannual international choir festival taking place on different continents. In the twenty years since it was established, more than 5,000 choirs and some 230,000 singers from 100 nations have taken part in the festival. The goal of the World Choir Games is to create global friendships and build bridges with the help of choral music.

For more information, visit www.worldchoirgames.com.

Music Educators Work To Save Lowell Mason Home

Music educators and the Medfield, Mass. Historical Society have joined together to form Friends of The Lowell Mason House in an effort to save the home that Lowell Mason was born and raised in.

Most music educators know Mason as the “father of music education,” as well as for his arrangements of “Joy to the World” and as composer of “Nearer, My God to Thee,” the hymn a string ensemble allegedly played as the Titanic sank. A church music director in Boston, he introduced the concept of school music education into Boston schools, the first in the United States to have music studies. Mason was born in the Medfield Mass. house in 1792 and lived there until he was about 21 and then visited there during the summer for many years. A developer purchased the Mason and initially discussed the possibility of demolishing the historic structure to build a two-family house in its place. The developer has agreed to give the group up to a year, and has offered to assist in moving the house to a different The Friends of Lowell Mason House are working to raise the $40,000 necessary to move the structure.

For more information, visit www.lowellmasonhouse.org.

Sing for the Cure Celebrating 10th Anniversary

On Sunday, June 6, 2010, Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) and Carnegie Hall will host the 10th Anniversary of Sing for the Cure, a choral festival of celebration for soloists, narrators, choir, and symphony orchestra, featuring inspirational stories of breast cancer survivors as told through song. Conductor Laureate, Dr. Timothy Seelig will be conducting. The evening will also feature the world premiere performance of a piece for treble chorus by acclaimed contemporary American composer, Joseph Martin, with Maestro Stephen Roddy at the podium.

For more information, visit www.dciny.org.

MENC Members Choose National President-Elect

The members of MENC: The National Association for Music Education elected Nancy Ditmer national president-elect for 2010-2012. Ditmer, director of bands and professor of Music Education at The College of Wooster (Ohio) since 1984, will assume the office on July 1, 2010 and become national president on July 1, 2012. Previously, Ditmer served as MENC North Central Division president (2002-2004) and president of the Ohio Music Education Association (1996-1998). A nationally-known clinician and notable educator, she was designated a 2008 Lowell Mason Fellow by MENC and received the 2006 Distinguished Service Award from the Ohio Music Education Association, among many other honors during her career.

For a complete biography, visit www.menc.org.

ACDA’s Summer Choral Composers Forum

Summer Choral Composers Forum, co-sponsored by Lehigh University Choral Arts and the American Choral Directors Association will be held on June 20 – 27, 2010, at Lehigh University, Zoellner Arts Center, Bethlehem, Penn.
Aspiring composers will work in a supportive atmosphere, workshopping new pieces with mentor-composers Chen Yi, ACDA’s 2012 Brock Commission Composer, and Steven Sametz, ACDA’s 2011 Brock Commission Composer. Participants will have their compositions read on a daily basis by the choir-in-residence, The Princeton Singers, to provide feedback on their work.

The week culminates with a performance by The Princeton Singers of the new works which will be considered for publication by major music publishers. The application due date is June 10, 2010

For more information, registration forms, and program schedule, visit www.acda.org.