Education & Training

Chorus America provides administrative, board, and artistic leadership development and peer networking through quality training programs, conferences, masterclasses, management institutes, online learning, technical assistance, and personal consultations. We advance the skills of singers and support the development of choral music education programs for children and adults.

Articles

Member Spotlight: Jerry Rubino, Voices of Experience, Minneapolis

Member Spotlight: Jerry Rubino, Voices of Experience, Minneapolis

Kelsey Menehan | Adults/Seniors, Community Outreach, Conducting, Education, General, Health, Professional, Singing, Symphonic

After 23 years of many roles with the Dale Warland Singers, including associate conductor, Jerry Rubino is leading a new "artistically ambitious" choir of seniors called Voices of Experience. Chorus America talked to Rubino about what he calls his "ministry" of music—how he encourages singers to bring their full, expressive selves to singing. Read more

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Member Spotlight: Justin Montigne, Clerestory, San Francisco

Member Spotlight: Justin Montigne, Clerestory, San Francisco

Chorus America Staff | Adults/Seniors, General, Health, Impact/Value, Performance, Professional, Rehearsal, Singing, Technique/Tool

Justin Montigne, a professional choral singer, voice teacher, and registered yoga teacher, teaches workshops, classes, and private lessons in the Bay Area and around the country. His interest in the free and easy alignment of body and instrument led him to yoga, which helped revolutionize his singing and teaching. Read more

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Evaluate Your Chorus’ Education Program—On Any Budget

Evaluate Your Chorus’ Education Program—On Any Budget

Chorus America Staff | Audiences, Civic Engagement, Community Outreach, Education, Evaluation, Impact/Value, Marketing/Public Relations, Participation, Research/Data, Schools

Your chorus has created and launched an exciting education program. How will you fund its evaluation? Kimberly Meisten of VocalEssence and David Myers of the University of Minnesota School of Music presented these ideas at the 2012 Chorus America Conference. Read more

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Singing and Wellness Resource Guide

Singing and Wellness Resource Guide

Chorus America Staff | Adults/Seniors, Children/Youth, Evaluation, General, Health, Impact/Value, Participation, Schools, Singing, Technique/Tool, Volunteer

Continue to explore the topic of Singing and Wellness with this online Resource Guide that includes studies cited in Voice articles as well as further reading. Read more

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Member Spotlight: Erica Battle, Detroit Children’s Choir

Member Spotlight: Erica Battle, Detroit Children’s Choir

Chorus America Staff | Children/Youth, Diversity, Education, General, Innovation, Management/Leadership, Operations, Schools

In Detroit, music and arts organizations are pooling their resources to buy management expertise. That's how Erica Battle, a certified public accountant, stepped into her position as executive director of the Detroit Children's Choir. Here she talks with Chorus America about the shared services model that has been successful in Detroit, her new role, and her recent experience at October's Chorus Management Institute. Read more

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Member Spotlight: Jane Ramseyer Miller, One Voice Mixed Chorus

Member Spotlight: Jane Ramseyer Miller, One Voice Mixed Chorus

Confronting Bullying Through Song

Chorus America Staff | Audiences, Children/Youth, Community Outreach, Diversity, Education, Families, Impact/Value, Innovation, Schools

One Voice Mixed Chorus, Minnesota's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allies chorus, is committed to building community and creating social change. The group's music director, Jane Ramseyer Miller, talked with Chorus America about how their mission propelled a unique outreach to public school students in the Twin Cities. Read more

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Six Essential Steps for Evaluating Your Chorus’s Education Program

Six Essential Steps for Evaluating Your Chorus’s Education Program

Chorus America Staff | Audiences, Civic Engagement, Community Outreach, Education, Evaluation, Impact/Value, Marketing/Public Relations, Research/Data, Schools

Your chorus has created and launched an exciting education program. How will you measure its effectiveness? Kimberly Meisten of VocalEssence and David Myers of the University of Minnesota School of Music presented some winning ideas at the 2012 Chorus America Conference. Read more

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Students Discover Their “Voices Within”

Students Discover Their “Voices Within”

Kelsey Menehan | Children/Youth, Community Outreach, Education, Impact/Value

The Los Angeles Master Chorale’s education outreach program leads young people into the heart of the creative process Read more

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Mothers and Music Education: The Influence and the Impact

Mothers and Music Education: The Influence and the Impact

Jan-Marie Petersen | Families, History, Impact/Value, Singing

Mom. It's one little word, but such an enormous job. In celebration of mothers, we asked members of our Facebook page to tell us: "What impact did your mother have on your life in music?" Read more

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Lessons Learned from Successful School Education Programs

Lessons Learned from Successful School Education Programs

Kelsey Menehan |

Consider these insights and cautionary tales gleaned from the experience of four choruses about how to establish and maintain a strong, school-based education outreach program. Read more

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Resources

The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Relaxing the Tongue

The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Relaxing the Tongue

Karen R Clark | Health, Singing, Technique/Tool

The practice of Feldenkrais can help singers perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In this video, Feldenkrais practitioner Karen Clark demonstrates how to train the powerful tongue muscle to cooperate with rather than hinder the singing process. Read more

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The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Achieving Relaxed Alertness

The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Achieving Relaxed Alertness

Karen R Clark | Health, Singing, Technique/Tool

The practice of Feldenkrais can help singers perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In this video, Feldenkrais practitioner Karen Clark demonstrates how being both relaxed and alert can bring greater freedom in singing. Read more

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The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Vocalizing To Release Tension

The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Vocalizing To Release Tension

Karen R Clark | Health, Singing, Technique/Tool

Through a self-discovery process using movement, the practice of Feldenkrais can help singers perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In this video, Feldenkrais practitioner Karen Clark guides a singer to notice and then release tension while vocalizing. Read more

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The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Releasing Eye Tension

The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Releasing Eye Tension

Karen R Clark | Health, Singing, Technique/Tool

The practice of Feldenkrais can help singers perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In this video, Feldenkrais practitioner Karen Clark demonstrates how releasing tension around the eyes contributes to less effortful singing. Read more

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The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Opening the Throat

The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Opening the Throat

Karen R Clark | Health, Singing, Technique/Tool

The practice of Feldenkrais can help singers perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In this video, Feldenkrais practitioner Karen Clark demonstrates how opening the throat releases tension and allows for greater freedom in singing. Read more

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The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Centering with the Breath

The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Centering with the Breath

Karen R Clark | Health, Singing, Technique/Tool

The practice of Feldenkrais can help singers perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In this video, Feldenkrais practitioner Karen Clark demonstrates the use of breath to center and stabilize the singing process. Read more

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The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Introduction

The Feldenkrais Method for Singers—Introduction

Karen R Clark | Health, Singing, Technique/Tool

You know that freed-up feeling where it seems your body is singing itself? Singers yearn for more of that, but myriad stresses, tensions, confusions, and vocal issues can get in the way. Through a self-discovery process using movement, the practice of Feldenkrais can help singers perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In this video series, Feldenkrais practitioner Karen Clark describes and demonstrates how this approach has helped her—and the singers she works with—release tension and find greater freedom in their singing. Read more

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Choral Conductors Today: A Study

Choral Conductors Today: A Study

Chorus America Staff | Careers, Conducting, Management/Leadership, Recruitment, Research/Data

Chorus America interviewed more than 700 conductors about their career paths, levels of education, salary, job satisfaction, and more in 2005. The resulting data provides a profile of the "typical" choral conductor that may be surprising. Read more

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28 American Master Choral Composers

28 American Master Choral Composers

A Repertoire and Recording Listing to Support NEA's American Masterpieces

Chorus America Staff | Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Government/Policy, Repertoire

Celebrating America's greatest choral composers, this publication provides repertoire and recording lists for 28 composers from Billings to Whitacre. Read more

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Events

Mark Hayes Workshop

Mark Hayes Workshop

Sonoma, California

Sally Hilliard |

Mark Hayes will be in Sonoma the weekend of March 22-24. On Saturday afternoon, 3/23, he will be conducting a worrkshop from 1 to 4 p.m. for choir directors and music teachers in the area. Registration information can be found at www.sonomavalleychorale.org. Read more

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"Letter from Italy, 1944"

"Letter from Italy, 1944"

LaRosa Lane, Middletown, CT

Joyce Kirkpatrick | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Civic Engagement, Community Outreach, Composing/Commissioning, General, History, Performance, Repertoire, Singing, Symphonic

             Veterans, PTSD, world premiere, Connecticut artists, letters from Italy – what do these have in common?   On April 28, 2013 an epic musical drama will unfold in Connecticut. It is about a World War II, 10th Mountain Division soldier, Dr. John K. Meneely, Jr., who served as a medic in the Aleutians and Italy. At the end of the war suffering from PTSD, he returned home to his young family. For the next 18 years he and his family struggled with his internal battles. Half a century later, their collective story is being told and their triumphs being sung.               The soldier’s daughters, Grammy-nominee composer Sarah Meneely-Kyder and poet Nancy Meneely, both Connecticut residents, have woven their physician father’s letters and their family’s story into a poignant saga of courage and compassion. Meneely-Kyder has set her sister’s ringing lyrics to music in a major musical drama, Letter from Italy, 1944. It calls for a cast of five soloists, a large chorus and orchestra.                              Read more

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10th Mountain Division and "The Last Ridge" - An Oratorio's Backdrop

10th Mountain Division and "The Last Ridge" - An Oratorio's Backdrop

100 Training Hill Road, Middletown, CT

Joyce Kirkpatrick | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Civic Engagement, Community Outreach, Composing/Commissioning, Education, General, History

On Friday, February 8, “The Last Ridge: the Epic Story of America’s Mountain Troops and their Assault on Hitler’s Europe” will be presented at 7 PM  at Chapman Hall, Middlesex Community College. Author McKay Jenkins will deliver the illustrated lecture, a history of the illustrious 10th Mountain Division during World War II. Read more

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Choral Conducting Master Class with Dr. Jan Harrington

Choral Conducting Master Class with Dr. Jan Harrington

Princeton, NJ

The Princeton F... | Adults/Seniors, Conducting, Education, General, Performance, Rehearsal, Technique/Tool

This 5-day professional choral conducting master class will offer practical rehearsal strategies, choral warm-up ideas, and sessions on performance issues, score study and preparation, creating compelling performances, and readings of new and recently published choral literature for choirs of all levels. Read more

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Voices of Light: The Passion of Joan of Arc

Voices of Light: The Passion of Joan of Arc

Southborough, MA

Robert Eaton | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Education, General, History, Impact/Value, Innovation, Performance, Singing, Technique/Tool, Technology

Voices of Light merges the legendary silent film masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc, widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, with a live performance of a ravishing score by award-winning composer Richard Einhorn. An incredibly moving composition for solo voices, chorus and orchestra, Voices of Light has been hailed as "a triumph" (Los Angeles Times) and "an overwhelming experience" (Chicago Tribune). Read more

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Toronto Mendelssohn Choir - Choral Conductors Symposium Concert and Webcast

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir - Choral Conductors Symposium Concert and Webcast

Toronto, Ontario

Toronto Mendels... | Audiences, Conducting, Families, Performance, Singing

    A free Toronto Mendelssohn Choir concert. Enjoy a potpourri of great choral works performed by the Mendelssohn Singers and by the 20-voice Elora Festival Singers. This concert concludes the TMC’s 3rd annual Choral Conductors’ Symposium for emerging conductors, led by Noel Edison. The five conductors participating in the Symposium will conduct: Xavier Brossard-Ménard, Catherine Klopoushak, Brett Kostrzewski, Jennifer Min-Young Lee and Kemuel Wong.   Find out more about the concert: http://www.tmchoir.org/tmcPerformances/conductors-symposium-concert.cfm If you can't be at the concert, you can watch a live webcast at 3pm (UTC -5) on the TMC website.  Sign up to watch the webcast: http://www.tmchoir.org/tmcPerformances/webcast-register.cfm   Read more

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Toronto Mendelssohn Choir - Choral Conductors Symposium Concert and Webcast

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir - Choral Conductors Symposium Concert and Webcast

Toronto, Ontario

Toronto Mendels... | Audiences, Conducting, Families, Performance, Singing

    A free Toronto Mendelssohn Choir concert. Enjoy a potpourri of great choral works performed by the Mendelssohn Singers and by the 20-voice Elora Festival Singers. This concert concludes the TMC’s 3rd annual Choral Conductors’ Symposium for emerging conductors, led by Noel Edison. The five conductors participating in the Symposium will conduct: Xavier Brossard-Ménard, Catherine Klopoushak, Brett Kostrzewski, Jennifer Min-Young Lee and Kemuel Wong. <a href="http://www.tmchoir.org/tmcPerformances/conductors-symposium-concert.cfm">Find out more about the concert</a>. If you can’t be at the concert, you can watch a live webcast at 3 pm (UTC -5) on the TMC website. The webcast will be Adobe Flash and iPhone and iPad compatible. <a href="http://www.tmchoir.org/tmcPerformances/webcast-register.cfm">Sign up to watch the webcast</a> .   Read more

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Pacific Boychoir Auditions: Wednesdays in January

Pacific Boychoir Auditions: Wednesdays in January

Oakland, CA

Pacific Boychoi... | Children/Youth

January is WEDNESDAY Audition Month!  Read more

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Pacific Boychoir Academy: Open House on January 22nd

Pacific Boychoir Academy: Open House on January 22nd

Oakland, CA

Pacific Boychoi... | Children/Youth

Pacific Boychoir Academy will be holding an Open House for prospective families on Tuesday, January 22nd from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Read more

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Handel Jephtha

Handel Jephtha

Boston, MA

Handel and Hayd... | Audiences, Civic Engagement, Conducting, Performance

Considered one of the finest Handelians in the world, Harry Christophers brings Jephtha to Symphony Hall audiences for the first time since 1867. Premiered in the US by the Handel and Haydn Society in 1855, the Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus bring a legend to life: the oratorio tells the story of Jephtha, a commander for the Israelites against the Ammonites, and his daughter Iphis, who is betrothed to one of Jephtha's soldiers, Hamor. With a stellar cast, Christophers will enliven this dramatic story of passions and redemptions, and showcase the transformative powers of Handel's music.  Read more

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Dialogue

Measuring Education Program Impact

Measuring Education Program Impact

Anonymous | Education, Impact/Value

  We know intrinsically that chorus education programs provide great benefit to those involved—but actual data would help. Can anyone offer some specific examples of the impact of their programs? Read more

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Conference 2013 Ad
Please visit the 2013 Conference Website for information.
King FM Choral Music Channel

Enjoy Seattle’s First Online Choral Music Channel

In celebration of Chorus America’s Annual Conference coming to the Pacific Northwest, Classical KING FM has launched Seattle’s first all-choral music channel online at www.king.org. Listen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for music from top choral groups, including winners of Chorus America’s Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence.

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