For Singers

Chorus America champions the dedicated choral singer by developing online resources and tools to advance skills and promoting connections between singers. We recognize that choral singing is the most popular form of participation in the performing arts, that choral singers are active and engaged citizens, and that children who sing have greater academic success and social skills.

Articles

Is There a Cure for the "Wobbles"?

Is There a Cure for the "Wobbles"?

Margaret Baroody | Adults/Seniors, Health, Singing

"Help! Is there anything I can do to reduce excessive vibrato when I sing?" Read more

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Breath Support for Singers: Don't Inhale... Release!

Breath Support for Singers: Don't Inhale... Release!

Ory Brown | Adults/Seniors, Singing, Technique/Tool

For singers, the breath is everything. This article and video clips from mezzo-soprano Ory Brown's class held at the Berkshire Choral Festival offer some helpful hints and vocal exercises to get the air moving. Read more

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The Rise of A Cappella

The Rise of A Cappella

An Interview with CASA Founder and Sing-Off Producer Deke Sharon

Chorus America Staff | Careers, Community Outreach

Choral music—especially a cappella choral music—is more popular than ever it seems. Chorus America sat down with Deke Sharon, founder of the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America (CASA) and a producer of NBC's The Sing-Off, to get the inside scoop behind the a cappella choral music movement and its current place in pop culture. Read more

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What to Do Before the First Rehearsal of the Year

What to Do Before the First Rehearsal of the Year

Chorus America Staff | Rehearsal, Singing, Volunteer

The new chorus season is upon us—or fast approaching! But what, if anything, should we as singers do to prepare for the upcoming season? Read more

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5 Tips for Performing Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil

5 Tips for Performing Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil

Alexander Ruggieri | Rehearsal, Repertoire, Singing, Technique/Tool

The All-Night Vigil doesn't last all night anymore, but doing what it takes to perform it well certainly can keep conductors and singers up nights. Here are five tips for conquering this masterpiece: Read more

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Are You a Choral Wacko?

Are You a Choral Wacko?

Kelsey Menehan | Adults/Seniors, Impact/Value, Participation, Performance

Definition: An affectionate term for all of us die-hard choral singers who can't seem to get enough of the art form we love. Read more

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IPA for Dummies

IPA for Dummies

Kelsey Menehan | Conducting, Education, Rehearsal, Singing, Technique/Tool

Well...not for dummies, but for choral singers who wonder, "Do I really, really have to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet?" Of course you don’t, but your singing experience could be much more enjoyable if you do. Read more

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The Top 3 Medical Causes of Vocal Problems

The Top 3 Medical Causes of Vocal Problems

Margaret Baroody | Health, Science, Singing

Vocal health expert Margaret Baroody sheds light on common medical conditions that are at the root of vocal ailments. Read more

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Web Tools for Choral Singers

Web Tools for Choral Singers

Cory Davis | Operations, Technique/Tool, Volunteer

Use technology to your advantage. Here are several free online resources to aid and manage your singing life, as well as a few for singers who also double as teachers, section leaders, or conductors. Read more

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7 Ways To Be a Better Singer

7 Ways To Be a Better Singer

Jan-Marie Petersen | Education, Health, Singing, Technique/Tool

In many cases, we've been led to believe that the ability to sing well is a talent you're born with—not a skill you can develop. But that's simply not the case: Most everyone can improve their vocal abilities and musicianship skills. 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 Choral Warm-Ups of Robert Shaw

The Choral Warm-Ups of Robert Shaw

Pamela Elrod | Rehearsal, Singing, Technique/Tool

Believing that the chorus was a corporate entity with a spirit of kinship, famed conductor Robert Shaw used the warm-up period to focus on matters of tuning, tone color, ensemble blend, acoustical conditions, and development of the dynamic palette. We've compiled several of his warm-ups. 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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Virtual Voice Lesson: The Farinelli Breath Exercises

Virtual Voice Lesson: The Farinelli Breath Exercises

Shauna Fallihee | Singing, Technique/Tool

Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, was a famous, and wildly popular castrato of the early 1700s. One of the secrets to his magnificent voice was the seemingly unending stream of breath that supported it. Voice teacher Shauna Fallihee demonstrates the breathing exercises Farinelli created to strengthen the intercostal muscles. Read more

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Warm-Ups for What Ails You: Lack of Breath Control

Warm-Ups for What Ails You: Lack of Breath Control

Rebecca Achenbach | Singing, Technique/Tool

Work on your breath control with these exercises from choral conductor and voice teacher Rebecca Achenbach. Read more

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Events

The Song From Withing

The Song From Withing

8516 Athabasca Street SE, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Cantaré Childre... | Children/Youth

Cantaré Children’s Choir presents The Song from Within Deep within each of us is a song that we sing. It varies from time to time, moment to moment; songs of joy, songs of sadness, songs of contemplation and reflection, songs of dreaming of faraway places and times. Join Cantaré Children’s Choir and the Man Enough to Sing? participants for the songs from within. Saturday, March 9, 2013, 7:30 PM at McDougall United Church, 8516 Athabasca Street SE Tickets: $20 www.cantarechildrenschoir.org   Read more

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Man Enough to Sing?

Man Enough to Sing?

8516 Athabasca Street SE, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Cantaré Childre... | Adults/Seniors

Man Enough to Sing? One rehearsal. One performance. Be part of this unique, fun and inspiring event with acclaimed Cantaré Children’s Choir Artistic Director, Catherine Glaser-Climie. Workshop, Saturday, March 2, 2013, 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM and Concert, Saturday, March 9, 2013, 7:30 PM at McDougall United Church, 8516 Athabasca Street SE Calgary, Alberta Canada  Registration: $200 www.cantarechildrenschoir.org   Read more

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Toronto Mendelssohn Choir concert webcast

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir concert webcast

Toronto, Ontario

Toronto Mendels... | Audiences, Community Outreach

For choral music lovers across Canada, the U.S. and around the world, the TMC will webcast their performance of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle live at www.tmchoir.org as part of its outreach program.  Register online with an email and enjoy the concert from anywhere on Sat, Feb 9 at 3 pm ET, UTC -5. TMC webcasts are now flash and iPhone and iPad compatible.  Read more

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SING IN UMBRIA, ITALY, with JOSEPH FLUMMERFELT

SING IN UMBRIA, ITALY, with JOSEPH FLUMMERFELT

UMBRIA, ITALY

Paulo Faustini |

Choral singers needed for 12 choral & cultural program based in Spoleto, Italy  More information:  http://www.umbrianserenades.com/ Read more

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J.S. Bach: The Complete Motets

J.S. Bach: The Complete Motets

San Francisco, CA

Tricia Bell |

The San Francisco Bach Choir sings all 6 of Bach's gorgeous motets in one program! Read more

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San Jose Symphonic Choir Performs Mendelssohn's ELIJAH

San Jose Symphonic Choir Performs Mendelssohn's ELIJAH

345 South First Street, San Jose, CA 95113

Pam McCulloch | Audiences, Children/Youth, Families, Performance, Singing, Symphonic

San Jose Symphonic Choir, under the direction of Maestro Leroy Kromm, will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s acclaimed oratorio, Elijah.  The 135-voice choir will be joined by Peter Tuff, baritone, singing the role of Elijah, and Bay Area favorite and Opera San Jose alumnus Christopher Bengochea, tenor, as Obadiah. The performance will also feature Yemonja Stanley, soprano, Cassandra Cardenas, mezzo soprano, members of Vivace Youth Chorus of San Jose, and the Nova Vista Symphony.    TICKETS   General $30; Senior/Military/Student $24; Group rate (10 or more) $20 Tickets go on sale February 5, 2013 at Symphony Silicon Valley box office, 408-286-2600, ext. 23. The box office is open from 10-5, Monday-Friday.  Any questions email us at office-manager@sanjosesymphonicchoir.org.   About San Jose Symphonic Choir   San Jose Symphonic Choir is supported, in part, by a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San Jose, by a grant from the Farrington Foundation, and is funded by Applied Materials Excellence In The Arts Grants, a program of Arts Council Silicon Valley.   Read more

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Celebration of French Masterworks

Celebration of French Masterworks

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

Princeton Pro Musica | Performance

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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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Eric Whitacre and the Eric Whitacre Singers | Inspirations: North American Debut Tour

Eric Whitacre and the Eric Whitacre Singers | Inspirations: North American Debut Tour

New York, NY

DCINY | Audiences, Conducting, Impact/Value, Performance, Singing

  Announcing the debut US tour of Eric Whitacre and his professional choir, the Eric Whitacre Singers in March 2013 – Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia and New York City. The programme will include recent works from Eric such as “Alleluia” and “The City and the Sea” as well as some of the greats of his catalogue, “When David Heard“, “A Boy and a Girl” and “Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine“. Other composers featured include Lauridsen, Monteverdi and Bach. Read more

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Dialogue

Questions During Rehearsal?

Questions During Rehearsal?

Anonymous | Rehearsal, Singing

Singers, does your conductor allow questions during rehearsal? What are the pros and cons from your perspective? Read more

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