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Podium Time

A Standing O in Carnegie Hall

A national high school choral festival gives students a taste of bliss
By Jeff Lunden

Choral singing has been part of Carnegie Hall’s rich musical tradition since it opened in 1891. “Andrew Carnegie’s wife was a member of the Oratorio Society of New York and the hall was actually built because they didn’t have a place to perform!” says Clive Gillinson, the Hall’s executive and artistic director. The Oratorio Society still calls Carnegie Hall home and dozens of choirs, amateur and professional, perform on its stage every season.

Carnegie Hall itself sponsors two choral workshops each year through its educational arm, the Weill Music Institute. In 1990, the late Robert Shaw established a professional training workshop for choral directors and singers, which is now directed by Helmuth Rilling. Six years ago, Carnegie Hall approached Craig Jessop, conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, about creating a workshop for high school choral singers. Jessop, who began his career as a high school choral conductor, thought it was a terrific idea. “But make it about the music,” he advised. “Don’t make it a competition—it should be about making music.”

“The goals of the workshop,” says Jessop, “are to take the highest quality choral orchestral works in the repertoire and give these kids an experience that they could never get in their own schools—the chance to perform with a professional orchestra and with their peers around the nation.”

This season, 42 choirs auditioned and four were chosen through a blind selection process: Chandler High School Chorale from Chandler, Arizona; Highland High School Concert Choir from Gilbert, Arizona; Madison High School Bel Canto Choir from Rexburg, Idaho; and the Bentonville High School Chamber Choir from Bentonville, Arkansas.

The students performed demanding 20 th-century repertoire: Francis Poulenc’s Gloria and Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. “These pieces, while difficult and challenging, are certainly within the grasp of the disciplined amateur singer,” says Jessop. “In fact, in Stravinsky’s score, he specifies that he wants the soprano parts sung by children. So, stylistically I knew we’d be spot on with this repertoire. The Gloria is also light and clear. It’s not Wagner or Verdi—we wouldn’t do that with these young voices. But the Stravinsky and Poulenc are beautifully suited.”

For each of the high school choirs, it was a seven-month process, from learning the music with their own conductors to rehearsing locally with Craig Jessop to convening in New York City for an intense weekend of preparation prior to the performance at Carnegie Hall. I traveled to Bentonville, Arkansas in January to observe one of the choirs as it got ready for its Carnegie Hall debut.

What’s Cool in Bentonville

By any standard, the choral program at Bentonville High School is extraordinary—there are three full-time teachers, 11 choirs, and 600 students who sing in them. Over the past 13 years, department head Terry Hicks, twice named teacher of the year, built a program even the jocks think is cool. “At Bentonville, it’s actually celebrated if you’re in the choral program,” he says.

The 30- voice Bentonville Chamber Choir is the elite group, specializing in a cappella Renaissance music. It was at the Choir’s first breakfast of the school year that Hicks announced they were going to Carnegie Hall. “I dropped my fork,” says junior Hunter Klie. “Everyone’s jaws dropped—it was just stunning.”

Hicks, along with the conductors from the other selected choirs, went to Salt Lake City for an intensive score study session with Jessop. “Craig had programmed the Poulenc Gloria for the weekend we were there,” says Hicks. “That was an experience—to have him conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and be able to see exactly what he would be asking of our students.”

When Hicks presented his Chamber Choir with the angular, thorny music by Stravinsky and surprising harmonies in Poulenc, senior Michele Carter says, “Our initial reactions varied between shock and almost horror, until we finally started to get into the music and realize that each was really an amazing masterpiece.”

In mid-January, Jessop flew to Bentonville for two days of rehearsal with the Choir. He worked the kids hard, making extensive use of Robert Shaw’s choral techniques, including count-singing. He also provided historical context for each of the pieces and parsed through the Latin texts, helping the students to connect emotionally to the music. As the rehearsals progressed, the students became more confident, their singing more nuanced. “Each part that he goes through, we find all these new things we just love about it,” says Carter. “We’re learning the meaning of what we’re singing and the emotions that go on behind it, as well as the thought process that made it what it is so that we know how best to perform it.”

By the end of the two days, the students were positively giddy, standing in line to have Jessop autograph their scores. Hicks felt a great deal of pride. “I try to teach the kids that the joy of music is the progression, so it was wonderful for me to step back and watch him mold them and pull them through the musical ideas, just to experience the teaching and learning taking place.”

A New York Dream Come True

Two months later, the students from Bentonville arrived in New York to meet their peers from Arizona and Idaho and prepare for the big concert. In the midst of a late season snow storm, the kids arrived at the Hammerstein Ballroom of the Manhattan Center on 34 th Street, scene of all the Robert Shaw choral workshops and site of historic recording sessions led by Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein.

The 211 students were seated in a square around the pianist and Jessop. “They’re seated all mixed up from day one,” he says. “They’re treated as one choir, not four. And they’re eager to meet one another and to talk and explore and make friends. It’s a real bonding experience.”

For two days, Jessop rarely let up in his intensity. “It’s 10 percent art, 90 percent craft,” he said at one point in rehearsal. “But the art doesn’t come without the craft.”

“He went measure by measure, beat by beat,” says Klie. “You know, this needs to be improved, this needs to be changed. It was great; it was really thorough.” And exhausting. “That is the hardest I’ve ever worked in my entire life,” said Carter. “People who don’t sing cannot possibly understand how much work it really is, if you do it right.”

For the students, though, it wasn’t all work. Each choir filled out the schedule with class trip activities. The Bentonville group went to The Producers, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Chinatown. There was also quite a bit of socializing during breaks. The Bentonville kids invited students from the other schools to play one of their choir games—a combination of guttural sounds and quick movements they call “Uh.” “I think it’s really cool that all these choirs can come together and play this,” laughed alto Andrea Heying.

On the third day, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and soloist Nicole Cabell arrived for the final rehearsal. Things went smoothly for the most part, though there were some problems with tempi. According to Klie, the kids were a bit shaken initially, but they adjusted. “It was just a different experience, different sounds—a lot of stuff I didn’t hear before in recordings that only come out when you hear it live. I think it changed the energy, too.”

On the day of the concert, March 19, all the activity moved uptown to Carnegie Hall. Each choir was given 30 minutes to take the stage and sing the three pieces they would each perform individually in the first half of the program. “To get up there on that stage and to see the looks on my students’ faces as they looked out into the hall, and then to give a downbeat and to hear them sing—it’s a dream come true,” said Hicks.

The performance that evening went without a hitch. Jessop said the kids saved their best for last. “Tonight it all came together. There was an extra level of concentration and commitment. And there was an extra—I don’t know—a spirituality about it that I felt was very strong.”

After the concert, the Bentonville students gathered at a nearby restaurant with their teachers, parents, and siblings to celebrate. They said they’d learned lessons about teamwork and discipline—and they’d picked up a lot of Facebook addresses from the kids in the other choirs. But for Klie, there’s one thing he’ll never forget. “After we finished, we got a standing O,” he said. “A standing O at Carnegie Hall. It doesn’t get any better than that."

Author Credit
Jeff Lunden reports on arts and culture for National Public Radio, which carried two segments on this story in March that you can access on NPR’s website at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8932670 and http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9109686. He is also a theatrical composer and sings with The Dessoff Choirs in New York City.

This article is reprinted from the The Voice of Chorus America, Summer 2007. Past issues of the Voice can be ordered from Chorus America by going to the Publications page of our website: http://www.chorusamerica.org/publications.cfm

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Podium Time
A Standing O in Carnegie Hall
A national high school choral festival gives students a taste of bliss By Jeff Lunden Choral singing has been part of Carnegie Hall’s rich musical tradition since it opened in 1891. “Andrew Carnegie’s wife was a member of the Oratorio Society of New York and the hall was actually built because they didn’t have a place to perform!” says Clive Gillinson, the Hall’s executive and artistic director. The Oratorio Society still calls Carnegie Hall home and dozens of choirs, amateur and professional, perform on its stage every season. Carnegie Hall itself sponsors two choral workshops each year through its educational arm, the Weill Music Institute. In 1990, the late Robert Shaw established a professional training workshop for choral directors and singers, which is now directed by Helmuth Rilling. Six years ago, Carnegie Hall approached Craig Jessop, conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, about creating a workshop for high school choral singers. Jessop, who began his career as a high school choral conductor, thought it was a terrific idea. “But make it about the music,” he advised. “Don’t make it a competition—it should be about making music.” “The goals of the workshop,” says Jessop, “are to take the highest quality choral orchestral works in the repertoire and give these kids an experience that they could never get in their own schools—the chance to perform with a professional orchestra and with their peers around the nation.” This season, 42 choirs auditioned and four were chosen through a blind selection process: Chandler High School Chorale from Chandler, Arizona; Highland High School Concert Choir from Gilbert, Arizona; Madison High School Bel Canto Choir from Rexburg, Idaho; and the Bentonville High School Chamber Choir from Bentonville, Arkansas. The students performed demanding 20 th-century repertoire: Francis Poulenc’s Gloria and Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. “These pieces, while difficult and challenging, are certainly within the grasp of the disciplined amateur singer,” says Jessop. “In fact, in Stravinsky’s score, he specifies that he wants the soprano parts sung by children. So, stylistically I knew we’d be spot on with this repertoire. The Gloria is also light and clear. It’s not Wagner or Verdi—we wouldn’t do that with these young voices. But the Stravinsky and Poulenc are beautifully suited.” For each of the high school choirs, it was a seven-month process, from learning the music with their own conductors to rehearsing locally with Craig Jessop to convening in New York City for an intense weekend of preparation prior to the performance at Carnegie Hall. I traveled to Bentonville, Arkansas in January to observe one of the choirs as it got ready for its Carnegie Hall debut. What’s Cool in Bentonville By any standard, the choral program at Bentonville High School is extraordinary—there are three full-time teachers, 11 choirs, and 600 students who sing in them. Over the past 13 years, department head Terry Hicks, twice named teacher of the year, built a program even the jocks think is cool. “At Bentonville, it’s actually celebrated if you’re in the choral program,” he says. The 30- voice Bentonville Chamber Choir is the elite group, specializing in a cappella Renaissance music. It was at the Choir’s first breakfast of the school year that Hicks announced they were going to Carnegie Hall. “I dropped my fork,” says junior Hunter Klie. “Everyone’s jaws dropped—it was just stunning.” Hicks, along with the conductors from the other selected choirs, went to Salt Lake City for an intensive score study session with Jessop. “Craig had programmed the Poulenc Gloria for the weekend we were there,” says Hicks. “That was an experience—to have him conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and be able to see exactly what he would be asking of our students.” When Hicks presented his Chamber Choir with the angular, thorny music by Stravinsky and surprising harmonies in Poulenc, senior Michele Carter says, “Our initial reactions varied between shock and almost horror, until we finally started to get into the music and realize that each was really an amazing masterpiece.” In mid-January, Jessop flew to Bentonville for two days of rehearsal with the Choir. He worked the kids hard, making extensive use of Robert Shaw’s choral techniques, including count-singing. He also provided historical context for each of the pieces and parsed through the Latin texts, helping the students to connect emotionally to the music. As the rehearsals progressed, the students became more confident, their singing more nuanced. “Each part that he goes through, we find all these new things we just love about it,” says Carter. “We’re learning the meaning of what we’re singing and the emotions that go on behind it, as well as the thought process that made it what it is so that we know how best to perform it.” By the end of the two days, the students were positively giddy, standing in line to have Jessop autograph their scores. Hicks felt a great deal of pride. “I try to teach the kids that the joy of music is the progression, so it was wonderful for me to step back and watch him mold them and pull them through the musical ideas, just to experience the teaching and learning taking place.” A New York Dream Come True Two months later, the students from Bentonville arrived in New York to meet their peers from Arizona and Idaho and prepare for the big concert. In the midst of a late season snow storm, the kids arrived at the Hammerstein Ballroom of the Manhattan Center on 34 th Street, scene of all the Robert Shaw choral workshops and site of historic recording sessions led by Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein. The 211 students were seated in a square around the pianist and Jessop. “They’re seated all mixed up from day one,” he says. “They’re treated as one choir, not four. And they’re eager to meet one another and to talk and explore and make friends. It’s a real bonding experience.” For two days, Jessop rarely let up in his intensity. “It’s 10 percent art, 90 percent craft,” he said at one point in rehearsal. “But the art doesn’t come without the craft.” “He went measure by measure, beat by beat,” says Klie. “You know, this needs to be improved, this needs to be changed. It was great; it was really thorough.” And exhausting. “That is the hardest I’ve ever worked in my entire life,” said Carter. “People who don’t sing cannot possibly understand how much work it really is, if you do it right.” For the students, though, it wasn’t all work. Each choir filled out the schedule with class trip activities. The Bentonville group went to The Producers, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Chinatown. There was also quite a bit of socializing during breaks. The Bentonville kids invited students from the other schools to play one of their choir games—a combination of guttural sounds and quick movements they call “Uh.” “I think it’s really cool that all these choirs can come together and play this,” laughed alto Andrea Heying. On the third day, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and soloist Nicole Cabell arrived for the final rehearsal. Things went smoothly for the most part, though there were some problems with tempi. According to Klie, the kids were a bit shaken initially, but they adjusted. “It was just a different experience, different sounds—a lot of stuff I didn’t hear before in recordings that only come out when you hear it live. I think it changed the energy, too.” On the day of the concert, March 19, all the activity moved uptown to Carnegie Hall. Each choir was given 30 minutes to take the stage and sing the three pieces they would each perform individually in the first half of the program. “To get up there on that stage and to see the looks on my students’ faces as they looked out into the hall, and then to give a downbeat and to hear them sing—it’s a dream come true,” said Hicks. The performance that evening went without a hitch. Jessop said the kids saved their best for last. “Tonight it all came together. There was an extra level of concentration and commitment. And there was an extra—I don’t know—a spirituality about it that I felt was very strong.” After the concert, the Bentonville students gathered at a nearby restaurant with their teachers, parents, and siblings to celebrate. They said they’d learned lessons about teamwork and discipline—and they’d picked up a lot of Facebook addresses from the kids in the other choirs. But for Klie, there’s one thing he’ll never forget. “After we finished, we got a standing O,” he said. “A standing O at Carnegie Hall. It doesn’t get any better than that." Author Credit Jeff Lunden reports on arts and culture for National Public Radio, which carried two segments on this story in March that you can access on NPR’s website at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8932670 and http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9109686. He is also a theatrical composer and sings with The Dessoff Choirs in New York City. This article is reprinted from the The Voice of Chorus America, Summer 2007. Past issues of the Voice can be ordered from Chorus America by going to the Publications page of our website: http://www.chorusamerica.org/publications.cfm