SCVA Newsletter (on-line version) - September 2008

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Message from the President - Sheri Nelson
I hope this newsletter finds everyone relaxed, rested, and rejuvenated for another school year!  It seems like just last week we were packing up our rooms for the summer and now the "2008-09 Choir Calendar" is filled even though the year has just begun.

I would like to begin my term as President by thanking the fantastic, experienced group of colleagues who have volunteered to serve on the SCVA Board for the next two years.  Having served on the board in several positions over the last 10 years, I know how much time they give so that ALL of our students have the opportunity to participate in the rewarding activities SCVA sponsors. 

Many of us have parent volunteers or booster programs that assist throughout the year.  Do you find that a same small group of “core parents” do a large percentage of the work?  Do you wish more parents would volunteer just a couple of hours during the year versus a few parents volunteering many hours?  I ask that all of our members keep that in mind as SCVA board members put out their "calls for help". The board members need ALL of us to assist since ALL of our students benefit from the events.  So, please volunteer to help in any way you feel comfortable during the coming year.  If you don't want to adjudicate or run a rehearsal, you can still help work a registration table, line-up a choir, or pick-up programs from the printers.  We can't host our events without your help.  It is because of our dedicated membership that SCVA has spent the last sixty-nine years advancing choral music in the schools of Southern California.

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SCVA High School Honor Choir - Rodger Guerrero, Vice President, HS Honor Choir

Please Read Carefully
All deadlines are firm and WILL NOT be extended and the guidelines CANNOT be altered.  Keeping strict deadlines allows your students and our staff the greatest amount of time to prepare for the Honor Choir rehearsals and performance.

Regional Honor Choir
After more than 600 students from all over Southern California audition, 260 will be selected to sing in one of three groups: Women’s, Men’s or Mixed Honor Choir.  They will receive a packet of music, meet for one rehearsal (October 25th) before the Honor Choir weekend, and then (with music memorized) come together on Friday and Saturday, November 21 & 22 for two days of intense rehearsal and a Saturday evening concert with some of the most distinguished conductors in our field. 

All-State Honor Choir
Students interested in being considered for the California All-State Honor Choir need only mark the appropriate box on their SCVA application.  There is no additional audition or fee. They may be asked at their auditions to reconfirm their interest in All-State. The All-State Honor Choir will be March 26-28 in Pasadena, CA.

Please Note:
Check your availability for all dates BEFORE auditioning.  Being accepted into a choir and then not participating will exempt your school from participation in the Honor Choirs for one year (In fact, some schools are already exempt from participating this year).  Please see: Honor Choir Guidelines and Policies.

All students auditioning for Regional and State Honor Choirs must be members in good standing with their school choral program and their conductors must be paid members of SCVA.  Teachers may pay their dues online or by contacting Lisa Lopez at llopezscvamem@hotmail.com.

All students in Southern California should use the attached application.  DO NOT use the ACDA application from the California ACDA website!

Regional Honor Choir Conductors
 We are proud to announce this year’s conductors for the Regional Honor Choirs: Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe from USC will conduct the Mixed Choir; Desiree LaVertu from Cal Tech will conduct the Women’s Choir; and Dr. Christopher Peterson from Cal State Fullerton will lead the Men’s Choir.

Important Dates:
On-Line Application Registration Deadline:
            Friday, September 12, 2008
Audition Dates:
            Saturday, September 27, 2008
            Saturday, October 4, 2008
First Rehearsal:
            Saturday, October 25, 2008   9am – 4pm
            Riverside Community College
Honor Choir Weekend:
            Friday & Saturday, November 21 & 22
            Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica
Concert:  November 22   7:30pm
California All-State Honor Choir:
            March 26-28, 2009, Pasadena, CA

$$$     Pay with PAYPAL!!!      $$$
SCVA has been using PayPal now for the past four years to great success.  It’s the convenient way to pay audition fees, SCVA dues, Honor Choir fees, Festival fees, etc.  And coupled with the required ON LINE REGISTRATION, it’s even easier!  You may use any major credit card for a $0.50 processing fee.  Since all applications must be completed online, you can email your PayPal confirmation with your application.  REMEMBER: All monies must be paid by PayPal, a school check, a booster check or money order.  NO PERSONAL CHECKS from directors, students or parents will be accepted.

For questions about SCVA Honor Choir, to volunteer, or to act as an adjudicator, contact Rodger Guerrero at rguerrero@hw.com or Tammi Alderman at talderman@falconchoir.org.

REMINDERS About Auditions
Remember that the scoring amounts changed last year: the performance is only worth 40pts and the theory portion increased to 60pts.  In addition, the theory portion includes more emphasis on tonal memory and the chromatic scale.  For complete information, see the website.

Solo: all auditionees will prepare and sing a solo from the “Twenty-four Italian Songs and Arias" (G. Schirmer) or equivalent art song book.  The solo MUST be memorized, sung in Italian and accompanied by tape, cd or an accompanist supplied by the auditionee.  Adjudicators will be listening for tone quality, diction, pronunciation, musical sensitivity and appropriate vocal range.
Range: all auditionees will demonstrate their vocal range through a short series of warm-up exercises.
Tonal Memory: all auditionees will demonstrate tonal memory skills by singing back a 4-5 note passage played by one of the adjudicators.  You may sing back on any neutral syllable.
Scales/Triads: all auditionees will prepare and sing a major and minor triad, a major scale and a chromatic scale on any neutral syllable.
Sight-Reading: all auditionees will demonstrate rhythmic and melodic sight-reading skills by singing a single, unaccompanied melodic line on any neutral syllable.
NOTE: Students must provide their own accompanist or an accompanying CD or tape IN THE PROPER KEY!

Acceptance Notice and Fees
Those accepted for the Mixed, Men’s or Women’s Honor Choir will be notified by their directors during the week of October 6th.  A $65.00 fee will be collected at the first rehearsal on October 25th.  The fee provides for music, accompanists, directors and facilities.  ONLY PayPal verification, a school check, booster check or money order will be accepted.  NO PERSONAL CHECKS WILL BE ACCEPTED from students, parents or teachers!!

Honor Choir Guidelines and Policies
A student must be enrolled in his/her school’s choral program in order to be eligible for participation in Honor Choir.  If a student drops out of the school program, he/she will be dropped from Honor Choir as well.  No sanctions will be imposed on the school in this case.

However, when a student drops out of an SCVA Honor Choir, the student’s school may not be allowed to participate in Honor Choir the following school year.  Given our time constraints, when a student drops out of Honor Choir it is impossible for us to fill their vacancy.  Therefore, when a student drops out, another deserving student misses out on this wonderful opportunity.

Students who must, out of extreme necessity, drop out of Honor Choir after being accepted are required to provide a signed, written note from their parents and from their school choral director stating the reasons for the drop out.  The note MUST be sent immediately to the Honor Choir coordinator by mail or hand-delivered by the student, parent or director as soon as possible.

Acceptable reasons for dropping Honor Choir:
Death in the family just before the concert
Serious medical problem
Other matters of an equally serious nature

Unacceptable reasons for dropping Honor Choir:
Schedule conflicts of any kind.
Student deciding he/she would rather not participate, doesn’t like the music, or doesn’t want to work with a particular conductor.

If a student drops for any reason, a panel of members from the SCVA Board will consider the reason given and decide whether it is an unacceptable or acceptable reason.  THIS HAS ALREADY OCCURRED FOR A FEW SCHOOLS THIS YEAR!

Choral directors are responsible for remaining informed about their students’ continued participation in the Honor Choir. 

Required On-Line Audition Application Process
Each student who wishes to audition for Honor Choir will enter all of his/her information (including name, address, phone number, voice part, age, etc.) and his/her first & second choice audition sites into the on-line form.  The student must also enter his/her director's e-mail address.  In addition, students can indicate if their audition should be considered for the All-State Honor Choir.  After clicking on the "Submit Application" button, the student can optionally use PayPal to pay the $5.00 audition fee (plus a $0.50 processing fee) using any major credit card (MasterCard, Visa, Discover, Am Ex).

An automated e-mail message will be sent to the director for each student who applies.  The e-mail message will include a link to a special web page that allows the director to see a list all of his/her students who have applied, and allows a selection of "Approve" or "Reject" for each student.  The first time the director approves or rejects a student’s application for the current Honor Choir cycle, an additional form allows the director to indicate, review, and/or change contact and school information.  The director’s information is then stored for each new applicant (Information from directors whose students participated last year was previously stored).

On-Line Honor Choir Audition Application

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CALL FOR ADJUDICATORS! – Rodger Guerrero, VP of Honor Choirs
Dear Colleagues: below is the list of Regional Honor Choir audition sites that I am trying to fill with Adjudicators.  I hope that you will check out the list of possibilities below and want to help out.  Please contact me at rguerrero@hw.com or Tammi Alderman at talderman@falconchoir.org and let us know what date and location works best for you to adjudicate.  I really appreciate all you do for your kids and what you have done in the past for kids in all of Southern California.

Saturday, September 27th  9am-1pm            Saturday, October 4th  12pm-4pm
Arlington HS, Riverside                                    Cal State Fullerton, Fullerton
Canyon HS, Canyon Country                           Crescenta Valley HS, La Crescenta
Irvine HS, Irvine                                               Los Alamitos HS, Los Alamitos
Mark Keppel HS, Alhambra                             Nordhoff HS, Ojai
Mira Costa HS, Manhattan Beach                    Oakwood School, North Hollywood
Redlands HS, Redlands                                    Poway HS, Poway
                                                                        Rancho Cucamonga HS, Rancho Cucamonga

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2007 Fall In-Service - Mark Henson, Past-President
Wouldn't it be great if there were a one-day event where choral directors could sing a variety of choral literature appropriate for different voicings and levels, gain tips on improving our singers’ sightreading skills in the context of the choral classroom, enjoy the performances of two outstanding guest choirs, get questions answered about dealing with “uncertain” singers, learn how to build and train a men’s group from the very beginning, explore festival guidelines as well as the procedures for hosting your own choral festival, become a certified adjudicator, network with choral colleagues, and leave in a BRAND NEW CAR? 

Well . . . provided you recently bought a brand new car . . . that event is the upcoming SCVA Fall In-Service!  I’m excited to tell you about this year's event which includes a variety of presentations you’re sure to find beneficial.

I love choosing music for my choirs.  Or I should say, I love the idea of choosing music for my choirs.  It takes time to find the right pieces for our choral groups, especially if you direct multiple choirs at varying levels.  I always appreciate it when a colleague says, “Here are some pieces you might like.”  This year’s reading session will include choral pieces representing a variety of styles, levels, and voicings.  Some of the pieces you’ll want to put to use right away.  Others you’ll want to keep handy for that year when it becomes “just the right piece.” (I have yet to get confirmation from this presenter . . . but . . . . she is a wonderful musician and director, has energy and personality to spare, and we love her!)

Our next presenter, Karen Garrett of Santiago High School (Corona,) has done extensive work putting various sightsinging methods to the test with her choirs.  She will present an interesting and informative session comparing different methods and suggesting why some may be more effective than others.  Prepare to be amazed at the ease and speed at which we can improve our singers’ music reading skills in the context of a choral rehearsal.

I’ve asked Bill McIntosh to share and demonstrate the techniques that led to the success of the wonderful men’s choral groups at Mt. San Antonio College.  Those of us who conduct all-male choirs know what a rewarding (and challenging) experience it can be, and what an asset (and challenge) a men's choir can be. 

Members who are wishing to become certified SCVA adjudicators will receive an introduction to the adjudication process and will then complete sample adjudications of our special guest groups – Manhattan Beach Middle School Madrigal Singers under the direction of Heather Gold, and the Bonita High School Chamber Singers under the direction of Todd Helm.  Whether or not you are going through the certification process, I'm sure you will enjoy the performances of these fine choirs.

The In-Service officially begins at 9 a.m. but you'll want to arrive early for check-in and coffee-juice-pastry social time.  There will be a lunch break of about an hour, and we expect to conclude by 4 p.m.  The venue for the day will be Placentia Presbyterian Church located at 849 N. Bradford Avenue in Placentia.

Does this sound great?  YES!  Come to be inspired and motivated!  Visit the SCVA website now to register.  (www.scvachoral.org)   Final confirmation, schedule, directions, etc. will be sent to registrants via email.  Please share this information with a friend so you can introduce your colleagues to our organization - the only one dedicated to supporting choral music education in Southern California for over 60 years!  I look forward to seeing you on October 24!

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Hosting a Festival is a Great Experience!
Jennifer Stanley, VP of High School Festivals and Maria Fritts, VP of JH/MS Festivals

“Hosting a festival is so easy, I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner!” -  Joel Whisler, El Monte HS Choral Director

It is never too early to start planning for festival season!  We have been working to make the festival process easier for everyone, especially festival hosts.  Whether you are the director of an elementary, middle school or high school choir, there are many reasons to consider hosting a festival:
  - The registration form is easy AND ONLINE.
  - You get free festival registration for one of your choirs at each festival you host.
  - You don’t have to get a bus to go to festival.
  - You provide schools in your area a quality performance opportunity.
  - You and your students get to see other choirs and hear quality literature.
  - Your students have the comfort and familiarity of performing in their regular auditorium (home court advantage!).
  - Students enjoy the responsibility of assisting in the running of the festival.
  - You get excellent networking opportunities with other directors in the festival, and with the adjudicators.

SCVA will provide for each festival host:
  - Information on the duties of a festival host
  - A list of participating choirs with contact information for each director
  - All forms needed to run the festival (paper copies, or forms online)
  - Plaques delivered to your school for each participating ensemble
  - Certified adjudicators scheduled for each festival by SCVA

A regular festival has eight participating choirs and two adjudicators. One adjudicator tapes his/her comments, and the other writes comments on the score sheet.  Both adjudicators’ scores are averaged to determine the rating (if desired by each director).  If you would like to host a clinic festival, please indicate that on your form; a clinic festival has a maximum of six participating choirs and one adjudicator.  After each choir performs, the adjudicator works with the ensemble onstage.  SCVA may convert a regular festival to a clinic festival if there is low enrollment.

If you are interested in hosting an ELEMENTARY FESTIVAL, or if you have questions about elementary festivals, please email Maria.

NO MORE PAPER REGISTRATION FORMS!  SCVA is online!  Festival hosts go to http://www.scvachoral.org/festival_host_reg.html to submit your festival host registration!  The deadline to submit is November 1, 2008.

Please contact us with any questions you may have! 

Jennifer Stanley                         Maria Fritts
jstanley@emuhsd.k12.ca.us      mfritts@temeculaprep.com
(626) 258-5292                       (951) 926-6776

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Young Women’s and Young Men’s Harmony Festivals - Mark Freedkin, VP of Barbershop Harmony Festivals
We are pleased to invite you to this year’s Barbershop Harmony Festivals for Young Women and Young Men.  Both events will be held at the Robert B. Moore Theater on the campus of Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.  The 4th annual “Diva Day” Young Women in Harmony Festival, sponsored by the Harborlites Chorus, will be held on Saturday, February 7, and the 9th annual “Young Men’s Harmony Festival” will be held on Saturday, February 21, sponsored by the Masters of Harmony. Both of these events will provide a unique musical opportunity for your singers and will provide a positive boost to your choral music program.

Each event will consist of morning and afternoon clinics and rehearsals, followed by a public performance in the evening with the respective adult choruses.  There will also be a clinic for music educators who would like to participate in a hands-on demonstration of how the barbershop style is taught and how it can be used to attract more young men and women into your program.

The early application fee is only $20 per singer for applications that are submitted by November 14. After November 14, the application is fee $25 per singer.  The sponsoring choruses will cover the remaining costs for all sheet music, practice CDs, rehearsal facilities, guest clinicians and performance costumes. Each singer will receive a commemorative t-shirt. We will also provide lunch and dinner for the singers, choral directors and any adult chaperones accompanying the singers.

Please download and print the appropriate application forms from the SCVA website. Complete and return the applications and forms, along with payment by cash, check or money order payable to Harborlites (for Diva Day) or Masters of Harmony (for the Young Men’s Festival).  Each event will be limited to a maximum of 250 participants, so be sure to submit your applications early.  Note that these festivals are separate events, and you must send the appropriate forms and payments to the proper recipient.

Young Women’s Festival Only:
In order to accommodate more schools, we are limiting the number of singers per school to twelve (12). Ideally we suggest 1-2 tenors, 3-4 leads, 2-3 baritones and 3-4 basses. This will allow you to perform the music as a group and use this group to help your other students learn the joy of singing four-part harmony, barbershop style. Send applications for all students you wish to participate, indicating those students beyond the initial 12 that you wish to put on the Waiting List. We will try to accommodate as many as we can.

Young Men’s Festival Only:
There is no limit to the number of singers from your school who wish to participate, but please submit your applications early to ensure that all of your singers can be accommodated.

We look forward to receiving your applications. Please contact us if you have any questions about our festivals.

Diva Day (Young Women’s Festival)           Young Men’s Harmony Festival
Karen Ridout                                                    Mark Freedkin
Harborlites Chorus                                           Masters of Harmony
Home: (714) 847-0787                                    Home: (949) 559-9621
Cell: (714) 319-2325                                       Cell: (714) 357-1187
Email: kridout@socal.rr.com                             Email: mfreedkin@yahoo.com

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Vocal Solo Competition - Colleen Kennedy, VP - Vocal Solo Competition
First things first! In the April 2008 newsletter, the Vocal Solo Competition winners were announced. Those singers were given their final placement at the Jr. High/Middle School Honor Choir concert on Sunday, May 4. SCVA congratulates these fine, young singers (and their teachers!) on their achievement.

JH/MS Winner Austin Lee        8th grade          La Canada High School            Anne Cherchian, director
HS 6th Place    Zach Wetzel     12th grade        La Canada High School            Anne Cherchian, director
HS 5th Place    Erika Higuchi    11th grade        Bishop Amat Memorial High School     Linda Corwin,voice teacher
HS 4th Place    Zoe Johnson     12th grade        Harvard-Westlake School        Rodger Guerrero, director
HS 3rd Place    Olivia Hernandez          12th grade        Fullerton Union High School     Scott Hedgecock, director
HS 2nd Place   Brandon Levin  11th grade        Harvard-Westlake School        Rodger Guerrero, director
HS 1st Place    Davis Hansen   12th grade        La Canada High School            Anne Cherchian, director

Even though I have already thanked the site hosts, adjudicators and teachers for their help with last year’s competition, I would just like to express again my heartfelt gratitude for the work that they all put into making the event successful.

I cannot stress strongly enough the value to your students, and to your choirs, of participation in the SCVA Vocal Solo Competition. It’s so much more than a competition. The process of preparing and performing a solo for adjudication, in and of itself, provides singers with a tremendous opportunity for growth as musicians. Add to that watching and listening to their peers and receiving guidance by leaders in the field, and you’ve got one powerful experience. The educational master-class aspect of the competition is emphasized throughout the process, so that everyone, novices to veterans, can benefit from participation. Some choral directors have found the solo competition experience so valuable that they require members of their ensembles to participate.

Over the years, several of our adjudicators (and teachers) have been critical of repertoire that, in their opinion, was not appropriate at this level. When choosing solo repertoire for the young voices of our students, we need to be very careful to protect and nurture their growing instruments. Art songs are a wonderful source for beginners, including books such as Twenty-Four Italian Art Songs and Arias (published by G. Schirmer, also 26 Italian Song and Arias edited by Paton), Brahms lieder and French songs from Gabriel Fauré. For more advanced students, a good rule of thumb for choosing arias is to look for works by Mozart and Handel, as well as styles of music that emulate those composers. Puccini is not recommended at this level. Some young coloratura sopranos may be able to sing more difficult arias, such as the “doll aria” from Tales of Hoffman, “Les oiseaux dans la charmille,” without strain, so those arias could be appropriate for those students. Heidi Cissell, the choral director at Oak Park High School, has put together an excellent list of suggested pieces and songbooks that I will post to the SCVA web site. Thank you, Heidi, for compiling this useful resource!

If any of you have additional arias and/or art songs that you feel are appropriate, or not appropriate, for the middle/high school level, please send those titles to me. It would be helpful to develop our own suggested repertoire list that we can provide to our adjudicators, so that each year, they can add their suggestions or tell us ahead of time whether they feel that any of the repertoire listed is not appropriate.

There was information in last April’s newsletter about a change to the choral requirement for the solo competition. During the application process last year, there was some confusion about the choral requirement. For several years, community choral organizations were accepted as fulfilling this requirement. However, because of the confusion, the SCVA Board has revisited the choral requirement issue. We are considering making the choral requirement for the vocal solo competition the same as that for the honor choirs. Namely, applicants would be required to be active members in their school choral program. As with the honor choirs, exceptions may be considered for students who are home-schooled or whose schools do not have choral programs. The Board feels that this revised requirement would maintain consistency among the various SCVA events, and it would also better serve the stated goal of the SCVA to promote choral music in the schools. The revision to the solo competition is awaiting approval by the new Board. The new requirement would be effective for this year’s competition, so please plan accordingly.

Once again, I’m soliciting for volunteers to host the preliminary rounds in January. This is a perfect entry-level event for anyone who is interested in becoming more involved in SCVA. All you need is a room with decent acoustics, a tuned piano, and seating for maybe 40 - 50 people. The average choir room is just fine. It doesn’t require much time on your part, outside of competition day. Everything you need will be sent to you in a packet. The only prep work is filling in the names of singers on their certificates. On competition day, you simply collect the paperwork in a postage-paid envelope and drop it in the nearest mailbox. It really is that easy.

Dates to remember:
  - Saturday, December 5, 2008: Application postmark deadline
  - Saturday, January 10, 2009: Preliminary round
  - Saturday, March 7, 2009: Final round
  - Final performances at the Jr. High/Middle School Honor Choir concert (date TBA)

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WEBSITE UPDATE - Mark Freedkin, SCVA Webmaster
Over the past year, we have greatly expanded the ability to register or apply for SCVA activities and events using on-line forms through our website.  This has helped us to improve accuracy and response times, as well as reducing postage expenses.

You can also use the PayPal interface on our website to pay for membership renewals, festival registrations and other SCVA fees using a major credit card (such as MasterCard, Visa, Discover or American Express) as an alternative to sending school checks, booster checks, cashier checks or money orders.  PayPal, which is owned and operated by e-Bay, is easy to use and ensures a timely and secure payment for those items.  And you don't need to have your own personal PayPal account in order to use this interface.

To use this feature, select the "e-Payments" item from the navigation menu of the SCVA website.  You will then see a list of items that you can purchase.  Fill-in the required information for the item you wish to purchase (such as "School Name" and "Choir Name"), and then click on the "Add to Cart" button for that item.  If you wish to purchase additional items in the same transaction, you can return to the e-Payments page to select those additional items and add them to your cart.  When you have made all of your selections and are ready to make your payment, you can click on the "Proceed to Checkout" button.  Then select the link next to the line that reads "Don't have a PayPal account?"  Then enter your name, email address, credit card account number and expiration date.  If you continue, your credit card will be billed and you will be returned to the SCVA website.  You will also receive a separate confirmation e-mail message, which you should print out keep as proof of purchase.  When you receive your monthly credit card statement, the transaction will appear as: "PAYPAL*SCVACHORAL".  A modest processing fee is added to each purchase to cover our costs for using this on﷓line service.  Your private credit card account information is always protected and never divulged to anyone within the SCVA organization.

If you already have your own personal PayPal account, please always use the "e-Payments" page to select the items you wish to purchase and login to your account from the Checkout page, rather than creating your own independent e-check transfers. This will help us maintain accurate records of electronic payments that have been made.

How to Save Money When Using PayPal
When using PayPal to pay the application or participation fees for multiple students, you can minimize the processing fees by adding the desired item to your Shopping Cart only one time, and then specify a quantity for that one item.  You should not add the same item to your Shopping Cart multiple times (once for each student), since that will result in a larger processing fee added to you total transaction.

If you have any comments, questions or problems with any of the pages on our website, please contact Mark Freedkin at mfreedkin@yahoo.com

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News from the CMEA Choral Representative – Dr. Christopher W. Peterson
As the incoming CMEA State Choral Representative, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Christopher Peterson, and I am Associate Professor of Music at California State University, Fullerton where I conduct the collegiate men’s chorus and teach courses in choral music education. Prior to coming to California I taught for six years at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and also for nine years in the public schools of Maine. I have been on faculty at CSUF for one year, and I have already had the pleasure of meeting many of you through festivals and conventions, both in California and across the country. I hope your summer has been reinvigorating and fun, and I wish you the best as you begin this academic year.

I have important news to bring to you. This year CMEA will be offering a new opportunity for middle-level choral musicians, the CMEA Middle School Honor Choir. This exciting event will be available to students in grades six through nine, and the rehearsals and concert will take place during the CMEA In-Service Conference in March. Singers will be selected by taped audition, and the choir will number about one hundred voices. Specific instructions for audition materials will be available soon. Here are some important dates to mark on your calendar right away:

November 7, 2008:      Postmarked deadline for audition materials to be sent to the CMEA Choral  Representative
November 21, 2008:    Notification of accepted singers via the CMEA website
December 15, 2008:     Postmarked deadline for paperwork and fees to be returned to CMEA
January 12, 2009:         Music packets and related materials mailed to accepted singers
March 12–14, 2008:    Middle School Honor Choir Festival in Ontario, CA

We are very excited about this event, and we hope you will consider encouraging your students to audition for the choir. Our conductor will be Dr. Anna Hamre, Director of Choral Activities at California State University, Fresno. She is a dynamic and inspiring conductor, and your students will love making music with her.  Many of us were inspired to pursue the choral art after experiencing a life-changing interaction with music at a festival in our formative years. It is our hope that this festival will inspire more young singers to make choral music an integral part of their lives, and to keep music as a central and irreplaceable part of their daily experience. I am looking forward to meeting and talking with more of you this year, and I am honored to be among the music professionals in this great state. Please feel free to contact me with your ideas or questions. (cpeterson@fullerton.edu)

Complete audition information, participation details, and all forms will be available on the CMEA Website after September 10, 2008.  Go to www.calmusiced.com and click the link to the CMEA Sections and the Southern Section (VII).  Be Well, CHRIS

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Other Important Information
On-Line SCVA Membership Application
On-Line Festival Host Application