SCVA Newsletter (on-line version) – May 2003
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Show Choir Spectacular is just around the
corner! 29 choirs will compete in
this exciting event on Saturday, May 3 at Long Beach Poly High School. Even if you do not have a choir
competing, come check it out! You
will be impressed! (Remember, we
are not doing pre-sale tickets this year. All chaperones and non-performers must
purchase tickets in order to be admitted into the auditorium. Tickets are
$5.00.)
Adjudicators for the Show Choir Spectacular are
Gerald Eskelin, Tom Kessler, and John Wilson. Please enjoy reading their bio's
provided below:
Gerald Eskeline's musical career is multi-faceted,
spanning five decades of conducting, singing, composing, writing, and teaching.
He is the founder and director of both L.A. Jazz Choir and the Gerald Eskelin
Singers and has been nominated for two Grammy Awards for his work with those
groups. Dr. Eskelin has taught music at the University of Southern California
and the California Institute of the Arts and is currently on the music staff at
Los Angeles Pierce College. He has conducted both choral and instrumental
ensembles and is equally at home in both classical and popular musical genres.
Dr. Eskelin is a noted author who wrote Lies My Music Teacher Taught Me. His
current literary effort is a book on The Components Of Vocal Blend, in which he
shares his unique concepts for creating the sounds that earned him an
international reputation for choral
excellence.
Tom Kessler has a wealth of knowledge and experience
in both instrumental and choral music education. He has served as the director
of the San Gabriel Valley Symphony and as an adjudicator with SCVA and SCSBOA.
For many years he headed the award-winning choral program at West Covina High
School, earning a reputation for musical excellence as well as numerous state
and national awards. Show
choirs under his direction were well known for their innovation and expertise in
the field of choreography, while always maintaining musical integrity. Since
retiring from teaching, Mr. Kessler has been in great demand as an adjudicator
and clinician at choral festivals and competitions throughout
California.
John Wilson, singer, director, and arranger,
received his music education as a
in Minnesota. As a graduate
student, he was a member of the famed University of Minnesota Chamber Singers.
While serving as choral director at Azusa High School, he created and produced
the longest running Pop Choral Festival, the Aztec Sing. He was also the
National Coordinator and adjudicator for Johnny Mann's Great American Choral
Festival. John has been a studio singer for records, motion pictures,
television, and commercials for many years, and his choral arrangements have
been performed by award winning groups in the United States and Europe. Mr.
Wilson has been active as Minister of Music and soloist for various churches and
for thirty-five years was a choral director in California public
schools.
I'm really looking forward to this event. This is a great opportunity for my
students and I to see and hear all of the great work going on this year. See you
soon!
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Join us for the Junior High/Middle School Honor
Choir Concert on Sunday afternoon, May 4.
Peter Rutenberg, director of the Los Angeles Chamber
Singers, conducts this year's Honor Choir in what is sure to be a wonderful
afternoon of music. Darin Goulet
joins us as accompanist. I'm
thrilled that our students have the chance to work with these talented
professionals.
Also appearing on the program, will be the finalists
of the SCVA Solo Vocal Competition.
Help us to congratulate these young singers as their awards are announced
at the concert.
The concert begins at 3 p.m. at Lincoln Middle
School. (1501 California Ave. Santa
Monica) Tickets are $5 each and can
be purchased at the door.
Thank you to everyone who graciously served as site
hosts and adjudicators. Your
efforts are greatly appreciated!
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It's never too early for Regional Honor Choir
information! Actually, I don't have
a lot of specifics to give you - just some
forewarnings.
A special Honor Choir newsletter will be mailed to
all SCVA members in June. Be sure
that . . .
•
your membership is current
•
SCVA has your accurate mailing
address
•
you read it carefully making note of all deadlines, guidelines and rules
•
you get materials prepared for the start of school since the postmark
deadline for audition applications comes within the first few
weeks
Saturday, October 4 and Saturday, October 11. (Because of the Rosh Hashanah holiday,
the last weekend in September, traditionally an audition weekend, will not be
available.)
If you are interested in hosting an audition site,
let me know right away so I can put an audition schedule in the June
newsletter. Hosting a site is
not a huge amount of work and gives your students a very convenient place to
audition. SCVA strives to have
sites spread equally throughout the region. The more people who volunteer, the more
equitable the geographical locations can be. It would be nice if some of the sites
offered afternoon audition times so that students get the maximum number of
options available to them.
Although it's a little early to schedule
adjudicators (especially since we have no audition sites yet), if you are
interested, let me know and I'll keep you on a "reserve list". If you don't notify me now, don't
worry you'll be receiving plenty of
harassing e-mails in the months to come.
Feel free to send any suggestions you might have
about how to improve SCVA Regional Honor Choir this year. Be sure your idea is feasible and
constructive. Complaints don't
help, ideas do. One
improvement we will be making is to ask all site hosts to keep a list of
auditionees' names and scores before mailing back the score sheets. That way, if any packet is lost in the
mail we can still proceed in a timely
manner.
I have not contracted conductors yet for the 2003
event. If you have suggestions, let
me know. Please contact me using my
email address on the front page of the newsletter. I'm looking forward to another exciting
Honor Choir next year.
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I hope that everyone is enjoying a busy and
successful festival season. Many
thanks to all of our members who hosted festivals and also to those serving as
adjudicators. The festival
experience continues to be one of our most valuable teaching
tools.
You're probably not thinking about next year's festival experiences just yet, but my guess is that many of you are already planning your calendars for the coming school year. If you plan to host an SCVA choral festival next year and have calendared the date with your school or church, please fill out the Festival Host Application.
It is my hope that we can move toward announcing our
SCVA festival calendar prior to the start of the school year. Currently we
schedule our dates during the winter and then go through the "February crunch"
of filling and staffing all of the events. Let's see if we can start
the 2003-2004 school year with our festivals already in
place!
Any questions?
Call me!
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January 16
Bonita Vista Fantasy Festival
January 23 Azusa
Aztec Sing
February 6 Brea Olinda
Festival 2004
February 13 Tournament of
Champions
February 20 Diamond Bar
Spectacular
March 13
Hart Encore
March 19
Arcadia Big Pow Wow
March 20
Brea Olinda Ladies First
March 26
Burroughs Music Showcase
March 27
Bonita Vista For Ladies Only
April 17
Carlsbad
April 23-24 Chula Vista
Invitational
Other Important Information
SCVA Membership
Application
Festival Host
Application Form