SCVA Newsletter (on-line version) – September 2007
===================================================================================
Message from the President – Mark Henson
Welcome to another exciting season of music-making! Last year’s events were very successful
and touched the lives of many young singers. What a wonderful opportunity we
have as choral directors! I wonder
if my music directors ever imagined that the musical experiences we shared in
junior high and high school would continue to be meaningful and relevant in my
life so many years later? Perhaps
you will be inspiring the next Paul Salamunovich, Eric Whitacre, or Lynn
Bielefelt in your choir this year.
If you are not yet a member of SCVA, this newsletter contains many of the
reasons you should join us. As you
will see, we have a wonderful slate of events planned for the year. If you are already a member, this is
your chance to share our wonderful organization with your colleagues. Invite them to join so that they and
their singers can take advantage of all the choral community has to offer.
The SCVA website is available to all.
On the site you’ll find details regarding upcoming events, registration
materials, applications, contact information, etc. Last spring’s Show Choir Spectacular was our organization’s
first “paperless” event and proved to be a great success. This year we will be processing more
events through the website, so please check out this valuable resource.
Fall In-Service and the High School Honor Choirs are just around the
corner. Details pertaining to
these exciting events are inside this newsletter as well as on the
website. If you’ve not
participated in the past, what have you been waiting for? I urge you to complete a membership
application today to begin or renew your membership.
Your Executive Board is anticipating a wonderful year. We are here to support YOU, so please let us know how we can help. Best wishes for a wonderful year.
===================================================================================
SCVA
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
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 13-15 in
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. 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 by contacting Sheri Nelson at sherinelson@hotmail.com
All students in
Regional Honor Choir Conductors
We are proud to announce this year’s conductors for the Regional Honor
Choirs. Dr. Sharon Paul, from the
Important Dates:
On-Line
Application Registration Deadline:
Friday,
September 14, 2007
Audition
Dates:
Saturday,
September 29, 2007
Saturday,
October 6, 2007
First
Rehearsal:
Saturday,
October 27, 2007 9:30am –
4pm
Honor
Choir Weekend:
Friday
& Saturday, November 16 & 17
Concert: November 17 7:30pm
March
13-15, 2008,
$$$ Pay
with PAYPAL!!!
$$$
SCVA has been using PayPal now for the past three 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 NEW ON LINE
REGISTRATION, it’s even easier!
You may use any major credit card for a $1.00 processing fee. Print out a confirmation sheet and
either send it in the mail or email 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,
Dr. Rich Brunner at rbrunner@oakwoodschool.org
or Tammi Alderman at talderman@falconchoir.org.
CHANGES in Audition Procedures!!
Starting this year, the scoring
amounts will change: the performance will only be worth 40pts and the theory
portion increased to 60pts. In
addition, the theory portion will include 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 several 4-5 note passages 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 8th. A $65.00 fee will be
collected at the first rehearsal on October 27th. 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. Choral directors are responsible for remaining informed about their students’ continued participation in the Honor Choir.
New On-Line Audition Application Process!
No More Paper Applications!
We’re streamlining and simplifying the audition application process for
this year. Mark Freedkin has
prepared a simple on-line entry form on the SCVA Website that your students can
use to submit their audition application electronically. The new on-line form is now available
by clicking on the link below.
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 and second choice audition sites into the on-line form. The student must also enter his/her director's e-mail address. In addition, the student 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 $10.00 audition fee using any major credit card (MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express).
An automated e-mail message will be sent to the director for each student that applies. The body of the e-mail message will include a link to a special webpage 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 enter his/her contact and school information. The director’s information is then stored for each new applicant.
This new on-line audition application process is designed to reduce the amount of logistics and paperwork for you, the choral director. You just need to have an e-mail address and a computer system with Internet access. This new process will also eliminate a tremendous amount of paperwork and manual data entry by the Honor Choir coordinators, and improve the accuracy of our information, making the entire Honor Choir experience more positive for everyone.
On-Line Honor Choir Audition Application
===================================================================================
CALL FOR HONOR CHOIR ADJUDICATORS! - Rodger Guerrero, VP- High School
Honor Choir
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 and let me
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 29th
9am-1pm |
Saturday, October 6th
12pm-4pm |
|
Canyon HS, Canyon Country |
Cal State Fullerton, Fullerton |
|
Irvine HS, Irvine |
Rancho Cucamonga HS, Rancho Cucamonga |
|
Mark Keppel HS, Alhambra |
Crescenta Valley HS, La Crescenta |
|
Rancho Verde HS, Moreno Valley |
Oakwood School, North Hollywood |
|
Temecula Valley HS, Temecula |
Poway HS, Poway |
|
Redlands HS, Redlands |
Los Alamitos HS, Los Alamitos |
|
Westview HS, San Diego |
Nordhoff HS, Ojai |
===================================================================================
2007 Fall In-Service – Grace Sheldon-Williams, Past President
Join us for the annual SCVA Fall In-Service Workshop at Placentia
Presbyterian Church on Friday, October 26, beginning at 9 a.m. This year’s workshop will feature
several valuable sessions, including another Adjudicator Certification
Workshop. The workshop will
include a clinic led by an experienced adjudicator who will walk prospective
adjudicators through the process before they are asked to adjudicate a choir on
their own. Once again, if
you are interested in becoming an SCVA festival adjudicator, this workshop is
the first step in that process.
Also, you won’t want to miss our headliner: Dr. Joshua Haberman from San Francisco State
University! Josh is a wonderful
conductor and clinician (and awesome person!) who will offer us insights into
teaching choral music along with a selection of usable literature.
Other interest sessions will include:
- Elementary Music and Materials
- Intro to Jazz Choir
- Reading Session of quality
literature for developing choirs
You can look forward to being inspired by our outstanding clinicians. The In-Service is also a great networking opportunity -- Invite your colleagues!! Please use the registration form below. We look forward to seeing you there!
On-Line Fall In-Service Application
===================================================================================
Vocal Jazz – Jamie Shew, VP, Jazz Choir
I am thrilled to continue being the Vocal Jazz Rep for SCVA! In case you don’t know me, I am the
Director of Vocal Jazz Studies at Fullerton College and perform regularly
around the greater Los Angeles area.
I have a Bachelor’s in Music Education from Washington State University
and a Master’s of Music in Jazz Voice Performance from Western Michigan
University. As Vocal Jazz Rep, I
look forward to meeting directors and to offer any assistance and resources, especially
for those just starting their choir or wanting to start one. I am also very excited to once again
host the SCVA Fall Vocal Jazz Festival at Fullerton College.
The fall semester is a great time to share your “works in progress” with
each other in a non-competitive atmosphere with professional clinicians working
with your students and providing workshops on a variety of topics. This year, the SCVA Fall Vocal Jazz
Festival will be held in the Wilshire Auditorium at Fullerton College on
December 1st. This all-day event
will end with a very special concert featuring Fullerton College’s premiere
Vocal Jazz Ensemble, “J Train,” “VJ2”, and a variety of aspiring jazz vocalists
from the Advanced Vocal Styling class.
Please put this date on your calendar!!! The festival is open to all levels, novice through
advanced. The fee is a minimal
$150 and festival participants will enjoy FREE admission to the evening concert
as well as daytime improvisation and vocal styling workshops with our
outstanding vocal jazz clinicians.
Online information and festival registration forms will soon be
available on the SCVA website.
If you have any question regarding the festival and concert, have some
parenting advise (I’m a new mom as of July 25th!), or you just want to chat,
please contact Jamie at jshew@fullcoll.edu
More California 2007-2008 Vocal Jazz Festivals/Workshops to consider……….
* November 1, 2007 – Fullerton HS Vocal Jazz Festival, Fullerton, CA
* November 2-3—Cuesta College Vocal Jazz Workshop, San Luis Obispo, CA
* December 1—SVCA Vocal Jazz Festival at Fullerton College, Fullerton, CA http://www.scvachoral.org
* January 26 – Folsom Jazz Festival, Folsom, CA http://folsommusic.org/jazz.html
* March 7-8 – Columbia College Vocal Jazz Festival, Sonora, CA
* March 14-15 – Oceanside Jazz Festival (Mira Costa College), Oceanside, CA www.mattfalker.com
* March 28—Val Verde Jazz Festival at Rancho Verde H.S., Riverside, CA http://www.valverde.edu
* April 4-5—Fullerton College Jazz Festival, Fullerton, CA http://fcfinearts.fullcoll.edu/jazzfest
(Sorry for my shameless plug!!!
We are continuing the College/University component to the festival this
year. This is a great opportunity
for your students to hear a variety of colleges and universities and possibly
visit with the directors!)
Don’t forget about the CMEA/IAJE All-State Jazz Honor Choir Auditions –
log onto www.calmusiced.com and click
on honor groups. Deadline is
October 31, 2007!!!!!!
Vocal Jazz Festival Application
===================================================================================
Hosting a Festival is a Great Experience
Jennifer Stanley, VP of High School Festivals
Maria Fritts, VP of Junior High/Middle School 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.
- 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
- A list of participating choirs
with contact information for each director
- 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 Jennifer Stanley!
On-Line Festival Host Application (under
construction)
===================================================================================
Vocal Solo Competition – Colleen Kennedy, VP - Vocal Solo Competition
As some of you already know, I have resumed my post as VP for the vocal solo
competition. A major change that I am initiating is to secure sites for the
preliminary round ahead of time and list them on the application, similar to
the honor choir auditions. I think that knowing the preliminary round sites in
advance will go a long way towards encouraging our students to participate.
So far, we have confirmed the following sites for the preliminary rounds:
- Crescenta Valley High School, La Crescenta
- Fullerton Union High School, Fullerton (closed)
- Harvard-Westlake School, North Hollywood (closed)
We may also have additional sites in Alhambra, North Hollywood and Santa Ana.
We could still use more sites so that we can make this valuable opportunity
available to as many students as possible. 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. If I
remember correctly (it’s been a couple of years), 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. This is a perfect entry-level event for anyone
who is interested in becoming more involved in SCVA.
If you are able to provide a site for the preliminary round, please contact
me as soon as possible at colleenbkennedy@gmail.com or (310) 721-5884 (email is
preferable).
Also, we have confirmed Dr. Mark Goodrich from Cal State Los Angeles
as one of our adjudicators for the semi-final round. Thank you, Dr. Goodrich!
Dates to remember:
- Saturday, December 8, 2007: Application postmark
deadline
- Saturday, January 12, 2008: Preliminary round
- Saturday, March 8, 2008: Semi-final round
- Sunday, May 4, 2008: Final performances at the Jr.
High/Middle School Honor Choir concert
This year, I am working diligently to make this a worthwhile event that you
won’t want your students to miss. More information will be available in the
October newsletter and online at www.scvachoral.org
(click Events). Stay tuned!
===================================================================================
Website Update - Mark Freedkin, SCVA Webmaster
Several improvements have been made
over the past few months that will help improve the accuracy and efficiency of
the registration process for many SCVA activities. Most notable among those changes are the new On-Line forms
for Membership Renewals,
High School Honor Choir Audition Application and Show Choir Application.
Development of additional forms is now underway for Festival Host
Applications, Fall In-Service Applications and Junior High Honor Choir Audition
Applications.
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 and submit with your application for the SCVA activity. 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 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.
If you have any comments, questions
or problems with any of the pages on our website, please contact Mark Freedkin
at mfreedkin@yahoo.com
===================================================================================
Men and Women Singers – Ron Soderwall, VP – Young Men's Clinic
It is never too early to plan for
the Spring Young Men In Harmony and Young Women in Harmony workshop/festivals
co-sponsored by SCVA and the Barbershop Harmony Society (SPEBSQSA) and Sweet
Adelines International. Both festivals are scheduled for February in 2008
at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. Be sure to mark you calendar now with these dates:
Young Women in Harmony "Diva Day" Festival - February 2, 2008
Young Men's Harmony Festival -
February 23, 2008
Each year the Masters of Harmony
and the Harborlites use their many years of 4-part singing to train our
young men and women singers in a full day of workshops, rehearsals, concerts
and great eating. And, each year the number of junior high school, middle
school and high school singers multiply and the excitement continues to grow.
This event has spawned many quartets and men's choirs in schools where none
existed prior to the workshops. All of the training is immediately transferable
to your full repertoire for each of your choirs. In addition, the day is just
plain "FUN" in a working atmosphere of music-making at its best!
Watch your mail for the advance
publicity and student applications in the upcoming SCVA Newsletters so that
your singers won't be left out while the rest of us are having the "time
of our lives" learning and performing in a non-judgmental and fast-paced
atmosphere. Literally hundreds of young men and women participate each
year...why not have your singers join us?
Remember the dates are: Women's
festival - Saturday, February 2, 2008 and the Men's festival - Saturday,
February 23, 2008 -- all day! For additional information, please contact Karen
Ridout (kridout@socal.rr.com) for the
Women's festival or Mark Freedkin (mfreedkin@yahoo.com)
for the Men's festival.
===================================================================================
Other Important Information
On-Line SCVA Membership Application