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2012 Yale Alumni Chorus/YALE Boston Choral Festival We’re getting ready for another mid-March Choral Festival Weekend—we’ve paid for our space at Milton Academy, alerted the caterer, applied for liability insurance, reserved a bloc of rooms at the Comfort Inn, worked out a new Opening Workshop with composer/arranger/conductor Joe Gregorio (details enclosed), arranged with the Boston City Singers to join us, and have begun negotiations with a group of necromancers to ensure that the weekend of March 16-18, 2012, will be snowless. We’re still working on the music. Now it’s up to you. Fill out the application form and send it with your check, or register and pay on-line at the Yale Club of Boston’s website: www.yaleboston.org/ChoralFestival.html. It won’t be the same without you! Best wishes for 2012—and for as much singing as possible!
Linus Linus Travers linustravers1@comcast.net
Choral Festival Specifics
Dates March 16-18, 2012
Location King-Kellner Arts Center Milton Academy • 170 Centre Street, Milton, MA Opening Workshop “What Makes a Good Arrangement” Workshop led by Yale composer Joe Gregorio: Friday 4:00-6:00 p.m. Details in accompanying announcement.
Rehearsals Friday 7-10:00 p.m.; Saturday 9-12:00, 1:30-4:30 p.m.; Sunday 10-12:00, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Concert Sunday 4-5:15 p.m.; King Theater, on the Milton Academy campus; reception following. Joining us in concert briefly will be members of the Boston City Singers.
Cost $240 per person (Friday Workshop $25 additional)—includes meals (below), music, royalties, rehearsal and concert space rental, piano tuning, printing, mailing, and other overhead expenses.
Music Our work will be related to the International Choral Festival in June, along with several traditional spirituals and other works from the Alumni Chorus repertoire. Copies will be mailed six weeks before the festival weekend.
Meals Saturday and Sunday lunches will be provided at Milton Academy as part of the program cost, as will continental breakfasts and appropriate beverages during rehearsal times. Singers are free Saturday evening or may walk to the Travers' home for a modest meal shortly after rehearsal ends. A box lunch will be provided for those attending the opening workshop.
Housing Because so many of the participants live within driving distance of Milton or will wish to stay with Boston-area family or friends, we do not include housing in the program. We ask, however, that if you are willing to serve as overnight host to someone from the group that you will so indicate on the registration. Similarly, if you wish to take advantage of such home-stay hospitality, please so indicate on the application.
Marriott and Comfort Inns are within comfortable distance of Milton. A bloc of rooms at a modest price (under $100 per night) is reserved at the nearby Randolph Comfort Inn (781 961-1000); ask for the Yale Choral Festival reservation. A New Friday Workshop In past years our opening workshops have focused on vocal technique, on the act of singing, thanks to Stephanie Gregory and Sonya Baker. This year the focus shifts from how we sing to what we sing. It has a bit of a backstory. Arianne Abela introduced me to her Choral Conducting classmate Joe Gregorio during Harvard-Yale Weekend—Jeff had led Glee Club in performing one of Joe’s new works in Woolsey Hall that Friday. We talked about the intersection of the composer’s and the conductor’s perspectives, and then shifted to the singer’s perspective: what makes us think an arrangement/composition is “good” (or not good)? Most of us have had enough choral singing experience to have said more than once, "I really don't like that arrangement" or "I have a hard time singing that arrangement" or have had some other dissatisfaction response to a work. We've had the reverse response, too—"That was really fun to sing!" Most of us, polished amateurs though we may be, have never had the chance to talk with a composer/arranger/conductor about singing, about how voice parts relate smoothly or awkwardly to one another, how text and music work together (remember the definition of onomatopoeia, “sound echoes sense”?).
Ultimately I asked Joe if he would put together a Milton Friday workshop to address some of these questions, perhaps involving us in singing several versions of the same piece so we can hear composition/arrangement alternatives.
Joe said yes and sent me this description of his plan: “The workshop will explore the craft of choral composition. It will aim to give participants a sense of what from a singer's perspective makes ‘good’ choral compositions good, technically speaking. We’ll talk about principles of counterpoint and form, as well as examine several examples from the repertoires of several eras.”
I hope that if you can get to Boston/Milton three hours earlier on Friday you will take advantage of Joe’s expertise and accomplishments. See you there.
Joe sent me this brief bio note; you can learn more about his remarkable work from his website: www.josephgregoriomusic.com. A native of Gettysburg, PA, Joseph Gregorio has studied composition with Steven Stucky, David Conte, and Richard Brodhead. Gregorio’s music has twice been featured on NPR's Performance Today, has garnered prizes in several competitions, and has been performed in the United States and abroad by numerous and renowned soloists and ensembles. His choral music is published by E. C. Schirmer Music Company, Treble Clef Music Press, and the National Collegiate Choral Organization, and has been recorded by the choirs of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, the Washington Men's Camerata, the Rutgers University Glee Club, and the Cornell University Glee Club. Gregorio holds a M.M. in composition with departmental honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a M.M. in choral conducting from Yale University, and a B.A. magna cum laude in music from Cornell University. Gregorio was a professor of music theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2008-2009. He is presently an adjunct professor of music theory at Temple University.
Registration Name College/Class Address City/State/ Zip Home Phone Cell Phone Email Part Sung Yale/collegiate singing experience:
Subsequent/current singing experience:
____ I will host choristers overnight: Number____ _____ Please arrange accommodations with fellow choraliers. Number_____ ____ I will make my own overnight arrangements.
____ I enclose a check made out to the Yale Club of Boston for $240 per person ($265 if attending workshop). _____ I will register and pay on-line: $240 per person ($265 if attending workshop) www.yaleboston.org/ChoralFestival.html. Please return (postal mail, fax, email) your registration to Linus Travers, 70 Centre Street, Milton, MA 02186; 617 696-5373 (fax); ltravers@umassd.edu. Checks deserve to be mailed. |
Yale Glee Club, P.O. Box 201929, New Haven, CT 06520-1929, PH 203-432-4136, FAX 203-432-4137