Repertoire and Standards - College and University Choirs
Spring 2010 Update:
PA Collegiate Choral Festival Offers Outstanding Performing Experience for College/University Singers
by Hank Alviani, Clarion University
The Pennsylvania Collegiate Choral Festival has been offered annually for over 50 years by a consortium of member institutions. Each fall, the institutions pool their limited individual funds to create a Festival Honor Chorus experience under the guidance of a nationally recognized conductor and pedagogue. The result is an artistic and educational opportunity for college students that most institutions could not mount on their own. The Festival also profits individual directors as they observe rehearsals, learn new repertoire and techniques, and share their ideas and repertoire in directors’ meetings.
The Festival is open to all Pennsylvania colleges and universities - private and public, church and secular. Participating institutions contribute a modest Institutional Fee and select their own participating students. Students may be undergraduate or graduate level; music majors or non-majors. The diversity of the ensemble is one of its greatest strengths.
This year internationally renowned choral conductor Paul Salamunovich led the 115-voice Pennsylvania Collegiate Choral Association (PCCA) Chorus in its annual festival in Clarion University's Marwick-Boyd Auditorium Feb. 6, 2010.
Salamunovich, a true American choral icon who has been called "an American Choral Treasure," directed the choral music program at Loyola University of Los Angeles (now Loyola-Marymount University) from 1958-90. He became the director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1990, a position he held until 2000 at which time he became director emeritus. While there he premiered many compositions by the resident composer Morton Lauridsen and received a Grammy nomination for the Chorale's recording of Lauridsen's "Lux aeterna." More recently he served as visiting conductor of the University of Southern California Chamber Singers 2007-08. Salamunovich has been guest conductor for 838 choral festivals, such as this one, in all 50 states and around the world.
This year's chorus featured singers from Clarion University, Henry A. Alviani, director; Bloomsburg University, Alan Baker; Slippery Rock University, Stephen Barr; Thiel College, Michael Bray; Geneva College, Robert Copeland; Indiana University, James C. Dearing; Immaculata University, Regina Gordon; Seton Hill University, Marvin Huls; Westminster College, Robin Lind; East Stroudsburg University, James Maroney; Lebanon Valley College, Mark Mecham; York College, Grace Muzzo; Mercyhurst College, Rebecca Ryan; and Juniata College, Russell Shelley. Bonnie Ferguson performed as festival pianist and accompanist.
The program included: "Music Spread Thy Voice Around" by Handel; "Sicut cervus" by Palestrina; "Kyrie eleison" from "Missa secunda" by Hassler; "Let Thy Holy Spirit" by Tschesnokoff; "Go, Lovely Rose" by Halsey Stevens; "O Magnum Mysterium" by Lauridsen; "The Promise of Living" by Copland; and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" arranged by Ringwald.
The 2011 festival will be held at Indiana University of Pennsylvania February 3-5, 2011, hosted by Dr. James C. Dearing. The guest conductor will be William Dehning, recently retired from the University of Southern California. Check the PCCA website at www.pacollegiatechoral.org for details about the Festival.
A Word of Welcome from Your R&S Chair
Dear Colleagues,
I am honored to serve as the College and University Choir R&S Chair for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The challenges we face as conductors in higher education are as varied as our institutions, and yet many of them are the same. Whether we conduct choral ensembles at a large research university or at a small liberal arts college, we strive to select challenging repertoire, program innovative concerts, provide sound educational performing opportunities for our students, and continually develop as professionals.
Some of us are fairly new to life in higher education, while others of us are more “seasoned.” It is my hope that we can use the ACDA-PA network to communicate with one another. We can take advantage of this webpage to share ideas, recommend both new and “tried and true” repertoire, suggest outstanding workshops, seek and offer advice on everything from the best way to handle ordering choral attire to how to get proper load credit for the choral ensembles we direct, and support each other as only other professionals in our field can.
And speaking of other professionals in our field, I want to alert you to an organization that is specifically for us. The National Collegiate Choral Organization (www.ncco-usa.org) had its inaugural conference in 2006, and its second conference was held last year. The next conference is Nov. 5-9, 2009, at Yale University. This new organization offers a wealth of information for us. Most members are also members of ACDA. The NCCO conferences by no means replace the experience of the ACDA state, division, and national conferences for us. We all know that our membership in ACDA is crucial to our development as professionals. Among many other advantages, ACDA enhances our ability to recruit singers from outstanding high school programs, and it enables us to keep our finger on the pulse of our profession. NCCO is an additional way that we as college and university choral conductors can interact with and support each other.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or needs you may have. This R&S page is for you. I’m just here to start the conversation. I look forward to working with all of you!
Sincerely,
Susan Medley
Susan A. Medley, DMA
College & University R&S Chair, 2009-2011
Associate Professor of Music
Director of Choral Activities
Washington & Jefferson College
Phone: 724-223-6115
E-mail: smedley@washjeff.edu
