Community Workshops:
Boulder Coffee Co.
Rochester, NY
March 18th, 2012
Henrietta, NY
March 4th, 2012
We have a good amount of information about the Blank Tape Series up at the new website, www.blanktapeseries.com, so we'll focus this post on our Choral workshop from the March tour.
Through working in a lot of different instrumental and vocal settings in Rochester, I’ve (Chris) had the opportunity to connect with many truly gifted and inspiring directors and ensembles.
In the last year I’ve been fortunate to work regularly with Vera Forster and her choir at John Calvin Presbyterian Church; a wonderful group of people who always bring great spirit and focus to their performances. I’ve had the chance to sub for Vera in directing the choir several times, as well as drumming for special “jazz services” along with regular organist (and fellow Eastmanite) Jeff McLeod, so when Vera invited an IfCM collaboration during the recent March tour, it was an easy yes. Along with Jeff on organ and piano, we brought bassist Kyle Vock to round out the instrumental ensemble.
The choir normally rehearses from 8:45-9:45AM on Sunday
mornings before their 10AM service, a quick and focused preparation of 3 pieces
(for the Introit, Anthem, and Benediction).
Additional hymns (usually 3) are also led by the organist and choir for
congregational singing but not rehearsed.
Given the limited same-day rehearsal and performance time Vera often
refers to rehearsal as ‘triage’. For the
IfCM’s workshop/performance we chose to incorporate some of the regular
rehearsal in learning the introit from written music, and
the anthem and benediction by wrote. All
3 pieces were performed at the service without sheet music, a departure from
their individual and group’s learning norm.
Following the service, we had the opportunity to discuss the
experience with the choir. Here are some
observations:
On learning and performing by wrote with no sheet music:
"With no one to look to, you had to come up with (the material) on
your own. You had to pay attention, listen carefully, concentrate a little
more"
"
(there was) structure, but less structure. If you made a mistake you kind of knew where
to go"
"
Comfortable to learn"
"Relaxing"
"It was beneficial to learn all three parts (melody, bass line, inner harmony)"
On having a band accompany and take solos:
"Nice to have insight in how another group (the instrumental
band) treated the material."
"If was great having a kick-butt band"
"Nice to look
in on how other musicians function"
The IfCM looks forward to expanding our choral programs and
relationships with similar community organizations. We’d love to come collaborate with your choir
or community group, contact us at ifcmusicorg@gmail.com
to discuss!
Chris Teal and Nick Finzer
Artistic Directors, Institute for Creative Music
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