1 WSU Educational Choral Festival Festival Guide Sponsored by: The Choral Music Program of the Washington State University School of Music Date: Saturday, October 28, 2017 Location: Contact: Kimbrough and Bryan Halls, Washington State University, Pullman 8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m., Individual Festival Performances and Workshops 5:00 p.m. 6:30 p.m. Concluding Festival Concert Dr. Lori Wiest WSU School of Music Pullman, WA 99164-5300 Ph: 509-335-5647 Fax: 509-335-4245 Email: lwiest@wsu.edu Reservation Date: Applications must be postmarked or emailed by midnight, October 2, 2017. Goal: We wish to challenge you and your choir to begin your academic year by planning now to participate in this fall festival: a non-competitive clinic which is held early in the year, offering the opportunity to receive feedback from respected clinicians in a positive workshop environment. Our choral festival will help begin the year by identifying technical/expressive projects, setting goals, and will feature real contact time with a clinician for you and your choir. Objective: The festival is meant to excite, encourage, and educate your students, developing a spirit of camaraderie and commitment. Performance level should be an important goal; however, we have designed this festival to be educational, noncompetitive, and motivating. Clinicians: Our clinicians are effective motivators in the field of choral music and will offer their knowledge and experience to you. Your choir will have a total of 40 minutes following your performance to work exclusively with one of our clinicians. They will encourage you and your students to take an active role in setting goals for the year. Our clinicians have been asked to work in a positive manner, encouraging the singers to try new ideas and to work towards high musical standards and towards their goals. Each director will also be able to meet with that clinician privately. This has been a useful time to discuss matters from classroom management to new ideas on vocal technique and literature.
2 Cost: We have explored all means in attempting to keep this festival as inexpensive as possible. In trying to meet your expectations of bringing in recognized clinicians and in keeping with our educational goals, the registration fee for the entire day is $195 per choir. You will receive: ~A 20-minute warm up time as scheduled ~A 20-minute performance time as scheduled ~A 40-minute clinic for your choir with one of the clinicians ~A 20-minute conference time for you and the clinician to talk about your concerns ~Hand-written comments from the clinician(s) ~Ideas for the growth and development specifically for your choir ~Recordings of your performance ~A computer printout of goals and objectives discussed during your clinic ~A certificate of participation in the festival ~A full day of choral performances WARM-UP: Location: Kimbrough 115 This is a multi-purpose classroom. Do not plan to leave valuables in this room. It will remain unlocked at all times. Around 1000 people will pass through this room in one day. 20 minutes Please arrive on time for your warm-up in this room. A WSU student will be assigned to meet you in front of the door of this room a few minutes before your warm up time. Please be as quiet as possible when waiting to enter the room as another choir will probably be in the room completing their warm up and the Concert Hall, where the performances will take place, is a few steps away. Also be aware that you will be asked to leave the warm up area on time in order to keep the flow of the festival on schedule. Equipment: Choral Risers, Grand Piano, 4 Music Stands Restrooms: Restrooms and Water Fountains are located near this room. PERFORMANCE: Location: Kimbrough Concert Hall 20 minutes. Allotted time includes any stage setup and travel to and from the performance location. Festival personnel will stop choirs that go
3 over their allotted 20-minute performance time in order for the festival to remain on schedule. Equipment: 6 sets of Choral Risers with 4 th steps, Grand Piano, 4 Music Stands No equipment is provided for any taped accompaniment. No equipment is provided for sound reinforcement. Music Selection: Each director is expected to choose quality choral music appropriate for the level of their respective choir(s). We are not requiring a specific number of songs to be performed; 3-4 are suggested. Please provide 4 copies of each of your selections for the clinicians. Photocopied Music: No photocopied music bearing copyright is allowed at this festival without written evidence of copyright permission, which must be furnished to the Festival Director in advance. Expectations: We realize this festival is early in the academic school year. We hope that you and your choir will challenge yourselves to present a performance that is as polished as possible. Again, the purpose of this festival is to assist you in an early start for the school year and opportunities for you and your choir to establish direction and goals with the assistance of our clinicians. Clinicians: The clinicians will write constructive comments during your performance. One of the clinicians will write comments for all choirs throughout the day. One of the rotating clinicians will travel with your group for the clinic, goal setting, and director conference. Accompanists: If you are in need of an accompanist, notify Lori Wiest as soon as possible to secure a qualified student pianist from WSU and provide a copy of the music. A charge of $35 will be attached to your fee, payable to WSU Choral Festival or to the specific pianist. The assigned accompanist will be paid the full amount for their service. CLINICIAN AND GOAL-SETTING WORKSHOP Location: Kimbrough B42 or Kimbrough B48 (our choral and band rehearsal rooms)
4 40 minutes (immediately following your performance) Equipment: Choral Risers, Grand Piano, 4 Music Stands No equipment will be provided for any taped accompaniment. Expectations: During this time, the clinician will present a number of ideas that you and your choir may take with you for future growth of your ensemble. If the performance music is memorized, please have the performed music and pencils available to your students while the clinician is working with your choir. We ask that each choral director and choir, with the assistance of the clinician, use this time to construct a strategy of obtainable goals to build upon throughout the remainder of the 2015-2016 academic year. We will provide each choir with a computer typeset list of their goals developed during this session which you can take home with you and post in your rehearsal room. DIRECTOR/CLINICIAN PRIVATE CONFERENCE: Location: Kimbrough B41 20 minutes (immediately following your Goal-Setting Workshop) Equipment: Table and Chairs, Music Stands Expectations: This is an opportunity for private discussion between the director and the clinician. Use this time for idea-sharing. Festival Workshops/Performances: We offer workshops and/or performances throughout the day that will assist you and your students. We hope that you will encourage your students to participate. Festival Concert: A culminating concert will be held at 5:00 p.m. in Bryan Concert Hall, concluding around 6:30 p.m. The clinicians will be asked to select example choirs to perform during this concert. This decision will be based on the choir s ability to demonstrate various aspects of choral singing. Also featured on this concert will be the WSU Concert Choir and WSU Madrigal/Chamber Singers. Lodging and Meals: A list of restaurants and hotels is available on our Choral Festival website. Some choirs use this festival as part of a retreat weekend. We invite you to explore that possibility for group bonding and ensemble building!
5 Maps: Maps of Pullman and WSU are available on our Choral Festival website. Parking: Directions to Kimbrough Hall and for parking will be included with your festival confirmation packet. Choral Festival Website: https://music.wsu.edu/area-information/vocal-choral/choralfestival/ We encourage you and your students to attend as many of the festival performances by other choirs as possible. It helps students to learn appropriate concert etiquette as well as varied ideas of choral sound, performance skills, and choral literature. We ask that all students behave in a manner that is conductive to a healthy learning environment for those in the audience and those performing on stage. It will be helpful to have chaperones available to assist you with this task.