News: e-notes

Chorus Connection is partnering up with Harmony Helper to present a live webinar on “The Convergence of Music, Technology and Learning in the Age of COVID-19.”

Join our ten panelists as they share their experiences navigating this new choral world amidst a global pandemic. In this roundtable, choral leaders will discuss the challenges the choral world is facing, how they are addressing these challenges within their own organizations, and present ideas for supporting the arts during this time.

Join us on Monday, August 10th at 12pm EDT. To join the Zoom call, pre-registration is requested here and is limited to 499 participants. All other interested viewers can watch the recording on Harmony Helper’s YouTube channel both live or after the event.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020
3-hour session beginning at 1 p.m. CST

Trevecca’s Center for Community Arts Innovation presents the Online, Blended & Virtual Choral Experience, August 11, 2020. Throughout this workshop, we’ll explore what it looks like to carry out the instruction, practice and performance of choral arts in an increasingly virtual world. Led by Tim Sharp, executive director of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA)

As the world pivots in the wake of 2020, we’ll discuss how choral instruction can adapt, but also thrive. Whether you’re planning for totally online instruction or a hybrid of face-to-face and online, we want to equip you to effectively engage with your students.

To  learn more about this workshop or to register, click here.

Check out this reflection by siblings, Claire and Jack Bennet, on their family ties to music making and why we need to sing more.  Claire is a freelance editor and writer, whose work has been published in The Coast. Jack is an arts professional, heavily involved with the Big Sing and Choirs for Change, and beginning studies at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law this September.

“Art is useful for sharing our inner turmoil and concerns, for protesting against injustice and lamenting grief. But too often we forget to let it express something much needed to balance those emotions: joy. Optimism is one of the jobs of the arts, and we’ve learned that through Singalong’s weekly celebrations of the world.”

–Claire and Jack Bennet 

To read the full article in The Nova Scotia Advocate, click here.

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of James “Jimmy” McNeil. An active member of Cape Breton’s choral community, Jimmy has conducted many of Cape Breton’s choruses including the Wings of the Spectrum, the award-winning Glace Bay Schools Chorale, Island Voices, and most recently Coro Cantabile. He was organist and choral director at St. Mary’s Anglican Church (Glace Bay) for many years, as well as St. Anne’s Catholic Church (Glace Bay), Bethel Presbyterian Church (Sydney), Knox United Church (Glace Bay), and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (Sydney Mines).

For those who knew Jimmy McNeil, the NSCF extends our condolences. To read the full obituary or to offer your condolences to the McNeil family, click here.

Check out Nova Voce’s performance of “She’s Called Nova Scotia”.  We hope you enjoy the beautiful landscapes of Nova Scotia that are showcased in the video. To hear more of Nova Voce’s recordings visit their website by clicking here.

Check out the  Halifax Camerata Singers perform Derek Charke’s “Sonnet to the Moon”.  Based on the poem of the same name by British poet Helen Maria Williams, the piece is set for SATB chorus a capella and solo flute, performed  by Derek Charke.  The piece is now available for streaming on various streaming platforms.

For more information, visit Lead Music Inc’s website here:
https://leaf-music.ca/product/lm2007/

This weekend, the Nova Scotia Youth Choir 2020 roster gathered (virtually) with voice faculty from The Fountain School of Performing Arts to take a deeper look at vocal health and technique as part of a two-part workshop. On Friday, July 24th,  Dr. Christina Haldane, soprano, and Betty Allison, soprano, led the choristers through discussions on the importance of vocal maintenance and the foundations of healthy vocal technique. The next day, choristers had the opportunity to have private voice lessons with our guest clinicians over Zoom and apply the theory discussed in the workshop the day before.

The NSCF is so excited to be able to provide this year’s choristers with the opportunity to develop their vocal abilities amidst the pandemic. We look forward to the second part of the vocal workshop in two weeks time!

Here is a list of tech equipment that was referenced by the presenters, as well as a guide on how to get started with Zoom.

Fiona Blackburn (BC Girls Choir), Nina Horvath (Vancouver Bach Choirs), Gordon Miller (SingYourJoy Young Adult Chorus) and Liana Savard (Vancouver Orpheus Male Voice Choir) take an interactive look at online rehearsals and other community-building tools for choirs.

Recorded live on July 9, this was the fourth in a series of Virtual Town Hall sessions designed to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on BC’s choral community in various ways. While this information is at times specific to BC, this Virtual Town Hall also provides some insights on the uncertainties of singing at this time.  

Check out two of our member choirs, The Cantabile Singers and the First United Church Choir, in their beautiful virtual performance of “There Has To Be A Song” arranged by American composer Andrea Ramsay. Exciting to see yet another choir continue to make music during times where large physical gatherings are not possible.

featuring the Cantabile distanSingers and First United Church Choir-intine
Truro, Nova Scotia
Chris Bowman, conductor
recorded by the singers individually from June 6-27, 2020