We Did It!

We got in to North Central ACDA!

This is the first time the Concert Choir has been accepted to sing at an ACDA conference in about 15 years…I believe the last time was the 1997 National Convention under Jim Rodde. We made it in to one of the most competitive districts in the country (Concordia, St. Olaf, and Luther are all members of this region). It takes 3 years of high quality recordings to get in. I submitted one recording from each of the last three years, and apparently the judges liked what they heard. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

For all of you who are no longer singing with us: I would like to say thank you for your contribution. Without you we would never have made it. This is for you. Even though you won’t be there when we perform (unless you decide to stay in school for another year , I want you to know that you got us to where we are, and for that we are forever grateful. I am so proud of you.

For those of you who are returning next year: You should be proud too, of course. We have our work cut out for us next year, and there will be some changes to how we do things next year, in order to adequately prepare for ACDA, but for now, just be proud. More info on next year will come soon.

Once again everyone: congratulations. For all the parents and alumni who have been supporting us these past year, we also say thank you.

As an aside, here is a recording from our collaboration with the Grand Forks Master Chorale. We got lots of positive comments.

Brennan’s Lullabye

Tour 2011: Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who supported us on this tour. As I’ve said many times, it’s hard to express just how much we’ve grown during our 10 days abroad. In all areas – culturally, socially, musically – I’ve seen our students evolve into thoughtful, intelligent, and mature people. This trip has broadened our minds to the possibilities out there in the world, and allowed us to find new ways of expressing ourselves as musicians. We’ve also grown quite close as a group, which is a wonderful thing.

The administration and student government contributed a significant amount of money to help lower the cost of the trip for our students. We are grateful for that support. We couldn’t have done it without them. Specifically, we’d like to thank Dr. Michael Wittgraf and the UND Music Department, Dr. Kathy Tiemann and the College of Arts and Sciences, the UND Student Senate, the UND Alumni Association, Peter Johnson and his staff in University Relations, Dr. Paul LeBel and Dr. Robert Kelley for their support of this tour.

I’d also like to thanks all the parents of the students. Your support is the single most important factor for making the trip possible.

Before I go, I’d like to say a few more things:

First, if you have been following this blog and like what you see and hear, I like to encourage you to give to the UND Concert Choir. This trip has completely exhausted our funds, and we would like to be able to provide enriching opportunities for the students in the future. We cannot do that without your support. Every little bit helps, so please consider giving. You can send a check to:

University of North Dakota Dept of Music

3350 Campus Road, Stop 7125

HFAC, Room 110

Grand Forks, ND 58202

 

Make your checks out to UND and put “Concert Choir” in the memo portion of the check. You can also go to www.undalumni.org and contribute via credit card. Please be sure to mark “Other” in the “Designation” pull down menu, and then indicate Concert Choir in the field below it.

Second, I’d like to share a portion of an email I just received from one of the music teachers at the AMIS Festival in the Hague. His response to our performance is glowing, but in this excerpt he makes an important note about the notion of excellence in schools in the US…basically, we showed those students that it does not take an Ivy-league school to be excellent. Here is his response:

Hi Joshua and Choir Tour members,

I just wanted to share my joy with you and your Choir regarding your stellar performance at The American School of the Hague in conjunction with the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) High School Honor Band and Mixed Choir Festival on Saturday, March 19.

The musicality of the choir certainly reflected careful preparation of a wide range of repertoire. I found all selections on the program, including the “throat-singing” selection, to be riveting.  The mature voices of the soloists too, were a delight.  Well done!

It was particularly wonderful that you could perform for this very select audience as these 224 choral and instrumental students represent the top music students in 43 major American curriculum schools abroad from Sao Paulo to Shanghai.  Our listening gear was full-on and what we heard brought smiles and sustained applause from both music teachers and student musicians.  Bravo!

As the Band Director at the Shanghai American School-Pudong Campus, I would like to share with you another aspect of your performance that may not have been recognized. Many of our students are focused on attending and do attend the “name-brand/Ivy League” schools in the U.S.  I visit with many juniors and seniors about college choices and what the UND Choir did for me was to strengthen my belief, that students should “…find a school that suits their interests, strengths and will deliver the skills needed that will help them fulfill their passion…and that school may not be one of the “name-brand/Ivy League” schools!”  The UND Choir performance was one of the finest examples I could imagine which supports my belief. The time, money and effort that went into this tour is of significant importance.  Thank you.

Best wishes,

John

John Leonard, Pudong HS Music

Such a wonderful letter. It goes to show that events like this benefit everyone. We consider ourselves very lucky to have all this support.

Once again, thank you to all for everything. I will try to continue updating this blog, so keep checking back. Our next performance is with the Grand Forks Master Chorale on April 29 at 8 pm in St. Michael’s Catholic Church. We will be performing the music of Concert Choir Alum Terry Schlenker. You can read about Terry and the concert we are planning here.

Tour 2011: Another Student Post

This one by our current President, Emily B.

This is my fourth and final year in the UND Concert Choir, and I’ve known ever since that first day as a freshman in the Alto I section that it would be a life-changing experience. What I didn’t know then was that part of that experience would be traveling to Europe to perform concerts, do clinics, live with Dutch families, and have the time of my life with some of my best friends. Individually, every member of this choir (including myself) will walk away with enough memories, inside jokes, and digital photos to last a lifetime. But I believe that it is the choir as a whole that has been changed the most.

Trust is a necessary quality in any choral ensemble, and this year, I feel like I have finally fully come to understand just how crucial it is that each and every member of the ensemble trusts themselves, each other, and the director in rehearsal and performance. Even though we have always put this into practice, going on tour has brought the ensemble to rely on each other more than ever. Traveling in a foreign country where every street sign, menu, and newspaper is in another language is challenging enough. Then throw in performing in unfamiliar spaces with limited rehearsal time and unpredictable audiences, not to mention the extensive time we spent with two different clinicians tearing apart our repertoire mid-tour. Through it all, we still had to work together to present excellent concerts.

With all these factors and challenges thrown at us, the ensemble had no choice but to completely trust each other. And even though sometimes it felt a bit like free-falling off a cliff, what resulted were some of our most incredible and most musical performances as a choir to date. We worked together as vocalists to a new extent, and as an ensemble, we were finally able to present not only a technically good concert, but a musically great one, too. We came to Europe with a program we could be confidant and proud of, but we leave Europe as better musicians and a better ensemble.

Thanks Emily. Great post.

 

 

Tour 2011: The Eagle has Landed

Arrived in Fargo at 130 pm. I 29 appears open. Home soon.

Tour 2011: Getting Back

So as most of you are probably aware, we’ve had some complications getting back home. We arrived in the US no sweat…a little behind schedule, but safe and sound. We went through customs and passport control fine, and made our way to the gate. As we sat there, we watched the airport around us begin to deteriorate…flights canceled, delayed, planes switched (our flight was switched to three different planes and two different flight crews). I was very suspicious that we’d make it. Nonetheless, we got the boarding call about an hour later than scheduled, so we found our seats and prepared for takeoff. I was still skeptical.

We take off fine…bumpy, but fine. The flight was pretty rough, one of the rougher I’ve been on. The flight attendant announces that we should prepare for landing. But the sounds that you normally associate with landing preparation were not normal. After about 15 minutes of “landing” they announce that we are turning back to Minneapolis because of slick runways and too much wind (we were on one of those small planes). Not fun, especially after already traveling 18 hours and getting up at 5 am in the Netherlands.

We get to the airport and its sort of a mad house. We get rebooked for the next day at 11:30 am. Great! The cellphones come out and everyone begins the process of calling friends and friends of friends to find places to stay. About 2/3 of us find places with people they know. The remaining 1/3, despite my prodding for hotels, elected to sleep in the airport. I strongly encouraged them to consider booking 4 to a room to save on expenses, but I think they just didn’t want to deal with the hassle, and they were wary of the cost (perfectly understandable). So I made sure we all had phone communications and we left (msp has great traveler accommodations, btw: cots, pillows, blankets, toiletries…all gratis).

*Update* I just spoke with Choir President Emily Burkland and everything went fine last night. They got some rest, and are at the gate now.

We will all meet up at the airport around 10 am and pray for the best. Right now I-29 is closed in spots, so if we get to Fargo, there’s no telling what the drive will be. We will have to play it by ear and, above all, be safe.

*Update 2* we have boarded. Starting the deicing process. Everyone here. Cautiously optimistic.

Tour 2011: USA!

We’ve successfully navigated passport control and customs, and arrive just in time for our connection to Fargo. Of course, I walked fast to be there in time, and the flight crew was running late, so at this point we are 15 minutes behind. The forecasted storm is running late, so I am cautiously optimistic. I’ll update when we land.

Feels good to be home.

Tour 2011: More Comments

5 am our time. Up and getting dressed. Weather is not looking good, but we are headed to the airport, and we’ll see how it goes. Fingers crossed. Probably won’t update blog for a while, as I’m not sure when I’ll have internet again. For the time being, here are some more comments from the students (and our driver) and the value of tour.

Wish us luck! Hopefully we’ll see you soon.

*Update: everyone is in the gate area at Schipol and we are ready to go. Hopefully the weather will hold off long enough for us to get to Fargo. Flying into MSP shouldnt be a problem, however. I’ll update the blog as soon as I can.

Tour 2011: Shawn and Old Church

Tour 2011: Day Eight (Brugge)

This morning we sang at Mass in a medium sized church in the city center. I’m not sure the name of the church, as we had some last minute change of plans and wound up singing at a different church than the one on our itinerary. Later we went on a walking tour of Brugge, and then got lots of free time, through the evening. Here are some videos:

This Mass was our last singing engagement for tour. The rest of the day today and tomorrow will be relaxing, celebrating the end of our trip, and getting prepared to come back. I will try to post one or two more times, but the internet will become less and less available as we get closer to departure, so don’t expect much. I will try to get a few more students to comment on their experiences, and maybe post one or two more audio clips.

It is quite eye-opening to immerse yourself in another culture. It’s amazing what can happen when you allow yourself to follow the customs and rhythms of other people…often, you find that those customs fit you just as well, or sometimes better, than the ones you are used to. We’ve lived our lives differently here: walking everywhere, taking “coffee” at all hours of the day, communicating in mutiple languages, eating different foods, wearing scarves and pointy-toed shoes (well, not all of us are doing that). More than a few kids have said, “Can I just stay, Bronfman?”

Humor aside: this has been an amazing experience for us all.

Tour 2011: Day Seven (Den Haag and Brugge)

After last night’s roaring success, most of us didn’t get to bed until quite late. I’ll try to post audio if I can. My hosts and I stayed up until about 2 am talking about life, choral music, and our two cultures. Thankfully, we had a 9:30 departure time, so we could sleep in a little bit (but not much). We said a long, teary goodbye to our wonderful host families from Beek and hopped on the bus for a long drive back to Den Haag.

We arrived in the Hague around noon and stopped for lunch. Professor Costes, Erin K. and I went to an Indonesian restaurant and had their “Rice Table,” which is a huge spread of little dishes…all of which were excellent. By far the best meal we’ve had.

After lunch we drove to the American School in the Hague. The students attending this elite private school are the sons and daughters of Americans living abroad, or well-to-do locals who want their student to have an American educational experience. The students came from all over the world: India, China, Japan, the Middle East, Europe, and all parts in between. The students are very bright, and cultured…a good group to sing to.

First, we watched Dr. Andre Thomas lead a rehearsal with the kids:

Then, we took the stage for a little rehearsal ourselves, followed by a short performance at 4:00 pm. We sang all our “crowd pleasers” as the audience was perhaps not as interested in the Bach or the Petrassi. Again, we got an immediate, prolonged, standing ovation. Afterward, they gave us dinner, and I got a chance to visit with some of the music teachers in the American schools around the globe. They were very complimentary saying that it was good to have their music students exposed to “the highest caliber music making” and that they were grateful that we could show their students “just how much potential they have.” Two different people said, “You changed my opinion of North Dakota!” …too funny. I also spoke with a few students who expressed interest in coming to UND! Pretty incredible if you ask me.

After dinner we hopped on the bus for long drive to Brugge. We arrived late at our hotel, and I think all in all it was a quiet evening. Today, we sing for Mass and have a free day for sight seeing and, of course, shopping.