In addition to roundtables led by our Repertoire & Resource Chairs, we are thrilled to welcome the following presenters.
Leading with Your Spirit: An Interactive Rehearsal and Workshop
Welcome to Choir, singers! This workshop is a mix of a reading session, choir rehearsal, and classroom management best practices. One of the best ways to learn… Is to participate! Come ready to learn some new tunes, Tips and tricks for quick musical and behavior corrections, and tap into your inner child. Professor Coty is excited to work with you
Keeping It Real: Culturally Relevant Teaching in Today’s Classroom
This session provides tips and tools for building rapport with students by showcasing teacher authenticity. Discover strategies to build trust among singers, creating an environment where students feel safe to express themselves and engage deeply with the music.
Discovering Our Inner Superhero: Bringing Your Authentic Self to Your Class and Community
Teachers are truly Earth’s greatest heroes. But all heroes have origin stories and flaws. Lost classroom hours can make us feel a push to make up for intellectual time, leaving the emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness of our students neglected. It’s imperative that we cater to the whole child when building upon skills and rebuilding classroom culture. Join Coty Raven Morris for a morning of tools and treasures for keeping our inner hero ready for action!
Beyond the Repertoire: Strategies for Building Skills in Middle School Choir
Lauren Torres Lambert & Karla McClain
You’re excited about the repertoire you picked for your singers this year, but how do you effectively plan the other aspects of rehearsal to help build the skills your singers need to perform that repertoire successfully? This session will shed light on different strategies for community building, warm-ups, music literacy, and assessment for diverse learners in middle school choir.
Middle school choral educators Lauren Lambert and Karla McClain will demonstrate tried and true activities that engage all learners and develop skills, while also cultivating fun and community. Participants will engage in hands-on participation, immersing themselves in activities they can use in their classrooms.
Critical, Collaborative Songwriting for Choirs
Dr. Chris Wasko
This session details, models, analyzes, and critiques one implementation of a songwriting curriculum in a high school choir setting. This model examines the curriculum using a critical framework that centers students' lived experiences, priorities, dialogue, and agency throughout the creative process, citing four examples from the presenter's research. The presentation features a compressed version of the initial lessons, conceptual models of critical agency in creative collaboration, pathways to continuing professional dialogue around the topic, and expansions of both the research and practice.
Key learning outcomes for attendees include: adapting the curricular model for attendees' professional contexts; considering how to encourage and respond to student agency in a novel project setting; critically analyzing the potential impact of existing practices and structures on student voice and creative thinking; and imagining new ways to teach choir beyond the concert preparation paradigm.
Put Down the Octavo!
Kate Smallidge
Elementary and middle school choirs can sing more challenging and meaningful music if you put down the octavo. Teaching choir music by rote and with lots of movement allows children of all ages and abilities to be successful. You will walk out of this presentation with 8 choral pieces that have won the hearts of my students. We will dive into what makes these pieces so well-loved and the teaching strategies that will make them successful. After singing and moving our bodies, your “swag bag” will contain Google Slides for all 8 pieces, along with video examples of choirs performing these pieces. Rehearsal and planning time are short these days, and extra school duties are plentiful! Treat yourself to choir music that inspires and challenges you as a conductor and educator.
Super Late Bloomers: Supporting Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Singers
Rook Bazinet & Kyle Pfortmiller
Transgender and gender non-conforming singers are becoming increasingly common, but there is a gap in knowledge on how to safely and thoughtfully support them. “Super Late Bloomers: Supporting Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Singers” will guide educators through supporting students in transition. As choral educators and leaders, we have a duty to support and uplift students of all identities and affinities. By exploring the lived experiences of not only a transgender singer, but a cisgender teacher of transgender students, this session will allow attendees to have a well-rounded view of vocal education for trans and GNC students. Attendees will be able to respectfully speak to and about trans and GNC students, effectively support and advocate for them in a choral setting, demonstrate understanding of the effects of hormone replacement therapy on singing, and demonstrate understanding of the effects of transitional garments on singing. This session will cover all topics listed prior in addition to basic LGBTQ+ vocabulary, lived experiences of transgender students, concert attire considerations, and resources for continued learning and development.
Vocal Readiness for a Successful Choral Experience
Lillie Feierabend
What should a young child be able to do before they join a choir? What skills must the child exhibit? What skills are age-appropriate? With developmentally appropriate strategies, techniques, and repertoire, educators can gently support, guide and nurture vocal development in even the youngest child to help them prepare for a lifetime of successful singing.
This lively session will share strategies, techniques, and developmentally appropriate activities designed to immediately engage, encourage, and support the young child as they begin their journey to a lifetime of tuneful singing. We will cover the following important components of Vocal Development:
1. Pitch Exploration to discover the sensation of the singing voice.
2. Fragment Singing to develop independent singing.
3. Simple Songs to develop independent singing and musical syntax.
4. Arioso to develop original musical thinking.
5. Songtales to develop artistry and expressive sensitivity through listening.
Windows, Mirrors, & Sliding Glass Doors: Repertoire That Reflects Everyone
Dr. Amy Kotsonis
This session will address the need for utilizing a variety of repertoire in our choral program, particularly regarding the composers, texts, and genres that we select. Our singers must see themselves as well as those different from them in the music we program, and we should consider this each time we choose our repertoire. The scores we select should also reflect the values of the director and program, with representation at every performance as the goal, rather than a single concert utilized to “cover the bases.” We can look through a new lens at the choral standards to examine which gems should remain in the canon, or whether some pieces in our libraries are past their moment to shine.
The session will have suggested works for all grade levels from elementary through collegiate and community, and include text and ability-appropriate repertoire for less experienced to advanced singers. The lens of windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors will be used in addition to many other considerations when selecting repertoire. Through examining what we value, creating goals, curriculum, and mission within our program, we can begin to refine our programming process and choose repertoire that reflects these important factors. Whether you’re just beginning your journey of change or already moving forward, this session will offer something for everyone. Attendees will have the opportunity to read through and listen to choral octavos during the session, as well as take home a reading packet to add to their own library. When all voices are heard and seen, that’s when our hearts truly sing.