Saturday, November 16, 2024 from 9:30 am-4:00 pm
Open to all choral singers, grade 4 and up.
This event is free and open to the public.
Join us for Rochester Intergenerational Choir Day, an inspiring, first-of-its-kind event at the Hochstein Performance Hall.
During this event, you will get the opportunity to work with three well-known local clinicians: Dr. Lee Wright, a scholar of the American Negro Spiritual, and composer/conductors Jonathan Thomas Madden and Dr. Philip E. Silvey.
WHAT TO EXPECT
There will be three sessions during the day with each of the clinicians on the following topics:
- Dr. Lee Wright will begin by introducing choral improvisation techniques using American Negro Spirituals taught by rote. This practice encourages singers to both connect with the origin of these songs and to let their own life experience create part of the living fabric of this important American folk music. Wright is director of the Rochester choral group First Inversion.
- Choirs will work with Jonathan Thomas Madden to prepare his newly commissioned work “Songs for the People,” based on poetry by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), an influential abolitionist, suffragist, poet, and teacher. A Rochester native, Madden is currently a graduate student in Choral Conducting at the Eastman School of Music, Assistant Director of the Hochstein Youth Singers and Hochstein Singers, and Minister of Music at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Pittsford.
- A composer whose compositions have become beloved standards of contemporary choral literature, Dr. Philip E. Silvey will work with singers on his new composition “Everyone Shine.” Silvey is Associate Professor of Music Teaching and Learning at the Eastman School of Music where he directs the Treble Chorus and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education.
The day will end with an informal performance of the pieces and improvisation. Each choir will take home invaluable experience in improvisational performance practice of spirituals plus two performance-ready works, each with a message that speaks to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.