2024 Winter Conference Schedule & Clinic Descriptions

Empowering Singers Through Improvisation and Student Choice
Jacob Augsten, clinician
DESCRIPTION: For choral artists, improvisation can seem like a daunting concept. However, it can be viewed through a different lens: one in which we make choices based upon a specific set of parameters. In the context of a choral rehearsal, improvisation provides our students with the opportunity to make their own choices under the guidance which we lay before them. Using this principle of the connection between improvisation and student choice, this session will explore ways in which we may empower students with a broader and further developed choral skill set. In the session, the presenter will provide methods with which improvisation and student choice can be used to improve sight reading, phrasing and articulation, and the entire choral skill set.

Le'go My Ego: Balancing the Scales at Work
Tod Fish, clinician
DESCRIPTION: The profession of choral music education has lost educators in droves since 2020. This session will explore the possible reasons why so many are leaving the field and ways that we can combat the daily pressures felt through balance in our work and personal lives. Dr. Fish will share perspectives from the writings of Brené Brown, Stuart Brown, and Ryan Holiday.

Orchestra Room

Developing Independent Singers Within the Choral Program/Ensemble/Rehearsal
Christopher Rhodes, clinician
DESCRIPTION: Many choral programs, especially High School, are expected to meet standards that are developed with the assumption of consistent enrollment and participation in elementary and middle school grades, regardless of the reality of their situation.

Secondary Choral Directors will listen and participate as they explore techniques in rote teaching while developing their students’ literacy within the Western European Classical Music Notation System. Participants will have the opportunity to explore and consider how rote teaching could not only lead to earlier student success, but also better engagement and cultural validation of the diverse students within a program.

The topics and resources will be presented verbally, with accompanying projections and links to online materials, as well as audience participation, reflection, and discussion. A handout will also be provided, printed and digital.

Auditorium

DESCRIPTION: Many choral programs in Texas have the great benefit of the approval and support from their district or administration to invite private instructors on campus to deliver instruction during the school day. This unique feature is one of the reasons why Texas produces the strongest student musicians in the country. But it isn’t always easy to find, hire, retain, and collaborate with private instructors. This workshop will lead you through each of those points: where to look for quality instructors, what to ask when hiring them, how to advocate for policies that will incentivize them to stay, and the different forms a conductor-private instructor relationship can take, and how it can benefit your choir and make your job, as the director, easier.

Festival Chorus Rehearsal

Choir Room