Dates to Remember

Here are the final dates for you to remember:

Wednesday, May 30- NIGHT REHEARSAL 6-7:30 pm
Friday, June 1- NYSSMA MAJORS 10 am
Tuesday, June 4- SPRING CONCERT 7 pm

-Mrs. Christy

Spring Concert

The spring concert is RIGHT around the corner! Here are links to our songs so that you may practice for our performance.

Elijah Rock, arr. by Moses Hogan

Laudamus Te from Gloria, by Francis Poulenc

Ne Sedi Djemo, arr. by Steven Sametz

Shenandoah, arr. by James Erb

Make Our Garden Grow from Candide, Leonard Bernstein

**Remember we are also taking Ezekiel Saw de Wheel to NYSSMA on June 1**
Countdown is at 14, so be ready! I would like this memorized by Friday with the exception of Make Our Garden Grow.

-Mrs. Christy

Alive Inside

Last year I completed my masters degree by researching how musical study impacts the connections in our brain between the two hemispheres. It was inspired after I read a book by neurologist, Oliver Sacks called Musicolphilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. His studies of brain synapses and musics influence upon them has made music therapy a growing field for treatment of disabilities and for children diagnosed with ADHD, asbergers, and autism (to name as few).

This weekend I got wind of two films that have been inspired by Dr. Sacks work. One is a documentary called Alive Inside which premeired April 18th. I have a clip from it that I found on YouTube. It is based around Oliver Sacks studies on using music as treatment for elderly patients in nursing homes. The other is a film that premeired at the Sundance Film Festival called, The Music Never Stopped. If you have some free time, I would encourage you to check out these films.

Alive Inside clip:

The music never stopped, trailer:

Senior Pick, Spring Concert

Hi Seniors,

Here is the list of songs you performed as Freshman. Please let me know your pick for the spring concert by this Friday.

-Rytmus- Hrusovsky
-At the River- Copland
-Son de Camaguey- Hatfield
-In Time of Daffodils- Dickau
-Dide ta Deo- Brown Jr.
-Esto les Digo- Lange
-Salmo 150- Aguiar
-There Will be Rest- Tichelli
-Good News, Chariot's a Comin'- Hogan
-The Last Words of David- Thompson
-Ave Verum Corpus- Mozart
-El Grillo- des Prez
-Dirait-on- Lauridsen
-Elijah Rock- Hogan

Thanks!
-Mrs. Christy

Here are the links to the choral pieces for Gala. We test the week after break so make sure you prepare!

Eric Whitacre's Cloudburst

Gyorgy Orban- O Mistress Mine

Caldwell- John the Revelator

 
Bogoroditse Devo- Rachmaninoff
 
The links to the Mozart are on a previous post. The Mozart will be tested with music. The others you should work to memorize. Make sure you practice over the break and sign up for your test before you leave on Friday! Good luck.
 
-Mrs. Christy

Scholarship Opportunity

The North Shore Chamber Choir is offering a $500 scholarship.

The qualifications and requirements for obtaining this award are here : http://www.nschamberchoir.org/ns_scholarship.html

There are many of you who I think would be eligible for this award.

Good luck!

The Requiem...

So the insanity of Mr. Cotignola and I continues!! We are beginning the requiem that we will be performing at Gala.

As a full choir and symphonic orchestra, we will be performing movements 1, 2 and 7. In addition, chamber orchestra and an octet selected from within our choir will perform movement 5. There is also a soprano solo within the first movement. Movement 1 is a particularly difficult piece and this will take some effort on  your part outside of class to accomplish. I have attached a link to the Monteverdi Choir's performance of this requiem. This is the version that I am using to study this piece and we will be taking their tempos, dynamics, breath marks, etc. This choir only sings music from this time period, so they are the best of the best at baroque and classical repertoire.

I can't wait to get started!

Mrs. Christy

Click here to listen to the Requiem!