PULLMAN, Wash. — The Washington State University School of Music and Theatre Arts will host 17 high school and middle school choirs Saturday, Oct. 23 at the 11th Annual Educational Choral Festival.
The festival is a noncompetitive clinic, held early in the school year, which offers the opportunity for choirs and their directors to receive feedback from respected clinicians in a positive workshop environment.
It helps to identify technical/expressive projects, set goals and features real “contact time” with a clinician, said Lori Wiest, WSU faculty member and event organizer. “The festival is meant to excite, encourage and educate students, developing a spirit of camaraderie and commitment.”
In addition, the event brings high school and middle school students to the university’s
Festival clinicians include Wiest, Julie Anne Wieck, Jennifer Scovell, John Weiss and Sheila Converse, all WSU faculty members. Other clinicians brought to the campus for this event are Scott Peterson from
High schools attending the choral festival include Clarkston; Central Valley, Veradale; Emerald Ridge, Puyallup; Kettle Falls; Mabton; Othello; Post Falls (Idaho); Pullman; Kamiakin, Kennewick; and Lewis and Clark, Joel E. Ferris and Shadle Park, all of Spokane. Middle schools attending include Salk of Spokane and Mason/Truman,
Each of the 17 choirs will have the opportunity to perform for the public in Kimbrough Concert Hall from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. After the performances, a clinician will interact for 40 minutes with the choir members, working on musical elements and setting goals for the year. The clinician and choir director will then meet to discuss goals, concerns and ideas.
At 1 p.m., WSU’s VoJazz vocal jazz ensemble, directed by Scovell, will perform in Kimbrough Auditorium, Room 101, followed by a workshop entitled “American Idol: The Classic Edition” presented by Wieck, Converse and Scovell.
A 5 p.m. public performance in Bryan Hall featuring the WSU Concert Choir and Madrigal Singers, both conducted by Wiest, will serve as the culmination of the Festival. Madrigal Singers will open the concert with two settings of text from the Song of Solomon, “Set Me as a Seal” by René Clausen and “Rise Up, My Love” by Healey Willan. This will be followed by two pieces from a 1601 musical collection called “The Triumphs of Oriana,” a collaborative grouping of madrigals for Queen Elizabeth, all ending with the phrase “Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana, long live fair Oriana.” Madrigals will conclude with “Say, Love” by John Dowland and “Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting” by John Farmer.
Concert Choir will perform a program of American Music, including the spiritual “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” arranged by Edwin Fissinger, “I Bought Me a Cat” and “Long Time Ago” by Aaron Copland, “Lamentations of Jeremiah” by Z. Randall Stroope and “John the Revelator,” a gospel setting by Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory.
All festival performances are free and open to the public.
