2004 MassACDA Summer Conference

A Retrospective

2004 Summer Conference held at Gordon College

Gordon College hosted the Massachusetts chapter of the American Choral Directors Association 2004 Summer Conference held on July 11th-14th.  The conference was attended by approximately 50 elementary, middle school, high school, collegiate and church choral conductors from across the New England states.  Participants were offered three days of intensive workshops and reading sessions that focused on vocal development and technique, the art of choral conducting, effective rehearsal strategies and the use of choral repertoire to develop musicianship.

This year’s clinicians were Dr. John H. Dickson and Dr. Janet Galvan.  Dr. Dickson is director of choral studies and chair of the Conducting Division at Texas Tech University, where he also supervises the D.M.A., Ph.D., and M.M. programs in choral conducting.  He is internationally known as a conducting pedagogue through his writings and workshops.  He has presented master classes and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Russia.  Dr. Dickson has collaborated with world-class conductors including Sir David Willcocks, Michael Tilson Thomas, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Max Bragado-Darman and David Hill.  Dr. Galvan is professor of music at Ithaca College where she conducts the Ithaca College Women’s Chorale and the Ithaca College Chorus.  She is also artistic director of the Ithaca Children’s Choir.  Dr. Galvan is in great demand as a guest conductor.  She has conducted countless state, regional and national level honor choirs.  Her presentations at choral institutes and conferences have inspired music educators and choral conductors throughout the United States and Europe.  Dr. Galvan’s contribution to choral music was recognized by her New York colleagues when she received the New York Outstanding Choral Director Award in 1995.  Her expertise in treble repertoire has led to the publication of her own series for women’s and children’s voices.    

Dr. Dickson presented three workshops on the essentials of choral tone.  In his session, Tonal Vibrancy Through a Kinesthetic Approach, he emphasized the importance of developing a bodily kinesthetic understanding of the shape, direction, density and movement of the music that is reflected in the conducting gesture.  He also provided participants with several strategies for incorporating eurhythmics into the choral rehearsal.  In his second workshop, Tonal Color Through Sectional Voicing, Dr. Dickson demonstrated strategies for voicing the choir through the positioning of each individual singer in the ensemble for the purpose of achieving blend and developing tonal color.  Using conference participants, he demonstrated how the placement of individual voices within the section can enhance and change the overall tonal color.  Dr. Dickson’s third session focused on the development of tonal integrity through a textual approach.  In this session he modeled strategies and presented participants with several techniques for developing thorough comprehension of the text, constructing a natural flow of the phrase through textual pacing and emphasis, and molding the choral tone and expressive qualities of the music through modification of consonant articulation and vowel shaping.  In all of his sessions Dr. Dickson demonstrated concepts, strategies and techniques through a wide variety of choral repertoire.

In Dr. Galvan’s first session on Rehearsals That Teach Musical Understanding, Literacy and Context, she noted that the National Standards for Music Education must be used to enhance performance excellence.  Through selected repertoire, she presented conference participants with rehearsal techniques that enable singers to perform with musical understanding and a higher level of musicianship within the context of the rehearsal process.  Dr. Galvan emphasized that the effective rehearsal plan is grounded in the choral conductor’s complete understanding of the musical score- score study is essential.  In addition, choral conductors must possess in-depth knowledge of the physiological aspects of vocal production and effective strategies for teaching healthy vocal production.  Dr. Galvan also presented a workshop on Bringing the Music and the Program to Life.  She provided participants with a variety of alternative and imaginative ways to maximize programming effectiveness to reach and build our audiences.  The choral music audience is changing- a fact that presents choral conductors with many new challenges in today’s highly technological and visual world.  Dr. Galvan stressed the importance of exposing our audiences to the best possible literature including well performed multicultural music, as well as our responsibility to educate our listeners.

The culminating workshop, a conducting master class, was presented by both Dr. Dickson and Dr. Galvan.  The master class provided participants with an opportunity to prepare a selection from the reading sessions and conduct the “lab choir” comprised of conference attendees.  Dr. Dickson and Dr. Galvan provided participants with growth promoting feedback- a true learning experience for all.

Special thanks go to Dr. C. Thomas Brooks, music department head, and the entire Gordon College music department staff for all of their efforts in providing local area choral music educators with this outstanding professional development opportunity.

-William Pappazisis

Last revised March 24, 2009.