Were you there? I hope you were because that was an amazingconference!

CONFERENCE CHOIR

Curtis Mannah — you were terrific! Thank you for the awesomeperformance! Students enjoyed working with you. I know that from speaking withmy own students. Your love and dedication to teaching is evident and you madethings fun even when working on difficult pieces. You brought the grouptogether musically from the first rehearsal and I am sure they will rememberthe experience for a long time to come.

I would like to thank the following people for contributingto the success of the performance starting with the directors for preparing thestudents and getting them to the rehearsals and the performance. Betsy Wagner,our accompanist — a million thanks! Lucerne Mottaz, our manager — thank you foryour hard work and patience! Thank you also to directors who helped with thesectionals at the December rehearsal: Paul Lorigan, Kimberlee Bratton, BarbaraBarrett, Betsy Wagner, and Celeste Galvan.

A million thanks to Dr. Ed Harris, Dr. Diana Hollinger andtheir students at San José State, who worked tirelessly to help make things runsmoothly. We appreciate you!

CONFERENCE SESSIONS

The choral sessions were well attended. Spartan Memorialoverflowed with people for Greg Gilpin’s reading sessions. He provided avariety of music for festival programming and general use, with teaching andperformance suggestions as well. His Toolbox session on Saturday supplieddirectors with techniques on how to deal with different situations in rehearsaland performance. If there is only one thing I took away from this session, itis to always provide a variety of repertoire for both the performers and theaudience to enjoy.

Thank you Scott Grady and the JWPepper staff for providingthe music for our reading sessions and special session. We appreciateeverything you do for us. Scott, you will be missed!

Last but not the least, Joe Miller and the WestminsterChoir’s rehearsal techniques provided us with an insight to how they get totheir level of musicianship. You know what I am talking about, especially ifyou were at the concert. I think I hardly took a breath during “O MagnumMysterium.” Every note, every nuance, every word, every vowel carefullydelivered. They are truly the epitome of what choral music should be! Thank youfor a memorable performance.

CHORAL FESTIVALS

I am sure that by now, you have started preparing forfestivals. My students and I look forward to festival season — learning newrepertoire, polishing technique, and strengthening sight-reading confidence.They look forward to working with the adjudicators, hearing what they have tosay, and learning about the value of objective criticism. I try to teach themthat the comments of the adjudicators and the overall experience are moreimportant than the posted ratings.

For your festivals: please bring 3 original copies ofyour music, with all measures numbered. Remember to plan ahead! Makearrangements for transportation now. Provide adequate time for all that needsto be done at the festival. The more prepared you and your students are, thebetter things will be for your performance. Choral festivals provide wonderfulexperiences for all, and you and your students deserve to have that experience.

As always, a final thought as you prepare and perform foryour festivals, HAVE FUN!!