Dear Choral Directors,

On behalf of the Greystone Singers and the Department of Music at the University of , I would like to extend an invitation for your choral ensemble to participate in our uSing uSask choral celebration on Friday November 2 & Saturday November 3, 2018 in which our featured clinician is Dr. Janet Brenneman from Canadian Mennonite University in .

Focus: This is a non-competitive festival designed to celebrate the successes of choirs and inspire them with feedback to challenge them to greater musical heights. Therefore, we welcome all choirs at every age and stage of development.

Format:

Clinics: Performances and clinics will be held in the morning and afternoon on Friday and Saturday. Each ensemble will have 20 minutes for performance, followed by a 30-minute workshop with the guest clinician. All performances and clinics will be held in Convocation Hall at the University of Saskatchewan.

Choral Celebration Concert (optional): In addition to a personalized clinic your choir is invited to perform one song (or 2 depending on numbers of participating choirs) with your choir in the audience showcase and to also participate in a mass choir collaboration that will include the Greystone Singers. Dr. Brenneman will choose 3 pieces: SATB, treble voices, and lower voices. You are welcome to have singers in all 3 pieces.

The rehearsal for the mass choir will be on Friday evening at 5 pm. and the celebration showcase will be on Saturday at 3 pm in Convocation Hall. Participating choirs will perform one (or two) songs in the showcase and we will conclude the program with three mass choral selections chosen and directed by our guest choral clinician.

Directors’ Dinner (optional): This will be a welcome opportunity for choral directors to greet each other and converse in an informal and collegial environment. Appetizers will be provided at the Scarlet Lounge (Sheraton on Spadina Crescent E). Beverages and dinner will be available for purchase.

If you are interested in having your choir(s) participate please complete this form and send via email to Dr. Jennifer Lang [email protected]. Registration is limited and clinic spots will be guaranteed in order of forms and payment received. Non-refundable cheques of $150/choir (made payable to the University of Saskatchewan) may be mailed to: Dr. Jennifer Lang University of Saskatchewan Department of Music 1049 Education Building 28 Campus Drive Saskatoon, SK S7N 0X1 Registration Form

Festival Celebration Schedule

Please indicate your interest in the following options and we will do our best to work with you to accommodate the wishes of you and your ensemble.

Director’s Name:______Name of School/Choral Organization:______Name of Ensemble:______Number of Singers:______

Please indicate your ranked preference for day and time:

Clinic on Friday November 2 ¨ Morning ______¨ Afternoon ______

Clinic on Saturday November 3

¨ Morning ______¨ Afternoon ______¨ Participation in Mass choir rehearsal with clinician (Friday evening 5 p.m.) ¨ Directors’ Dinner (Friday evening 8 p.m.) ¨ Choral Celebration Concert (Saturday 3 p.m. - You must attend Friday’s rehearsal. Admission open to the public. Silver collection)

Eventually you will be asked for a choir biography (to be read before your performance) and your repertoire selections.

Special requests (we will do our best to accommodate): ______

I look forward to collaborating with you and your singers in this initiative.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Lang, Ph.D Assistant Professor, Music Education University of Saskatchewan (306) 966-6812 [email protected] Meet our featured clinician:

Dr. Janet Brenneman is Associate Professor of Music at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg Manitoba, where she conducts CMU Singers, the CMU Women's Chorus, and the CMU Festival Chorus, a symphonic chorus for CMU students, alumni, and community members. The CMU choirs may be heard regularly on local radio broadcasts, in concert in the Winnipeg area and on cross- tours, and on their CD’s, On Earth as in Heaven and hope, faith, life, love. Janet also teaches choral conducting and in the area of music teacher education. Active in the local choral community, Janet is the Conductor of two community choirs - Renaissance Voices, and the Faith and Life Women’s Chorus.

Born and raised in , Janet holds Bachelor and Master Degrees in Music Education from the University of where her mentors Dr. Doreen Rao and Dr. Elmer Iseler deeply inspired her. She earned a Ph.D. in Music Education at Michigan State University where she had the privilege of studying with conductor Dr. Charles Smith and music education expert Dr. Cynthia Taggart. As a graduate student, she was awarded the prestigious Sir Ernest MacMillan Award in Music Education for her research and scholarship. Her research interests include gender issues in choral music education, rehearsal pedagogy for the boys changing voice, and inclusive language in the choral rehearsal.

Janet has conducted children's choirs, community choirs, church choirs, university choirs and taught elementary music education in Ontario, Michigan, and Manitoba. She was the conductor of the Woodstock Fanshawe Singers in Woodstock Ontario, and a member of the Gerald Fagan Singers in London Ontario before moving to Winnipeg in 2000. Janet conducted with Pembina Trails Voices for 11 years working with elementary, middle, and secondary school girls and boys choirs. She is currently a member of the Association for Music Administrators in Manitoba and holds a portfolio position with the Manitoba Music Educators’ Association writing philosophical statements for that organization.

Janet enjoys her work as a choral clinician and music educator. During the current year, she is guest conducting and serving as adjudicator/clinician for festivals and concerts in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and PEI. She served on the teaching faculty of the Choral Music Experience Institute where she earned the Artist-Teacher Diploma, and as a member of the Artistic Staff of the Toronto Bach Festival at the where she coordinated the Helmuth Rilling conducting master class and coached its conductors. Conductor and CME Institute Director Doreen Rao has described Janet as a “truly gifted and accomplished conductor and teacher [whose choirs] are a new treasure, rare, brilliant and Canadian.”