2 • CANTATE • VOL. 28, NO. 2 • SPRING 2016 CALIFORNIA ACDA 5 | CH-CH-CHANGES FROM THE PRESIDENT’S PEN · BY LOU DE LA ROSA 7 | TBA LETTER FROM THE EDITOR · BY ELIZA RUBENSTEIN 8 | MESSIAH IN THE MARGINS PROJECT MESSIAH BRINGS HANDEL TO LOS ANGELES’ SKID ROW · BY ZANAIDA ROBLES 12 | PUTTING THE COMMUNITY IN COMMUNITY CHORUSES HOW ONE BAY-AREA CHORUS MAKES OUTREACH A PRIORITY · BY KRISTINA NAKAGAWA 14 | RETHINKING THE CLOSER THE COMPOSER’S VOICE · BY DALE TRUMBORE 16 | THE IRRESISTIBLE INTERVIEW PREPARING CHORAL EDUCATION STUDENTS FOR THE JOB SEARCH · BY CHRIS PETERSON 18 | 2016 SUMMER CONFERENCE AT ECCO NEW! COMPOSITION CONTEST AND POSTER SESSION! honor choir MEMBERs from 21 | SEEN AND HEARD El Diamante High School (John CA-ACDA MEMBERS IN PICTURES Sorber, director) at WD-ACDA in Pasadena (Photo by Brandi Rauen). 22 | NEWS AND NOTES more photos on page 21! HAPPENINGS FROM AROUND THE STATE 25 | VISION FOR THE FUTURE INTRODUCING THE NEW CHARLES C. HIRT SCHOLARSHIP 26 | VISION FOR THE FUTURE SCHOLARSHIP FUND DONORS 29 | TOP FIVE: MULTICULTURAL MUSIC BY DANIEL AFONSO 30 | TOP FIVE: SHOW CHOIRS BY BILL ZINN 32 | TOP FIVE: COLLEGE-LEVEL MUSIC BY ANGEL VÁZQUEZ-RAMOS 33 | TOP FIVE: MUSIC IN WORSHIP BY CHRISTOPHER GRAVIS 34 | CALIFORNIA ACDA DIRECTORY LEADING THE WAY CANTATE • VOL. 28, NO. 2 • SPRING 2016 • 3 CANTATE Volume 28, Number 2 Official publication of the California Chapter of the American WHEREAS, Choral Directors’ Association the human spirit is elevated to a broader understanding of itself Eliza Rubenstein, editor through study and performance in [email protected] the aesthetic arts, and WHEREAS, GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS serious cutbacks in funding and We welcome and encourage California ACDA support have steadily eroded state members to contribute articles, announcements, institutions and their programs music and book reviews, job vacancy listings, throughout our country, photographs, and other items of interest to Cantate! BE IT RESOLVED Please send queries and article ideas to that all citizens of the United [email protected]. You are also States actively voice their affirmative welcome to submit completed articles, but please and collective support for necessary note that not all articles received will be published. funding at the local, state, and national Deadlines for publication are as follows: levels of education and government, August 15 (Fall issue); November 1 to ensure the survival of arts programs (Winter issue); March 1 (Spring issue). for this and future generations. The editor reserves the right to edit all submissions. California ACDA members are encouraged to print this ACDA resolution in all programs. ADVERTISING IN CANTATE Please visit our website (WWW.ACDACAL.ORG) or e-mail us at [email protected] for 2016 EVENTS CALENDAR complete information on advertising in Cantate, including rates, deadlines, and graphics specifications. Advertisements are subject to editorial approval. SUMMER CONFERENCE AT ECCO JULY 24-27, OAKHURST On the cover: Members of the Carlmont High School choirs (Belmont, CA) rehearse under FALL SOUTHERN REGIONAL CONFERENCE the direction of Genevieve Tep. Photo by SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 Robyn Peters; used with her kind permission. FALL NORTHERN REGIONAL CONFERENCE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 4 • CANTATE • VOL. 28, NO. 2 • SPRING 2016 CALIFORNIA ACDA From The president’s pen: CH-Ch-Changes he California All-State Music Education two All-State Honor Choirs, four Regional TConference (CASMEC) and Western Honor Choirs, the Summer Conference at Division ACDA (WDACDA) conferences ECCO, and two Fall Reading Sessions. are now behind us. Not only were both This year we ran four All-State Honor conferences tremendous successes, but we now Choirs, four Regional Honor Choirs, the know they are not mutually destructive! The Summer Conference at ECCO, two Fall fact that both succeeded with just two weeks Regional Conferences, and a new State LOU DE LA ROSA IS THE between them points to a previously untapped Conference in San Jose. Next year we will add need for both conferences. WDACDA two more Regional Honor Choirs, and we PRESIDENT OF CALIFORNIA President-Elect Travis Rogers and I are will take over registration and all expenses for ACDA AND THE seeking ways to maintain unique aspects for the State Conference at CASMEC, which up both conferences in order to ensure the success to now have been borne by CMEA. DIRECTOR OF CHORAL and relevance of each. After discussions with In addition, we subsidize student member- AND VOCAL STUDIES Travis and ACDA Executive Director Tim ships through the Sing Up Membership Sharp, future division conferences will be kept AT WEST VALLEY Drive, which will increase our future member- as far away from CASMEC as possible. ship but costs us $15 per student member, and COLLEGE IN SARATOGA. Many thanks to site host Jeffrey Benson for have embarked on the Vision for the Future HE HAS TAUGHT MUSIC IN helping me organize the first-ever California Scholarship program to assist professionals ACDA State Conference, John Russell for participate in life-changing choral experiences. THE SAN JOSE AREA FOR organizing the dispersal of jobs, Carolyn Times have changed. Therefore, the MORE THAN 30 YEARS, Teraoka-Brady for serving as liaison at the California ACDA Board of Directors concert sessions, and Arlie Langager for recommended at the January meeting that INCLUDING 13 YEARS AT serving as interest session liaison. The entire the Executive Committee pursue the creation LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL, board stepped up both in San Jose and in of a nonprofit corporation which would be Pasadena to do what needed to be done to known as the California Choral Directors A VISUAL AND PERFORM- create successful conferences—living up to our Association, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, tax-exempt ING ARTS SCHOOL. HE HAS motto, “Leading the Way.” corporation. This directive was made fol- lowing numerous discussions between the SERVED HIS PEERS THROUGH t the California ACDA General Session California ACDA Executive Committee NUMEROUS PROFESSIONAL Aat CASMEC, President-Elect Rob (Rob Istad, Vice President Lori Marie Rios, Istad and I gave what amounted to a State of and me), Past National President Jo-Michael ORGANIZATIONS. LOU FEELS the Chapter presentation. It was exciting to Scheibe, Tim Sharp, ACDA Controller LUCKY TO BE MARRIED TO have music educators come up afterward to Marvin Meyer, and others over the past year. tell me that they would join ACDA for the The California Choral Directors Association MARY AND IS PROUD TO BE first time as a result of hearing our plans for would supplant the California ACDA chapter THE FATHER OF CHRISTINE, the future! Those plans involve a significant and become an affiliate organization of change to the structure of the organization ACDA National rather than a chapter, just as KATHERINE, AND EMILY. which, if approved, will allow us to better Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska, HE ENJOYS WOODWORK- support the needs of all choral directors and Montana already are. Of course, the vot- throughout the Golden State. ing members of California ACDA will have ING, LOATHES PLUMBING About twenty years ago, California the opportunity to approve this recommended REPAIRS, AND IS A DIE-HARD ACDA was actually two entities: Northern plan in an election to be held in the fall. California ACDA, and Southern California What are the benefits of becoming our own FAN OF THE 2014 WORLD ACDA. After years of operating separately, it non-profit corporation? First, we would be CHAMPION SAN was determined that uniting the two organiza- fully in control of our destiny, including our tions into one statewide chapter would be in FRANCISCO GIANTS. financial future; we would have the ability to the best interest of California choral directors. adjust dues if needed, which we cannot do as And so it has been. a chapter. At present, the National Office has Today we are at a similar crossroads. the final say with regard to financial commit- Twenty years ago, California ACDA ran ments; we require approval of the National LEADING THE WAY CANTATE • VOL. 28, NO. 2 • SPRING 2016 • 5 Office for all our endeavors, such as managing Vision for the with the start of Rob Istad’s presidency, making me the last Future, setting up PayPal operations for credit card payments president of the California ACDA chapter. for All-State and ECCO, and the forthcoming financial commitments of hosting the annual conference in conjunction ne of the changes we’ve already made is in the way that with the All-State Honor Choirs and CASMEC. Oour administrator operates. When the post of executive Moreover, everything that we do in California is subject secretary was created, California ACDA had board mem- to the laws of Oklahoma, since that’s where the ACDA bers who served as treasurer and as separate conference and national office is located. This is no way to run a business, reading-session registrars. Jan Lanterman was the first execu- which is what California ACDA has become. We presently tive secretary and was contracted to carry out the directives of have an annual budget just over $250,000, but that will the board. Jan immediately assumed the role of treasurer as likely be surpassed in the not-too-distant future. It is unten- part of her duties and soon took on the duties of registrar for able for us as a chapter to meet the needs of our burgeoning the Summer Conference at ECCO and the reading sessions, membership with the increased level of service we have along with many other responsibilities. planned, confined by the laws of a state so completely differ- Beginning July 1, we are creating the position of executive ent from ours and with only one-tenth the population of ours. administrator, with the directive and authority to keep the One of the advantages of becoming our own corporation organizational trains running on time, and we’re moving is the freedom to reconfigure our bylaws and Articles of toward a more streamlined online presence.