Fall 2018: Volume 38, Issue 1 From Your President Contents From Your President . 1 Warm Greings om thE OCDA! Richard Schnipke I trust thIs message finds you busy in the midst The Mixed-Age Choir . 2 of the December performance and worship sea - Tim & Tracy Carpenter son, and I hope you are able to find some time to Evaluating Cultural Validity enjoy the season not only with your ensembles in Choral Repertoire . 4 Julia T. Shaw and singers, but also with important family members and treasured friends. OCDA President OCDA Distinguished Service Richard Schnipke Award . 6 I write to you this month with some exciting Amy Gelsone news pertaining to the future of OCDA. Due to the financial solvency of our organization over the past several years and A Conversation with Jocelyn Hagen . 8 under the advisement of our organization’s treasurer, Kent Vandock, your Daniel Parsley OCDA board has established a formal Investment Committee. Committee Everybody Needs Somebody, membership is comprised of the OCDA Executive Board members (Presi - Sometimes . 10 dent, President-Elect, Vice/Past-President, Secretary, and Treasurer). Over Brad Pierson the summer, this newly formed committee worked to create an OCDA In - Vocal Jazz Group vestment Policy that was approved by the full board at our fall meeting. Listening Primer . 11 is fall, OCDA partnered with Ohio-based investments manager Collins Christopher J. Venesile and Gulliford, and on November 28 we made a $50,000 investment of Summer Conference Recap . 13 OCDA funds. e intent of this initiative is to maximize the assets of OCDA Christopher Dent in order to further the mission of the organization. While no definite plans Treasurer’s Report . 17 pertaining to allocation of the investment profits have been made, initia - Kent Vandock tives including student activities and scholarships, engagement of our re - Upcoming Events . 18 tired members, and outreach to underserved communities have been dis - cussed as possible areas for support. I am incredibly excited for this posi - Leadership Roster . 18 tive step forward and want to thank all previous board members, especially Treasurer Vandock, for managing our resources in a way that allows for this Advertisers opportunity. Specific questions pertaining to the Investment Committee Bob Rogers Travel . 3 can be directed to Kent Vandock, chair of the committee. (Kent’s contact information can be found in the board roster listed in this newsletter.) CMS Publications . 15 I also want to take a moment to recognize the entirety of the board for Musical Resources . 5 their service to OCDA and specifically for their contributions to this Otterbein University . 7 newsletter. In this issue alone, you will find wonderful submissions by our very own Ohio colleagues including articles pertaining to mentorship, Stanton’s Sheet Music . 9 building vocal jazz skills through listening, evaluating multi-cultural reper - University of Akron . 16 toire, and working with mixed-age choruses, as well as an interview with composer Jocelyn Hagen, and recognition of our 2018 OCDA Distin guished Fall 2018 table of contents 2 Service Award winner. Addition - derful colleagues in our state that day season and look forward to ally, I would like to thank Tim give of their time and talents to seeing many of you at OMEA and Cloeter for his work and dedication serve not only our organization, ACDA conferences in the new as Editor of the OCDA News. We but also our profession. year! d are fortunate to have many won - I wish you all a wonderful holi - e Mixed-Age Choir Tim & Tracy Carpenter, Lifelong Area: Community R&R Co-Chairs the communIty choIr experIence ensemble (SATB) of singers whose to branch out is one which can embody the spirit ages range from 14 (high school through choral of lifelong learning in choral music. freshmen) to over 80, and whose music. Addi - Whether we are at the earliest mission is to bring timeless and in - tionally, with stages of music learning (what the novative music to Clermont careful seating Cincinnati Youth Choir calls “Pic - County. Our work with this group arrangements colo Coro”), or we are easing into has led us to endorse the blending (as created by our golden years, choral music pro - of voices of different ages to create us), the student vides an opportunity to learn, sing, a signature sound. is span of ages voices can sit and socialize for as long as our has added a wide variety of per - next to a bodies (and voices) allow. In our spectives to our group’s dynamic “model” adult great state of Ohio, there are com - and influenced our programming voice that can help lead them into munity children’s choirs, like the choices in a positive way. good tone and production. e Kettering Children’s Choir e younger voices bring an en - voice in adulthood (with good pro - (www.ketteringchildrenschoir.org ); durance and vigor to our rehearsals duction) tends to be more warm, community choirs for young adults and performances. eir voices with a natural vibrato. In this set - under 45, like Cincinnati’s Young tend to be a bit lighter, but their ting, these young singers have been Professionals Choral Collective work ethic is often energetic, in - able to grow and mature safely, and (ypccsing.org ); and gender-based spiring their older cohorts. eir with structure, monitoring, and en - community choirs like MUSE, the youthful attitude makes them will - couragement. Our teenage singers Cincinnati Women’s Choir ing to approach modern/more dif - enjoy the maturity and support of (www.musechoir.org ), and the men ficult literature without fear or pre - the older choir members. of the Teutonia Männerchor of conceived notions. Additionally, we More mature singers bring ex - Toledo ( gafsociety.org ). Each of have seen students from many of perience to our rehearsals, not only these groups, and many others like the different school districts in our by being great choir members, but them, sound the way they do be - area come together in our choir also by bringing to bear their past cause of the voices of which they and not only work together, but choral performance experience of are comprised. also become friends. ey have classics like the Schubert Mass in We are Tim and Tracy Carpen - begun to see each other at honor G, or the Fauré Requiem , as they ter, co-artistic directors of the Cler - choirs and camps, and their sense enjoy this repertoire from a new mont Chorale ( clermontchorale of community has expanded. ey place in their lives. eir desire for .org ), and OCDA Community R&R have then taken their experiences social interaction through music co-chairs within the Lifelong Area. in our group (and others) back to brings with it a stability in atten - e Clermont Chorale is a mixed their schools, and inspired others dance and continuing participation, Fall 2018 table of contents 3 Fall 2018 table of contents 4 and varied socio-economic back - As we enter into our seventh “becoming,” has been a source not grounds bring natural diversity to year as co-artistic directors of the only of musical accomplishment, the ensemble. Continuing partici - Clermont Chorale, we feel fortu - but also of joy shared and friend - pation allows singers of all ages to nate to have singers spanning eight ships formed. We highly recom - discover changes in their voices, decades of life with us on our jour - mend that choral directors form and to sing through these changes, ney, enjoying choral music and more community choirs, particu - and maintain vocal health. Socially, each other’s company along the larly those whose memberships en - the older members seem to enjoy way. e blending of human voices compass a wide range of ages, and being surrounded by the youth in in the different stages of develop - experience those joys and friend - the group, often viewing them as ment, and the blending of human ships for themselves. d grandchildren pro tempore. beings in the different stages of Evaluating cultural validity in choral repertoire: ree exemplars illustrating guiding principles Julia T. Shaw, RepertoirE-Spific: Ethnic Music—Developing Voic R&R Chair as school populatIons in the professional organizations such as either in person Unites States have become increas - ACDA offer one avenue through or virtually, or ingly culturally diverse, teacher- which conductors can discover by consulting multimedia re - conductors have turned attention repertoire worthy of consideration sources that can support aural toward how choral music can sup - for exploration with their ensem - learning experiences. port the goals of multicultural and bles. While reading sessions can It is also important to acknowl - culturally responsive education. play a valuable role in educators’ edge that the individual selections Many music specialists gravitate professional learning, some limita - in a reading packet are unlikely to toward diversifying curricular con - tions of the format merit discus - serve the needs of all teachers in all tent as an accessible entry point for sion. First, much of the repertoire situations. is is especially true if participating in these broader edu - that would be ideal for exploration the goal of instruction is to create cational movements, a process in in a multicultural or culturally re - learning experiences that are re - which repertoire-related decisions sponsive curriculum would be sponsive or relevant to the cultural figure prominently. Including learned aurally in its culture of ori - identities of specific singers. us, repertoire representing diverse cul - gin, making reading sessions (as it is not the specific pieces included tural traditions in the curriculum is traditionally structured) an illogical in reading packets themselves, but an important preliminary step to - context for exploring that reper - the thought processes that in - ward attaining truly culturally re - toire.