Dickens Carolers Take Time to Talk

The Goode Time Carolers toast the season

Christmas time is here. And, as the Lee Mendelson song lyric to the Vince Guaraldi tune aptly states, there are carols everywhere. Quartets and larger vocal ensembles dressed in Dickensian garb might be found in malls and restaurants, on street corners, at private parties, and almost anywhere else.  They favor their audiences with traditional carols – sometimes with fractured or prescription lyrics written to suit some unique occasion. They might sing jazz or pop arrangements of the usual holiday fare. And some of the groups offer added entertainment, incorporating bell ringing, choreography, skits and then some. What unifies the family of Dickens Caroling groups at large is their care in rehearsal and preparation. The fun they provide their audiences is serious business to them.

A few southern California caroling ensembles were kind enough to take a tiny break from their busy schedules to share their thoughts about what makes an excellent Dickens caroler. Here are their comments.

The Goode Time Carolers

A good caroler should know the music well and smile during performance.  A great caroler/quartet will have the repertoire memorized and give a STELLAR performance each and every time...! Thats just what professional Carolers do... :-)   – Tony Duran, The Goode Time Carolers, www.goodetimecarolers.com

A good Dickens caroler needs to remember that she/he isn't singing Carmen or Rigoletto.  They're in an ensemble, and the purpose of the ensemble is to provide a moment of warmth in the holiday rush.  The combination of the look and the sound of the carolers should, if done right, trigger a memory for the audience that freezes time, if only for a moment, and helps them to feel a bit of the spirit of the season.  – Jim Raycroft, Singers Elite Christmas Carolers, www.singerselite.com

Modesty reigns in these next comments from two quality ensembles.

We may not know EVERY Christmas song, but we LOOK MAHvelous!  – Yoland Ochoa, The Dickens Holiday Carolers, www.dickensholidaycarolers.org 

The Dickens Holiday Carolers

Carolers need to remain pleasant even in horrible conditions.  Always smiling and spreading good cheer. A good caroler looks like they are singing in extremely loud rooms.  Nobody really cares if you are making music as long as you LOOK like a happy singing caroler!!!   – Leanna Brand, Director, A Little Dickens Carolers, www.carolers.com

And, of course, you’ve gotta have miles and miles of heart.

A Dickens Christmas Caroler must embody the SPIRIT of CHRISTMAS while being an outstanding musician and performer. They must have a good heart and believe in the message they are communicating. Only then can we touch the hearts of our listeners help create those special memories that will last a lifetime. As carolers, we want to be engaging not intrusive. If one of these components is missing we are missing the mark and not doing our job of bringing the magic of Christmas to others through song.     – Tisha Bellantuoni, Owner and Founder, The Lil’ Dickens Carolers, www.thelildickenscarolers.com

And, from one of the singers…

“I feel I can pull up in my Toyota Camry after sitting in stopped traffic and once I put on that top hat, just like Frosty the Snowman, I am changed. I sing to bring a smile to people’s faces.”  – David A. Blair, Caroler, The Lil’ Dickens Carolers, www.thelildickenscarolers.com

Happy caroling!

Pacific Chorale - Choral Festival 2013

REVIEW:  Pacific Chorale Sixth Annual Choral Festival

Sunday, August 11, 2013, Pacific Chorale presented its sixth annual Choral Festival at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. The free event is a favorite for those who are in the know and for those newcomers to the event who are lucky enough to happen onto the information in time to secure the free tickets.

Artistic Director John Alexander introduced the program that featured 286 singers from 85 cities throughout America. Seventy-eight singers represented the Pacific Chorale. The bulk of the group represented 126 other religious and secular organizations.

According to Alexander, the initial goal of the Festival was to keep alive the great masterworks of dead composers. Diverging from that mission this year, the main work on the program was by a living composer. Accompanied by Organist Jung-A Lee, the mass choir performed the Morten Lauridsen Lux Æterna, originally scored for choir and chamber orchestra.

Lux Æterna is all about light. Sandwiched by two portions in Latin, the inner section is comprised of three medieval hymns that tell of light, hope through light and how light affects us.  In many instances in the Festival performance, clearly, the light was present. 

An earthly low rumble from the organ marked the opening. The singers generated a dome of sound with their first gentle strains of the Introitus – the resulting tone seemingly simultaneously rooted in earth and lifted toward the sky. The group deftly built from piano to a wonderful crescendo. The phrase, ‘et lux perpetua’ was well-sculpted, sensitive and alive with expression.

Overall, the singers offered seamless and subtle phrasing and clean lines, perhaps aided by an extreme softening of consonants – an artistic choice that makes for a uniform sound and prevents individual voices from breaking through the mix. The group performed with the most expression and artistry in the two Latin sections of the work.

A well-sung low rumble from the basses in the Agnus Dei reminded us of the opening organ strains. The choir poignantly reiterated, ‘Lux æterna luceat eis,’ followed by some nicely managed tenor work and a brief, pretty polyphony in the women’s voices. A heartfelt Alleluia and a nicely suspended final resolution of the Amen and exit music involving further rumblings from the organ brought the work to a close.

Bass-baritone Carver Cossey showed off his upper register in a fun rendition of the Moses Hogan ‘This Little Light of Mine.’  An unusual choice of microphone or amplification did not do Cossey justice. Only a few of his velvety lower tones sounded true. The choir presented the piece according to its arrangement.

Organist Jung-A Lee ably performed three organ works. Lee followed the John Weaver Toccata and the Marcel Dupré Prelude and Fugue in G minor, Opus 7, No. 3 with the world premier of a busy, multi-layered and modal work by Corneliu Mootz titled Triunity.

For more on upcoming Pacific Chorale events, visit http://www.pacificchorale.org/

Orange County Choral Society Stars & Stripes Forever

REVIEW:  Stars & Stripes Forever, July 2013

The Orange County Choral Society under the artistic direction of Christopher Gravis delivered a fitting tribute to our Nation this past July 3. The fine ensemble maintained their blended, uniform sound throughout a program that included everything from traditional folk tunes and patriotic songs to a lovely Aaron Copland selection excerpted from Copland’s opera The Tender Land.

The program of Americana featuring 35 of the approximately 65 voices that comprise the main ensemble and a band of 15 exceptional instrumentalists opened with “The National Anthem,” followed by the John Philip Sousa march, “The Washington Post,” to which audience members waved American flags that had been provided by greeters. The Choral Society then sang a spirited rendering of “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal” with a well-handled polyphony and an intelligibility that is often lacking in performances of this work by other groups. The excellent soloists complementing the work were Andrea Zomorodian and Scott Ziemann.

I couldn’t help but thoroughly enjoy “How Can I Keep From Singing?” This was an absolutely luscious presentation of the Robert Lowry composition. The song was clearly and deftly sung from the heart.

I had been looking forward to the work from The Tender Land titled “The Promise of Living.” For my taste the instrumentalists overbalanced the voices, though both ensembles put out a surprising amount of sound and the overall effect was quite pleasing.

Next we heard a warm, nuanced rendering of “Shenandoah” and a multi-genre arrangement of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” A showy opening for the latter selection transitioned to Dixieland, to the blues and to a stately “rise of the moon,” culminating in a rousing finish and audience participation.

Intonation and rhythmic accuracy are two strengths of this solid ensemble, as is their well-tempered vowel uniformity. Dotted rhythms in both “The National Anthem” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” were precisely executed.

After intermission, “The Liberty Bell” by Sousa brought everyone back to their seats for more flag waving. Proud veterans stood as the ensemble sang military anthems during “The Armed Forces Salute.” The concert was rounded off with Irving Berlin’s “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor,” featuring the words of the Emma Lazarus sonnet also placed at the Statue of Liberty, and “God Bless America” with a sweetly sung introduction by Soprano Soloist, Hannah Arevalo.

Flags at the ready, the audience waved out the celebration in grand old style as the instrumentalists performed “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” An encore of “America the Beautiful” followed.

The bright and open St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church in Huntington Beach hosted the event which was also underwritten by The St. Wilfrid of York Music Guild.

For information about Orange County Choral Society and upcoming concerts, visit www.occhoralsociety.org

Artistic Director Christopher Gravis with Orange Coast Choral Society members

Master Chorale of Saddleback Valley Golden Jubiliee Concert

REVIEW

The Master Chorale of Saddleback Valley fittingly honored its past 50 years and heralded the start of a new decade of music making this past Sunday afternoon with performances of a song of destiny and the always popular Mozart Requiem in D Minor.  Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods provided the setting for a concert quite ably sung by the nearly 50 singers and four soloists. Artistic Director and Conductor Charles Stephenson sturdily led the singers and an outstanding orchestra comprised mostly of young musicians.

The Brahms Schicksalslied (“Song of Destiny”) proffered a nicely balanced sound from the Chorale and an excellent choice of tempo. The piece, which is marked Adagio at the start, is sometimes performed too slowly by some groups and can have a tendency to sound more dirge-like than destiny-bound.  The orchestra supported the singers well, not overpowering the voices or the message.  The Chorale managed a purity of well-suited to the mood of the text.  A clearer break between the Allegro and the final Adagio, with a more settled tempo at the end, might have sealed the middle section with distinction and given more impact to the closing, though the overall effect of the work was quite pleasing and entrancing. A noble presentation of a noble piece.

Everyone has heard the Mozart Requiem, or sections of the Mass. For many the composition conjurs images of a foreboding figure dressed in black, or F. Murray Abraham as the film version of Antonio Salieri hurriedly copying down the music as dictated by Mozart from his deathbed. In reality, composers other than Salieri completed the work, notably an established Austrian composer named Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who claimed sole authorship of the Sanctus, the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei.

The Chorale did a fine job of making this big work sound big. The orchestra overpowered the voices at times, perhaps contributing to a sense of one volume coming from the singers. On my wish list might have been more separation between sections, more precise rhythms in the Rex tremendae and the Confutatis, and more crescendo and decrescendo in individual vocal lines throughout. Perhaps choral singers far and wide should blame Herr Süssmayr for the rapid-fire Osanna section of the Sanctus, which this group negotiated fairly deftly.

Kudos belong to this Chorale for not being shy with their entrances. My mind’s ear remembers too many past Requiem performances  with singers too shy to enter on the Confutatis. The Chorale kept their energy high and their voices true and blended from start to finish. The solo quartet was comprised of Saousan Jarjour, Sally Puente, Juan Castenada and Patrick Unrein who contributed competent performances.

Gene Wie, Music Director of the Orchestra of St. Margaret’s at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano assembled a remarkable orchestra of mostly teen and pre-teen musicians. Concertgoers who instantly think of the school band should think again. With only two rehearsals of the music under their belts, this orchestra outshined many community groups and ensembles composed of semi-professional and professional players. Orchestra members came from music programs at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, Orange County School of the Arts, Corona del Mar High School, Northwood High School, Dehesa Charter School and Arroyo Vista Middle School.

MCSV Artistic Director & Conductor Charles Stephenson flanked by Chorale members Jacki Brown and Bill Boyce in a post-concert toast to 50 years of choral music making

Those who enjoy fine choral music can be sure to find an enjoyable experience at a Master Chorale of Saddleback Valley concert.  Volunteers and individuals who would like to sing with the Chorale should visit  www.MasterChoraleSV.org  for more information. Looking into the slightly distant future, the Chorale is planning a tour of Ireland for its 2015 season. 

Singing on the Edge

Choral singers who are in the know sit on the edge.

How you sit matters because good seated posture can make a difference in how well you breathe and support your voice, which directly relates to the ease and quality of your singing tone. Sitting properly can help you fight vocal fatigue in long rehearsal sessions. It can also help you fight physical fatigue and neck and back aches and pains due to habitual poor postures. Sitting back in your seat in a collapsed or slumping posture stresses the muscles of the larynx and the neck.

The singer in the foreground is doing it wrong.
The singer in the background  receives an "E" for effort.

So impress your director! Sit up with chest lifted, uncross those legs, balance your weight slightly forward with feet slightly offset, line up the earlobe with your shoulders and hips, don’t overly arch your back, and hold the music up so that you can see your director over the top of the score without having to lift or lower it keeping your shoulders back, down and relaxed. Then sing your heart out. Be sure to monitor your body for signs of muscle tension or stress. Use the old drama relaxation and meditation exercise to monitor for tension and also to keep you relaxed and alert. Start with the hairs on the top of your head or start with your toes and gradually check every part of your body for tension. You’ll find that you’ll look good and you’ll sound good, too.