Announcement, Announcement, Announcement
OREGON ACDA SUMMER WORKSHOP
August 17, 18, 19
University of Portland
Click for REGISTRATION form...>
The ACDA Oregon Summer Workshop will be hosting the National 
ACDA President, Tim Sharp as one of our headliner clinicians. Tim will be conducting a reading session on Sacred Music, as well as interest sessions on working with church choirs. He will also be talking about the future of ACDA, and how he sees our future.
We will also have the internationally respected clinician, Randy Stenson here from Tokyo to work with the membership on movement and the maturing male voice. These sessions will be interactive, so come ready to move and groove. We will guarantee you will learn more than you can remember, and have the time of your life.
ACDA Oregon
Summer Workshop 2010
27th Annual Workshop
On the campus of the University of Portland
August 17, 18, and 19
Click for REGISTRATION form...>
Tuesday, August 17th
6:00-6:45 p.m. Registration -Buckley Center foyer and visit the DJ Records Display
6:45-8:00 p.m. Session #1 w/Tim Sharp- Teaching your choir to Watch, Listen, and Think Chorally.
8:00-9:00 p.m. Session #2 w/Tim Sharp-Sacred Music Reading Session.
9:00-10:00 p.m. Session #3a w/Tim Sharp-Sing with the Spirit-The Development of the Spiritual Black and White.
Session #3b w/Erika Lockwood-Sharing what works in the Middle School Choir.
Wednesday, August 18th
8:00-8:30 a.m. Registration-Buckley Center Foyer & Visit the DJ Records Display
8:30-10:00 a.m. Session #4 w/Randy Stenson-Move From the Start.
10:00-10:30 a.m. Session #5 w/Tim Sharp-ACDA Executive Director-ACDA for the 21st Century. What is the vision, and where is ACDA headed?
10:30-noon Session #6 w/Steve Peter-Reading Session for high school choirs all levels.
12:00-1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00-2:00 p.m. Session #Session #7 w/Scott Tuomi-Reading session for College Choirs
2:30-3:15 p.m. Session #8 w/Jason Heald-Reading session for Vocal Jazz
3:15-4:45 p.m. Session #9 w/Randy Stenson-Move with the Music.
5:00-6:15 p.m. Dinner
6:30-7:15 p.m. Oregon ACDA Children/Youth Festival Choir Concert. Concert will be at the Buckley Center Auditorium.
7:30-8:45 p.m. Session #10 w/Erika Lockwood-Reading session for middle level/multiple voicings.
Wednesday, August 18 Mago Hunt Auditorium Schedule
ACDA Treble Festival Honor Choir
10:00-11:15 a.m. Session #1-Introduce 4 New Songs from “Scratch”.
11:30-12:15 a.m. Session #2-“Polish” pre-learned songs.
12:15-1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00-2:30 p.m. Session #3-Continue rehearsing “new” songs.
2:45-3:30 p.m. Session #4-Continue “polishing” pre-learned songs.
3:30-4:30 p.m. Session #5-Rehearse in Concert Order.
4:30-5:30 p.m. Walk to Buckley Center for logistics/dress rehearsal
5:30-6:10 p.m. Dinner in UP Dining Hall
6:30 p.m. Oregon ACDA Children/Youth Festival Inaugural Concert Hour
Thursday, August 19
8:30 a.m. Registration
9:00-10:30 a.m. Session #11 w/Randy Stenson-Move Your Listener
10:30-Noon Session #12 w/Roberta Jackson and Joe Demianew-Reading session for women’s and men’s literature.
Noon-1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00-2:00 p.m. Session #13 w/Lisa Forkish-The New A Cappella Revolution. Performance by the winner of the Northwest International High School A Cappella Competition-Soul’d Out from Wilsonville High School.
2:00-2:45 p.m. Session #14A w/ Deb Burgess-Reading Session for Treble Choir.
Session #14B w/Donna Spicer-Reading Session for Community Choirs.
3:00 p.m. Drawing and closing remarks.
Sheet Music Service to close; Michael Sagun to be honored for 
38 years of service to ACDA and all music educators
Michael Sagun at Portland Sheet Music Service has announced that he is having to close the store next Friday. Please join with all ACDA members at the store in Portland to wish Michael well, and thank him for a lifetime of service to ACDA and to all music educators in the area.
There will be a reception at Sheet Music Service next Thursday, May 13th from 3-5 p.m. Please come and join in on the fun. We will miss Michael and the store he ran for his entire career.
The store is located at 810 S. E. Sherman, Portland.
Sheet Music Service began in the Portland area some 93 years ago. It was known as Maud McCawley's Sheet Music Service of Portland. Names that followed included Burke-Hoyt Sheet Music Service of Portland and Byron-Hoyt Sheet Music Service of Portland. In 1967, it became Barker-Lins Sheet Music Service of Portland. And finally, in 1986, when Michael Sagun and David Wood bought the business, the name was shortened to Sheet Music Service.
May 11, 2010
Observations and Questions from Day 2 of OSAA State Choir Championships
by Russ Otte, Past-President, OR ACDA
Friday, May 7 proved to be even more enjoyable than Thursday. First of all, I got to hear twenty-four choirs instead of sixteen. The day began with the twelve choirs of the 4A Division. I counted 407 singers participating in these ensembles. According to OSAA information, there are forty schools in this division. McLoughlin HS qualified but was not invited to this event. I heard fifty-one different pieces of music and only a couple of repetitions. What a feast!
The literature performed in 4A was heavily weighted to spirituals, “multi-cultural” pieces and a fair number of Renaissance works. What can we do to include an even wider range of works from the “canon?” Do the works of the Baroque get performed at other times in the year?
There was no representative from the Sky-Em League. What can be done to help get things to the point where at least one school out of 7 has a choir that sings well enough to qualify for the State Championship? 4A schools enroll between 401 and 850 students.
The second half of the day was devoted to performances by the twelve selected schools of the 5A Division. There were six schools that qualified but did not get an invitation to perform. There were eighteen of the forty schools in the division that had qualifying choirs in schools that enroll between 851 and 1250 students. The Northwest Oregon Conference had six of it’s eight members qualify for state and the Mid-Willamette Conference had five of eight qualify. There is a lot of quality singing going on in that part of the state. I counted 583 singers that performed in this division. Only three of the choirs performed with the number of persons listed in the program. What are the causes for students not participating in this class fieldtrip? What can be done to get a higher percentage of students enrolled in a class to be able to participate in this class activity?
I heard at least fifty-three different pieces of music with only a couple of duplications with the 5A division and a few duplications between divisions. What will happen when many of the young teachers get sets of the video recordings and begin to learn the literature from these performances? What would happen if the literature requirement changed to expect each choir to do two pieces from the “State List”?
My ears were exhausted by the end of the day. I wonder if the sight reading became the determining factor between several choirs. What would happen if Sight Reading were required at the qualifying event level and included as part of the qualifying scores?
I am not able to attend Day 3. I’m certain that some truly outstanding performances occured. Thanks to Loren Wenz and the crew of nineteen students from George Fox University who worked behind the scenes to make things run smoothly. Let’s do this again next year!
May 7, 2010
Observations and Questions
from Day 1 of the OSAA State Choir Championships
by Russ Otte, Past-President, OR ACDA
What an opportunity to celebrate the choral art in Oregon. High School choirs from around the state gathering to make music and listen to choral music. For me it doesn’t get any better. I spent the day in Bauman Auditorium on the campus of George Fox University as an observer and audience member.
Thanks to the people of OSAA for continuing to include music in the state championships even though I am one of those who believe that a gold/silver/bronze system would be better than the current model. Nevertheless, we do have a vehicle for celebrating our art form! Also thank CCTV for doing video recording of all the performances. These recordings provide a wonderful treasure for us.
The day begins with the 1A/2A division. Did you know that there are 80 schools in the 1A group and 40 schools in the 2A? So we have 8 choirs performing in this division to represent 120 schools. What can we do to get choirs in more of these schools? According to the OSAA State Championship program, the 1A schools enroll 4901 students and the 2A schools enroll 6998. The 8 qualifying choirs had a total of 282 performers. What can be done to provide high quality choral music experiences to the other 11,000+ young people?
The student teacher at Cove High School is a person I got to know as a chaperone for the NW ACDA Women’s Honor Choir. She had the opportunity to direct three pieces in the first ever appearance of Cove HS at this event. I suspect that she will have the distinction of being the only director to have an ensemble of more men than women performing on stage in any of the divisions. In the 1A/2A division, there were 106 males and 176 female singers. What can ACDA do to foster more gender equity among singers in the high schools of Oregon?
It was wonderful to hear Mike Wallmark, Associate Executive director of OSAA, make special note of that fact that all eight of these choirs are already winners. The panel of judges for this event had some challenging work. For results, go to www.osaa.org and click on “choir”.
After a lunch break, the 8 qualifying choirs of the 3A division made their presentations. The 3A division is comprised of 39 schools. According to the printed program, there were no qualifying choirs that were not invited to the championship. What can be done to get a higher percentage of schools to have choirs that meet the qualifying standard? I wonder how many of the directors from the non-qualifying schools have attended an ACDA Adjudication Workshop. What would be the impact of having all of those directors go thru the adjudication certification process? What can ACDA do to provide an incentive to those teachers?
The 39 schools of the 3A division enroll 10,661 students. The 8 choirs performing today had a total of 273 students come on stage. What can be done to offer high quality choral music education to more than 10,000 students of these schools? What can be done so that many more students prepare for and experience the challenge of the Sight Reading portion of the Choir Championship?
I find it interesting that the average size of a choir at the championship in Division 1A/2A is larger than the average size of a choir in Division 3A even thought the school size of 3A is significantly greater. What does this say about the value of music in either the smaller schools or the larger schools? It was also interesting that 6 of the 8 schools in 1A/2A were private schools. Would students remain in public schools if the school had a viable choir program? Just asking!
I left before the results of the 3A division were announced. It’s not really important to me who “won”. It was interesting to watch the students from seven choirs give a standing ovation to the championship choir in 1A/2A.
I do plan to return tomorrow to listen to the next two divisions. I wonder what questions I’ll have at the end of the day.
Regin and Nelson sum up the sacred music reading session of January 29/30; 53 participants attend
OR
ACDA and Sheet Music Service of Portland hosted a great sacred choral music workshop at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Wilsonville on Friday, Jan. 29 and Saturday, Jan. 30! 
The headlining clinician was Lloyd Larson (hailing from Maple Grove, Minnesota), one of the most prolific composers of sacred choral anthems and sacred instrumental music in the country. Lloyd's choral anthems are also some of the most "user-friendly" for smaller church choirs.
The workshop co-chairs, Ralph Nelson and Jim Regin, were excited to see the workshop's fifty-three participants coming from such distant locations as Coos Bay, OR, Port Angeles, WA, Hood River, OR and Medford, OR. All kinds of church denominations were represented as well.
Three reading sessions, a session on church music, and a conducting masterclass were presented by Lloyd Larson, and there was also a reading session presented by Ralph Nelson and Jim Regin at the end of the second day.
Pa
rticipants who played instruments were encouraged to join in when the pieces called for them, making the reading sessions really effective. The whole workshop was accompanied by Signe Lusk, who always does a bang-up job sight-reading and expressing the music beautifully at the same time.
Many thanks to Dr. Jon Holland, who hosted the event at his church and helped out in so many ways with his expertise running this event in past years!
Also, a big thanks goes to Michael Sagun of Sheet Music Service in Portland, who gathered all the choral music for the reading packets and other materials for the event, and who serves as the music business liaison for this so many other OR ACDA events!
Ralph Nelson and Jim Regin
Co-Chairs
OR ACDA
Music in Worship Repertoire and Standards
July 1, 2009 was one of those magical days in the life of Oregon ACDA. It was a day when several different people took on new duties within the organization. Following are those changes:
PRESIDENT – Sue Schreiner, Director of Choirs at Wilsonville High School, began her two year term in this critical role and relieved Russ Otte of his duties. Sue was elected to President-Elect in a special election held in 2008 after Tom Isaacson resigned.
PRESIDENT-ELECT – the results of our 2009 election bring Matt Strauser, Director of Choral Activities at Corban University, to a new role on the board. Matt has served Oregon ACDA in other capacities in recent years. He will become president in 2011.
PAST-PRESIDENT – Hal Eastburn leaves the board after more than twenty years of service to Oregon ACDA. Be sure to thank Hal for all of his work in ACDA over these years. Russ Otte moves into this position for the last two years of his six year tour of leadership.
Contact information for each of these people as well as all other members of the Oregon Board can be found by clicking on the “Leadership” tab.
A Win, Win, Win, Win, . . . event!
by Russ Otte
October 28, 2009
I
arrived at the First United Methodist Church of Corvallis to the sounds of voices singing a work by Eric Whitacre. I didn’t know the exact schedule for the Oregon Youth Festival Choir, but wasn’t surprised that my 9:30 AM arrival was late for the start of rehearsal. I knew that I was coming in to Day 2 of a two day event. The entrance to the church was awash in the black and orange of Oregon State University with several college students still at the “registration table”.
Since I am now retired and on the outside of the high school choral scene, I asked for a copy of the schedule for the day. With this information in hand I know that I can choose between Festival Choir rehearsals led by Eric Whitacre, or a rehearsal of the combined OSU MeisterSingers & Bella Voce with Whitacre, or a rehearsal of the OSU Chamber Choir with Whitacre, or a Masterclass with Hila Plitmann (that’s Eric’s wife), or ….. What a full day of choral festival activities
Before I really get to making a decision, I meet Kari Whitacre (sister of Eric) who works as Development Director for Community Outreach of Corvallis. I learn that this whole event is her idea! All facets of this two day event will raise funds to benefit her agency. WOW!! Making music with one of the giants of American choral music, learning, and becoming an ensemble helps the homeless and hungry of Corvallis. Awesome!!
Day 1 was devoted to high school choirs that traveled from around the state. Each choir received a workshop with Dr. Steve Zielke, Director of Choral Activities at OSU, and a workshop with composer/conductor Eric Whitacre.
A voice masterclass for five high school soloists was conducted by Ms. Hila Plitmann and the choirs combined for a performance of Sleep with Whitacre conducting. I can only imagine the excitement of the high school musicians as they worked with the composer twice on this day. One hundred percent of the entry fees for this event are donated to Community Outreach, Inc.
Day 2 has brought together 110 singers from fourteen schools to form the Oregon Festival Choir. Each student paid a $100 participation fee to spend the day working with maestro Whitacre.
I am impressed with this group of musicians who also understand that music making is about community, and in this case, the community includes hungry and homeless men, women and children. What a win, win! The students increased their knowledge of music and created a new community of musicians that reached out to an even larger community of citizens.
Jason Taylor, Director of Choirs at Newberg HS said “This event shows value in the Oregon choral experience, and for my students, it’s a blessing for a composer to truly teach the intent of his music. It’s nice to not say ‘The composer was trying to portray’, or ‘I think he was meaning …’ in our classes when singing Eric’s music.”
I got to observe a rehearsal of the OSU Chamber Choir with Eric Whitacre and a masterclass of OSU voice students with Ms. Plitmann (she and Eric are married) that included one of my former students from Ashland. Another win, win!
The photos that are included in this story continue the win, win, win theme. Jim Johnson is the volunteer photographer for Community Outreach. He donates his time and materials to document the projects of Community Outreach. My thanks to him for sharing professional photos for this report. He can be reached at JimJohnson@crowseyeimagery.com.
I didn’t get to stay for the evening concert; however, I can imagine that it was quite a celebration with more than 275 voices concluding the concert under the leadership of that guy that is Kari’s brother. I'm certainly impressed by all the musicians who gave of themselves to raise at least $30,000 for the needy in the Corvallis community. This is a project worth imitating in other communities!
Reported by Russ Otte, Past President of Oregon ACDA.
For more information on this event see: http://oregonstate.edu/cla/music/chorus/whitacrefestival09
The following links will provide multiple photos taken by Jim Johnson of Crows Eye Imagery.
http://www.crowseyeimagery.com/raiseyourvoice/index.html#49
http://www.crowseyeimagery.com/raiseyourvoice/index.html#87
http://www.crowseyeimagery.com/raiseyourvoice/index.html#85
http://www.crowseyeimagery.com/raiseyourvoice/index.html#82
http://www.crowseyeimagery.com/raiseyourvoice/index.html#56
by Russell Otte
Have you heard all of these choirs this year?
Western Oregon University w/Solveig Holmquist;
Warner Pacific College w/Thomas Miller;
Umpqua Community College w/Jason Heald;
Corban College w/Matthew Strauser;
Eastern Oregon University w/Peter Wordelman;
University of Oregon w/Sharon Paul;
Oregon State University w/Steve Zielke;
Linn-Benton Community College w/James Reddan;
George Fox University w/Loren Wenz;
Clackamas Community College w/Lonnie Cline;
Linfield College w/Anna Song;
Concordia University w/Kurt Berentsen.
Well, I did - yesterday (April 21) in Bauman Auditorium on the campus of George Fox University.
I know, I know many of you had to work. I'm sorry!
For more than twenty-five years I've missed these things, but now get to attend. I'm writing this because I hope that more of us who love choral music and care about the art form will find out about the 2010 Oregon ACDA Collegiate Choral Festival.
Too many people missed the '09 edition. I'm asking the chair of the event to get out more public announcements so that choral music lovers can attend.
In the course of about six hours, I heard more than four hundred singers present seventy pieces of choral music as interpreted by twelve directors. What a FEAST!
I'm not sure who planned it or how it happened, but the final piece was "Depart in Peace" by Ken Galbreath.
Yes I heard Bach, and Billings, Byrd , Britten and Bruckner. Also Copland, Childs, Dawson, Dinerstein, Gawthrop, Hogan and Whitacre. Then Villette, Durufle, Clausen and Lauridsen. I heard a piece in Swahili, and a folksong from the Hezhe tribe of China, and a "bomba" from northern Ecuador. OK, so you get the idea. The literature was diverse and wonderful. Only one piece was programmed by two choirs and yet that was interesting as well.
If you want to know more about this event, go to http://syntereo.com/index. Some of the history of the Oregon Collegiate Choral Festival is presented, and I'm rather sure that material from the '09 edition will soon be posted. Then watch your ACDA website calendar for April 2010 to find out when and where this event will spring up again. The price is right - FREE! I plan to become a regular. I hope to see you!
RUSS
2008 Gold Award winners announced
Congratulations to the Oregon choral directors and choirs in earning the ACDA Gold Award for 2007-2008! (Click here for list)
This is the first year of an annual award program initiated by Oregon
ACDA to recognize excellence in choral performance statewide. Oregon
choirs are eligible by earning two or more scores of 81 or higher at
a District, League or Invitational sanctioned choral festival
or contest held in 2007-2008. Sanctioned events require use of the ACDA/OMEA/OSAA
adjudication system with approved forms and certified adjudicators.
This award program recognizes all choirs earning, in a sanctioned festival,
at least two scores of 81 or higher regardless of whether they also qualify
for the tape pool for the OSAA High School State Choral Championships.
The Gold Award also recognizes outstanding performances of various choral
categories-- high school, middle school, elementary, community or church
-- regardless of choir size and gender. In addition, it is possible for
more than one choir from a single school to earn the award provided that
each choir attains the qualifying scores in performance at a sanctioned
event.
If your choir has qualified for the Gold Award but hasn't received the award yet, please contact Oregon ACDA Adjudications Chairperson Jim Angaran at <info@juniperjewel.com>. In your e mail please provide the following details of your qualifying performance:
Name of school
Name of choir
Name and e-mail address for festival
site chairperson
Name of festival and date
Names and scores received of certified
judges
Classification of choir (MS/1A/2A, 3A.
etc.)
Choral directors-- you may find something new and positive from
ACDA to encourage you and your choir’s efforts upon opening your
mail this spring!