THE CHORAL CORNER - print this letter

The 2010-2011 school year is sure to be full of great musical opportunities for our students who are willing to work hard enough to make this our best vocal music year ever! As Mrs. Leacock and I enter our sixth year of teaching together at the high school, we embrace the first of many CHANGES for this academic year. Mrs. Leacock will be on maternity leave for the first quarter, and is planning to return to the classroom in November. We wish her a very happy and healthy maternity leave.

One thing that will not CHANGE this year is our mission of creating musical opportunities which will challenge our students to achieve what we believe has the potential to be a great vocal music year! Our second CHANGE comes early as we begin our performance season with our annual major work and not the Fall Follies. On November 2nd all the members of the Choral Department will combine to perform Carl Orff's Carmina Burana adding to our quite impressive list. Performing a major work has become a tradition that we are very proud of. Other past works include Ron Leavitt's Missa Festiva, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Franz Schubert's Mass in G , Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria, John Rutter's Mass of The Children, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem Mass, and Howard Hanson's Song of Democracy.

The time of year is our only CHANGE in our next performance opportunity. The UAHS Vocal Music Department has been fortunate enough to boast a series of local and state premieres. Past premieres include 2003 Les Miserables, 2006 Disney's Beauty and The Beast, 2007 Thoroughly Modern Millie, 2008 Jekyll & Hyde (USA Weekend National recognition as one of the top 5 high school productions in the country). This year we will be one of the first schools in the state to premiere an American musical theater classic in Irving Berlin's White Christmas. The production staff will again include choreographer Melanie Bales, professor of Dance at The Ohio State University and choreographer for Damn Yankees (2009), West Side Story (2010) as well as Opera Columbus Artistic Director and Conductor of West Side Story (2010) Bill Boggs, conducting the pit orchestra. Critics say White Christmas is a "Holiday Card come to Life" and our production will run on Thursday, December 2nd, Friday, December 3rd, and Saturday, December 4th at 7:30 pm. Including a Sunday matinee on December 5th at 2:30 pm.

Another major CHANGE that will only occur this school year is the omission of the Winter Choral Concert. Due to the timing of this year's holiday themed musical, and the placement of midterm exams being moved to before winter break, we will NOT have a Winter Choral concert this year. I know the alumni greatly look forward to joining us on stage for one more refrain of the "Hallelujah Chorus" but unfortunately the concert would have been scheduled so early in December that they would not have been home in time to attend the concert event. We look forward to resuming this tradition next school year.

A CHANGE we made last year will be modified for this year. The format of our 9th annual "Wonderful Night of Music" piano recital will again include an evening performance. The master-classes during the school day will be held on Wednesday, January 26th. The piano master-class will consist of the worldclass talent of Tom Scott from Cleveland, Ohio. Tom will take us on a very thought provoking musical journey throughout these classes. He will perform on the refurbished Knabe 9' grand piano and our 9' Grotrian piano. For this master-class/performance evening our plan is to create a more intimate concert setting by bringing the audience to the stage and surrounding the pianists during the performance. The evening concert will involve piano students performing with Tom Scott. All proceeds from the ticket sales will go towards the Symphonic Choir spring tour to the East Coast.

For the first time ever, Fall Follies will not begin our concert season and subsequently not be called Fall Follies for this performance schedule. The titled has CHANGED along with the time of year but the excitement and enthusiasm to entertain couldn't be greater than with February Follies: The Magical Music of DISNEY! This year's Follies will once again be performed in the style of a true Vaudeville show. February Follies will feature a variety of talented individual acts from within our choral department. The Follies will run on Friday, February 18th, Saturday, February 19th, at 7:30 pm and a Sunday matinee on February 20tht at 2:30 pm. Again proceeds from ticket sales will help offset the cost of the Symphonic Choir's spring tour to the East Coast.

We are proud to announce our 5th bi-annual East Coast Tour will involve the members of the Symphonic Choir from March 31st - April 4th. The biggest CHANGE in this event will be the path by which we travel to NYC. This year's journey will take us to a suburban community of Philadelphia for a joint concert with another high school choir and then allow us 3 full days in New York City. The educational tour will include multiple performances everyday, and the opportunity to see two Broadway musicals. Parents of a Symphonic Choir member should mark their calendars now for the MANDATORY meeting on Monday, September 13th at 6:45 pm in the Auditorium.

Another opportunity to show off our hard work and skill is during the Ohio Music Education Association's adjudicated event. This event will be our standard by which we measure our musical growth. We work hard to extend the tradition of superior level ratings in the two most difficult classifications A and AA. This year will create a CHANGE in the rotation of simulating versus attending the actual event every other year. Rather than attending a district level and then qualifying for a state level event, we will be simulating the educational aspects of this adjudicated event and bringing in 3 nationally renowned choral directors to serve as judges and guest clinicians. This one day event will take place on Wednesday, April 20th, right here in the UAHS auditorium!

Sadly, every year marks a CHANGING of the guard as our busy year (or 4 years) will come to a close on Wednesday, June 1st at our Spring Choral Concert and Senior Roast. This 7:00 pm concert will conclude our year with some wonderful choral music and a sure to be memorable "roasting" of the senior class by the current juniors. Followed by a video tribute to the seniors denoting their accomplishments in the Vocal Music Department over these past 4 years.

In a year of CHANGE the Vocal Music Boosters remain the one constant. There are many reasons for the successes of our program; the determination and resiliency of the students, the outstanding support of the high school and district administration, the love and vision of your directors and yet what do you get when you combine all of these attributes into one organization…. The Vocal Music Boosters! As we have said many times, the Boosters are integral parts of our very efficient team. They too approach our program with determination and resiliency, support our students both spiritually and financially and have a love and vision as equally intense as the directors have. The past years of success have created a bond and an expectation! A bond was created with many of the officers and committee chairs returning to serve again years after their children have graduated, and an expectation that is already being aggressively approached by our new Booster president Sara McCormick and her staff. We would personally like to welcome all of the board members and committee chairs to what we feel will be a most innovative and exciting year ... the year of CHANGES!

As you can see, this is quite an involved schedule of opportunities we have planned for our singers. We hope you will find it within you to get as excited about our choral program as we are and get involved in the Vocal Music Boosters wonderfully supportive organization.

We'd like to teach the world to sing!!!

Mr. Eric Kauffman and Mrs. Amy Leacock
Vocal Music Directors