nafmeadmin.
nafmeadmin We have a new head of our Upper School who has made the decision to eliminate our chamber choir strictly based on numbers. He has never seen them perform, never observed a class, never seen the larger concert choir perform nor seen one of those classes. His rationale is that there is not enough senior leadership in the larger choir.
Here are the numbers for this year
Concert Choir – 46 with 8 seniors ( 28 girls and 18 guys)
Chamber Choir – 11 with 8 seniors (9 girls and 2 guys)
For concerts, the Chamber Choir sings their own rep and then joins with the larger choir for the Concert Choir rep.
Our chamber choir has been in existence for 15 years.
Although it is a done deal, he is willing to sit down and “talk” about it. I would love some suggestions or advice from any of my colleagues out there. Thanks.
– Betsy
nafmeadminDoes your school have honors or AP level classes, or any programs to challenge high acheiving students? If your school values those classes, it would be a good parallel for your chamber choir. Your administrator really needs to observe what you do in those rehearsals before he or she cuts it. Is there any way you can convince him or her to watch one first? If not, can you present a list of the skills you address there that you can’t do in concert choir?
Good luck.
nafmeadminI agree with jnu. Administration seems to be pushing not just reaching out to low performing students, but also stretching those high-performing students further. Using that may gain you some leverage.
nafmeadminA fellow LGPE adjudicator once compared this situation to putting the Calculus students in the same classroom as the Algebra one students. While this may not be a perfect analogy, there are certainly advantages to having a graded choir system at your school. It allows you to challenge the advanced students with more difficult literature and sight-reading, expanding their vocal technique and musical knowledge, and allowing you to implement higher level discussions in rehearsal that just aren’t feasible with beginners.
Jeff Bauman
Christopher M. Johnson, Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy, is currently the Chair of the Music Education and Music Therapy Department and Director of the Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas. Johnson earned his Ph.D. from the Florida State University.
Since his arrival at The University of Kansas, Johnson has taught courses in Instrumental Conducting, Teaching Instrumental Music, Managing Behaviors in the Music Environment, Psychology and Acoustics of Music, and Research Methods in Music Education and Music Therapy. Johnson served two terms as the editor of the International Journal of Music Education: Research, the research publication of the International Society for Music Education. He is currently serving his second term on the National Association for Music Educations Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. He also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Music Education, and one earlier term as the Chair for the MENC Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. Johnson also served as the Chair for the Research Commission of the International Society for Music Education.
Johnson’s research interests include applied research in music education, and basic research in all aspects of the psychology of music. He has published articles in many journals including the Journal of Research in Music Education, the International Journal of Music Education, the Journal of Music Therapy, Journal of Band Research, Contributions to Music Education, and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, among others. Johnson has also been an active member and contributor to the Research Seminar of the International Society for Music Education and World Alliance for Arts Education.
Johnson received a university teaching award – the Ned N. Fleming Award for Excellence in Teaching and received the recognition for Graduate Teaching Achievement from the Center for Teaching Excellence. Johnson was also awarded a lecturing & research award as a J. William Fulbright Scholar and recently received the Ella Scoble Opperman Citation for Distinguished Achievement from the Florida State University College of Music.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.