Today is Saturday, February 11, 2012
Today is Saturday, February 11, 2012
The Choral Department is attending the annual West Valley Choral Invitational Festival today, October 23. Concert Choir, Girls 21 and Main Street Singers along with other high school choirs are performing to each other at West Valley College. An adjudicator gives the choirs feedback.
The festival lasts several hours. The adjudicator this year is Dr. Amanda Quist, who is Director of Choral Activities at San Jose State University. Last year, Dr. Quist worked as adjudicator with the school’s Choral Department when it held its own festival.
“[The choral festival] a learning experience, and it’s also a performance experience,” Director of Choral Music Mark Shaull said. “They come home with an idea of how far they’ve come so far and how they can go further.”
The festival also happens to be Concert Choir and Girls 21′s first performance this year.
According to Shaull, Quist will work hands-on with each high school choir, telling them what they did well and where they can improve.
Main Street singer senior Emma Carr, who went to the festival her sophomore year with Concert Choir, said that the feedback is usually information they have already received in class. Still, she said it is helpful to hear it from a more objective person who’s not an insider.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, we actually do need to work on this even though Mr. Shaull says it all the time,’” Emma said. “’Why don’t we just step it up and actually do it this time.’”
One of the ways the adjudicators try to improve the choirs, said Main Street singer senior Sean Armstrong, was to “unify their sound.” Emma cites other suggestions the adjudicators have given, such as signing with more open vowels and with the meaning of the piece in mind.
Adjudicators vary year by year and are chosen by availability.
Around 12 high schools participate in the festival. In the past, college choirs sometimes sang for them at the end. The school’s Choral Department did not go last year because the festival fell on the same day as the school’s homecoming dance.
