150 Years Built on the Rock

St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Fond du Lac, WI is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year with a series of festival services throughout the year. This weekend the Traveling Choir was invited to sing for a combination Pentecost and Christian/Lutheran Education festival. They sang tonight, Thursday May 8, for the 6:30 service and, as I've been doing since the middle of April, I recorded their songs. St. Peter's is a wonderful church to sing in–there's lots of natural reverb which just makes it so easy to sing. The softs can be softer because they just float around the room on their own. And you don't have to work so hard to be loud either. I just hope they can capture that same feeling in their new church!

We sang in two sets and I left the songs together instead of cutting them apart into separate tracks. I also recorded my introductions so you can get an feeling for what it's like to come and listen to us sing. You'll have to let me know if these files are too big to download quickly.

First Set: This Is My Word, In Christ Alone, The King of Love (39.2 MB)
Second Set: O Christ the Same, Witness (24.5 MB)

The two accompanists were Hannah Sugars (This is My Word, The King of Love) and Charis Scharf (In Christ Alone). They are both wonderful accompanists!

Traveling Choir records in rehearsal

One of my students has been asking me for a couple of weeks for recordings of the Traveling Choir singing "In Christ Alone" and "The King of Love" for a friend of their family. Last Friday we finally had time in our rehearsal schedule to do a recording day. You can listen for yourself by clicking the links above.

WLA Musicians Advance to State Solo Ensemble Festival

Congratulations to the following WLA music students for advancing to the State Solo Ensemble Festival at UW-Oshkosh on Saturday, April 26, 2008:

• Dion Malenke (drum set & concert snare drum solo)
• Ashley Kuhlow (piano)
• Beth Geisthardt (piano)
• Tanya Wilsmann (violin & flute)
• Nick Schmidt (trumpet solo & trio)
• Jordan Jindra (trumpet trio)
• Levi Wolff (trumpet trio)
• Seth Westphal (concert snare drum solo)
• Britt Kerr (french horn)

Click here for WLA's schedule (aka FONDY WINN LUTH), Room Key, General Information, UW-Oshkosh campus map, and Driving Directions

2008-2009 Traveling Choir Auditions Announced

Auditions for the 2008-2009 WLA Traveling Choir will be held April 28-May 2, 2008 in the WLA Choir Room. Students should sign up for their audition time on the Choir Room door. Students who have sung in a WLA choir for one year are eligible to audition for the 2008-2009 Traveling Choir. Students may audition before school, during Block 1, 2, 3, Noon A, Noon B, Block 5, or after school as the audition schedule allows. Auditions take 15 minutes.

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS:

1. Sing “This Is My Beloved Son” by Pepper Choplin (Streaming: mp3, Real Audio, Download mp3s: Full performance, Accompaniment only)

The music is available in the Choir Room. Students must prepare to sing the entire song in the voice part that they are auditioning for. Applicants will be judged according to the Wisconsin State Music Association vocal solo rubric in the following areas:

• Tone--the shape of the vowel and the beauty of the sound
• Intonation--staying on the right pitch, neither sharp nor flat
• Accuracy--singing the correct notes and rhythms
• Interpretation--singing musically and expressively
• Technique--breathing at logical spots and showing clear and clean diction

2. Tonal Memory Exercises
Students will hear short melodic phrases played at the piano and sing them back on “La” to test their aural memory

3. Sightreading Exercises
Students will sing a series of short graded examples to determine their sightreading ability.

4. Range Vocalization
The student will sing scales on “AH” to the top and bottom of their range.

Traveling Choir at St. Marcus, Milwaukee

Today, Traveling Choir got up WAY before the sun was even thinking about shining and boarded a school bus, not for a WLA association church, but for St. Marcus Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. We were invited by their music director, Jeff Krumbein, to sing for morning services and to join in singing with their gospel choir. Even though we were singing in an inner city church in Milwaukee, the day turned out to be more of a Fond du Lac day because not only is Jeff Krumbein the director of the Fond du Lac choir Joyful Witness (formerly known as the Winnebago Lutheran Chorale), but everyone's favorite "Irish" musician and WLA grad, Joey Schumann, played bagpipes, whistles, and violin for both services as well.

The Traveling Choir sang three songs after the sermon in the first service:

• In Christ Alone
  
• This Little Light of Mine
• Witness

Between services, we were served a huge breakfast and then rehearsed with the gospel choir for our joint piece in the second service.

• The Name (rehearsal)

The second service was video taped for Time of Grace ministries. We sang four selections before the sermon:

• In Christ Alone
• This Little Light of Mine
• The King of Love
• Witness

and joined with who we thought was the gospel choir, but ended up being the United Voices of Praise, backed by a full gospel band (piano, bass, drum set, congo, bongos, Hammond B3 organ), Joey Schumann on flute, and a special guest saxophonist.

• The Name

In all the excitement of the day, I forgot to bring my camera along to take pictures of Traveling Choir singing and rehearsing. Did anyone get pictures? Please let me know or send them my way and I'll post them here. Thanks!

Traveling Choir's 1st Sunday Recording

I got a new toy which I had to try out this morning when Traveling Choir sang at Faith Lutheran Church, Fond du Lac, WI. I've been wanting to record the Traveling Choir on Sunday mornings when they go out to the WLA Association congregations, but I didn't have a good way of doing it. Well, I was at the MENC National Convention in Milwaukee the past couple of days and found a solution– the Edirol R-09 handheld digital recorder.

So, this morning I took it along to Faith and was going to record both services. Halfway through the 1st service I realized that I never took the recorder out of my pocket! So, between services I did a little reading of the manual (which I NEVER do), popped in new AA batteries, and handed the recorder to a gentleman in the congregation who I knew wouldn't be afraid of technology, and went about directing the Traveling Choir. I was eager to get home and listen to the recordings just to see if it worked right out of the box.

Well, listen for yourself–I think not only did the recording go well, but TC sang very well this morning!

• This is My Word (Pepper Choplin)
• This Little Light of Mine (arr. Dale Witte)
• The King of Love (arr. Daniel Kallmann)
• In Christ Alone (Keith Getty & Stuart Townend, arr. Angerman)
  
• O Christ the Same (arr. Dale Witte)
• Witness (arr. Jack Halloran)
  

African Children's Choir Performs at MENC National Convention in Milwaukee