Staff photo by Serra Muscatello The massed choir at the WELS National Choral Festival rehearsed on Saturday at Martin Luther College, in preparation for their concert at 2 p.m. today in the MLC Luther Student Center Gymnasium. WLA Junior, Libby Adelmeyer, singing the solo. Dr. Kermit Moldenhauer, conductor of the Cantate Choir.
Pops Concert - Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 - Part 1 (Luther, Wisco, Fox Valley, Northland, Rocky Mountain, Shoreland, Kettle Moraine, Great Plains, Arizona, Michigan, Huron Valley)
Jonathan Witte, WLA class of 2013 (and my son), was selected by audition last spring to play trumpet in the 2011 Wisconsin State Honors Band. The Wisconsin State Honors Music Project was founded in 1967 to provide musically talented students the opportunity to rehearse and perform with the nation's finest conductors in a professional, highly disciplined setting. Students who are selected to perform with the State Honors Music Project (instrumental or vocal) are some of the most accomplished instrumentalists in the state of Wisconsin. Jonathan is only the second music student in WLA's history to be selected for State Honors Band, the first being Tom Otto on trombone in 1997! Selected through a rigorous audition process, students are challenged to perform at their musical best throughout the short rehearsal period (a three-and-a-half day summer camp at UW-Green Bay this past July), which will culminate with a performance as part of the Wisconsin State Music Conference on Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:30 PM. at Overture Hall in Madison, WI. The resulting performance is certainly a once in a lifetime experience for performers and audience. Tickets for the concert are available athttp://overturecenter.com/production/wsma-state-honors-concerts.
The WLA Fine Arts Department presents the Fall Concert 2011 on Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 7:00 PM (GMT-5) in the gymnasium of Winnebago Lutheran Academy, 475 E. Merrill Ave., Fond du Lac, WI. The Concert Band, Academy Kids, Concert Choir, and Traveling Choir will perform secular and sacred works led by Kevin Ehlke, band director, and Dale Witte, choir director. Click to download the WLA Fall Concert 2011 program (PDF)
This afternoon there were about 20 professionals who came into WLA and gave presentations on their career areas to the WLA student body. Heather Lynn, WLA 98' grad and Country music singer/songwriter, spoke to music students about Music Performance as a career. I'm very proud of Heather and her hard work seeing as she is a former music student of mine! You can follow her Facebook Heather Lynn fan page or listen and buy her music on iTunes (she's got five singles there!) or Reverb Nation. You can send her fan mail at misslynn@heatherlynnmusic.com or contact her for booking at hle@heatherlynnmusic.com.
While every music performer's path from "unknown" to "star" is different, Heather Lynn shared with WLA students about how she followed her dream of becoming a Country music singer/songwriter. Some of the websites she mentioned were:
I'm presenting the final chapter of Acts in chapel tomorrow at WLA and have been pouring over many sources, including the NPH People's Bible on Acts (did you know they are published on Kindle and Nook now too?), trying to understand Paul's trip to Rome in chains around 62 AD. Acts 27 records that his ship of 276 people ran aground on Malta. I discovered earlier today that there is a St. Paul's Bay on Malta and that many people believe Paul's ship ran aground there near St. Paul's Island. Interestingly enough, the coat of arms of St. Paul's Bay has a snake on it and has the motto "In Christo Renati Sumus".
Then I stumbled upon a video and article from Christian Broadcasting News "Searching for Paul's Shipwreck on Malta" which purports that Paul's shipwreck was actually at St. Thomas Bay on the eastern side of Malta (for all the doubters in the crowd, I suppose). Which is true? I don't know and, truthfully, it doesn't really make any difference. All I know is that the Bible is God's Word and it is true. Whatever it says is what I believe. If it doesn't say, I don't need to know it to get to heaven. So why am I looking into where the shipwreck was? I'm just trying to understand sailing on the Mediterranean and where Paul sailed on his trip to Rome to try to gain insight into Luke's account in Acts. Plus Malta looks like a place I'd like to visit someday!
Want to really dive into the geography of Paul's Missionary Journeys? Using Google Earth, download .kml files showing Paul's Missionary Journeys from Mark de Blois or Tim Schumacher. Want the location of every location of every identifiable place in the Bible? Check out the incredible Bible Geocoding.
Daniel Spreadbury has been the Senior Product Manager of Sibelius Music Notation Software since 1999. His personal blog, SibeliusBlog, is "intended to provide insights into the world’s favourite music notation software, from the unique perspective of its Senior Product Manager. You’ll find hints and tips about how to make the most of the product, and interesting stories about how Sibelius is being used in a variety of contexts for all sorts of exciting projects."
That being said, I've wanted to know how to put watermarks on sample copies of my music for a while now. Here's the answer in Sibelius 6. I'm sure the same technique works in the new Sibelius 7. This video comes from Daniel's Vimeo account. Follow @dspreadsbury on Twitter to keep up to date with Daniel's Sibelius news.
The Wisconsin School Music Association offers a music list of more than 6,000 carefully selected titles to promote musical growth through practice, performance, and evaluation at WSMA-sanctioned music festivals. Each year, more than 220,000 students take the initiative to participate in WSMA festivals, and use the music from the WSMA Music Festival List.
My Music Tech blog is acting up. Don't know why. For the time being I've posted the following link for my 20 Music Tech students to review what we learned in Dance Project 1.
Click here to go to the Music Tech Dance Project 1 Review.
Last summer I was commissioned to write a concertato (a hymn on steroids) on the hymn "Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds" by the WELS Commission on Worship for the 2011 WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts. The phrase which really propelled the way I approached the commission was the theme of the worship conference: "To pass the torch to the next generation." When I read that statement, I immediately thought of "Passing the Torch" music -- Olympic torch music -- but more specifically, the music to John Williams. I'm sure you can hear his influence on this work!
The WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts was last week at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN and Martin Luther College, New Ulm, MN. "Mighty Deeds" was originally commissioned to be the closing piece of the opening festival concert of the conference, but about six months before the conference I was told its position would change to be the opening piece of the opening festival concert. No pressure!
When I got the commission last summer, I was in the middle of a Teaching Guitar Workshop at Olympia Resort in Oconomowoc, WI. Since it was getting towards the end of the summer and the new school year was approaching, I didn't do much composing except thinking about piece and what I wanted to do with it. I did contact an orchestra conductor who graciously shared with me a number of John Williams orchestral scores that I could study for orchestration techniques. But beyond that, I didn't get down to any serious composing on it until Spring Break 2011.
I wish I could say that I spent my Spring Break in a tropical cottage away from the hustle and bustle and noise of this world, but it would be more accurate to say that I spent a lot of time driving with the radio off, trying to hear the music in my head first before writing it down or going to a piano to try and play it. Many summers ago, when I was just starting my Master of Church Music program at Concordia, River Forest, IL (now Concordia University, Chicago), my then composition teacher and first advisor, Richard Hillert (of "This is the Feast of Victory" fame) encouraged me to not compose at the keyboard but to listen to the music in my head first before trying to play it. His reasoning was that you could hear much more complex music than your fingers could ever play. He was right!
Spring Break 2011 came and went awfully fast. It wasn't until the last Sunday afternoon of Spring Break, right before having to go back to teaching the next day, that the introduction finally hit me. And it came all of a sudden all at once. I played it at the piano, recorded on my iPhone (thank you Voice Memo!), and ran to school to write it down in my staff book. Yes, I still write out all my compositions by hand with pencil and paper. It gives me a sense of permanence and safety if my computer ever crashes.
That was the end of March. Just the introduction was completed. I had no idea how to lead into the first verse, nor did I know how the rest of the verses would go. There were six verses in all and I needed to let the choir sing one or more of them, but it was not clear which ones. I was just happy I had an idea for the intro!
The end of the school year came and went – a blur of video games and video game soundtracks – but I think that was helpful. I knew I wanted a driving, rhythmic bass pattern to imitate a John Williams orchestral bass line (some have asked me after hearing "Mighty Deeds" when the stormtroopers were going to arrive!) and the driving, pounding, heroic music of Halo, Advent Rising, Final Fantasy VII, and Civilization IV were lodged deeply in my brain for months leading up to the WLA Spring Concert.
The end of the school year continued to accelerate until graduation day had passed and I could finally have longer periods of time to hear the music in my head. I've described the process of composing to some people as putting together a puzzle that you don't know what it will look like when it's done, with pieces that you don't know how they fit together, or how many there are. I had heard parts and snippets of "Mighty Deeds" in my head for a while and written them down in my staff book as a I heard them, but I still had no idea how they all might eventually fit together, or if I would use them all.
Luckily (by the grace of God!) my parents left for a week long driving trip to visit my brother in Florida and their house was free. It was the quiet place I needed to finish "Mighty Deeds"! And by the grace of God I was able to finish the work and get it sent off to the planning committee of the Worship Conference – one day before the orchestra parts were to be sent out to the volunteer orchestra!
I was very nervous to hear the first orchestra rehearsals last week, not knowing how the orchestra would take to my composition. It wasn't exactly typical Lutheran church music like Hillert, Schalk, Bunjes, or Moldenhauer! I left the first and second orchestra rehearsals very happy with their progress and Dr. Moldenhauer's ability to capture the spirit of the piece and my compositional intentions. I missed the dress rehearsal, but that was ok, it made the festival concert performance that much more spine-tingling for me! I had two digital recorders with me, and captured the recording at the beginning of this post from the aisle about six rows back from the orchestra.
First orchestra rehearsal of Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds
in the Christ Chapel of Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN (7/18/11)
I was also very nervous to hear the comments of the conference participants. Very nervous! But judging from the many people who talked to me at the conference and those who posted comments on my Facebook page, it went over very well. And I feel guilty even saying that, because I didn't compose it to be liked (although even I didn't like the hymn tune when first presented with the commission, so I wanted to compose a setting that would help make the hymn tune interesting to me). I composed it to glorify God and to portray not only the text of the hymn, but also to accomplish the desires of the committee who commissioned it (Tiefel, Prange, & Gerlach) to "pass the torch to the next generation." Hopefully the next generation was inspired to grab the torch (of the gospel, of good church music, of music composition, and the like). If my son is any indication, he can't get this piece out of his head! And isn't that why God gave us music – to keep His Word in our heads?
EVERYTHING IS CONFIRMED AND FINALIZED! There were two changes/additions to the schedule so far: (1) Zion, Theresa was added on December 18 because Pastor Learman at St. Peter's, Theresa has been called to serve both congregations now, and (2) Trinity, Dundee's second service is at 9:30.
Today I caught a tweet from Concordia Publishing House (@ConcordiaPub) that they were going to live stream a choral reading session tonight. Unfortunately I was at my daughter's soccer game and couldn't watch live, but CPH recorded it on Ustream and I've embedded it below for you to watch. Listen for the coupon code to get 20% off online orders! See CPH's Facebook page for a list of the music presented in this session.
Incidentally, my setting of The Tree of Life just got picked up by CPH and should be published by them in the next year or two. Thanks, David Johnson!
Congratulations to all the WLA students who performed this weekend at State! What an amazing display of God-blessed music talent!
Two WLA students earned "Exemplary Soloist Awards": Seth Westphal (his 2nd, two years in a row on Parade Snare Drum) and Dan Moldenhauer (Piano Solo - Brahms Rhapsody). This is the first time in WLA's history that two music students were awarded this award in the same year! Congratulations Seth and Dan!
The schedule was just posted today. Get it and more info at WSMAmusic.org. Click on the ***Select School*** button and choose "FONDY WINN LUTH" to see WLA's schedule.
