Auditioning to Sing the National Anthem for Professional Sports Teams

The WLA Traveling Choir has been singing a new SATB arrangement of the Gaither Vocal Band setting of the Star-Spangled Banner this school year.  After one of our recent performances for the 6th Annual Derek Dobogai Memorial Run/Walk, an audience member pulled me aside and said,"I go to about 17 or 18 Brewers games a year.  The version your choir sang today was way better than anyone I have heard sing for the Brewers.  You should audition to sing for the Brewers."

I have had this same encouragement from other parents in the past, so it's high time we did it.  So how does one audition?  Here is the most current information I have found for Wisconsin teams:

Milwaukee Brewers | Fan FAQs

I AM INTERESTED IN SINGING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM PRIOR TO A BREWERS GAME. HOW DO I APPLY?

To apply to sing the anthem prior to a Brewers game, please send in an audition of the anthem sung a cappella, 90 seconds or less, plus a performance history (if any) to:

• Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club
• Attn: Aleta Mercer
• One Brewers Way
• Milwaukee, WI 53214

Audition CDs are accepted in the off-season, between November 1 and February 14 each year.

Milwaukee Bucks | National Anthem Auditions

National Anthem Auditions – Wednesday, September 17th

Registration begins at 7:00am Doors close at 7:00P

BMO Harris Bradley Center 

• Entrance: Potawatomi Gate – 4th & Highland
• Perform in the order you enter (each candidate will receive a number)
• Open to all ages - 18 and under need to be accompanied by a legal guardian
• Encouraged to bring a performance resume but not mandatory
• Must find your own parking
• The audition will be open to the public and will require each individual / group to sing the entire song to be considered.

What do I need to bring to auditions? Driver’s License, or other form of photo identification


Green Bay Packers | National Anthem Requests

The Green Bay Packers thank you for your interest in singing the National Anthem at Lambeau Field on gameday. As the Packers collect and review your request to sing the national anthem, please note that many of our games are themed, have special requirements, and have been booked well in advance. In order for your request to be considered, please submit the following information: (online form at Packers.com)

Please provide a URL to any audio/video clips of your performances. If you are sending a hard copy, please indicate. [Send performance samples] by e-mail to gameentertainment@packers.com or mail hard copy information/samples to: Gameday Entertainment P.O. Box 10628, Green Bay, WI 54307

Please note that the Packers will keep all items they receive by mail. Samples of work will not be returned. We look forward to your request.


UW Athletics seeks National Anthem performers (Sept. 23, 2012)

Badgers looking for talented performers to sing the National Anthem. Would you like to sing the National Anthem at a UW sporting event?

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department is looking for performers to sing the National Anthem at Badger sporting events this season.

The search committee is looking for a variety of Madison-area solo artists, duets, groups, etc. with and without instruments to perform. Please note that due to NCAA rules, high school performers/groups cannot be considered.  

Those interested in participating should submit their audition materials (link to performance or performance on CD/DVD) including contact information to ata@athletics.wisc.edu or via mail to:

Wisconsin Athletics
Attn: National Anthem Search
Marketing Office
1440 Monroe Street
Madison, WI 53711

 NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE

 After the selection committee has reviewed all performances, individuals will be contacted to schedule a performance at a game. 

Deadline for receipt of audition materials is Friday, Oct. 12 (2012) at 5 p.m.


Wisconsin Timber Rattlers | National Anthem FAQs

WSMA Festival Music Lists 2014-2015

On the first day of each school year, the Wisconsin State Music Association releases its new Festival Music List for the current school year.  This list is important for all music students who are preparing for Solo Ensemble (Vocal/Piano is the last Saturday in Feb. 2015 at Omro HS, Instrumental/Piano is the first Saturday in March at Omro HS) and Concert Festivals (Horace Mann HS, North FDL is hosting the Large Group Choir Concert Festival on Wednesday, March 25, 2015).

See Mr. Witte if you have any other questions.


1000s – Vocal
2000s – Orchestra
3000s – Band/Woodwind
4000s – Brass
5000s – Percussion
6000s – Jazz/Show Choir/Alt. Strings
7000s – Piano
8000s – Handbell/Guitar
9000s – Misc./Ethnic

I Love My Love

One of the songs that the WLA Traveling Choir will be singing for the WLA Fall Concert on October 19, 2014 is a setting of the Cornish folksong, I Love My Love (1916) by Gustav Holst.

Lyrics

Abroad as I was walking, one evening in the spring,

I heard a maid in Bedlam so sweetly for to sing;

Her chains she rattled with her hands, and thus replied she:

"I love my love because I know my love loves me! 

O cruel were his parents who sent my love to sea,

And cruel was the ship that bore my love from me;

Yet I love his parents since they're his although they've ruined me:

I love my love because I know my love loves me! 

With straw I'll weave a garland, I'll weave it very fine;

With roses, lilies, daisies, I'll mix the eglantine;

And I'll present it to my love when he returns from sea.

For I love my love, because I know my love loves me."

Just as she sat there weeping, her love he came on land. 

Then hearing she was in Bedlam, he ran straight out of hand.

He flew into her snow-white arms, and thus replied he:

"I love my love, because I know my love loves me." 

She said: "My love don't frighten me; Are you my love or no?"

"O yes, my dearest Nancy, I am your love, also

I am return'd to make amends for all your injury;

I love my love because I know my love loves me."

So now these two are married, and happy may they be

Like turtle doves together in love and unity.

All pretty maids with patience wait that have got loves at sea;

I love my love because I know my love loves me. 

Sheet Music
6 Choral Folksongs, Op.36 (Holst, Gustav) – IMSLP Petrucci Music Library (www.imslp.org)
No. 5 I Love My Love (Gustav Holst) – Choral Public Domain Library (www.cpdl.org)

Part Predominant Recordings
MIDI, MP3 & Scorch Files – John Fletcher Music

History
Program Notes and Short Biography–San Francisco Lyric Chorus

Links
The Gustav Holst Website by Kenric Taylor
Gustav Holst – Wikipedia
Holst Birthplace Museum
Bedlam (Bethlem Royal Hospital) – Wikipedia

Other Arrangements 
Gustav Holst's own Second Suite in F, Movement 2 (Song without Words) (1911)

WLA Orientation Day 2014 Handouts

Welcome back! Here are Mr. Witte's handouts from the August 18-19 WLA Orientation Days:

Concert Choir - Handout | 2014-15 Syllabus
Music Technology - Handout | 2014-15 Syllabus
Music Theory - Handout | 2014-15 Syllabus
Traveling Choir - Handout | 2014-15 Syllabus
Study Hall - Handout

We Preach Christ Crucified

This year's theme passage in the Winnebago Lutheran Academy Association is 1 Corinthians 1:23a: "We preach Christ crucified." Each year I challenge myself to compose a song based on the theme passage as a way of embedding the passage in the hearts and memories of our students.

Downloads:
Sheet Music: We Preach Christ Crucified (Dale A. Witte) –  To be published by NPH in Oct. 2018!
Bulletin Inserts: Letter half sheet (5.5" x 8.5") | Legal half sheet (7" x 8.5")


Some years, I use the passages before and after the theme passage as lyrics for either the verse or refrain. This year, I decided to center in on developing the meaning of "We preach Christ crucified." For the person who doesn't know what that passage means, I explain that the cross isn't supposed to be a frightening tool of torture and execution.  When the believer looks at the cross of Christ, they see hope, salvation, and a victory won, both for Jesus–the Son of God and Son of Man–and for the believer in Jesus.

I pray that this year's theme song, like all the others that I've written, serves to help explain God's Word and to firmly fix it in our minds and hearts.  In the coming weeks, I hope to make a recording of the WLA student body singing the theme song and post it on this blog.

Jerusalem the Golden | THAXTED

The 7th triennial WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts was just held this past week, July 22-25, 2014, at Carthage College, Kenosha, WI.  What a full week of worship, recitals, and workshops on every topic related to current worship in the WELS! I wish there was a way to experience all of the offerings (maybe the WELS Commission on Worship will post not only handouts but videos of the presentations).  I was responsible for two things at this conference: the piano music for worship reading session (42 pieces in 75 minutes) and I was given the commission to arrange the closing hymn of the closing service, the hymn that has closed every WELS Worship Conference since 1996: Jerusalem the Golden, set to the Gustav Holst tune, THAXTED.

While I've been blessed to be asked to compose a number of orchestral settings for the WELS Worship Conference over the years (The Tree of Life, 2002–soon to be published by CPH, Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds, 2011), Jerusalem the Golden was well known by every attendee to be the final hymn of the conference: it was the one you waited to sing with a thousand other voices, it was the one during which you knew you were going to have a hard time singing through the tears of joy and longing for heaven.  I still remember exactly where I was sitting in the Carthage College chapel in the summer of 1996, sitting next to my brother for the closing service of the first WELS Worship Conference, balling my eyes out while trying to sing along to Richard Proulx's arrangement.  I remember that feeling of never wanting to leave the conference and desperately longing for the joys heaven.  So when the commission came to me last summer to make a new setting of Jerusalem, I was very humbled and honored, and more than a little nervous knowing that Jerusalem was so loved and so anticipated by so many conference goers.

Professor James Tiefel, Professor of Worship and Preaching at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and spokesman for the WELS Commission on Worship and the planning committee, shared with me in the commissioning email one of the reasons for wanting a new setting of THAXTED:

Over the years we have used several settings of the tune THAXTED, none of which was actually composed with the Jerusalem text in mind!  Our planning committee feels it’s time that the text and tune were featured in an original composition.

How was this new commission received in worship? I'll take what Pastor Caleb Bassett wrote as a very positive review.  Other reviews came in quickly over Twitter:

To @dalewitte: the tears flowed freely as I thought of glory which awaits us. Glorious and heavenly arr. of THAXTED. Thank you. #WELSWorship
— Rachel J. Pierson (@aleixa) July 25, 2014

Heart-stopping arrangement of “Jerusalem the Golden“ to close the conference. #welsworship
— Caleb Bassett (@crbassett) July 25, 2014

THAXTED + Dale = Awesome #WELSworship
— Mike Marquardt (@MikeMarquardt) July 25, 2014

My prayer is that this setting helps people to pray

"Jesus in mercy bring us
To that dear land of rest
Where sings the host of heaven
Your glorious name to bless." (Christian Worship Supplement 728, st. 2)

and that this setting serves the Church at large to be

"The shout of them that triumph,
The song of them that feast.
To God enthroned in glory
The Church’s voices blend."  (CWS 728, st. 3)

Soli Deo Gloria 

A Free Piece of My Piano Music (and a link to buy my book!)

For all those who were at one of my piano music reading sessions at the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts, thank you for coming! To those who bought my first book of piano improvisations based on hymn tunes, here is the link to the "corrected" version of "Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus".  The NPH publication has a wrong note in the right hand in the opening pattern (an A where there should be an E–it's the melody!).

Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus - arr. Dale A. Witte (free PDF)

So here's my request: please go to NPH and buy a copy of my piano book so that the first printing sells out and we can fix the mistake in the 2nd printing.  Deal? ;)