Presenters and Abstracts

Near North Voices (NNV), est. 2007, is a university-community choir based out of Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario. Its mission is to educate, inform, and entertain the Nipissing University and North Bay communities. NNV bridges "tower and town," bringing the community to campus, and the university into the community. Membership is open to members of the university and North Bay and area communities. It is the largest choral ensemble in North Bay with 50 members ranging in age from 15 to 82. The aging and declining population of North Bay and the highly transient nature of the university student population pose challenges for chorister recruitment and retention, both vital to maintaining the artistic and fiscal success of NNV. We examine the motivations and perceived benefits of membership in NNV and evaluate the current practices and strategies for chorister recruitment and retention.

Past and present choristers were invited to complete an online survey in Fall 2015; the survey included closed- and open-ended questions. Along with demographic data, participants were asked questions about choir recruitment practices and their contributions to, motivations for joining, and reasons for staying or leaving NNV. A response rate of 50.45% provided a final sample of 56 participants. The majority of participants self-identified as female (72.2%), while age groups 18-29 and 50-and-over counted for 43.6% and 45.5% respectively. The majority of the participants (70%) had bachelor or post-graduate degrees, while 27.8% had some college or university study; 47% of the participants reported regular participation in other choirs (i.e., community or church), while 26.7% indicated participation in theatre and dance.

Qualitative analysis revealed perceived contribution as well as personal and community benefits impacted participants' decisions to join the choir. Positive emotions, social connections, sense of belonging, and personal challenge were the strongest motivators for recruitment and retention. Repertoire, conductor's directing style, and personal connections were the strongest factors for choristers' retention. Word-of-mouth and personal recruitment strategies were perceived to be the most effective for chorister recruitment. Opportunities to recruit future choristers from concert attendees were under-utilized.

Field work is a required part of course work at the undergraduate level for pre-service music education students. This field work is an important part of their development as future music educators and allows the students opportunities to apply what they have learned in the classroom to a teaching environment.
Of the studies that explore pre-service students' perception of field work, few document specific experiences with students with disabilities, and even less with students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms (Brown & Jellison, 2012; Jellison & Draper, 2015; Silvera & Diaz, 2014). To date, no studies have examined pre-service music education students' perceptions of teaching in choral classrooms where students with disabilities are included alongside their typical peers at any level. The purpose of this study was to identify themes in students' written reflections of their field work in inclusive choral classrooms.

Five pre-service music education students (three male, two female) taught in one of two high school inclusive choral classrooms once a week for one or two semesters. The high school classes included students with severe disabilities (e.g., intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome) as part of their ensembles (25-50% total students with disabilities). After their weekly lessons, the pre-service teachers wrote reflections about each lesson. These reflections were analyzed after the semester to search for themes.

Themes that emerged from their reflections included: instructional strategies, application of course material to classroom, issues related to disability and adapting instruction, as well as music performance and collaboration. Overall, the students reflected positively on their experiences with the choirs and the students with disabilities; most all stated their wish to continue teaching in inclusive classrooms. Future research should include additional interviews of the high school students as well as observations of daily rehearsals.

Breathing patterns can be entrained by body movements and musical rhythm, demonstrating a strong neural coupling between breathing and peripheral or external temporal patterns. Singing, however, tends to impose irregular breathing patterns resulting in an increase in abdominal and thoracic muscle activity, which can introduce unwanted tension into this otherwise autonomous respiratory system. This aim of this study is to determine if singers report a difference in perceived neck and shoulder tension as a result of coordinating breathing patterns with rhythmical limb movements.
Singing requires a stable co-ordination between breath flow and subglottal pressure in order to achieve steady phonatory onset. Therefore, ease of singing can be improved by reducing extraneous resistance from muscle tension (Titze 1994). Professional singers show a high level of consistency in breathing patterns, even in passages of demanding range or rhythm, and they avoid quick or sharp breaths which can induce tension (Thomasson & Sundberg, 1999). Because entrainment of respiratory rhythm and body movements is considered an unconscious central nervous system interaction (Rassler & Raabe, 2003), it may be possible to communicate similar breathing strategies to singers through movement.

The study will explore this interaction through a singing task and subject response. Participants will sing a well-known melody first while unaccompanied, then along with recorded stimuli in randomized order: Metronomic beat, piano accompaniment, and a video of a conductor indicating tempo and breath. A second repetition of the task will ask subjects to improvise rhythmic arm movements throughout. After each task, participants will rate their level of tension and whether they think they had employed any breathing strategy. This variety of stimuli will allow for observation of singers' instinctive breath and onset quality in different musical situations (Salomoni, Hoorn, & Hodges, 2016), and the effect of arm movement on breathing strategy and tension in singing.

Effectively transmitting emotion and feeling through the vocal mechanism can be a daunting task. A superlative equilibrium of vulnerability and resilience are essential in order to perfect a voice and this process. Whether as soloists or choristers, in their development, university-level singers are often plagued by negative, self-doubting thoughts. Discernments of success levels and appropriate intervention are needed to separate self-worth from performance outcomes, while building skills, artistry and meaningful performance outcomes.

In order to discover singers' levels of performance success as soloists and choristers, research studies were devised in order to address pre-performance and post-performance influences to decipher if these competency levels can be enhanced.

A tripartite study of soloists, choristers and audiences over two consecutive performances was undertaken. In Studies A and B, a post-pre assessment (Hiebert, 2012) was used to explore the effectiveness of university-level solo singers in arias, and choristers in choruses, respectively. In Study C, audience feedback was gathered via written responses to one research question.

The data allowed for comparative feedback of the soloists and choristers regarding their self-perceived performance effectiveness before and after each performance. Overall comparisons were also made between the soloists and choristers. All the singers identified themselves into three groups: those who performed as well as expected, not as well as expected, and better than expected. Accompanying feedback from the audience was informative in the face of the singers' perceptions.

The studies' university-level soloists and choristers largely enjoyed satisfactory or above-satisfactory success levels in performance. There was, however, a significant percentage of students who would benefit from techniques and interventions to improve their performance outcomes and sense of well-being. This fortifies the need for instruction of teachers and singers beyond best practices in singing and performance effectiveness. Access to psychological best practices are necessary for artist-educators as they guide and instruct singers in training.

Would you like to begin to understand the rhythm of Norwegian stev? The rhythm is irregular, that is, not a steady rhythm, and yet the stev singer-reciters can predict where the rhythmic accents fall. I use examples of folk and popular songs in English, such as "Barbara Allen" and "Summertime" in order to show what the structure of "stev rhythm" in these songs would be like if one sang these songs without a steady beat. This is a different approach both for foreigners and also Norwegians. There is no steady beat to hold on to as an anchor based on equal time intervals, yet listeners familiar with the style can foot-tap simultaneously along with the solo reciter-singer. The solo performer may not even be foot-tapping and yet listeners apparently intuit, without conscious awareness, where the special stev foot-tapping is appropriate. The secret of the rhythm is that it is not based upon equal time, but is a two-pulse based on word accents. An intriguing aspect of stev is that it appears to have roots extending back over a millennium, before year 1000. Thus this two-pulse poetry can be compared with two-pulse Old English poetry and Old Germanic poetry dating back to the Gallehus horn of 400's AD. Unique is that how to sing-recite (Norw. "kveda") two-pulse stev poetry is still in existence today as opposed to other types of Old Germanic poetry that seem to have no line of live tradition surviving.

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

For many individuals living with chronic respiratory illness, breathlessness, vocal hoarseness and severe coughing may lead to them being excluded from participating in regular choirs, denying them not only the opportunity for singing, but also for socialising with others in a group musical setting. Choirs with a health focus can provide an inclusive experience, enabling participants to sing with others despite limitations imposed by their condition, providing a supportive, non-judgemental environment in which to grow musically. Studies show that engaging in group singing can lead to an improved sense of wellbeing for people living with a range of chronic health conditions, including respiratory illness (Fancourt, 2016; McNaughton, 2016; Goodridge, 2013; Clift, 2012, 2015; Lord, 2012, 2010; Gick, 2011; Bonilha, 2009), thus emphasizing the importance of finding ways to create singing opportunities for individuals who may feel excluded from participating in other choir settings. Through the analysis of data collected from questionnaires and from observations, this ethnographic study examines the decision-making process involved in starting and running a health choir for individuals living with breathing difficulties and discusses how the goals of the choir may differ from those of other community choirs. It discusses practical aspects such as choice of venue, seating arrangements, and scheduling; and musical aspects, such as choice of repertoire and warm-up exercises that focus on techniques designed to serve the specific needs of the group. It examines the benefits of taking a multi-disciplinary approach to running a choir informed by practices in respiratory therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, and music therapy, as well as the benefits of engaging students in the delivery of an arts-based health intervention where students help provide musical and social support within the group as well as receive the opportunity for experiential learning outside of the university music curriculum.

Unified choral tone is a determiner of secondary choral ensembles' success. Individual chorister singing accuracy is a necessary component. But singing accuracy research, and strategies for teaching and assessing it, traditionally has focused on children or early-adolescents (e.g., Bowers, 1993; Green, 1990; Price, 2000; Yarbrough et al. 1991, 1992; Demorest 2007). Though not specifically stated, the rationale likely is attributable to an assumption that secondary choristers previously have learned to sing accurately. The purpose of this study was to explore (a) strategies for improving secondary school chorister uncertain singer accuracy, and (b) secondary school choral teachers' experiences in teaching them. Research questions were: (1) What strategies are employed to improve uncertain singers' accuracy? (2) Do teachers allow uncertain singers to participate? (3) What characteristics are common to uncertain singers? (4) What influences determine instructional strategies? And (5) what challenges are attributable to uncertain singers?

Uncertain singer was defined as choristers who experience difficulty matching pitch or singing in the appropriate octave. A convenience sample of secondary choral teachers (N = 32) was surveyed to determine demography, teaching strategies, influences, personal experiences, and values. Open-response data (n = 11) were also collected and coded.

Findings were: (a) 31% self-identified at some time as an uncertain singer, (b) 100% agreed that uncertain singers were encouraged to participate, (c) 51% placed singers in low level ensembles, (d) 84% rated vocal exploration as the most effective strategy, (e) 28.13% rated modeling in a different octave as the most ineffective strategy, and (f) personal experience was the most influential factor and pre-service training the least influential in determining teaching strategies. Time implications (n = 8) were identified as the most common instructional challenge. Results were intended to inform future studies in the area of uncertain singers.

Music has played a critical role in turbulent times, and one such period in the history of the United States is the Vietnam War Era. Ron Farina, Vietnam Veteran USMC, recalls that “the call and response between protest songs on the home front and the heart-gripping, often caustic songs soldiers adapted as coping mechanisms while serving in country really tells a much deeper story. The contrast of Where Have All the Flowers Gone against We Gotta Get Out of This Place captures the divide in America.” This divide was deepened when solders returned home to a society that often treated them with contempt. Now the songs that divided the country can play a role in healing that deep and lasting wound.

This presentation features the efforts of a director and collegiate group, Earthtones Vocal Ensemble, to honor Vietnam Veterans by creating a multi-media concert commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, a critical point in the conflict. We will examine the intricacies of this process that included: 1) developing an understanding of this volatile period and the cultural changes that occurred; 2) selecting songs and military narratives that represented critical periods and points of view; 3) engaging Vietnam Veterans and military personnel; and 4) constructing a story-line that would be representative and meaningful. Concert video excerpts will be shared, along with participants’ reflections and veterans’ responses. We will conclude with ways that other ensembles may reach out to veterans through the song as a gesture of long-overdue reconciliation and respect.

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
JA
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Cambria",serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

Dr Jeanette Gallant is a Canadian musician with over 25 years of diverse experience as a conductor, voice teacher, music educator, administrator, and adjudicator in Canada, Southeast Asia, and the United Kingdom. Having earned a D.Phil. in Music from the University of Oxford, Jeanette has held various academic posts at Red Deer College (Alberta), the University of Windsor (Ontario), the University of Reading (UK), Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts (HKAPA), and various Oxford Colleges (UK). She has published and presented her work internationally, her most recent publication having come out in March 2017 in the Yale Journal for Music and Religion. Jeanette studied conducting with Jon Washburn and has held various conducting posts, including preparing choirs for international conductors like former Westminster Abbey organist, Simon Preston, for the Hong Kong Arts Festival. She is in demand as a vocal and choral adjudicator, and has been invited to provide professional development opportunities for Singapore’s Ministry of Education, various UK choral societies, Simon Fraser University, the Vancouver School Board, British Columbia Registered Music Teacher’s Association, and the British Columbia Choral Federation. As an administrator, she was the Artistic Director and conductor of Hong Kong’s first sing-a-long Messiah and Artistic Director of the Whistler Classical Music Festival for four years. Her compositions have been performed in Southeast Asia, Europe, Canada, and the U.S., and currently she uses her compositions to facilitate projects focused on community engagement and diversity in the arts throughout North America.

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
JA
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Cambria","serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

Research indicates that singing can facilitate social bonding and understanding between choir members and increase participants' sense of well-being (Pearce et al., 2015, 2016; DeNora, 2014; Clift, 2010). Despite excellent musical skills, many neuro-atypical children are limited in their options for participating in choirs due to the social, behavioral or cognitive challenges that they face and so may be prevented from gaining experience that could be beneficial to their development and well-being. With appropriate support, these children have the potential to develop musically and socially within a choir, making a full contribution to the group. Although there is considerable interest in the idea of greater inclusivity within education, there has been little discussion around the development of more inclusive choral opportunities for children in a neuro-diverse environment within existing choir organizations (Jellison, 2015; Salvador, 2013; Haywood, 2006). This paper presents the findings of participatory research that examines the creation and practices of a neuro-diverse children's choir (Lauda) specifically designed to offer a more inclusive musical experience for a neuro-diverse group of children within an existing local youth choir organization (Shallaway Youth Choir). It examines the role played by a multi-disciplinary team of experts from the fields of choral singing, education, music therapy, and developmental pediatrics, as well as the input of parents of neuro-diverse children in the preliminary design of the choir, and how their expertise is continuing to shape the formation of the choir. The paper presents reflections on practice as well as analysis of data collected from questionnaires and observation. The goal of the research is to evaluate the choir in order to best serve the needs of existing and future choristers and to serve as a model for establishing best practices for creating more inclusive choral communities that foster greater acceptance of diversity.

Presenters and Abstracts

Share this: