CCNATS March/April Newsletter

CCNATS March/April Newsletter

In this newsletter...

2014-2015 CCNATS Board

Membership Update from Tracey Ford, Vice

President

Competitions Update

Announcement from Kathleen Van De Graaff,

NATS District Governor of Illinois

Announcement from Karen Brunssen, Central

Region NATS Governor

Karen Brunssen and Julia Davids: A Lifetime of

Singing

Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artist Competition

Vocal Arts Academy and Musical Theater Camp for

Kids

Member Announcements

Member Profiles

Chicago Chapter of Student NATS (CCSNATS)

Announcements

Donations

2014-2015 CCNATS Board

David Hoffman, President

Tracey Ford, Vice President and Director of Membership

Denise Knowlton, Co-Director of Competitions

Terry Strandt, Co-Director of Competitions

Jessica Coe, Director of Workshops

Erin Matonte, Director of Communications

Rebecca Ryan, Assistant Director of Communications

Matthew Ellenwood, Co-Director of Finance

Paul Thompson, Co-Director of Finance

Keven Keys, Competitions and Workshops

Orna Arania, Workshops and Finance

Gaye Klopack, Competitions and Membership

Paul Grizzell, Communications and Membership

Klaus Georg, Junior Board Member, CCSNATS Co-

Advisor

Allison Rozsa Evans, Junior Board Member, CCSNATS

Co-Advisor

Jennifer Mather, Junior Board Member

Rebecca Schorsch, Junior Board Member,

CCSNATS Co-Advisor

Membership Update from Tracey Ford, Vice President

Song Salon: The Young Singer (12 and under)

Sunday, March 15th, 2:00-5:00 pm

Please join us to explore repertoire and teaching ideas for

the young singer. We invite teachers to perform selections

of their favorite classical teaching pieces geared towards

young singers. We will also discuss the Royal

Conservatory of Music-Music Development Program

Curriculum and Assessment process. The RCM offers

assessments in Chicago twice a year and the RC materials

are an excellent resource for all classical teachers and are

especially useful for teachers of young singers and young

developing teachers. We ask for a small contribution to

help offset the cost of an accompanist to play for the

workshop. Please RSVP byFriday, March 6th.

Location: Tracey Ford's Voice Studio, 822 Hillgrove Ave.,

2nd floor, Western Spring, IL 60525, Phone: 312-505-3699

Book Study: Practical Vocal Acoustics

Sunday, April 12th, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

Please join this book study today! Over the next two

months, we encourage you to explore Kenneth Bozeman's

text, Practical Vocal Acoustics, guided by CCNATS

member, Chadley Ballantyne. We will meet on March

19th and discuss the book in an informal group setting.

Please email Tracey Ford, traceyelaine@gmail.com, to

enroll in the group study by March 14th. Members who

enroll in this group study will receive study questions to

guide the reading.

Location: Chicago (address TBD)

Competitions Update

The Musical Theater Competition is quickly

approaching! Please click on the links below to access

general information regarding the competition,

including audition day logistics, directions and maps. If you

are entering students in this event, please read ALL the

information listed. It will make the day go more smoothly

for the students, teachers and organizers!

MT General Competition Information - General Information

MT General Competition Information - Audition Day

Schedule

MT General Competition Information - Directions

ChiArts Map #1

ChiArts Map #2

Announcement from Kathleen Van De Graaff, NATS District Governor of Illinois

NATS members:

I would like to encourage those of you who haven’t yet

renewed your membership to NATS to do so before March

1st.

NATS is a wonderful organization to help teachers become

better teachers and also give students the opportunity to

participate in local and regional auditions for comments

and prize money. Please feel to contact me if you have any

questions.

Thanks,

Kathleen van de Graaff, IL NATS District Governor

Announcement from Karen Brunssen, Central Region NATS Governor

Click below if you are interested in submitting a proposal to

do a presentation at the 2015 NATS Central Region

Conference and Student Auditions. This is a FIRST for our

Region and we hope many will be interested in sharing

their expertise through this selection process.

http://www.centralregionnats.org/docs/call-for-

presentations.pdf

The National Association of Teachers of Singing has

selected 12 members to participate in the 2015 NATS

Intern Program, a 10-day forum that pairs experienced and

recognized master teachers of voice with talented, young

professionals in the profession. Congratulations to

Chadley Ballantyne and Angela Young Smucker, both

Chicago Chapter NATS members, who will take part in the

NATS Intern Program this summer. It is an amazing

program.

Below is a list of the committee members from throughout

the Central Region who are working toward the big region

event in November, 2015.

2015 NATS Central Region Conference and Student

Auditions Committees

Karen Brunssen, Central Region Governor

Neal Woodruff, Site-Host

STUDENT AUDITIONS COMMITTEE

Sarah Holman, Chair

Leanne Freeman-Miller

Tom Hueber

Tracey Ford

Chris Thompson

Deb Vogel,

Kate Saulsbury

Lisa Griffith

Britney Rice

Bill Hudson

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

Mark Crayton, Conference Chair

Mitra Sadeghpour, SNATS Poster Session and Book

Corner

Jonathan Struve, Topical Breakfast

Carol Chapman, Master Class Coordinator

Jeffrey Carter, Presentation Review Committee/Poster

Session Adjudicator

Donald Simonson, Presentation Review Committee/Poster

Session Adjudicator

Robert Heitzinger, Presentation Review Committee/Poster

Session Adjudicator

Thank you,

Karen

Karen Brunssen and Julia Davids:

A Lifetime of Singing

Sunday, April 19, 2015 4:00 pm

North Park University

Johnson Center

Room 324

3225 West Foster Avenue

Chicago, IL 60625

Parking can be found in the lot at the corner of

Foster and Kedzie.

**Free for CCNATS Members**

Many voice teachers and choral conductors work with

a wide age range of singers. The sounds and function

of voices change throughout a lifetime. This session

will explore the natural and variable vocal, musical,

and personal qualities for different age brackets and

appropriate, age-optimal techniques to nurture

singing. With this information, both teachers and

choral conductors can strive to work within realistic

limits, yet neither below nor beyond them.

Considering physiology, vocal health and

development, and vocal qualities and textures, the

team will share exercises, practical advice, and

expectations to facilitate and better inform “A Lifetime

of Singing.”

Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artist Competition

On Saturday, May 9th, 2015 Bel Canto Chorus in

Milwaukee will be holding its 26th Annual Regional Artist

Competition. Singers of any age with strong oratorio

experience are invited to audition for a solo engagement

with Bel Canto Chorus during its 2015-2016 concert

season, which includes a cash prize of $1,000.

Please click on the highlighted text below to

access important information regarding the competition.

Bel Canto Poster

Press Release

Audition Requirements

Vocal Arts Academy and Musical Theater Camp for Kids

Vocal Arts Academy

June 21-26, 2015, Ages 14-18

The Academy was started by Kathleen van de Graaff (IL

District Governor for NATS) when she was the CCNATS

president with the goal of helping high school age classical

and musical theater singers. Students will have classes on

vocal technique, stage presence, diction, theory, sight

reading and musicality. There will also be daily master

classes and a final recital. Some financial aid is available

on a first come/first served basis.

Musical Theater Camp for Kids

June 15-19, 2015, Ages 8-13

This is for younger singers to work on their singing,

dancing and acting skills in a nurturing

environment. Please click here for more information.

Email info@thecomicintermezzo.com if you have any

questions.

Member Announcements

Elizabeth Hale Knox will be performing the contralto solo

in Elgar's Sea Pictures with the Northwest Symphony

Orchestra, Sunday, March 22ndat 3:30 pm. The

Northwest Symphony performs at 2121 South Goebbert

Road in Arlington

Heights. Visit northwestsymphony.org for more

information.

Liz Jackson along with former Student Chapter Executive

Board member, Alexandra Plattos, have opened a new

voice studio in Lakeview. Please click here for information

regarding their studio. You may also

visit www.jacksonvoicelab.com for more details.

Robin Rotela will be performing a concert entitled

"Broadway Babies" with Main Street Cabaret on Sunday,

April 12th at 6:30 pm at Carlos & Carlos Italian Ristorante,

27 W Campbell, Arlington Heights, IL 60005. Call 847-

259-2600 for reservations (no ticket price).

Kevin Wood has a return engagement performance of

"Sentimental Journeys: A Cabaret Travelogue" at Skokie

Theater on Thursday, March 12th at 8:00 pm. Tickets are

$20. Visit skokietheatre.com for more information. He will

be performing the same show at Empire Stage in Ft.

Lauderdale, FL from April 27th-29th at 7:30 pm. Tickets

are $25.

Angela Young Smucker will be involved in the following

events:

March 13 -- "CSO at the Movies" - 2001: Space Odyssey

(one-per-part chorus)

March 20-22 -- Newberry Consort: Music from the World of

Copernicus – Polish Cultural Treasures

March 25 -- Lecture-Recital: Musical Gestures and Aural

Imagery in Songs of Elliott Carter (at Notre Dame)

March 29 -- Alto soloist in St. Matthew Passion with

Chicago Chorale

April 25-26 -- Bella Voce: The German Romantics and Their

Spiritual Influence

Member Profiles

Below are this edition's highlighted Chicago NATS

members. Enjoy!

--Profile Questions--

1. What made you become interested in pursuing a music

career?

2. Where did you receive your training and how has it

affected your singing and teaching?

3. What do you consider to be one of the most

important foundational concepts in healthy singing?

4. What do you love most about teaching?

5. Who is your favorite composer and why?

----------------------------------------------------------

-Chadley Ballantyne-

1. During my senior year of high school, my choir director

encouraged me to audition for vocal performance

programs. I had grown up making music and loved going

to competitions and summer camps for music. Up to this

point, I had never realized that this was something you

could study in college. I had always looked up to the

professional musicians I had worked with. I assumed that

because I grew up on a small farm in rural Iowa, I couldn’t

be a musician. It was exciting to find out that I could

actually pursue music.

2. I did my undergraduate work at Drake University and

my grad school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign. Since moving to Chicago, I have continued to

study and explore aspects of singing with teachers and

colleagues.

The people I have met and writers I have discovered

through NATS in the last few years have been very

influential in my singing and teaching. I received an

Independent Teacher Fellowship to attend the NATS

National Conference in Boston in 2014. The conference

was simply amazing. It was a wonderland of interesting

people and brilliant ideas. It was a transformative

experience for me as a singer and as a teacher. I can’t

imagine ever missing any future conferences.

In particular, I have learned a great deal from the writings

of Donald Miller, Ingo Titze, Kenneth Bozeman and

Michael Trimble. I love exploring bothbel canto and CCM

voice through the lens of vocology and vocal acoustics. In

my teaching, I work to take large concepts and boil them

down into simple sounds and combinations to help

students build their own unique voices.

3. The concept of the voice being a non-linear instrument

is very important to me. This encompasses the

interrelation of language, formant-harmonic tuning, breath

control and the mechanical function of the voice. There is

a balance between these components that is easy to miss,

but it is an inherent possibility in every voice. The vocal

result often ends up being very simple and very personal,

but just not what was assumed or expected by the singer.

4. The “ah-ha!” moments are so fun. Being able to teach

and lead a singer to a vocal discovery is a wonderful

challenge. Watching their confidence and personal

expression grow through improved vocal technique is the

most rewarding. I also love discussing ideas about singing

and teaching with my colleagues.

5. As a musician, Mozart is my favorite. I love the

relationships between drama, text, rhythm and harmony in

his operas. There isn’t a single wasted moment in the

scores of his operas. Analyzing le Nozze di Figarotaught

more about common practice tonality than any theory

class. Learning to play variations of “Twinkle Twinkle Little

Star” in Suzuki Method was the beginning of my musical

education.

As a singer, Verdi is my favorite. When I was a senior in

high school, my band teacher played me a recording of

Sherrill Milnes singing Iago’sCredo. I was amazed by the

sounds and the music! I’m still transported by Verdi’s

operas. It’s also fun to discover how most of the

challenges in his vocal writing are actually perfectly tailored

to the acoustic and mechanical strengths of bel

canto singing technique.

------------------------------------------------------------

-Julia Bentley-

1. My parents were professional musicians, a flutist and an

oboist. I had music lessons from a young age, and started

college as an English and Piano double major (how

practical, right? and what supportive parents, who never

hinted otherwise)-- and after a year of that, I dreamed up

the idea that being a singer would be the love child of

those two areas of study, and consolidated.

2. I have Vocal Performance degrees from Indiana

University in Bloomington. IU has the rap of being a risky

undergrad choice, with so many advanced singers on hand

to dominate the opera casting. But for me, just starting

vocal studies, I never had the least expectation of being on

the main stage. It's such a broad, busy school, though, that

there were countless opportunities to audition for solos in

ad hoc conductor's projects, early music ensembles, new

music, chamber opera, chamber music-- I think solid

musicianship skills from so many years of piano study left

me pretty fearless, and I signed up for everything. I

traveled to Vienna between degrees; in addition to studies

at the Hochschule für Musik, I toured and recorded with a

six-voice Renaissance ensemble for a few years. That bit

of a buffer allowed me to return to Bloomington with a more

solid, mature instrument, and ready to take on opera roles

at that time. I credit that pacing, as well as Roger

Havranek, my first professor at IU, who chose "young

female voice" as my Fach, and prioritized a clear, balanced

tone above all else, with the smooth transition after college

to Young Artist Programs at Santa Fe and Chicago. I

certainly advocate those components for my own students:

keyboard skills, willingness to undertake a variety of

genres and repertoire, and gathering layers of

understanding from many teachers and coaches.

3. Essential-- and often amazingly elusive-- is a generous,

flexible breathprofile that is not impeded by changes of

pitch or text. I speak with students often about the

misleading visual cues in our notation: bar lines, the space

that separates printed words (and even syllables)-- this

week, we were even looking at the subliminal implications

of round note-heads, sneakily suckering us into allowing air

speed to head "downhill" halfway through a note.

4. Aside from art and beauty and all that-- I do love that

voice lessons are a one-on-one, human experience. No

other line of work is so eye-to-eye, word-to-heart. There's

cool new technology to incorporate; recording and

reviewing and hearing repertoire and studying acoustics--

but it still boils down to two individuals refining an art that is

built into our anatomy, coming to understand a mechanism

that isn't in need of upgrades, or bigger screens...

5. Argh-- let's say one favorite composer, okay? I often

speak with student composers about writing for the voice,

and I always cite Richard Strauss as someone who loved

how the classically trained voice functions. He wrote music

that revered the height of expressivity in both the poetry

and the melody simultaneously, and balanced dramatic

virtuosity with simple beauty. I love that those two truly co-

exist in Strauss's music.

Chicago Chapter of Student NATS (CCSNATS) Announcements

CCSNATS hosted our wonderful advisor Rebecca

Schorsch in a musical theater masterclass last month. In

the group's first event under new administration, the board

was thrilled to see the growth in students and excitement in

the organization. Please visit our Facebook page

athttps://www.facebook.com/CCSNATS for pictures from

the event and to stay up to date with future endeavors.

Details for our next events are being finalized and will be

released via our website,chicagostudentnats.org in the

coming weeks!

Best,

The Board of Directors of CCSNATS

Donations

CCNATS receives its funding primarily through

member fees ($20 per person, per year), and is run

completely by unpaid volunteers. Please consider

making a general donation to help offset the costs

of workshops, competitions, or professional

development events. If you are interested in

sponsoring a specific event, please contact David

Hoffman.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Copyright © 2015 Chicago Chapter

NATS, All rights reserved.

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