Double your musical intake, double your delight with a joint fall concert by the Shenandoah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir (SVCC) 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, in Lehman Auditorium.

The youth symphony orchestra, part of EMU’s Preparatory Music Program, has 38 members from Rockingham, Augusta, Shenandoah and Page counties as well as West Virginia.

The auditioned group will perform the “First Symphony” (1st movement) by Beethoven, “In the Steppes of Central Asia” by Borodin and “Bacchanale” from “Samson & Delilah” by Saint-Saens. The ensemble is conducted by Maria Lorcas, violin teacher in the Preparatory Music program.

The SVCC’s intermediate choir, the Treble Choir (ages 10-14), will sing Pergolesi’s “Glory to God,” the Swahili lullaby “Allunde, Alluia” with percussion and the Australian folksong “Kookaburra.”

The Concert Choir (ages 11-17), will perform the medieval processional “Gaudete” with soloists, and “Midwinter,” a Christmas song by Bob Chilcott. They will also sing two songs they presented for former President Jimmy Carter at JMU’s Gandhi award ceremony Sept. 21, including “Celebration Medley” a three-song medley quoting the spirituals “Walk Together Children,” “Every Time I Feel the Spirit” and the African song “Yesu asali awa,” arranged by local composer Celah Pence. They will also sing President Carter’s favorite hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

The Concert Choir will sing two songs they learned for the Pacific Rim Children’s Chorus Festival in Hawaii last summer: “Reel a Bouche,” a Canadian mouth-music song and “Sesere Eeye,” an a capella folksong from the Torres Straight Islands with the Treble Choir joining in.

Guest instrumentalists will include percussionist Andrew Richardson, clarinetist Les Nicholas and chorister percussionists. Soloists will include Ben Elliott, 11, from Waynesboro, and Sophie Wellington, 13, from Staunton.

Artistic Director Julia White will lead the choirs, and Principal Accompanist Maurita Eberly will play piano.

A five-dollar donation is requested at the door to benefit the EMU Preparatory Music Program and the SVCC tuition assistance funds.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir (SVCC), part of the music department, has released its newest holiday CD, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” A compilation of holiday music from 2007-08 and 2008-09, the CD includes songs by the Preparatory, Treble and Concert Choirs of the acclaimed children’s choir program.

Favorites from the Christmas concerts include “Hope for Resolution,” “Go Where I Send Thee,” John Rutter’s “Carol of the Children” and Eleanor Daley’s “What Sweeter Music.” Guest instrumentalists Marlon Foster, percussion, and Lew Morrison, bass, are featured on “It’s the Most Wonderful time of the Year,” while guest flutists Mary Kay Adams and Carol Warner are featured on “The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy.” Guest soloists include Sophie Wellington on “My Favorite Things” as well as Ben Elliott and Natalie Doughty on the medieval “Cuncti Simus.”

Other contributions include the Treble Choir’s “We Will Sing For Joy,” “Jingle Bell Swing” and the Preparatory Choir’s “Celebrate This Happy Holy Day” and “Christmas Comin'” composed by the arranger Celah K. Pence. Featured soloists include Jack Anderson and Claire Koeppen.

Cost and purchase locations

“The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” CDs are available for $16 in Harrisonburg at the EMU Bookstore, Barnes and Noble, Parkview Pharmacy, the Wild Bird Center, VMRC Main Street Store, Williamson Hughes Pharmacy and Home Health, Adona Music, and Rocktown Gift Shoppe.

Dayton locations include the Silver Lake Mill, Crafty Hands and Ten Thousand Villages. In Bridgewater, CDs may be found at Tis the Season and Ruth’s Books and in Staunton at The Staunton Music Store. The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, the Woodstock CafĂ© and Shoppe in Woodstock and Stone Soup Books in Waynesboro also carry the CDs.

About the SVCC

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, founded in 1992, includes three auditioned choirs, three young children’s classes, 220 children and a staff of five.

The SVCC will hold their Christmas 2009 concerts on December 5 & 6 at EMU’s Lehman Auditorium and will collaborate with the Washington Symphonic Brass Quintet. For more information, visit www.emu.edu/svcc or contact Judy Leaman, choir manager, at (540) 432-4650.

By Kate Elizabeth Queram, Daily News-Record

When Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir member Nikita Burke first heard that the group would be traveling to Hawaii in July to participate in the 2009 Pacific Rim Children’s Chorus Festival, she knew instantly that she wanted to go. The 10-day trip included multiple cultural excursions (such as learning traditional Polynesian dances, hiking Oahu’s Diamond Head volcanic cone and visiting Pearl Harbor) as well as the opportunity to perform foreign-language songs with 11 other children’s choirs and Burke, 15, viewed it as a must-do.

"Obviously, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said.

Jaymie Inouye and fellow members of the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir sing during their trip to Hawaii in July. Members of the choir learned traditional dances, hiked Oahu’s Diamond Head volcanic cone and visited Pearl Harbor, in addition to performing foreign-language songs. (photo courtesy Daily News-Record)

Burke’s only potential roadblock was funding. Choir members are required to pay their own way, and the cost of the trip, including airfare and lodging, was around $2,800. Luckily, Burke was raised on a Dayton dairy farm and is used to hard work, so taking on odd jobs to earn the money wasn’t out of the ordinary.

"I get paid some for milking cows," she said. "I babysat a few times. I did housework, yard work, things like that. It took me like the entire last summer and this year to save up the money. And it was definitely worth it."

Rewarding experience, says White

It’s an opinion shared by Julia White, the choir’s founder and director, who said that the festival’s blend of musical and cultural immersion makes it a deeply rewarding experience for Valley children.

"It’s so substantive and so educational," she said. "There were kids from dairy farms from around here doing these Tahitian hip-swinging dances, and it was very stretching for some of these kids who had never been out of the country, never been on an airplane, seeing these dark-skinned Tahitian men doing these fierce war dances … or the little girls learning how to do the stone dances from different islands, it was very, very stretching."

Members of the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir performed during the 2009 Pacific Rim Children’s Chorus Festival in Hawaii in July. (photo courtesy Daily News-Record)

Learning the pre-selected festival music in time was also a push for the group, according to White. The repertoire included 14 songs in 11 languages, including Hawaiian, Samoan and Chinese, all of which the choir had to learn in 10 rehearsals.

"It was a real push. It was much more rigorous than our usual semester in terms of amounts of music and languages and parts," said White, adding that the choir members also held their own rehearsals in June. "They had extra practices. It was a huge stretch for all the kids and I think they would all say that it was hugely rewarding, too."

Phenomenal response to performances

If the response from the festival concerts’ audience is any indication, the hard work paid off. Held on the trip’s last two nights, the concerts give the participating choirs a chance to perform for each other. White’s group was given the last performance slot on the second night; a distinction she said was an honor.

"That was a vote that we were a good choir and they wanted to end all of that with our choir," she said.

And the audience response was phenomenal, she added. "From all the choirs there, we got huge applause and standing ovation, which no other choir did. Sometimes the kids in the Valley don’t realize what we have here, and when we go out and see us compared to other groups, they go, ‘Oh, I didn’t know.’ They look at the whole program differently."

Artistic Director Julia White

Artistic Director Julia White, on sabbatical from the SVCC the past semester, couldn’t decline invitations to direct two prestigious honors choirs during her scheduled break. She was guest director at the American Choral Directors Western Division Honors Children’s Choir in Anaheim, Calif., late February.

One hundred and thirty children grades 5-8 from eight states attended the four-day conference that featured guest choirs, clinics on choir directing and children’s, middle school and high school honors choirs with veteran directors from across the country. Joe Miller of Westminster Choir College directed the high school choir, and Judith Herrington of the Tacoma Youth Chorus directed the junior high choir.

In addition, White was invited to direct the Organization of Kodaly Educators Honors Children’s Choir in Denver, Colo., the end of March. One hundred and sixty fourth and fifth grade children from across the country – all Kodaly trained students – were selected to be led under White’s directorship for three days and in a final concert at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver. The four-day national conference included performances and education sessions on the Kodaly methodology of music education.

“I was thrilled to be invited to direct both of these choirs, and it was truly an honor to work with such prestigious organizations,” said Ms. White. For both venues, White selected a program of age-appropriate music literature including secular, sacred and folk songs from many countries.

She also selected two of her favorite accompanists for the grueling schedule of rehearsals and performances. Martin Ellis, known for his work internationally with the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, joined her in California, while Michael Yanette, accompanist of the BAK School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Fla., accompanied her in Denver.

The Kodaly approach is named for Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist, Zoltan Kodaly, who, after visiting conservatories in Hungary and disappointed in the level of musicianship there, committed himself to improving the quality of music education in his country. Kodaly believed that music was for everyone and that all people should sing, play and read music.

A Kodaly music education course consists of classes in sight-reading, ear training, teaching methodology, song and materials collection, conducting, and other topics. In order to be Kodaly certified a music teacher must participate in three summers of classes (2-3 weeks each) and complete several projects.

SVCC assistant director Joy Anderson

Joy Anderson, SVCC assistant director, was invited to teach in New Mexico and Virginia as part of the Kodaly music education courses for music educators. Ms. Anderson taught Kodaly pedagogy, a Kodaly sampler course, and several special topics at the University of New Mexico, June 7-20, the only Kodaly course in the state. Teachers from two large school systems were required to take the course, with school systems covering the cost.

Anderson, a Kodaly master teacher who has studied in Kecskemet, Hungary. also taught level I pedagogy at the Kodaly course offered at James Madison University, July 13-26, one of only 24 in the country endorsed by the national Kodaly organization. For several years she has taught the young children’s program as part of the camp and served as organizer for the two-week conference for music educators. In addition, she has directed children’s honor choirs in Virginia.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, part of the music department at EMU, uses Kodaly-inspired methodology as part of its curriculum. Children from six years old and up through the most advanced Concert Choir are learning to sight-sing music through the program that includes weekly instruction, a practice CD to enhance aural skills and memorization assignments.

“While excellent music education is a crucially important goal in itself, Kodaly music education in particular has also been linked in several studies to significant improvement in math scores — even when extra instructional time in music has been taken from instructional time in math,” Mrs. Anderson said.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir will begin its 17th season this fall. Plans for the upcoming year include singing concerts for local Rockingham County School children, singing local Christmas and spring concerts and participating in the Pacific Rim International Children’s Choir Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii, under the direction of Henry Leck in July, 2009. The choir has also been invited to perform at the Organization of Kodaly Educators National Conference in Washington D.C. in March 2009.

The choir’s past performances include singing for Archbishop Desmond Tutu last fall at JMU, twice at Carnegie Hall, the national Christmas Tree Lighting, at the Tuscany International Children’s Chorus Festival in Italy and at numerous music conferences.

Although main auditions for the choirs took place in May, another round of auditions will be held Tuesday, Aug. 19, for children in grades 3 through 8.

In addition, the SVCC office is taking registration now for Explorers classes, taught by Joy Anderson, for children in first through third grade. For more information about the Explorers classes and auditions, call Judy Leaman at 540-432-4650. For more information on the SVCC, see www.emu.edu/svcc.