|
EAR #24 Dear choral colleagues, We are starting soon with our next production, presenting musical settings of the Latin Mass. As we are now again rehearsing with the full choir and our regular schedule, the program is prepared with 6 rehearsals in 8 days. This schedule works out to about 14 to 15 hours of actual rehearsal time (subtracting break time and time for logistics). It is always a challenge to fit as much music-making as possible, - not note-learning, - into that allotted time frame, and it is certainly a point of discussion with our Emerging Artist Jessie. What do we need to rehearse, address in detail, take apart and maybe even drill, and what can we leave up to the individual and to the ensemble to figure out themselves. Having worked with the choir now for 10 years, I do have the advantage of understanding the trajectory of our rehearsal process, and I know how the choir will correct itself, and how I can adjust through gesture, even in the concert. Training the choir in understanding the language of my hands, and transferring the ‘vocabulary’ to other musical instances and works, allows me to ‘speak’ while we make music. This upcoming program is very dear to me, and to the choir, as it features the Mass for Double Choir by Swiss Frank Martin, and the Missa Rigensis by Ugis Praulins, our composer-in-residence from 2017-2019. We performed both works for the first time in our MISSAE I concert in 2013, and several times since. A home-grown addition to the concert program is a selection of the Mass by Edmontonian Jane Berry: Mass for Recovery - Phoenix Rising. Pro Coro premiered this work in 2016. Jane Berry, a regular alto with the choir, has just released her newest work The Beginning of Happiness, written for and performed by FEMME. Over the next weeks, our Emerging Artist newsletter will feature insight into the work of Jessie Pierpont with Pro Coro Canada. Please enjoy the Q&A with her below.
|
