Latest news about My Choral Coach and how fall semester will work

[Tony]

Dear Friends,

This e-mail tells about where we are with Choral Coach, fall semester planning and some technology developments that you might like to know about. If you're currently not participating in the test of Choral Coach you can delete this e-mail now unless you're interested in where we'll go from here in the fall.

If you signed up for Choral Coach you have now received all four movements of Schubert's Deutsche Messe (German Mass) in the Richard Proulx English edition. This completes the Schubert. (There are other movements in Proulx's edition but we will not be performing them as they are intended for church services, not concerts). With the Schubert movements you are able to hear words with the backing track. This is because they are provided "out of the box" by GIA music publishers.

You have also received Dmitri Bortniansky's Lord's Prayer in an English edition which I've created. With this piece the computer cannot provide the words but only a synthesized voice sound when you play your part.

The next thing you'll receive is the African-American historic hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in an arrangement I've made for four-voice choir and piano, based on the original edition of the work. All three stanzas are included. Again, since I've set this on my computer, you won't hear the words; just a synthesized voice singing your part.

In a while (don't ask how long) you'll also get another Bortniansky piece that I haven't started work on yet. It will be in English also. The text is "O taste and see."

Although this may seem like slim repertoire for a semester it is the total of what I'm planning for fall semester because the concert will be virtual and each singer will need to record their part individually. 

To summarize the seven selections as planned:

Schubert Mass:

  Lord, have mercy

  Glory to God

  Holy, holy, holy

  Lamb of God

Bortniansky motets:

  Lord's Prayer

  O Taste and See

Closer:

Lift Every Voice & Sing

The Halcyon String Quartet will accompany the Schubert Mass movements. Their part will be recorded and mixed with your voices to produce a virtual, audio-only performance. Note that there will not be a video of you singing - just an audio track of your voice mixed together with everybody else's.

The mixing will be done by a professional organization in Washington DC called Arts Laureate. This firm specializes in creating virtual performances. They will require the sound files toward the end of fall semester. As you work on your recording of your part you'll be sending them to me first for coaching and improvement. I'll then forward them to Arts Laureate.

If you're interested in learning more about Arts Laureate check them out on their web site: www.artslaureate.com

Those who wish to participate in fall semester without submitting a recording of themselves are also welcome to join the group and just sing along without submitting recordings to me and eventually to Arts Laureate.

All of this will cost you something but we don't know yet exactly what the fee will be. For those who want to have a ballpark guess, I'd estimate that the fee will be somewhere near what the usual dues are for Down East Singers - in the neighborhood of $65. Please understand, this is only an estimate. It has to be based on the cost of doing the mixing with Arts Laureate.

I'm also delighted to tell you that the December concert with Halcyon String Quartet will be presented by Bay Chamber Concerts as their December production on their season concert series. The publicity outreach of being presented by Bay Chamber Concerts will be huge. We will also have access to their production skills as honed during their current Masterworks series going on now. That's why I've encouraged you to watch their weekly virtual concerts this summer.

Here's what the program will look like and sound like:

Total length: 45 minutes

•Welcome and opening remarks from Bay Chamber's Manuel Bagorro and me (5 minutes)

•String quartet repertoire played by Halcyon String Quartet (total of 20 minutes)

•Choral music (total of 20 minutes)

The choral music and chamber music will be intermixed for variety. While the music is playing the viewer will see a slide show of art works by Maine artists.

Soon you will hear more details of how all this will work. We expect to end our experiment with Choral Coach sometime in August and then make a final decision about whether to use this platform or some other one. The actual work with the chosen pieces will begin the second week in September. 

Finally, I'd like to apologize for the slow responses many of you receive from me to your e-mails, Choral Coach submissions, requests and questions. The reason is probably obvious: I'm somewhat overwhelmed with technical details and business negotiations trying to get this set up so it will work for us. I'm confident that we can pull this off and have some fun in the process.

Cheers,

Tony