Platte County High SchoolVocal Music Department

February 22 - 26, 2021

Here is the list of events that pertain to the PCHS Vocal Music Department. Events listed in bold are required for ALL Vocal Music students.

February 15-March 15 All-State Choir AuditionsFebruary 27 Platte County HS “Showcase of Excellence” show choir festival

(Sound Express only)March 6 Sight-Singing Assessment for All-State Choir auditionsMarch 12 Sight Reading Factory Level 3 Quizzes due

(Must have passed Level 1 and 2 quizzes to earn credit)March 15-19 Spring Break - No SchoolMarch 15-24 MSHSAA Solo/Small Ensemble Music Festival (Virtual)March 20 Pleasant Hill HS “Battle of the Best” show choir festival

(Sound Express only)April 2 Good Friday - No SchoolApril 10 Rock Bridge HS show choir festival (Virtual)

(Sound Express only)April 12 District In-Service - No SchoolApril 19-23 MSHSAA Large Group Festival (Virtual)May 5 Spring ConcertMay 11 Senior ShowcaseMay 14 Sight Reading Factory Level 4 Quizzes due

(Must have passed Level 1, 2, and 3 quizzes to earn credit)May 23 GraduationMay 26 Last Day of School

Dates yet to be Solo/Small Ensemble Pre-Festivaldetermined: Large Group Pre-Festival Concert

Choir Awards

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

In two (2) weeks, we will begin recording each event of the MSHSAA Solo and Small Ensemble Music Festival. If you have confirmed your participation for a solo or small ensemble (or both), be sure you are working on memorizing your songs and creating

the same classical tone we standardize in the classroom.

If you would like to further work on your songs with any of the music sta ,please directly email with ample notice ahead to schedule a rehearsal time.

Each event must have all members present and music must be memorized.These video recordings will be evaluated at the State level of MSHSAA,

and ratings earned will equate to performing at the State level for music.

Each event has received sheet music copies and part tracks to learn their music.For small ensembles, it is vital to also rehearse together (health guidelines required)

to work on balance and blend. Everybody must know their notes and rhythms prior to these rehearsals so that musicianship can be utilized to create a better performance.

Reminder that will be begin recording all solos andsmall ensembles during the week before Spring Break.

Level 3 quizzes of Sight Reading Factorymust be passed by Friday, March 12.

You must have already passed all of the quizzes of Levels 1 and 2 before your quizzes for Level 3 can be graded.

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

In honor of Black History Month, we will be celebratingNOTABLE AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHORAL COMPOSERS AND ARRANGERS

who have significantly established themselves in the choral music world.We will also provide links to performances of their most popular works.

ROSEPHANYE POWELL (1962-present)Dr. Rosephanye Dunn Powell has been hailed as one of America’s premier women composers of choral music. She has an

impressive catalogue of works published by some of the nation’s leading publishers, including the Hal Leonard Corporation, the Fred Bock Music Company/Gentry Publications, Oxford University Press, Alliance Music Publications,

and Shawnee. Dr. Powell is commissioned yearly to compose for university choruses, professional, community and church choirs, as well as secondary school choruses. Dr. Powell’s works have been conducted and premiered by

nationally-renowned choral conductors, including, but not limited to, Anton Armstrong, Philip Brunelle, Bob Chilcott, Rodney Eichenberger, Tom Hall, Albert McNeil, Tim Seelig, and André Thomas. Her work has been auctioned by Chorus America and her compositions are in great demand at choral festivals around the country, frequently appearing on the regional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, as well as Honor Choir festivals. Dr.

Powell’s compositions include sacred and secular works for mixed chorus, women’s chorus, men’s chorus, and children’s voices. Dr. Powell serves as Professor of Voice at Auburn University. She holds degrees from The Florida State University (D.M. in vocal performance, University Fellow), Westminster Choir College (M.M. in vocal performance and pedagogy, with

distinction), and Alabama State University (B.M.E., summa cum laude). Dr. Powell served on the faculties of Philander Smith College (AR) and Georgia Southern University prior to her arrival at Auburn University in 2001.

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PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

Recent commission and premiere highlights include: Love Will Make A Way (SATB) premiered by the Metropolitan Youth Chorale of New York at Lincoln Center, NY; Get Busy (SATB) premiered and conducted by the composer at Carnegie Hall, NY; A Christmas Medley (SATB), commissioned and performed by multi-Grammy award-winning Chanticleer; When I Sing (SSA), commissioned by the American Composers Forum CHORALQUEST series; I Want to Die While You Love Me (SSAA),

composed for the ACDA Women’s Choirs Commission Consortium; Gospel Trinity (SATB), commissioned by the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts/Fuller Theological Seminary (CA) and premiered at the Lincoln Center, NY;

With What Shall I Come (SATB), composed for the St. Olaf Choir celebration of the 25th anniversary of Dr. Anton Armstrong, conductor, and premiered at Carnegie Hall; and The Cry of Jeremiah, a four-movement sacred work for narrator, chorus, organ and orchestra, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists, premiered at the Lincoln

Center, NY; Arise Beloved, commissioned by OurSong (Atlanta, GA) one of four works premiered as part of the group’s choral cycle “And Nature Smiled,” performed at the internationally-acclaimed Spivey Hall; Christmas Give, a suite of five

songs for SATB and orchestra, composed for the Baltimore Choral Arts Society Christmas CD “Christmas at America’s First Cathedral” released by Gothic Records; and Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit, arranged for The Sofia Chamber Choir

“Vassil Arnaudov”- Bulgaria, Southeastern Europe.

An accomplished singer and voice professor, Dr. Powell’s research focuses on the art of the African-American spiritual and voice care concerns for voice professionals (specifically, music educators, choral directors, and choral singers). She travels the country and internationally presenting lectures, song demonstrations, and serving as a workshop clinician, conductor, and adjudicator for solo vocal competitions/auditions, honor choirs, choral workshops and festivals. Recent

commitments include Melbourne International Singers Festival (AUS); the New York State School Music Association (Rochester); the Georgia Music Educators Association Conference (Savannah); Middle Tennessee Vocal Association Treble Honor Choir (Nashville); the World Choir Games (Cincinnati, OH); the Italian Feder Gospel Choirs Workshop (Milan, Italy); Alabama Music Educators Association High School Honor Choir (Montgomery); Samford University (Lilly Fellows Program

in Humanities and the Arts) (Birmingham, AL); South Carolina Music Educators Association State Conference (Charleston); AGO National Conference (Nashville, TN); Summer Sing Choral Workshop and Tuning at Tahoe Music

Directors Workshop (Lake Tahoe, NV); and Capital Area Music Association (Harrisburg, PA).

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PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

As a researcher, Dr. Powell’s recent articles include Keeping the “Choir” in Show Choir published in the American Choral Directors Journal; William Grant Still: His Life and His Songs and The African-American Spiritual: Preparation and

Performance Considerations both published in the prestigious NATS Journal of Singing. She served as the editor and wrote the introduction for William Grant Still: An Art Song Collection which is published by William Grant Still Music.

Dr. Powell has received numerous awards including the “Living Legend Award” presented by California State University African Diaspora Sacred Music Festival in Los Angeles. She was listed in the first edition of the international publication

Who Is Who in Choral Music. And, she has been included in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and Outstanding Young Women in America in recent years. Dr. Powell is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the College Music Society (CMS), the National

Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the Music Educators National Conference (MENC).

Notable works by Rosephanye PowellClick on the ◼ next to the song title

to be directed to a YouTube performance of the work.

◼ Arise, Beloved!

◼ I Will Sing

◼ Non Nobis Domine

◼ Sorida

◼ Still I Rise

◼ The Word Was God

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

WILLIAM L. DAWSON (1898-1990)William Levi Dawson was an African American composer, choir director, and professor specializing in black religious folk music. He was born on September 26, 1899, in Anniston, Alabama to Eliza Starkey and George Dawson, the first of their seven children. His father, a former slave, was an illiterate day laborer. In 1912, Dawson ran away from home to study

music full-time as a pre-college student at the Tuskegee Institute (now University) under the tutelage of school president Booker T. Washington. Dawson paid his tuition by being a music librarian and manual laborer working in the school’s Agricultural Division. He also participated as a member of Tuskegee’s band and orchestra, composing and traveling extensively with the Tuskegee Singers for five years; he had learned to play most of the instruments by the time he

graduated from the high school division in 1921.

Dawson’s next four years (1921-25) were spent earning his B.A. He enrolled in composition and orchestration at Washburn College in Topeka, and theory and counterpoint at the Horner Institute of Fine Arts in Kansas City, where in

1925 he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music theory and in composition. While still an undergraduate student, he displayed his genius in chamber music compositions and at the same time supporting himself as the director of music at

Kansas Vocational College in Topeka, Kansas, and at Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1926, Dawson moved to Chicago, Illinois to study composition at the American Conservatory of Music, where he earned his master’s degree in 1927. Dawson also became nationally renowned between 1926 and 1930 as a trombonist with the Redpath Chautauqua and the Chicago Civic Symphony Orchestra; and in 1929-1930 as a local band director,

winning prestigious band director contests from the Chicago Daily News (1929), and the Wanamaker Competition for the songs “Jump Back, Honey, Jump Back” and “Scherzo” (1930).

In 1928, tragedy struck as Dawson’s wife Cornella Lampton died within the first year of their marriage. For the next seven years Dawson found refuge in his work until marrying Cecile Demae Nicholson in 1935 in Atlanta, Georgia.

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PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

In September 1930, Dawson accepted Tuskegee Institute’s invitation to direct its School of Music, a position that he held until his retirement in 1955. As director, Dawson modernized the department and hired gifted faculty. As a result,

Tuskegee’s 100-voice choir became a world-class ensemble best known for its headline-making performances at the grand opening of the Radio City Music Hall in New York in 1932. The choir performed that year at the White House for

President Herbert Hoover and at Hyde Park, New York, for future president Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1946, the choir broke the race barrier at Washington D.C.’s Constitution Hall as they became the first African Americans to perform

there. (In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution-managed hall had denied singer Marian Anderson the opportunity to sing to an integrated audience.)

Dawson’s compositions included chamber music such as his “Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano,” performed by the Kansas City Symphony. Although known for infusing West African folk music into his compositions, his best orchestral and choral works were based on spirituals like his Negro Folk Symphony (1934), which was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra

at its world premiere. His most popular compositions include “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel,” “Jesus Walked the Lonesome Valley,” “Talk about a Child That Do Love Jesus,” and “King Jesus Is a-Listening,” songs published under his record

business, Imprint Music Press. William Levi Dawson died on May 2, 1990, and is buried at Tuskegee University where his legacy continues through the Golden Voices Choir.

Notable works by William L. DawsonClick on the ◼ next to the song title

to be directed to a YouTube performance of the work.

◼ Ain’a That Good News

◼ Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit

◼ Ezekiel Saw de Wheel

◼ In His Care-O

◼ Soon-Ah Will Be Done

◼ There is a Balm in Gilead

There are many great choirs and vocal ensembles in the world that represent the highest degree of choral sound and performance level. Listed below are examples that we believe

to be some of the very best and most popular choirs and vocal ensembles.

Be sure to visit their websites, and listen to them on YouTube and Spotify.

Naturally 7naturallyseven.com

Soweto Gospel Choirsowetogospelchoir.com

Take 6take6.com

Watoto Children’s Choirwww.watoto.com/choir

Aeolians of Oakwood Universitywww2.oakwood.edu/the-aeolians

Brooklyn Tabernacle Choirbrooklyntabernacle.org

Harlem Gospel Choirharlemgospelchoir.com

Nathaniel Dett Choralenathanieldettchorale.org

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

This Saturday, February 27, Sound Express will host its second annualSHOWCASE OF EXCELLENCE Show Choir Competition!

We will not be able to open this festival to the general public. However, we will be doing a livestream open to everybody!

Go to the PCHS Activities YouTube page (link below)to watch all of the competing show choirs.

Plus, Platte County’s own Sound Express will perform their show entitled “Castaway” before the awards and trophy presentation!

Link to PCHS Activities YouTube page: Click Here

Schedule of competing show choirs:

Maryville Spectrum 9:00 am

St. Thomas Aquinas Saintsations 10:00 am

St. Thomas Aquinas Swingin’ Saints 11:00 am

Knob Noster Pulse 12:00 pm

Carrollton 9th Street Singers 1:00 pm

Pleasant Hill Hillsound 2:00 pm

Pleasant Hill Hilltop Harmony 3:00 pm

Pleasant Hill Powerhouse 4:00 pm

Pleasant Hill Hillside Singers 5:00 pm

Platte County Sound Express (exhibition) 6:30 pm

Awards/Trophy Presentation immediately following

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

COMBINED MEN’S CHOIRCome Travel with Me …………………………………………………………… Scott FarthingTell My Father ……………………………………………………………. arr. Andrea Ramsey

from The Civil War: An American Musical

COMBINED WOMEN’S CHOIRYou Are My Song ……………………………………………………………………. Michael ZookGaudete! …………………………………………………………………… Pies Cantiones, 1582

Arranged by Michael Engelhardt

CONCERT CHOIRO Love ……………………………………………………………………………. Elaine HagenbergLamentations of Jeremiah …………………………………………… Z. Randall Stroope

CHAMBER CHOIR / SOUND EXPRESSLacrimosa …………………………………………………………. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

from Requiem in D minor (KV 626) Edited by Cameron F. LaBarrDay of Fire and Sun …………………………………………………………. Dominick DiOrio

The Vocal Music students are currently rehearsing theirsong selections for each of their respective large ensembles:

- Combined Men’s ChoirMen from all of the choirs

- Combined Women’s ChoirWomen from all of the choirs

- Concert ChoirAll members of Concert Choir and Sound Express

- Chamber Choir / Sound ExpressSound Express only

All songs must be MEMORIZED by the beginning of March!It is the expectation and responsibility for each student to

have all of their notes and rhythms learned so that the directors may proceed to build musicianship with each song.

For their second selection,

Sound Express will be singing...Lacrimosa

from Requiem in D minor (KV 626)Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Edited by Cameron F. LaBarrMozart's Requiem in D Minor (KV 626) is one of the most well-loved choral-orchestral works from the entire Classical canon. Some scholars attest that this movement may have been one of the

last bits of music that Mozart himself penned.

Lacrimosa dies illa, That day of tears and mourning,Qua resurget ex favilla When from the ashes shall arise,Judicandus homo reus: All humanity to be judged:Huic ergo parce Deus. Spare us by your mercy, Lord.

Pie Jesu Domine, Gentle Lord JesusDona eis requiem. Grant them eternal rest.

Amen. Amen.

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

Here’s an uplifting music news story to show the good in the world.

Article derived from The Seattle Timeshttps://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/opera-singers-help-covid-19-patients-learn-to-breathe-

again/?fbclid=IwAR1DU8xVXNmtCUezmK7QOu3yuLL4K4IAAPuL4xm9FuH_8FtbVL3qffzLvac

Opera singers help COVID-19 patientslearn to breathe again

by Andrew Dickson

On a recent afternoon, the singing coach Suzi Zumpe was running through a warmup with a student. First, she straightened her spine and broadened her chest, and embarked on a series

of breath exercises, expelling short, sharp bursts of air. Then she brought her voice into action, producing a resonant hum that started high in a near-squeal, before sinking low and cycling up again. Finally, she stuck her tongue out, as if in disgust: a workout for the facial

muscles.

The student, Wayne Cameron, repeated everything point by point. “Good, Wayne, good,” Zumpe said approvingly. “But I think you can give me even more tongue in that last bit.”

Although the class was being conducted via Zoom, it resembled those Zumpe usually leads at the Royal Academy of Music, or Garsington Opera, where she trains young singers.

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PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

But Cameron, 56, isn’t a singer; he manages warehouse logistics for an office-supplies company. The session had been prescribed by doctors as part of his recovery plan after a

pummeling experience with COVID-19 in March.

Called ENO Breathe and developed by the English National Opera in collaboration with a London hospital, the six-week program offers patients customized vocal lessons: clinically

proven recovery exercises, but reworked by professional singing tutors and delivered online.

While few cultural organizations have escaped the fallout of the pandemic, opera companies have been hit especially hard. In Britain, many have been unable to perform in front of live

audiences for almost a year. While some theaters and concert venues managed to reopen in the fall for socially distanced shows between lockdowns, many opera producers have simply

gone dark.

But the English National Opera, one of Britain’s two leading companies, has been trying to redirect its energies. Early on, its education team ramped up its activities, and the wardrobe department made protective equipment for hospitals during an initial nationwide shortage.

In September, the company offered a “drive-in opera experience,” featuring an abridged performance of Puccini’s “La Bohème” broadcast over large screens in a London park. That

same month, it started trialing the medical program.

In a video interview, Jenny Mollica, who runs the English National Opera’s outreach work, explained that the idea had developed in the summer, when “long COVID” cases started

emerging: people who have recovered from the acute phase of the disease but still suffer effects such as chest pain, fatigue, brain fog and breathlessness.

“Opera is rooted in breath,” Mollica said. “That’s our expertise. I thought, ‘Maybe ENO has something to offer.’”

Tentatively, she contacted Dr. Sarah Elkin, a respiratory specialist at one of the country’s biggest public hospital networks, Imperial College NHS Trust. It turned out that Elkin and her

team had been racking their brains, too, about how to treat these patients long term.

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PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

Wayne Cameron, 56, is receiving coaching from opera singers as part of his rehabilitation from COVID-19. “The program really does help …

physically, mentally, in terms of anxiety,” he said.

“With breathlessness, it can be really hard,” Elkin explained in an interview, noting how few treatments for COVID exist, and how poorly understood the illness’s after effects still were. “Once you’ve gone through the possibilities with drug treatments, you feel you don’t have a

lot to give people.”

Elkin used to sing jazz herself; she felt that vocal training might help. “Why not?” she said.

Twelve patients were initially recruited. After a one-on-one consultation with a vocal specialist to discuss their experience of COVID-19, they took part in weekly group sessions,

conducted online. Zumpe started with basics such as posture and breath control before guiding participants through short bursts of humming and singing, trying them out in the

class and encouraging them to practice at home.

The aim was to encourage them to make the most of their lung capacity, which the illness had damaged, in some cases, but also to teach them to breathe calmly and handle anxiety —

an issue for many people working through long COVID.

When Cameron was asked if he wanted to join, he was bemused. He recalled: “I thought, ‘Am I going to be the next Pavarotti?’”

But COVID-19 had left him feeling battered, he said; after he was discharged from hospital, he had had to make several visits to the emergency room, and was prescribed months of

follow-up treatment for blood clots and respiratory issues. “Everything I did, I was struggling for air,” he said.

He added that even a few simple breathing exercises had quickly made a huge difference. “The program really does help,” he said. “Physically, mentally, in terms of anxiety.”

Almost as important, he added, was being able to share a virtual space and swap stories with other sufferers. “I felt connected,” he said.

Alongside the weekly classes, he and the other participants were given access to online resources including downloadable sheet music, refresher videos — filmed on the English

National Opera’s main stage — and calming Spotify playlists.

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PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

Jenny Mollica, who runs the English National Opera’s outreach programs, explains the link she saw between opera singers and recovering COVID-19 patients: “Opera is rooted in breath. That’s our expertise. I thought, ‘Maybe ENO has

something to offer.’”

Alongside the weekly classes, he and the other participants were given access to online resources including downloadable sheet music, refresher videos — filmed on the English

National Opera’s main stage — and calming Spotify playlists.

For the singing element, the tutors had the idea of using lullabies drawn from cultures around the world — partly because they are easy to master, said Zumpe, partly because

they’re soothing. “We want to build an emotional connection through the music, make it enjoyable,” she said. “It’s not just physical.”

And how was Cameron’s singing now? He laughed. “I’m more in tune,” he said. The program had helped him reach high notes when singing along in the car, he added. “Having learned

the technique, you can manage much better,” he said.

Elkin said that other participants had also reported positive effects, and she had commissioned a randomized trial to deepen clinical understanding — not least because it would help convince colleagues doubtful about complementary therapies and so-called

“social prescribing.”

“Some people think it’s a bit touchy-feely,” she said. “They want evidence.”

Nonetheless, the program is being expanded to post-COVID clinics elsewhere in England, supported by charitable donations and free to anyone referred by a doctor. The aim is to take

in up to 1,000 people in the next phase, the opera company said in a statement.

It wasn’t just patients and clinicians that had benefited, Mollica said, noting ENO Breathe had also given musicians and producers at the company something to focus on during a bleak

time. “Everyone’s found it really motivating,” she said. “It’s fantastic to realize that this skill set we have is useful.”

Although Cameron wasn’t back to full health, he said, he had recently had a snowball fight with his daughter, a level of exertion that would have been unthinkable a few months earlier.

“I’ve got far more confidence than I did,” he said. “That dark feeling has disappeared.”

He added that the program had also done something immensely valuable: It taught him how to breathe. “Until COVID, I took breathing for granted,” he said. “So it’s a blessing, in a way.”

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PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021

1. Refer to the Choral Handbook/Syllabus provided with your student2. Visit our website plattecountychoirs.weebly.com3. Follow us on Twitter @PCHSChoirs4. Follow us on Facebook at PC Pirates Choir Department

Be sure to contact us if you have any further questions about any requirements, upcoming events, or just to keep in touch and brighten our day.

Thank you for your continuedencouragement and support of the

PCHS Vocal Music Department!

Mr. Brian von GlahnDirector of Choral Activities

Ms. Sheri ReinekeAssistant Director

Mr. Christopher AlexanderAccompanist

PCHS Vocal Music Department Weekly Newsletter: February 2̀2-26, 2021