Oh My

Good Morning!

This week of choral nerdiness has a theme. It is "Project ICDA: Cherishing the Old, Celebrating the New." It is a jam-packed symposium of speakers, interest sessions, repertoire readings, and concerts. It is an opportunity to network with all the big-wigs of Iowa choir programs. I've been to regional and even a national choral convention, but Iowa takes it to a whole new level!

Going back to theme, here are a few of the workshop titles:

1. "Comedy Central" Humor in the Classroom/Rehearsal
2. "Northern Exposure" The Canadian Choral Tradition at Every Level
3. "Dancing with the Stars" Functional, yet Creative ways to Choreograph on a Budget
4. "Music Man" Interpreting the Barbershop Score (I'm not making these up by the way)
5. "American Idol" Selecting Solo Repertoire Beyond the 24 Italian Songs and Arias
6. "California Dreamin'" New Choral Repertoire from Santa Barbara Music Publishing
7. "Nickelodeon" Innovative Techniques for the Elementary Music Classroom Experience
8. "Hour of Power" Techniques for Creating a Purposeful and Musical Church Year
9. "Field of Dreams" Building the Relationship Between Community and School
10. "The Tudors...Dan Nye, The Madrigal Guy" Creating and Producing a Madrigal Feast

That's not all of them either, just the top ten.

I've got to run, the first session is at 9:00.

Choral Nerds UNITE!

I can't even begin to describe to you what I am currently experiencing.

I'll give it a try...

Imagine your high school choir director. Now multiply that by several hundred and remove all adolescents. It's out of control!

Today breakfast started at 7:15 this morning. Then the usual run of welcomes and workshops. I feel as though I am learning a lot. I am meeting a TON of people. I think my network just tripled, and it's only the first day!

For lunch we had a reading session of choral music from the seventies, followed by "Project Runway," a style show of authentic seventies wear worn by authentic 70s people.

Tomorrow: More of the same, and hopefully some pictures to satisfy your visual curiosity.

Buongiorno!

I love the smell of Panera in the morning.

For some strange reason, this particular store is out of ciabatta bread and it is only 8:30 in the morning. For that reason, I was able to substitute the usual ciabatta of my breakfast sandwich with an asiago bagel. Although ciabatta is one of my favorite breads, second only to a good foccacia, I strongly recommend trying the sandwich on asiago bagel. It is fabulous. For all the readers who are Panera fans, this probably makes good sense. For those who are not addicted to the fabulousness that is Panera, the following information may be helpful.

ciabatta: n a type of moist Italian bread made with olive oil; a loaf of this bread, which has large air holes

asiago: n a yellow Italian cheese suitable for grating when aged

foccacia: n a large, round, flat Italian bread, sprinkled before baking with olive oil, salt, and often herbs

I love the Italians!

In case you wonder what I've been up to this summer, I'll summarize with a list of words.

read, family, eat, camp, coffee, sleep, bingo, nephew, cook, scrapbook, pirates, sew, drive, shop, visit, rest, watch, sit, breathe, music, call, swim, prepare, escape, storm, lake, transport, llama, bake, mallory, travel, enjoy, sing, write, walk, bruise, research, relax

Perhaps that stirred more questions than it provided answers. That's the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I like it.