Guest Clinician
Elisabeth Cherland
Elisabeth
Cherland is a fourth-generation choral conductor as well as singer, song
leader, violinist, music educator, and Lutheran church musician. She lives out
these callings as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College in St.
Peter, Minnesota. In addition to teaching choral methods, conducting, and music
theory, she conducts the Choir of Christ Chapel and the Lucia Singers.
Elisabeth
earned a doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting at the University
of Washington, a master of music education with certification degree from
VanderCook College of Music, and a bachelor of arts in music and English from
Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.
A passionate and dedicated teacher,
she taught choir and band at the middle and high school levels in South Dakota
for seven years, as well as private violin, voice, and piano lessons. She served as
soprano section leader for both the Concordia Choir, where she studied with René
Clausen, and the Rockefeller Chapel Choir in Chicago under the direction of
Randi Ellefson and James Kallembach. While in Seattle, she was a frequent
soprano and violin soloist. Elisabeth’s research interests include women in
academia, narrative research, choral settings of Emily Dickinson poetry, and
song leading. Prior to her studies in Seattle, Elisabeth and her family spent
two years at Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center near Chelan, Washington,
where she was the village musician.
She
lives with her partner, Kent, and their two sons, Elijah and Leif, in St. Peter.
She loves doughnuts, bubble tea, laughing, knitting, running (when the
temperature is perfect and the course is flat), and sunshine when it’s
available.
Rules
The intention is for this to be simple and nonthreatening. You are free to present whatever music you choose. Each choir will have a total of 30 minutes. This includes both performance time and your clinic.
Please be prepared to supply three original copies of each of your scores, with the measures numbered, for our panel. These will, of course, be returned to you.
Each clinician will fill out the enclosed “rubric.” Numbers and ratings will not be used, nor will they be posted. This is simply a form to help guide our listening and provide you with feedback. In addition, recorded comments, a performance recording, and on-stage clinic will be provided.
We respectfully ask that food and drink be kept out of Fisher Auditorium.
Attire
While it is typical that ensembles wear their performance attire for adjudication, this is not required. Changing facilities/dressing room space will be limited. It is suggested that each ensemble wear what they intend to perform in. This is completely at the conductor’s discretion.
Hosts
Each participating school will have one to two IUP students serving as their hosts. These students will meet you when your buses arrive, escort you through campus, help you stay on schedule, and assist you in any way needed. Expect that they will be contacting you via email prior to the event to establish your ETA so that they are prepared to meet you.