Crimson Hawks Cavalcade of Choirs
The IUP Choral Area is excited to host our annual Crimson Hawk Cavalcade of Choirs on Tuesday, April 28, 2020. At the Cavalcade of Choirs, each ensemble will have the opportunity to perform for other high school singers in a noncompetitive format.
Ensembles will sing in IUP's beautiful Fisher Auditorium and be professionally recorded. In addition, choirs will be provided written and verbal feedback from IUP faculty member, Craig Denison. Each choir will receive direct instruction via an on-stage clinic. This year's distinguished guest is Elisabeth Cherland, who is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.
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 Ren 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.
About IUP
IUP is located in Western Pennsylvania, about 50 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The IUP Department of Music serves over 200 undergraduate music majors, including nearly 60 voice majors, and three choral ensembles.