Please find the invitation, registration, and scholarship forms for the Vermont ACDA Children’s Honor Choir Festival, which will be held May 1-2, 2015, at the Elley-Long Music Center (ELMC), home of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, in Colchester, Vermont. To guarantee your requested spots in the festival, please mail the registration form (see below) and checks immediately. (the deadline was Friday, January 16, 2015!) If you wish to request scholarship funds (we have $300 in the fund for this year!), please fill out and send in the application form (it was due December 22).

Please select these links for the information and forms:
2015.childrens.honor.choir.invitation
2015.childrens.honor.choir.registration.form
2015.childrens.honor.choir.scholarship.application

We are thrilled to have Mr. Anthony Trecek-King, conductor of the Boston Childrens Chorus (BCC), as our guest conductor. And, we are working with the BCC to bring their children’s concert choir, conducted by Michele Adams, to be the opening performance for the concert. Our hope is that their concert choir will sing a combined piece with the festival chorus to conclude the concert! Please be thinking in advance about soliciting parents of your organization to be host families for the BCC Concert Choir. More information about this request will come later.

Be sure to read all the documents carefully as there are some important changes this year. For example, the schedule on Friday is different, in that we will begin earlier and end earlier (10:15-5:45) and the traditional ice cream social will be held at 3pm as a rehearsal break to align, we hope, with the arrival and greeting of the BCC Concert Choir. The earlier ending time means that all groups will be o n their own for dinner. Please note that the Saturday lunch fee of $6 is still, however, included with the registration fee, which is now lowered to $42 as a result of not including Friday’s dinner.

An email was sent in November 2014 to those of you who were involved last year, ACDA members, and others with whom I’ve talked personally, and we hoped  to VMEA members. Meanwhile, if you know of any choral directors in Vermont of school, community, or faith organizations who might be interested in participating, please forward this email and copy me so I can add them to my ongoing distribution list!

If you did not receive the mailing, please contact Jenny (see below) as soon as possible!

Thanks and I hope to hear from you soon! Be sure to contact me if you have any questions at all!

Sincerely,
Jenny Cianciola
802.734.3824 (cell)
Mailing Address: 20 Robin Lane, Charlotte, VT 05445
jciancola @ cssu.org

Dear Vermont Music Colleagues,

We are very excited to announce the 2014 ACDA Children’s Honor Choir Festival, which, at a glance, will be held in Burlington, VT at the Cathedral of St. Paul on May 2-3, 2014 for choral students from school, community, or church groups who are in grades 6-9.

PDF versions may be selected of the Childrens Honors Choir Invitation 2014  and Childrens Honors Choir Registration 2014. Please read the invitation in its entirety, because there are some slight changes this year. You should download and share these forms with your students and families so that they can apply. Students are accepted to participate upon the recommendation of their director as being willing to be Music Ambassadors for Excellence! Our conductor is Kyle Weary of Hagerstown Maryland. Mr. Weary’s bio is included on the invitation.

The deadline for submitting applications is February 14; however, if you are likely to recommend students, please send an email to Jenny Cianciola at jcianciola@cssu.org (or call 802.734.3824) so that we can better plan for the event. For example, if we know that there will be a reasonable number of students needing hotel accommodations, we will be able to arrange a better group rate in advance. Information will be added and updated on the state ACDA website (www.vtacda.org). Do not hesitate to contact me or any member of our state board if you have any questions or comments regarding this festival!

Members of VT-ACDA, as well as non-members for a lump sum $35 participation fee, are invited to audition and recommend students to participate. Students will be selected by teacher recommendation. The festival roster will be updated based on a first come, first served basis, and members will have relative priority in the event of a surplus of applications. All participants must be members of their school choir, community children’s choir, or church choir; be in grades six, seven, eight, or nine for the 2013-2014 school year; be willing to act as Ambassadors for Excellence; and be willing to participate in a program designated for treble voices.  Please see the invitation letter regarding boys with changing voices; briefly, beginning this year, all participating directors need agree, along with our guest conductor, to enable all participating boys to feel comfortable and included, whether (a) they are both capable and comfortable singing through their cambiata, or first stage of change, with light airy pitches (which is musically beneficial to their long-term singing but can be awkward or difficult for some boys), or (b) they need to be allowed and instructed to double the soprano voice where needed.

New this year! An exciting addition this year to the festival is a complementary performance during the festival concert of a stellar choir. This year, the Essex Children’s Choir (ECC) under the direction of Constance Price, a festival co-founder, will be that group! This additional performance will be both enjoyable for our audience and musically instructive for our festival choristers. Many thanks to Ms. Price and the ECC!

Sincerely,
Jenny Cianciola
ACDA Children’s Honor Choir Festival Coordinator

Meet our Guest Conductor, Kyle J. Weary, for the 2014 Festival!

As guest conductor, Kyle has conducted honor choirs in Washington County, MD and Allegany County, MD and with The Maryland Symphony Orchestra. The Barbara Ingram Choral ensemble had their first Carnegie Hall appearance singing under the direction of Eric Whitacre in the premiere of his new opera: “Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings” in 2010. In 2010 they also had the opportunity to sing as the backup choir for Todd Rundgren’s fall tour. Kyle’s choir has also been invited to sing at the 2011 inauguration of Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland. In 2013 the choir will perform with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra in their holiday concert in December.

Kyle has a Bachelor of Music Education (vocal emphasis) and Master of Music in Conducting from Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. Kyle is also a graduate of the Contemporary Commercial Musical Theatre Vocal Pedagogy Institute – Level III Certified Somatic™ Voicework – The LoVetri Method. Kyle has completed additional graduate studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University and Westminster Choir College.

As a performer Kyle has appeared on stage with Marvin Hamlisch, Julie Andrews, Elaine Stritch, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Dana Reeves, Barbara Cook, Sam Freed and David Masenheimer. Kyle has appeared on stage and in the pits of numerous musicals including: Follies in Concert (starring David Masenheimer and Sam Freed), Starmites, Bye Bye Birdie, Joseph…Dreamcoat, Guy and Dolls, The Baker’s Wife, My Favorite Year, and Pirates of Penzance among others. Music and stage direction credits include: Beauty & the Beast, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, A Night of Broadway – a Musical Revue, Willy Wonka Jr. (central PA premier), The Last Five Years, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, Legally Blonde, and The Wizard of Oz.