FY16 Artistic Council & Education Outreach Reports
Communications – Matthew Goinz
Cantus Activities Week by Week
• 12/28 BREAK
• 1/5 Rehearsal; flex time; programming, company, and AC meetings; recording session with APM for Valentine’s Day Special; read-thru of draft cutting for Romeo & Juliet (Libby Larson, Bill McCallum, Carl Flink, Carla Steen, ML, CF, MG)
• 1/12 Rehearsal; open rehearsal hosted by Chuck Peterson; flex time; HSR visit #3; programming, company, and AC meetings; Mt Calvary concert with MN Boychoir
• 1/19 Tucson AZ (three joint concerts with True Concord); full ensemble audition listening session
Communication Highlights
• MPR/APM – Brad Althoff, Alison Young, and engineer regarding Valentine’s Day broadcast
• RDPR regarding upcoming media opportunities during out next stretch of tour
• Phone interview with Tucson Desert Song Festival (MG – 1/13/16)
• Romeo & Juliet team and advisor (ML, CF, MG, McCallum, Steen, Larsen, Flink, Trish Santini)
• Wendy Holmes & Gary Ruschman in search of in-kind Covers rehearsal space
Press, Media, and other Comments
• 1/15 – True Concord e-blast: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=c76109ab-dfd5-493a-ac13-44cf1bce0ce4&c=f9b595c0-4e43-11e4-a9e8-d4ae528e486a&ch=f9bb6220-4e43-11e4-a9e8-d4ae528e486a
Production – Matthew Tintes
My last BOD report was written in the middle of our annual “Christmas With Cantus” home concert run, so I wanted to let you know how that all turned out. In the end, the Christmas concerts had a very good run! There were a couple of new venues at the end of the run, namely in Shepherd of the Valley in Apple Valley, and The Paramount Theater in St Cloud. The performances at both of those venues were well attended, and the venue’s staff were pleasant to work with. I believe that in the future they could both be worked into our normal Christmas concert rotation, in order to further expand our “home audience”. It should be noted that while Apple Valley was a self-presented, “home concert series” show, St Cloud was actually a booking that came into us through AAM. A few of us talked to some of the staff at St. Cloud, and they were quite receptive to having us back in the near future, especially when they found out that we do a new Christmas show every year.
Since we returned from break, we have been rehearsing music for our Spring show,”Would You Harbor Me?”. The singers really took it upon themselves to prepare this music during our three days of flex time, and the four days of group rehearsal we had went very well. There are challenging songs on this concert that we have performed before, and that were very difficult to rehearse in the past. However, this time they were better prepared than they were in the past, and I think that speaks to not only the talent in the room, but also the level of hard work that went into preparing this music.
Programming – Chris Foss
Cantus hosted another script reading of Romeo and Juliet (newly revised by Carla and Bill) at our offices. It was read by the same cast as the workshop (minus Chris because of illness). Libby Larsen was in attendance, and let us know what a great help it was to hear the text read and properly emphasized and performed by trained actors (in order to more accurately set the words to music).
I recently had another envisioning phone call with Jeff Beal surrounding his impending commission. We are now looking for funding from donors rather that grant sources, so the extra information will prove very useful in procuring donations towards this aim. We spoke about possible texts and poetry written by veterans, and we also talked at length at the documentary Jeff just wrote the music for. The film follows 4 veterans experience PTSD from their tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We selected and submitted the artistic examples for the Copland foundation grant, which will (hopefully) go towards funding a new album in the next 2 years. Audio had to be auditioned and selected based on artistic quality and also had to adhere to strict time restrictions.
Cantus selected Gabriel Kahane to write a work to be featured on our 2017-2018 touring show. Gabriel is a fantastic composer who has been commissioned by many nationally renowned ensembles, including the LA Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber ensemble, and Kronos Quartet. His new album The Ambassador is garnering rave reviews, including Rolling Stone. The commission will (hopefully) be funded by a grant through Chorus America (due in at the end of January).
Cantus participated in a collaborative concert with the Minnesota Boychoir, hosted by Mount Calvary Lutheran in Excelsior, MN. The concert honored the memory and the ideals upheld by Martin Luther King. The Boychoir sang a beautiful 20 minute set, followed by 40 minutes of music from Cantus (including 3 pieces from our upcoming concert Would You Harbor Me?). We finished with two combined pieces, many thanks towards the boys and directors, and lots of praise from an appreciative audience.
Not really related to the programming field, but it bears mentioning that the first ever official social interaction between the singer of Chanticleer and Cantus en masse will occur this February. Both groups will be in the Chesapeake bay area around the 2-3 of Feb. It promises to be a hoot, and maybe there will be a photo or two…
Our impeding collaboration (and complete by the time the board meeting actually occurs!) with True Conchord out of Tucson is underway. Concerts consisting of two solo sets and three combined pieces were programmed a few months ago, and we’re looking forward to realizing a project long in the making! True Conchord recently received a grammy nomination for their most recent album featuring the music of Stephen Paulus.
Our upcoming collaboration with the Viking Chorus has been programmed with several collaborative pieces (including our new commission written by Dale Warland). Rehearsals and performance will take place in Northfield, with the concert date set at March 4.
With great work from many different parties, Cantus finalized sales language and updated repertoire lists for our touring options for the 2017-2018 season, including Discovery of Sight and Three Tales of Christmas. We also finalized the format and content of Three Tales of Christmas (including A Christmas Carol, Gift of the Magi, and Twas the Night before Christmas).
I recently met with AnnMarie Thomas (professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering) to continue to discuss and envision our upcoming possible collaboration for our 2017-2018 touring program. We currently have a “play date” scheduled March 16th, where Cantus will rehearse and perform pieces in the lab at St. Thomas, giving students the opportunity to manipulate light and visual information with the information produced by our sounds using technology that they have invented themselves. The event will be filmed by St. Thomas and Cantus for use in sales/promotional/archival materials by both organizations.
Education Outreach – Sam Green
High School Residency
We made our second visits to Robbinsdale-Cooper, Osseo, and Champlain Park on January 12 and 13 (what seemed to be the coldest days of ‘16 to date!), and continued working towards goals that the students and directors made for themselves. Our final school visits will take place in April. Until then, we are preparing for our HSR Festival Day on February 27! More details to follow in the February report.
We had our inaugural meeting with our directors for HSR ‘16-’17 during the first week of January. This informational briefing laid out our entire residency with the schools. More specific meetings and scheduling will happen in the spring. Our schools and directors for 16-17 are:
Johnson Senior High, St. Paul - Theresa J. Westcott, director
Washburn High School, Minneapolis - Nancy Lee, director
St. Michael-Albertville High School, St. Michael - Joseph Osowski, director
National Outreach
January tour sees us at two colleges in North Carolina, Duke and Wingate University. On a personal note, one of the members of Duke’s men’s a cappella ensemble, the Pitchforks, was a pupil of mine while I was student teaching in Kansas City. It’s a small world when you’re a musician!
Spread the word that Cantus offers a variety of educational outreach opportunities locally and around the country each year. If you know educators/organizations interested in working with us, refer them to education@cantussings.org, or contact Sam at sgreen@cantussings.org.
Cantus Activities Week by Week
• 12/28 BREAK
• 1/5 Rehearsal; flex time; programming, company, and AC meetings; recording session with APM for Valentine’s Day Special; read-thru of draft cutting for Romeo & Juliet (Libby Larson, Bill McCallum, Carl Flink, Carla Steen, ML, CF, MG)
• 1/12 Rehearsal; open rehearsal hosted by Chuck Peterson; flex time; HSR visit #3; programming, company, and AC meetings; Mt Calvary concert with MN Boychoir
• 1/19 Tucson AZ (three joint concerts with True Concord); full ensemble audition listening session
Communication Highlights
• MPR/APM – Brad Althoff, Alison Young, and engineer regarding Valentine’s Day broadcast
• RDPR regarding upcoming media opportunities during out next stretch of tour
• Phone interview with Tucson Desert Song Festival (MG – 1/13/16)
• Romeo & Juliet team and advisor (ML, CF, MG, McCallum, Steen, Larsen, Flink, Trish Santini)
• Wendy Holmes & Gary Ruschman in search of in-kind Covers rehearsal space
Press, Media, and other Comments
• 1/15 – True Concord e-blast: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=c76109ab-dfd5-493a-ac13-44cf1bce0ce4&c=f9b595c0-4e43-11e4-a9e8-d4ae528e486a&ch=f9bb6220-4e43-11e4-a9e8-d4ae528e486a
Production – Matthew Tintes
My last BOD report was written in the middle of our annual “Christmas With Cantus” home concert run, so I wanted to let you know how that all turned out. In the end, the Christmas concerts had a very good run! There were a couple of new venues at the end of the run, namely in Shepherd of the Valley in Apple Valley, and The Paramount Theater in St Cloud. The performances at both of those venues were well attended, and the venue’s staff were pleasant to work with. I believe that in the future they could both be worked into our normal Christmas concert rotation, in order to further expand our “home audience”. It should be noted that while Apple Valley was a self-presented, “home concert series” show, St Cloud was actually a booking that came into us through AAM. A few of us talked to some of the staff at St. Cloud, and they were quite receptive to having us back in the near future, especially when they found out that we do a new Christmas show every year.
Since we returned from break, we have been rehearsing music for our Spring show,”Would You Harbor Me?”. The singers really took it upon themselves to prepare this music during our three days of flex time, and the four days of group rehearsal we had went very well. There are challenging songs on this concert that we have performed before, and that were very difficult to rehearse in the past. However, this time they were better prepared than they were in the past, and I think that speaks to not only the talent in the room, but also the level of hard work that went into preparing this music.
Programming – Chris Foss
Cantus hosted another script reading of Romeo and Juliet (newly revised by Carla and Bill) at our offices. It was read by the same cast as the workshop (minus Chris because of illness). Libby Larsen was in attendance, and let us know what a great help it was to hear the text read and properly emphasized and performed by trained actors (in order to more accurately set the words to music).
I recently had another envisioning phone call with Jeff Beal surrounding his impending commission. We are now looking for funding from donors rather that grant sources, so the extra information will prove very useful in procuring donations towards this aim. We spoke about possible texts and poetry written by veterans, and we also talked at length at the documentary Jeff just wrote the music for. The film follows 4 veterans experience PTSD from their tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We selected and submitted the artistic examples for the Copland foundation grant, which will (hopefully) go towards funding a new album in the next 2 years. Audio had to be auditioned and selected based on artistic quality and also had to adhere to strict time restrictions.
Cantus selected Gabriel Kahane to write a work to be featured on our 2017-2018 touring show. Gabriel is a fantastic composer who has been commissioned by many nationally renowned ensembles, including the LA Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber ensemble, and Kronos Quartet. His new album The Ambassador is garnering rave reviews, including Rolling Stone. The commission will (hopefully) be funded by a grant through Chorus America (due in at the end of January).
Cantus participated in a collaborative concert with the Minnesota Boychoir, hosted by Mount Calvary Lutheran in Excelsior, MN. The concert honored the memory and the ideals upheld by Martin Luther King. The Boychoir sang a beautiful 20 minute set, followed by 40 minutes of music from Cantus (including 3 pieces from our upcoming concert Would You Harbor Me?). We finished with two combined pieces, many thanks towards the boys and directors, and lots of praise from an appreciative audience.
Not really related to the programming field, but it bears mentioning that the first ever official social interaction between the singer of Chanticleer and Cantus en masse will occur this February. Both groups will be in the Chesapeake bay area around the 2-3 of Feb. It promises to be a hoot, and maybe there will be a photo or two…
Our impeding collaboration (and complete by the time the board meeting actually occurs!) with True Conchord out of Tucson is underway. Concerts consisting of two solo sets and three combined pieces were programmed a few months ago, and we’re looking forward to realizing a project long in the making! True Conchord recently received a grammy nomination for their most recent album featuring the music of Stephen Paulus.
Our upcoming collaboration with the Viking Chorus has been programmed with several collaborative pieces (including our new commission written by Dale Warland). Rehearsals and performance will take place in Northfield, with the concert date set at March 4.
With great work from many different parties, Cantus finalized sales language and updated repertoire lists for our touring options for the 2017-2018 season, including Discovery of Sight and Three Tales of Christmas. We also finalized the format and content of Three Tales of Christmas (including A Christmas Carol, Gift of the Magi, and Twas the Night before Christmas).
I recently met with AnnMarie Thomas (professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering) to continue to discuss and envision our upcoming possible collaboration for our 2017-2018 touring program. We currently have a “play date” scheduled March 16th, where Cantus will rehearse and perform pieces in the lab at St. Thomas, giving students the opportunity to manipulate light and visual information with the information produced by our sounds using technology that they have invented themselves. The event will be filmed by St. Thomas and Cantus for use in sales/promotional/archival materials by both organizations.
Education Outreach – Sam Green
High School Residency
We made our second visits to Robbinsdale-Cooper, Osseo, and Champlain Park on January 12 and 13 (what seemed to be the coldest days of ‘16 to date!), and continued working towards goals that the students and directors made for themselves. Our final school visits will take place in April. Until then, we are preparing for our HSR Festival Day on February 27! More details to follow in the February report.
We had our inaugural meeting with our directors for HSR ‘16-’17 during the first week of January. This informational briefing laid out our entire residency with the schools. More specific meetings and scheduling will happen in the spring. Our schools and directors for 16-17 are:
Johnson Senior High, St. Paul - Theresa J. Westcott, director
Washburn High School, Minneapolis - Nancy Lee, director
St. Michael-Albertville High School, St. Michael - Joseph Osowski, director
National Outreach
January tour sees us at two colleges in North Carolina, Duke and Wingate University. On a personal note, one of the members of Duke’s men’s a cappella ensemble, the Pitchforks, was a pupil of mine while I was student teaching in Kansas City. It’s a small world when you’re a musician!
Spread the word that Cantus offers a variety of educational outreach opportunities locally and around the country each year. If you know educators/organizations interested in working with us, refer them to education@cantussings.org, or contact Sam at sgreen@cantussings.org.