Friday Institutes

Chorus Management Boot Camp

Presenters: David Edelman, Executive Director, New York City Gay Men’s Chorus; Steve Smith, Executive Director, Boston Gay Men’s Chorus; Joann Usher, Executive Director, Cantus

Geared toward: Entry and Mid level

Running your Chorus as a volunteer or part timer can be an overwhelming task, requiring many different kinds of knowledge. Experienced Executive Directors from some of GALA’s largest choruses have been there and know what you are going through. They have put together a comprehensive day-long course geared towards small and medium sized choruses offering their wisdom and best practices in the fields of marketing and public relations, fundraising, administrative basics (financial management, membership tracking, banking relationships), concert production (venues, hiring musicians, contracts, outreach performances) and volunteer and time management. Learn the practical skills you need to go home and make your chorus more successful and your life more manageable.

Benefits:

1. Understand the "big picture" of how to build and maintain a successful chorus
2. Gain 101-level knowledge of marketing, public relations, fundraising, concert production, time management, and issues of financial and membership management
3. Become part of a peer group for on-going support and guidance
4. Get answers and advice to your specific questions from experienced professionals

How to Become a More Effective Board Member

Presenter: Anne Howden, President, Anne Howden Consulting

Geared towards: Mid-level choruses

Nonprofit organizations develop just like people do. And like the nonprofits they govern, the effective board of directors looks different at each stage of an organization’s development. During this day-long session, you’ll have the opportunity to identify the life cycle stage of your own organization and board, assess the effectiveness of your board within the life cycles framework, identify priority areas for board improvement, and develop a concrete action plan for improving your own board’s effectiveness.

Benefits:

1. Become familiar with the award-winning Nonprofit Lifecycles model
2. Understand how board effectiveness looks different at each stage of nonprofit development
3. Learn basic board roles and responsibilities
4. Take away concrete strategies for improving your own board’s effectiveness

Artistic Director Institute

Presenter: Lawrence C Kaptein, Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Choral Music and Conducting at the University of Colorado at Boulder

Geared towards: all levels

Larry is known for the vibrant and exciting sound of his choruses, as well as for his sensitivity, humor, teaching style, and creative programming ideas.

Through presentation and rehearsal of selected repertoire, this three-hour session will touch on some of the many and varied aspects of creating a beautiful and energized choral sound: warm-ups, repertoire selection, placement of singers, innovative rehearsal techniques, and conducting gesture that reinforces a vibrant tone. Kaptein comes highly recommended by Colorado artistic directors as well as other GALA Chorus directors who have worked with him during his twenty-two year tenure at the University of Colorado.

Benefits:

1. Participants will experience ways to establish the choir's sound through voice building warm-ups and reinforce this vibrancy through thoughtful and appropriate conducting gestures.
2. Participants will experience a variety of ways to deploy singers within the ensemble to enhance the choir's sound.
3. Participants will explore the role repertoire can play in improving rehearsal pacing, singer motivation, and overall ensemble sound.
4. Participants will examine ways to incorporate a variety of less conventional teaching techniques in rehearsal to both motivate singers and create a vibrant sound.
5. Participants will become increasingly aware of how the conductor's gesture can either enhance or inhibit a vibrant choral sound.

Director’s Chorus!

Presenter: Tim Seelig, Conductor Emeritus, Turtle Creek Chorale

Geared towards: all levels

Tired of helping everyone else sing? Tired of never actually being in a choir? Or maybe you’ve forgotten what that feels like altogether! (we do make the worst choir members) Now is your chance to blow out the old pipes! Conventions around the country are turning to Director’s Choirs to give conductors an opportunity to sit on the other side of the podium/music stand. So, why not GALA Choruses? As a part of the 2007 Annual Conference, we are planning to spend a fun-filled session just working on our own music – music that is specific and useful to GALA choruses. Here is how it will fall out:

Hour #1: Introduction of the 2 or 3 pieces you help select. We will cover topics to include teaching a piece and how to create warm-ups specific to the repertoire.

Hour #2: Rehearsal Technique in action. We will cover the vocal technique necessary to pull it off.

Hour #3: Polishing the repertoire. We will explore the artistry of bringing the repertoire to life as well as blending and memorization.

Benefits:

1. Learn some new literature and new techniques.
2. Conductors will have a chance to bond doing something you don’t ever get to do: sing together!