Counterpoint Choral Workshops

One of the projects funded by Alfred Nash Patterson grants in 2012 is a set of high school workshops conducted by the Vermont professional chorus Counterpoint. Those workshops are scheduled for early April and early May 2013, at Mill River Union High School in Clarendon VT, Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol VT, and one other school to be determined soon. Director Nathaniel Lew works directly with choral directors at each school to tailor the workshops to the school's needs and the repertory that the kids are studying.

Counterpoint is currently preparing concerts of new music by Vermont composers Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, Peter Hamlin, Patricia Julien, Thomas L. Read, Jorge Martin, and David Feurzeig, and they will take some of that repertory to each school—along with the composers themselves (one or two live composers per workshop). The composers talk about their music and Counterpoint performs excerpts for the students.

The group has also asked Justin Gate, a student at Missisquoi Valley High School in Swanton VT who wrote a piece that was performed by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra last year, to write a short piece specifically for the workshops. In addition, the students preparing for the workshops may write short pieces or exercises for Counterpoint to sing and discuss with the composers.

Turning to the students' own repertory, Counterpoint will warm up with them, hold sectionals led by the professional singers, and then have a joint rehearsal of at least one piece from the school repertory. Each school collaboration will be followed by a group dinner and joint concerts for each choir and some combined choir work.