Thinking back on my choral experiences, I remember being caught up in the “choral hoopla” surrounding world-famous composer, Eric Whitacre. The constant listening to of his music and the sharing of my love of his music to others is something I am still doing today. Last summer, after reading the Choral Journal, I spotted an advertisement from the company DCINY (Distinguished Concerts International New York) inviting choirs to audition to perform Eric Whitacre’s music in New York under the direction of Whitacre himself.

I immediately sent in a recording of my choir and we were accepted along with five other choirs from the country to form a 225-member ensemble. We were also instructed to prepare and memorize nine of Whitacre’s octavos, which also included two world premieres. This process ended up being somewhat of a challenge due to the fact that I did not plan all nine octavos into my choir’s repertoire this year. As a result, every Sunday night, the 30 students who committed to this project would rehearse these songs with me for two hours, in addition to having all the pieces on their IPods for personal use.

After an extensive bus ride, we arrived on June 25th and checked into our hotel. The next morning our rehearsals, which took place at Juilliard, began with the other schools and Eric Whitacre. As soon as he walked into rehearsal, you could feel the energy and knew this was going to be special. Over the next five hours, we sang every piece and were fortunate enough to hear the background stories on these songs from their actual creator. By his own admission, Eric Whitacre is not a choral conductor, but his rehearsals were full of humor, musicality, and plenty of memorable moments. My students and I left rehearsal truly inspired.

The next day we had another five-hour rehearsal with Eric Whitacre and he used this time to really dig deeper into the music with the choir. He opened up rehearsal time to hear the student’s points of view about his music. He also did a lot of editing on the spot, which was truly a unique experience because he had full authority to keep changing notes that he didn’t like, especially on the premieres. In addition, he brought in his good friend Charles Anthony Silvestri, who wrote the poetry for many of his pieces, to talk to the singers about what these pieces really mean. Finally, he impressively found time to audition almost 100 students for the various vocal and instrumental solos in his pieces.

The next day was the concert and true excitement surrounded the performance because the music was sounding absolutely stunning. We performed at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center that evening to a crowd of over 1,000 and the concert was absolutely flawless. DCINY made sure everything went smoothly and that it was done with class. They also were extremely generous by hosting a post-concert reception at Tavern on the Green in Central Park for all of the performers and their families. What a special way to end the evening!

Please keep in mind that even though we were in rehearsal for a considerable amount of time, we were able to squeeze in many of the traditional New York excursions. Many outstanding projects like this are already in the works through DCINY for 2010 and 2011, and I would highly recommend an experience like this to foster growth in your choral program.