Last Week's Facebook Live Video

It was quite an experience to do our first Facebook Live Concert last Thursday. Below is the video of our Holiday Caroling Concert at the Legacy Estates in Lincoln, NE.
Enjoy!




Facebook Live Video: Holiday Caroling Concert 12.8.2016

We are going LIVE: Facebook LIVE experiment for our Holiday Concerts

So I have decided to take the leap into Facebook LIVE and stream our two holiday caroling concerts on Dec. 8 and Dec. 15. Though I am very tech capable, this does worry me a little. The group is very excited to present our music to the community. But we have never tried anything like this! I'm working on the details now as I figure out how to set up my phone and hope everything runs smoothly.

Here's some of the info from Facebook I've posted today:
Lincoln Choral Artists will be using Facebook LIVE to share their concert of Holiday Music as presented at the Legacy Estates on December 8 at 7:00pm and the Grandlodge at the Preserve on December 15 at 6:45pm. This concert will feature beloved holiday classics for choir, quartet, duet, and solos. Lincoln Choral Artists will be sharing the holiday spirit with our community and want you to be a part of it on Facebook!

We are inviting anyone in attendance at the concert to join in on the Facebook LIVE. Turn on your phone and stream the performance with us!

Facebook LIVE Concert featuring the Holiday Music! 

Facebook LIVE Concert featuring Holiday Music 2

Youtube video of A Capitol City Choirs Concert

Below is the youtube video link of the entire concert at College View Church on Nov. 6. I hope you enjoy it!

A Capitol City Choirs Concert

Sharing the Podium...Pt. 2 The Sacred Arts Homeschool Choirs

A few weeks ago I shared my excitement for having guest conductors lead my choirs. I had the opportunity to do the same for two of our guest choirs for the upcoming concert this Sunday, last week. I worked with Deo Gratias and Corem Deo Choirs from the Sacred Arts Home School Choirs, directed by Mandy Swanson. Here are some photos I took at the rehearsals as I watched Mandy warm up the choirs. The "older" singers are members of Lincoln Choral Artists

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Sacred Arts Homeschool Choirs Website     To Purchase Tickets for Sunday's Concert, CLICK HERE

College View Church: A gorgeous setting for a beautiful concert

I am so excited to have our first concert of this 37th Season at College View Church. 

College View has long historical connections to Union College in Lincoln as does LCA. 

Lincoln Choral Artists began as the Lincoln Civic Choir in 1979 and were featured as a part of the Lincoln Civic Experience that year at Union College. 

College View Church continues to host several events for the college and community surrounding the church campus. Please enjoy the photos below of this amazing space and Come Hear 

the Lincoln Choral Artists, 

with special guests 

the Lincoln Lutheran Choir and the 

Sacred Arts Home School Choir 

on Nov. 6 at 3pm.

Sharing the Podium

I had the great joy last week of leading a rehearsal of the Lincoln Lutheran Choir and having Tom Trenney as a guest clinician at the Lincoln Choral Artists rehearsal.



Most every week, Mandy Swanson, our assistant director, does some rehearsal with the choir and our Choral Scholar helps with sectionals. I hand over the reigns and trust the hands of others often. I have shared my love and joy of choral music with ensembles that I have been invited to work with many times. And, like last Thursday, I have had the opportunity to watch colleagues, friends, and mentors work with ensembles I lead.

Each of these experiences is a growth moment for me, for the choirs I work with regularly, and the choirs I have visited. The strength of the choral ensemble comes from the "connectedness" we share in a common experience together. Our individual voices, strengths, and personalities join to become a new thing every week and every performance. Singers have the opportunity to grow by experiencing many conductors and leaders. Singers perspectives can change about the community of music that surrounds them as the world opens a little wider. I know that's how I have felt both as a singer in choirs and as a director "watching from the sidelines."

I am so very excited to watch the collaborations, conducting, leadership, and singing at our fall concert. I am proud to have 2 fabulous conductors with me on stage, Brett Epperson with LLC, and Mandy Swanson with LCA and Sacred Arts Home School Choir.

Music on Our Fall Concert Pt.4: Multicultural, Folk songs, and the Opener!

This is the final part of the look at the music on the LCA Fall Concert: A Capital City Choirs Concert, Sunday, Nov. 6, 3pm, College View Church, Lincoln, NE.

One of our selections comes from the Latinamerican community. "Salmo 150" is composed by Ernani Aguiar, thise piece is published through earthsongs, the leading publisher of multicultural choral music in the United States. "Salmo 150" uses the text of Psalm 150 sung in Latin.

Praise the Lord in his sacred places, praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts, praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of trumpet, praise him with the psaltery and the harp. Praise him with the timbrel and the dance, praise him with strings and pipes. Praise him with the high-sounding cymbals, praise him with cymbals of joy. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!

Editor Maria Guinand says about this setting of the text, "This...music will provide an opportunity for many choirs to get to know this wonderful music," speaking of Aguiar and his Brazilian compositional style. She goes on to say, "...and through it, to discover our traditions, our rhythms, and our soul." 

This setting is highly rhythmic with a wide open quality. 

I'll Tell My Ma, arranged by Erik Jones, will be our most visually impressive selection as it features body percussion divided into three distinct groups throughout the choir. Jones says about the piece "I came up with the idea for I'll Tell My Ma watching my young son play on the playground. there was a pair of girls playing patty-cake and the singing a nonsense rhyme, the cadence of which reminded me of the old Irish children's song, I'll Tell My Ma...I wondered what it would be like to arrange that song while the singers played patty-cake, and the idea quickly morphed into a tour-de-force of different combinations of movement and singing." This beautiful and lively text will add another level of excitement and a sense of playground fun to our concert!

Finally, I end with our Concert Opener: The Call of Music with words and music by Joseph M. Martin. This piece was commissioned for the 2015 All-Ohio State Fair Choir. 

The 200 members of the choir are selected each spring on the basis of their ability and experience, the recommendation of their high school choral director, and the consent and support of their parent or guardian. Five days before the opening of the Ohio State Fair, the new choir meets at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus and launches into a rigorous schedule that includes vocal training, sectional and full rehearsals, solo auditions, and marching instruction. Once the fair opens, the Youth Choir sings six to eight concerts a day and marches up to ten miles a day to various performance sites around the 360 acre fairgrounds.

The All-Ohio Youth Choir has been described by members as "an experience in living," "Introduction to College 101," "a secular retreat," and "the musical forte of the year." Parents have applauded the Youth Choir experience as "the finest opportunity for personal growth and development," and "a life-changing three weeks." Music educators have complimented the Youth Choir for "good, healthy singing," for encouraging "wonderful musical spirits," and for urging the singers to "take that energy back home to their own schools." 

©2016 The All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir, Inc.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at Our Music for the Fall Concert 2016!

Please come see and hear this great music!

http://lincolnchoralartists.org/purchasetickets.html