Conductor’s Corner

After Christmas break I will be holding auditions for a madrigal group/small ensemble. The size will depend upon the voicing available. It will either be 8, 12, or 16 with an equal amount of voices on each part. To audition you will need to know Dixit Maria and O Admirabile Commercium. You may pick up rehearsal CD’s of O Admirabile Commercium in the Dean of Students office.

The goal of this group is to provide us with a smaller, select ensemble to use for events where it would be hard to get the entire group. Examples of events would be as follows: Admissions Open House in the fall, Espirit de Corp and other small events in the spring. It is my goal that this group will be able to perform for community events as needed where a smaller group would be best.

Good Luck! Mr. B

Here is the updated list of A cappella dates for the spring. New events are in bold.

Jan. 14 - Bartlett Woods

Jan. 21 - Woodland Hills

Jan. 28 - Park Avenue

Feb. 4 - Getwell

Feb. 8 - White Station (Sunday Night - with Harding University Chorus)

Feb. 25 - Holmes Road

Mar. 25 - Southwind

Apr. 22 - Sycamore View

Apr. 29 - Germantown

May 6 - Great Oaks

Possibly Norris Road

Today A cappella sang for employees of 1st TN Bank downtown. After singing at the bank, we went to the Peabody Hotel to sing for their Christmas performances. While singing, we were honored to meet and speak with Ms. Kathleen Battle, world renown Operatic Soprano!! After singing through Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, Ms. Battle came up and introduced herself and mentioned that she had really enjoyed A cappella’s singing and was very impressed by the sound of the group. As a musician, I am deeply honored to have met Ms. Battle and humbled that she would take time to show appreciation to the group for their performance! The group did wonderful and hopefully the pictures will be up soon!

The following students are not exempt for the semester exam in Freshman Chorus/Bible. The reason you are not exempt is due to your grades on the previous memory verse quizzes. Low grades on memory verses will lower your overall grade. You will need to know all the verses from the 2nd Quarter.

Timothy Adkin

Parker Hanna

Bear Hatfield

Forrest Hughes

Allen Sisson

Ricky Tappan

The Harding Academy Choral Christmas Concert will held on Monday, Dec. 8th beginning at 7 pm in the auditorium on the Cherry Road campus. All choruses will be performing (8th grade, 9th grade, A cappella). The 7th grade vocal rotation class will not be performing on the concert. All members of these groups are expected to be in attendance for the event. All students are expected to be in their seats or on stage by 6:30 so that we can run warm up and run through any music as needed. Please see your chorus handbook for information about required performance attendance. All groups will be in their concert uniform. That is as follows:

A cappella

Girls - Black chorus dress, Guys - Tuxedo

Freshman Chorus

All will wear black pants, tuxedo shirt, bow tie, cummerbund, black dress shoes - No athletic shoes.

Eighth Grade Chorus

All students will wear the required Harding Academy Uniform.

Girls - White shirt, skirt, white socks, Guys - Khaki pants, White button down shirt, Tie

The Eighth Grade Chorus will perform first, followed by the 9th Grade Chorus, and then A cappella. All students are expected to stay for the entire concert.

If there are any questions, please feel free to email/call as needed.

All SW Clinic - Nov. 20, 21, 22 - Mississippi Blvd Church

Poinsettia Delivery - Cherry Road - Thursday, Nov. 20th

(No Delivery at Cherry Road on the 26th)

Goodman Oaks Church of Christ - Wednesday, Dec. 3rd - 7:00

All State Auditions - Saturday, Dec. 6th - St. Benedict’s - 1:00

(Alleluia and Dixit Maria)

Choral Christmas Concert - Monday, Dec. 8th - Cherry Road - 7:00

Poinsettia Delivery - Monday, Dec. 8th - Cherry Road

Choirs of Christmas Taping - Tuesday, Dec. 9th - WKNO Studios - 2:45

(we will leave from the school)

Carols and Lessons - Friday, Dec. 12th - Chapel - Cherry Road

Peabody and 1st TN Bank - Monday, Dec. 15th - Peabody Hotel/Downtown

The All SW Clinic is this week. Please see the information sheet for details about the clinic. Also, make sure to sign the student contract and return the bottom portion by Wednesday, Nov. 19th. I have included a map to the church. The easiest way to get there is by taking I-240 and getting off at either Madison (coming from the north loop) or Union (coming from the south loop). The church is located between Madison and Jefferson on N. Bellevue. It is the old Bellevue Baptist building.

We will only have a bus available for lunch on Friday. At all the rehearsals, the students will be responsible for transportation to and from the event.

Map to Mississippi Blvd Church

All SW Clinic Information

Due to the Harding football team win on Friday, our performance at Goodman Oaks will be moved to Wednesday, Dec. 3rd. I had already contacted the church to tentatively schedule the date for the 3rd if we needed it. Please use the 25th to support the football team as they play for the championship!

Go Lions Football!

We have two weeks left before the week of Thanksgiving. Right now we are scheduled to sing at Goodman Oaks on Nov. 25th. We have set up an alternate date of Wednesday, Dec. 3rd and will use it as needed. My goal is to use next week as a week to clean up and memorize the songs we will perform for Goodman Oaks and for Christmas. Here is the list of songs for Christmas:

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night)

The First Nowell

Lux Aurumque

Ding Dong Merrily on High

What Child is This?

Dixit Maria

Carol of the Bells

We will continue our study of Key Signatures and Time Signatures. We will also be working on counting rhythms and continue with our daily sight reading.