Donate and take me to the Association of Irish Choir's International Choral Conducting Summer School 2017, from August 6th to 12th in Limerick, Ireland.
The Internacional Choral Conducting Summer Schoolda Association of Irish Choirsis a seven day intensive course to choral directors, teachers, music students and ingeris. Students come from different countries, making the whole experience richer and more challenging.
The 2017 edition will happen from the 6th to 12th of august at theIrish World School of Music and Dancein the University of Limerick, Ireland. The course is divided in 6 levels (from Beginner to Advanced) and each class has 12 who are tutored by an experienced conductor and teacher of conducting.
In the classes we will develop our conducting technique and also study in depth the scores of all the pieces we are going to conduct. In the Advanced level we will focus on the vocal technique and on the rehearsal technique, that is, how to lead an effective choir rehearsal: how to approach pieces from different styles and eras, how to keep the choir in tune, how to fix those difficult bars that never seem to be quite right... and all of this keeping the choir attentive and in a good mood.
Throughout the week we will also have workshops, daily warm-ups, choir sessions and an evening of masterclasses. After a very intensive week, we will have our final concert on the August 12th where I hope (really want to) I can conduct!
Concerto Julho 2016
About the author
I am Marta and I started to study music because my parents thought I should have piano lessons. Later, I also studied music theory, piano, vocal technique and composition at the Academia dos Amadores de Música in Lisbon.
We also had to sing in the choir. At first, I didn't like the idea but I soon started to like singing with others. After a while I joined the school's children choir and later, the chamber choir. Sometimes, during the rehearsals I thought"maybe this piece should be slower, faster, louder or softer..."but I never imagined that one day I could be in front of the choir. My "conducting" experience was always quite informal. I sang at weddings and people started to ask me if I could prepare some of the choirs. I did everything by feeling and intuition, but things went quite well.
In the meanwhile, I graduated in Law and started to work as a lawyer. I kept my singing lessions and played in a band but there was something missing...
The "something" came in 2014 with the first open concert of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, to sing Orff's Carmina Burana. After this, I really wanted to study music again and I enrolled in the 15th International Vocal Music Summer School at Aveiros's University, in the Choral Conducting Class, tutored by Gonçalo Lourenço. In that week, I recycled much of what I already knew, debunked a few myths, trained my sight reading (it was a mess) and I learnt how to prepare pieces, to rehearse and lead the choir.
A few months later, I joined the Studio Conducere to keep practicing and took a second summer course in Aveiro. Two years of training and many concerts later, it was time for a new challenge and I applied to the International Choral Conducting Summer School 2017 of the Association of Irish Choirs. I was very happy to be selected to the Advanced level, the more demanding of the levels.
I am looking forward to the August 6th to see all the surprises the course will bring. Can I count on you to get there?
Budget and due dates
Course fee: 425€
Accomodation: 189€ (7 nights at the University's residence)
Rewards: 100€
Commissions: 68,88€
The course fees are quite reasonable. However, the total cost of the project is a bit higher since it includes the accomodation, flights to and from Ireland, living expenses and the scores.
The campaign covers only the fees and the accomodation, and that is already a big help! I will pay for the flights, living expenses and the scores. If the campaign's value is surpassed, all the extra money will be used to cover those expenses.
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