One of the great unexpected benefts of taking my students to the World Choir Games was the rare opportunity to “double dip” on pieces of music.
All too often, choirs prepare pieces with a concert in mind, and then turn to new repetroire on the next rehearsal. You might spend six weeks preparing pieces for the Fall Concert, and then never sing them again after the concert.
With the World Choir Games, we started learning music early in the year so that it would be settled when we got on the plane to Europe. But with other commitments during the year, we couldn’t spend time on the same pieces week to week.
Coming back to music after a break was a revelation. Preparing music for performane, putting it away for a month, and then revisiting consistently showed growth in musicality, depth of interpretation, lyrical sensitivity. Doing this two or three times during a year was an integral element in bringing the Rockford Aces to new heights in performance.
The Aces sing “Cindy” in Riga. Enjoy more performances at the Rockford Choirs Youtube Channel.
So often we conductors want to introduce more, more, more repertoire to give our students a thorough education. Occasionally, though, it is worthwhile to learn the different lessons from revisiting a familiar piece.