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strate growth in vocal quality. Quality of sound is of be tested upon their return. Colleagues have asked me
utmost importance. Students’ sound should be improv- if this process impacts the morale of the group. My
ing, and if it is not, they will not make the top choir. answer is that testing lifts morale and pride. The singers
The voice faculty helps assess these as well. I do not are accustomed to the process, and they realize that they
use quartet testing in order to avoid the possibility of should be preparing independently outside of rehearsal
weaker singers compromising the performance of the each and every day.
group. I ask myself how often the singers need the help of a
pianist in our rehearsals. This semester, I only brought in
a pianist to help with our rehearsals of Rachmaninoff’s
How do you gauge what students know and how they The Bells. Individual singers are asked to sing particularly
are learning? difficult passages in front of the group. I do this to help
save voices and, also, to foster keen listening. Although
if called upon, singers must give it a try, I never select
PACKWOOD: I make a clear distinction between knowl- someone I suspect will struggle, and the singers know
edge and skills. I aim to teach students concepts that that to be called upon like this is a mark of my high
can be transferred from piece to piece. Concepts fall regard for their work. In terms of assessment, I ask
under the knowledge category. I like to teach concepts myself, what percentage of the singers could have sung
before beginning a piece, reminding them about the that difficult passage had they been called upon?
things they should know and be able to apply to the We keep data from the sight-reading portion of
music before sight-reading through. Skill items would our choral placement exams. Our top group sings a
be things like music literacy, and specific techniques (a Level 6 exercise from Sight Reading Factory. The data
pitched shadow vowel, for instance). The warm-up is demonstrates remarkable improvement during Covid,
a great time to enforce skill items. I believe that too when issuing bunches of sight-reading assignments was
often we get bogged down teaching knowledge things something we could safely do. That improvement has
instead of doing it (skills). If it is clear the students need continued; it’s a remarkable trajectory.
to learn something, I like to approach it through reper- I try to make my rehearsals as multi-dimensional as
toire. For instance, if a choir is struggling with rhythm, possible. Our rehearsals always include:
I will choose something to challenge them rhythmically.
This relates to knowledge and skills. • Tell us something interesting about this composer.

WEBER: Subjectively, I use some of the same criteria • Tell us something interesting about this text.
for assessing the ensemble as for the individual singers.
Objectively, we test almost every day in our top • What compositional device is used in this passage?
ensemble, Concert Chorale. Our other auditioned (stretto, text-painting, deceptive cadence, diminution,
ensembles test frequently, although not every day. Our etc.)
non-auditioned ensembles test about once a semester
so that they know how the testing works and realize • What chord should we be hearing here?
that they can be successful.
As mentioned previously, the students receive testing
passages a month ahead and sing for a TA. A grade How do you structure the process of reducing the rich
lower than a B- results in a two-point deduction from evidence of learning into a single letter grade?
the semester grade. The students are tested randomly
for the most part, but if they make lower than a B-, they
know that they will test the following day. Additionally, BJELLA: I mainly grade on attendance. It does not help
if they are absent from a rehearsal, they know they will anyone if a student is not there. If a student misses the

CHORAL JOURNAL February 2024 Volume 64 Number 6 37