Page 11 - ChorTeach vol14-1.indd

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You!
Attend Festivals?

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David Hensley

Porterville College, Lompoc High School (retired)

Who? Who? Who
Porterville, California
(Used with permission of the author)

Editor’s note: See Choral Journal September 2021 (Volume 62, No In the right circumstances, this exercise can off er possible
2) for “How Will Your Choir Be Judged? What Adjudicators Are career enhancement. Some beginning conductors fear fes-
Listening and Looking for at Festivals” by David Hensley. tivals or contests because of the possibility of less than fa-
vorable comments from adjudicators, but just as a young
quarterback learns from actually playing the game, we cho-
The past year has seen festivals curtailed as the world ral directors learn from our experiences.
has suffered through the Covid-19 pandemic. The lifting A festival presents at least three opportunities for learn-

of restrictions and the return to relative “normalcy” will, ing in one venue. It gives you and the choir an opportunity
hopefully, bring forth many choral festivals. Many choral to be professionally evaluated. It gives you and the choir

teachers may be facing their first opportunities to attend an opportunity to hear other ensembles. It gives you and
festivals. Choirs may have lost singers due to online learn- the choir an opportunity to perform for peers. All three of
ing restrictions. It may be several years before large choral these reasons should be shared with singers and administra-
programs are able to regain their previous performance tors so that they will understand and appreciate the event in
levels. With this in mind, the competitive nature of festi- advance.
vals may be somewhat lessened. The time is right for every What constitutes a choral festival? Although festivals
choir to participate in a festival. may vary depending on the sponsor, there are, basically,
Whenever our backs are facing an audience, our cred- two types: adjudicated and non-adjudicated. In an adjudi-
ibility is on the line as choral directors. We are a silent cated choral festival, one or more expert clinicians (hereaf-
instrument in a greater endeavor that makes music, but ter referred to as adjudicators) evaluate the performance of
unlike a soprano or alto section whose many voices work the choirs according to certain standards. However specifi c
together, we are the only one performing our role. Self- the standards, there is necessarily an element of subjectivity
evaluation is a necessary part of conducting. We are con- in this evaluation. Non-adjudicated festivals usually involve
stantly checking gestures and making suggestions to our choirs performing either for one another or in combina-
singers. Attending a choral festival gives both the singers tion, and while the opportunity to be professionally evalu-
and their conductors the opportunity to be adjudicated. ated may be missing, the dynamics of performance and of

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