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Lifting Up the Littles Highlighting your Youngest Singers Through Commissioned Works, Effective Rehearsal, and Performance Opportunities

they emerged organically throughout the score study and goals through kinesthetic connection?
rehearsal process. For example: in mm 11-15 of “Now We Have Rivers”
The first step to creating intentional movement as a (see Figure 3), the singers begin by crouching down slightly
conductor is to know the score well. Sing through every as they sing “clouds build,” stand and raise their arms along
part multiple times and notice the many layers within each with the crescendo. They also pulse their hands open on the
phrase (dynamics, rhythm, cut-offs, text, vocal technique beat to internalize the length of the note and to achieve an
challenges, etc). Choose a phrase and focus on one musical accurate cut-off.
detail (perhaps dynamics first), loosen up and let yourself You can repeat this process to try and work in as many
move in a way that helps you physically emphasize that con- musical concepts as possible. Prioritize which portions of the
cept. Sing through again, focusing on a different musical movement to keep or remove if it starts feeling too awkward
detail and a different movement. Now, is there a way to or becomes counterproductive for your singers. In the same
combine those movements to help your singers with both excerpt (“clouds build”), we began rehearsing starting with a

ChorTeach Volume 15 • Issue 1 23 Fall 2022