“What a fantastic experience! The staff was awesome, professional, knowledgeable and FUN! Course content was relevant and very helpful, especially for the untrained participant (me!).” – Past participant

“The question is not if there is anything I can take back and apply to my situation, but rather how much can I use!” – Past participant

Leading choirs from a shifting podium is testing our skills in unprecedented ways. BCCFs Choral da Capo (Choral Directorship Course) offers choral conductors opportunities to refine and refresh their individual skills and knowledge in a supportive environment. Choral conductors of all levels of experience and types of choirs, emerging to established, are welcome to join master presenters Sarona Mynhardt, Jeanette Gallant, and Erica Phare-Bergh, along with accompanist Katherine Hume and course facilitator Sandra Meister, for an afternoon of learning, laughter, and renewal.

This CDC will be comprised of three focus areas: 1) Conducting Gesture in a hybrid world, 2) Vocal Technique for Conductors, and 3) Songs to Sing behind the mask or on a screen (repertoire).

Schedule

Sunday, October 18, 2020 (on Zoom)

1:00 -1:15 Welcome and Introductions
1:15-2:15 Conducting gesture in a hybrid world
2:15-2:30 Health Break
2:30-3:15 Vocal Technique for choral conductors
3:15-3:30 Health Break
3:30-4:15 Songs to sing behind the mask (repertoire)
4:15-4:30 Questions and Answers – open forum

All-inclusive registration fee $85 (includes individual BCCF membership)

Click here to register and pay online using our secure form.

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Clinicians

Sandra Meister – Course Facilitator
Sandra Meister is no stranger to the choral landscape in British Columbia.  Through her work as a conductor, clinician, school principal, and mentor she has infused choral music into the lives of thousands of choral singers. Sandra heads up the Choral da Capo course for the BCChoral Federation, is a member of the Willan Council, and is the recipient of numerous awards for her service to arts and culture.  Sandra is looking forward to the day when we will sing together safely and in the meantime is enjoying creating delicious meals and going for lots of walks with her husband, Ross and their goldendoodle puppy, Daisy.

Sarona Mynhardt – Clinician
Sarona has one goal in life, and that is to truly make a difference in the lives of the singers she works with. She firmly believes that through Music a teacher does not only have the opportunity to teach music literacy and musicianship skills, but those life skills and qualities that are universally important. Those  of love, compassion, humanity, respect, discipline, passion and joy! Born and raised in South Africa, Sarona completed her education degree in Pretoria. In 1996 she immigrated with her husband and two children to Canada.

Sarona founded the White Rock Children’s Choir, which had Choirs at several levels under her artistic direction for 20 years. The Choir participated regularly in International Festivals, and she conducted them in prestigious venues accross the world. Highlights included a performance for Archbishop Desmond Tutu in St Georges Cathedral, and a performance in Carnegie Hall when the Choir was invited by Henry Leck to be part of a Children’s Festival Chorus under his direction in April 2014. Over the past 10 years Sarona organized two Children’s Choir Festivals celebrating diversity and World Music, and also founded and conducted the Cantrix Women’s ensemble.

Sarona has taught Music in both the public and private school systems, she was on the board for the BC Choral Federation for five years, and received the BCCF Willan award for outstanding service to the BC Choral Federation in 2015. She regularly serves as a Guest Conductor for Honour and Festival choirs, Adjudicator at Music Festivals, and Clinician for Conductor and Choral workshops. Sarona has taught Vocal, Choral and Leadership workshops on several trips to both Taiwan and South Africa, and she has been on the faculty for the BCCF Choral Directorship Courses since 2006. She has participated in and completed level three of Creating Artistry – Conducting Courses and Master Classes with Henry Leck and Vocal Training with Steven Rickards at Butler University in Indianapolis. Sarona is a registered teacher of SongShine – a program based on the leading edge science of neuroplasticity and the brain’s ability to reorganize and change itself through singing and music.  Sarona recently moved to the Sunshine Coast where she founded the Inspirito Women’s Vocal Ensemble, leads SongShine classes, and continues to teach voice at her private studio.

Erica Phare-Bergh – Clinician
Erica Phare-Bergh is the Artistic Director of Voices in Motion, an intergenerational choir for those with memory loss, their caregivers, students and friends. There are currently six of these choirs in the Greater Victoria Area. She also directs the Vancouver Island Chamber Choir and will be the future conductor of the Newcombe Singers.

Erica has her M. Mus. in Choral Conducting from McGill University. A native of Montreal, she use to direct the Vanier College Choirs and the McGill Conservatory Choirs until she moved to Calgary in 2010. In Alberta, she directed the William Aberhart High School Choirs, Westwinds Green Choir, Kairos Young Singers, the Savridi Singers and taught Music with the Calgary Board of Education. She is in demand as an adjudicator and presenter and was the guest conductor for the 10th Anniversary of the CBC-McGill Youth Gala. She is a published arranger with Cypress Choral Music and directs music at Church of Our Lord in downtown Victoria.

Dr. Jeanette Gallant – Clinician
Dr. Jeanette Gallant is a Canadian musician with over 25 years of diverse experience as a voice teacher, conductor, music educator, administrator, and adjudicator in Canada, S.E. Asia, and the United Kingdom. Having earned a D.Phil. in Music from the University of Oxford, Dr. Gallant has held various academic posts at Red Deer College (Alberta), the University of Windsor (Ontario), the University of Reading (UK), Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts (HKAPA), and various Oxford Colleges (UK). Dr. Gallant has prepared choirs for international conductors like former Westminster Abbey organist, Simon Preston, and is in demand as a festival adjudicator and voice clinician. She was the Artistic Director and conductor of Hong Kong’s first sing-a-long Messiah, Artistic Director of the Whistler Classical Music Festival for four years, and she has been invited to provide professional development opportunities for Singapore’s Ministry of Education, various U.K. choral societies, the Vancouver School Board, British Columbia Registered Music Teacher’s Association, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Crescendo), and the British Columbia Choral Federation. Dr. Gallant specializes in vocal physiology and rehabilitating damaged voices using vocal massage and other embodied vocal techniques. She is currently the in-house voice teacher for Chor Leoni Men’s Choir and serves as the Vice President of the Board of the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Also an ethnomusicologist, she has created various cross-cultural community engagement choral projects, and her arrangement of the Acadian folksong “Marie Madeleine” will be published by Oxford University Press this fall. Her most recent academic publication appears in the Yale Journal for Music and Religion and she is often invited to give talks at various Canadian universities and Elektra Women’s Choir’s Cultural Conversations series.

Katherine Hume – Accompanist
Katherine Hume, B.Mus, M.Mus, RMT is a pianist and piano teacher. In 2016, she was appointed Music Director at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church in Sechelt where she plays piano, pipe organ, flute, conducts the choir and began the Music Arising! St. Hilda’s Recital Series. She is a graduate of McGill University, Conservatoire Neuchâtelois (Switzerland) and Trinity College of Music (London, UK). As a freelance pianist, Katherine has performed with the Vancouver Children’s Choir, Suncoast Phoenix Choir, North Shore Light Opera Society, Symphonietta of Chilliwack, UBC Opera Ensemble, Opera Piacere, Opera Breve, Sechelt Arts Festival and others. She is looking forward to participating in the BCCF Mini-CDC this fall.