Workshop Countdown!…updates

There are scholarships/passes available for anyone who finds the Workshop fee is keeping them away – don’t be shy, come sing with us, more the merrier. Just send an email to chantmichigan@gmail.com with your name, and mention you want a “pass”, and your name will be put on the registration and you’re good to go. Choir programs with tight budgets are also welcome to take advantage of this, and round up the group to come – but an email with names or number estimates is appreciated.

Instead of Mass with the new texts, we will either sing the parts we’ve learned as a prayer service, or simply as a “final, all together” for the conclusion of the Workshop. Women and men will split at a point to learn and practice separately, so it will be fun to come back together to sing and listen.

Amazingly, the texts we are using – indeed many chant resources – are now being provided legally, copyright free, online as PDFs – this includes newly published, and newly written pieces. Any music program can freely print and use them – and they only require the human voice. There are a lot of recordings of these chant texts on YouTube as well for listening and learning. The publication “Simple English Propers” (from which we will learn some parts) is one of these free resources, but has also been printed and bound in hardcover. All the Workshop materials are being provided free, BUT – for anyone who is interested in picking one or more copies up of this hardbound edition, there will be 20 available for $10 each – 40% off. Choirs and larger groups – let us know asap if you would like some quantity shipped there just for you at that price.

Looking forward to a great Workshop!! See you there!

Chant Workshop – August 27th – East Lansing

Learn Chant! This one day workshop in english Chant will train you to read and sing liturgical chant in a group setting, whether you’re a complete newbie, a choir member, or a trained professional singer. >>>REGISTER

If you’re nervous about your voice, don’t worry – chant is for the average human voice. If you can speak, you can chant! Come learn this sung prayer form – with techniques and approaches to singing chant, reading chant notation, and lots of group practice.

Chant is a joy to hear and to sing, it does not require instruments, and much of the written music and resources are simply copyright-free, or recently published under a Creative Commons license (free), and freely downloadable as PDFs. You can listen to many chants (and practice along with) on YouTube. Chant can be sung by a congregation as a whole, and by a small choral group or large choir, in small and large spaces, to great effect.

This is a unique opportunity to learn from Jeffery Tucker and Arlene Oost-Zinner, nationally known choral directors and instructors of chant, who are coming to East Lansing for this special Workshop. Jeffrey Tucker is polyphony director of the St. Cecilia Schola Cantorum in Auburn, Alabama, and managing editor of Sacred Music. Arlene Oost-Zinner is the chant director of the St. Cecilia Schola and a faculty member of the Sacred Music Colloquium sponsored by the Church Music Association of America.

Materials are provided free, and also lunch (!)

Chant texts are in sync with the Third Translation of the Roman Missal (ie: the new english translation) and will include both the Propers and Ordinary, and Psalms, but the skills and techniques taught are usable for other chant texts, sung Vespers, et al.

We’ll start at St. Thomas Aquinas in East Lansing, then move over to St. John Student Center for the afternoon (and lunch). Parking will be provided. Participants will come together at the end of the Workshop for Mass and sing as a group from what they have learned throughout the day.

Registration is $25. Discounts available for groups of 3 or more ($20 per) , youths 16-21 ($17) , youths under 16 ($10) and seniors ($17).

If the price is an obstacle, send us email and we will be sure you can attend regardless – email with subject line “pass” to chantmichigan@gmail.com

Current Schedule
9 am Walk-in Registration and Coffee
10 – 10:30 Group Introductory Session
10:30 – noon Missal Chants
noon – 1:30 Move to St. Johns, lunch is provided…
1:30 – 2:30 Introduction to Square Notes
2:30 – 3:30 Learning the Propers
4:30 Mass

(UPDATE: no Mass, but a “live” singing through as a group, possibly as a prayer service — Mass with new texts was not possible before our Diocese’ launch date for new Missal.)
Pass on the word!! Wrangle some friends together and….

>>>>>> Register Now <<<<<<<<