Beginners’ on-line choral conducting course starts September 11
The Department of Liturgical Music and Translations once again will offer an on-line course, “Choral Conducting for Beginners.” Classes are slated to begin September 11, 2017.
“Class sessions will be devoted to demonstrating basic conducting technique, beginning with elementary conducting patterns and concluding with an emphasis on conducting liturgical chant,” said Prof. David Drillock, department Chair and course Instructor. “The course, which will consist of 12 sessions over a 13-week period, will be limited to 12 participants.
“The relationship between text and music, accented and non-accented syllables, will be emphasized in the first six sessions, and the practical exercises will be focused on learning the basic beat patterns,” Prof. Drillock added. “The second half of the course will concentrate on techniques of conducting chant, singing in phrases, analyzing specific examples of both metered and unmetered music, and preparing music for conducting.”
Class sessions will be posted at weekly intervals on the course web site.
“Once the session is posted on the web site, students may access the course at any time of the day,” Prof. Drillock explained. ” The learner is expected to have completed the weekly assignments and be proficient in the conducting exercises by Friday of the week in which each session has been posted. The learner also should plan on spending at least one hour per day practicing the conducting exercises assigned in each session.”
Each learner is required to meet interactively with the instructor via Skype for a 30-minute session each week.
“These sessions provide an opportunity for each learner to demonstrate his or her comprehension of each session and the ability to perform the conducting exercises correctly,” Prof. Drillock continued. “At these interactive meetings, the learner will receive necessary feedback from the instructor together with helpful suggestions for improvement. Such one-on-one real time Skype sessions also will enable the instructor to provide extra help and answer specific questions.”
Following each Skype session, written evaluations will be provided to each participant.
Prof. Drillock is Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Music at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY. Dr. Mark Pearson, who designed the on-line course format, will provide technical support and program assistance. He recently retired from Earlham College, where he was Instructional Technologist and Course Designer managing all aspects of the college’s Moodle Learning Management System.
Directions for submitting the course fee of $225.00, made payable to the Orthodox Church in America, DLM, are included on the registration form. Registration will close on September 8.