This unique festival provides an excellent opportunity for music teachers and their student youth singers to participate in a collaborative performance under the guidance of a guest conductor. Over 100 4th-8th grade choristers are selected from various schools all over the south-land to form this unique Honor Chorus. The festival marks the climax to a year’s preparation in their individual schools by Kodaly-trained* music teachers. Additionally, three young instrumentalist winners of LACESMA’s annual music scholarships, will perform solo pieces. Participating teachers will receive quality concert repertoire, rehearsal tracks, lesson plans, combined choir rehearsals with the guest conductor, director meetings and more.
If you are a choir director or music teacher and are interested in having your students participate in this event, please contact: kascmail@gmail.com. *Participating teachers are encouraged to have some Kodály training and be active members of OAKE.Guest Conductor, Ms. Elizabeth (Lissie) Quishenberry has been a teacher since 1990. She began her career as an educator after earning her B.A. in Elementary Education with a Minor in Music from La Sierra University and receiving certification for 3 levels of Orff-Schulwerk and Kodály. Her many experiences as a teacher include serving as the Music and Choir Director for the Pasadena Waldorf School, a preschool music teacher for the A+ Children’s Center, and an elementary school music teacher for the La Canada School District. She currently teaches at Wisebum.
He has a distinguished career as a tenor soloist, conductor, educator and clinician. His ensemble, The Donald Brinegar Singers, have sung to critical acclaim internationally and have over ten compact discs to their credit. They were nominated for seven Grammy first-ballot awards in their highly acclaimed performances of Morten Lauridsen’s Madrigali and Ubi caritas. There were the featured choir in the world premire recording of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Symphony #10 Amerindia with the Santa Barbara Symphony. They have performed premieres of over forty choral works including composers such as Mark Brymer, Bruce Babcock, David Childs, David Conte, Emma Lou Diemer, James Hopkins, Morten Lauridsen, Luke Mayernik, Joshua Shank, Brad Steed, Heitor Villa-Lobos, John Rutter, Z. Randall Stroope, Eric Whitacre, and Aaron Zigman. The Singers can be heard the in the Disney movie Bridge to Terabithia and in the animated feature Battle for Terra. The ensemble has performed at four American Choral Directors Association Conferences giving world premieres of Lauridsen’s Nocturnes and Z. Randall Stroope’s We Beheld Once Again the Stars at the request of the association.
Brinegar has prepared choruses for performances in the Hollywood Bowl, Disney Hall, Ambassador Auditorium, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Pasadena Auditorium with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pasadena Pops Orchestra and the California Philharmonic. He has been tenor soloist for Robert Shaw, Roger Wagner, Helmuth Rilling, Gerard Schwarz and Murry Sidlin to name a few and has collaborated with Henry Mancini, Barry Manilow, the Chieftains and Marvin Hamlisch in local performances.
Open Rehearsal: Saturday, 9:00am – 12:30pm Open Rehearsal: Sunday, 11:30am – 2:15pm Performance: Sunday, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (must attend Sun. rehearsal & performance for credit) Location: Hall of Liberty, Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills