Annual Kodály Honor Chorus Festival
31st Annual Kodály Honor Chorus Festival
2019
Guest Conductor, Lissie Quishenberry
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.
Recently passed festival information:
Guest Conductor, Donald Brinegar recently retired Professor of Music, Coordinator of the Music Department and Director of Choral Studies at Pasadena City College and adjunct Professor of Graduate Choral Conducting and Choral Voice at the University of Southern California. He directed the Three Summer Masters in Choral Conducting at CSULA where over one hundred graduate conducting students from seven countries and twenty-one states have studied with Brinegar. In the past he has been a lecturer in voice at Pomona College, lecturer in conducting and voice at California State University, Los Angeles and visiting lecturer at the University of Miami, Florida State University, University of Reno Nevada, Southern Oregon State University and the University of Missouri. He also lead master classes in voice, conducting and historical intonation practices throughout the United States.
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.
Lisa Fenderson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Southern California (’81) and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting (’09) from the California State University at Los Angeles Summer Choral Master of Music program. She receives her Kodály training from the Kodály Association of Southern California. Since 1992, she has directed the choral program at the San Gabriel Christian School. The program consists of four choirs from grades K-8 and general music grades K-3. In addition, she teaches Kodály musicianship and music theory for the National Children’s Chorus in Westwood. She conducts the children’s choir annually for the Festival of Worship at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. Lisa also maintains an active piano teaching studio in San Gabriel. She serves on the boards of the Kodály Association of Southern California (KASC), the Music Teacher Association of California, Pasadena Branch (MTAC), and is a member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).
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