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Bel canto music literacy
John Armstrong and Kristin Zaryski, clinicians
Demonstration Choir: Dallas Center-Grimes (IA) High School Singers
Natalie McDonald, director
The pre-conference Immersion Day on Wednesday, February 8, will focus on the sequential teaching of musical literacy. Clinicians John Armstrong and Kristin Zaryski will emphasize the development of tone and expressivity using the singers from Dallas Center-Grimes (IA) High School. Participants will be signing, singing, and moving through the day as they are introduced to, and practice, fundamental handsign/solfeggio skills. The day is designed to show how to obtain beautiful tone along with music literacy skills, including the complete chromatic scale. Participants will be taken through the sequential learning cycle:“In the Air,” “On the Board,” and “From the Page,” and will learn how to connect inspiring visual, kinesthetic and auditory rapport with the signs and symbols of music reading. “Pitch Charts” and “Pulse Charts” will be introduced, working from the known to the new in artistic ways. A fundamental philosophy of the day is to help students focus and build confidence through the process of discovery. The choir will demonstrate proven warm-ups, exercises, rounds and songs from Armstrong’s method, “The Reading Choir Singer.” They will also sightsing a new work for the first time, integrating the “Bel Canto Solfeggio” process as they rehearse the work. The goal of the day is to help conductors think longterm: fall-to-spring, first year to last year, whatever the level of singers in the choir.
John Armstrong has worked extensively with music teachers and choral directors to raise musicliteracy standards at all levels throughout the Northeast and Midwest. He frequently appears as a guest conductor for festival choirs and is active as clinician, author and composer. He has appeared as a clinician for MMEA, NYSSMA, ICDA, VMEA and PMEA, and was keynote speaker for the 2009 WMEA State Conference. Mr. Armstrong runs an online “Solfeggio Support Group” which includes 400 choral directors who are dedicated to developing successful music literacy programs for singers in their classes and choirs. As a composer, John has won the Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest and the Iowa Choral Commissioning Competition. John has choral works in print with BriLee Music. His book, “The Solo and Ensemble Singer,” was published by Warner Bros., and “The Reading Choir Singer” is now available.
Kristin Zaryski is the director of the Michigan State University Children’s Choirs: the Preparator yChoir, the CMS singers, and the MSU Children’s Choir. She also serves as the area chair of choirs. Ms. Zaryski received her Bachelor of Music degree in music education with an emphasis in piano and organ studies at Ithaca College, New York, and the Master of Music in choral conducting at Michigan State University. She also has a Level I certification in choral music experience. Before joining the Community Music School staff, Ms. Zaryski taught middle and high school vocal music in Orlando and upstate New York, was a conductor and accompanist for the Ithaca Children’s Choir, and was an assistant conductor for MSU choirs. She is currently the music director at the University United Methodist Church in East Lansing.
Natalie McDonald is in her third year as vocal music director at Dallas Center-Grimes (IA) High School where she leads the two curricular choirs as well as two award-winning jazz choirs, directs musicals, and oversees the show choir. A growing program with over 150 students, musical groups under her direction regularly receive top ratings at State Contest as well as taking the lead in the areas of musical literacy and hand-sign solfeggio training. A graduate of Northeast Missouri State University (Truman State) with a music education degree in voice and piano, Mrs. McDonald has taught in the Los Angeles area as well as in Des Moines, IA. She is an in-demand accompanist and has worked as a staff accompanist at Drake University.
Dallas Center-Grimes High School, in central Iowa, has a long history of strong choral groups. The combined choirs total over 150 students out of a total 9-12 student population of 610. Freshman and sophomore women sing in a Treble Choir and all other singers are placed into a non-audition Mixed Choir. DC-G’s vocal program includes the two core choirs as well as a strong show choir and two jazz choirs. Students experience a rigorous curriculum based on musical literacy and solid vocal training. The sight-reading curriculum is taught using the hand-sign solfeggio system and bel canto-style singing.
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