By Jocelyn Cazares
Editor
Chanticleer, a Grammy-award winning ensemble that is regarded as “the world’s reigning male chorus,” invited the Bishop Amat Chamber Singers to join 11 other choirs in San Francisco at a four-day long workshop in March.
The Chamber Singers left today at 5 a.m. to head to San Francisco.
The 12 High Schools from around the country will participate for several days of intensive clinics and performances, culminating in a concert on March 29th at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
“It is such an honor to have been invited. The Chanticleers are big a deal in choir and I look forward to the workshops,” said Melody Palmerin, a chamber singer, who is also a reporter for The Lance.
The Bishop Amat Chamber Singers received a formal invitation to attend the workshop in October. They had acquired this invitation through Amat Choir Director Ms. Jennifer Srisamai’s affiliation with the group and Mr. Joseph Jennings, the Music Director of Chanticleer.
Ms. Srisamai had attended a faculty development workshop with Chanticleer where she was able to get to know the faculty there. After following the group for years and building a friendship with the faculty, they told her about the Youth Festival that was produced by them from the Chanticleer Workshop for students.
The Amat Chamber Singers were then placed on the waiting list for this year’s workshop as it had already been filled. After another school was unable to attend, the Bishop Amat Choir was invited to participate.
“It was a shock to hear we have been invited into the workshop since we had been told it was full, but it was very welcomed,” Ms. Srisamai said.
Ms. Srisamai selected to take only the Chamber Singers , not the rest of the Lancer Choir. The Chamber Singers consists of 16 students that had auditioned in May of last year. In order to be selected, they had to have further knowledge about music and be able to sight-read it.
By November, Chanticleer was sending Ms. Srisamai music for the Chamber Singers to learn.
The music that the Amat Chamber Singers received ranged included songs in Chinese, Gallic, French, and Latin. This range in language forced Ms. Srisamai acquire help from Amat students so that they could teach the Chamber Singers the proper pronunciation of the songs.
Christine Quinones contacted Amat students who could help teach the chamber singers the correct pronunciation.
“Although it has been a lot of hard work, I have found this time we have been preparing for the workshop really fun,” she said. “I was able to further improve on my craft and I feel that I have become a better singer because of all the extra practices we have been doing.”
The Chamber Singers have been practicing the sheet music that has been sent to them and went into intense practice once the Christmas Concert was over, staying hours after school had ended.
“The practices we have had since we have read the music have been intense. We have had to refine our pronunciations in so many languages and memorize them,” said senior Emilio Tello.
Also, to further prepare the Chamber Singers for the workshop, Ms. Srisamai took them to a concert during Christmas time at the Disney Concert Hall so that they could experience how the Chanticleer ensemble performed.
Ms. Srisamai said choir members have been working extra hard to prepare themselves.
“They have been coming to extra practices and some students had to come with no prior experience in choir to preparing for the Olympics of choir,” she said. “I have been really impressed.”
