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SPEBSQSA Directors’ College 2002 Due to the generosity of BABS in providing a scholarhip, I was able to attend the SPEBSQSA Directors’ College from July 28th-August 4th. I took classes in Directing Techniques, Teaching Pedagogy, and How to Analyse Voices as well as the general sessions and ‘On to the Rehearsal’ common to all directors. One session per day I reserved to class-hop, and had tasters of ‘How to teach what you know’, ‘Performance Power’, and woodshedding before settling into David Wright’s class on the history of barbershop. It was a busy and varied schedule, then, which offered a good mixture of skill-development and knowledge, theory and practical. I completely filled the notebook I had taken wth me, and had to buy another at the airport to continue taking notes on the whole thing on my way home! I was also fortunate to have been invited to attend the school for judge applicants for the weekend before Director’s College, so I found that when I wasn’t learning about directing, I was attending judges’ meetings, and practice-scoring Friday night’s parade of quartets. Other impressions: I found myself reassured that BABS & LABBS are actually doing quite a good job in our own educational programmes. There was much to be learned at this event of course (!), but little that led me to believe we have anything to be ashamed of in our own provision. We also tend to think of the American standard of performance as being inherently higher than ours because we only ever hear those top-flight quartets and choruses the like of which the UK has yet to produce. But the amount of genuinely cruddy singing I heard around and about the place has reassured me that underdeveloped skills are a cross-cultural phenomenon. And our Harmony College choruses can knock theirs into a cocked hat. All in all, then, we’re doing okay. We just need to get a few quartets and choruses up to the level of Michigan Jake, who entertained us thrillingly on the Saturday night show, and we’ll be all set! I’d like to thank BABS for the scholarship that gave me this wonderful opportunity, SPEBSQSA’s Music Catergory for inviting me to attend their applicants school, and LABBS for supporting me to extend the trip with this. It was also great to have the familiar face of Barry Clinton to share impressions with. Sometimes these Americans seemed just like normal barbershoppers only with funny accents, and sometimes we were really aware of being in a foreign country. At those moments, a friend from home can really save your sanity – so, thanks Barry! Liz Garnett, August 2002 |