Choir Alberta is excited to add a brand new program to our lineup — Choralfest E. E is for ensemble, electric, exciting, energetic, extra — and the list goes on. The festival is for a cappella groups, vocal jazz ensembles, contemporary vocal ensembles, and other small groups focusing on non-traditional choral repertoire.
Choralfest E has been designed to offer each ensemble a customized experience, offering opportunities for public performances, for private workshops, to observe workshop sessions, and to take in feature performances. Participating groups that give a public performance as part of their Choralfest E experience are able to offset their registration fee with ticket sales.
A flagship program of Choir Alberta, Choralfest is Alberta’s non-competitive festival for choirs. In addition to performance and workshop experiences, the festival offers professional development opportunities for directors and provides participants with valuable post-festival tools for learning. The goal of the festival is to facilitate the growth and development of each group in a positive, creative, and educationally-focused environment.
FESTIVAL MODEL
Choralfest E workshops take place during during the day at the National Music Centre and performances are held in the evening (between 5:00 and 9:00 p.m.) at the King Eddy. Here are some key aspects of how the model works:
- Each group is encouraged to sign up for a workshop and a performance. However, if your group is only interested in the workshop or the performance, you may sign up for one of the two.
- Workshops are scheduled in hour-long blocks; performances are scheduled in 30 minute blocks. A certain amount of time will be required for setup at the beginning of each block. Each group will have 10 minutes for sound check prior to evening performance blocks.
- Performances are open to the public; workshops are not. However, all workshops are open to participating performers and directors.
- Groups may request their workshop before or after their performance.
- Performances are video recorded using a live feed from the performance space. Note that there is likely to be audible noise from the audience on your video.
- Written comments will be provided by the evaluator for all performances.
SAMPLE ITINERARIES
Example 1
Apr 4, 5:00-5:30 p.m. — Performance
Apr 4, 5:30-6:00 p.m. — Performance observation
Apr 5, 10:00-11:00 a.m. — Workshop
Apr 5, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. — Workshop observation (optional)
Apr 6, 8:00 p.m. — Spotlight Concert (optional, performer tickets $10)
Example 2
Apr 6, 2:00-3:00 p.m. — Workshop
Apr 6, 3:00-4:00 p.m. — Workshop observation (optional)
Apr 6, 6:00-6:30 p.m. — Performance observation
Apr 6, 6:30-7:00 p.m. — Performance
Apr 6, 8:00 p.m. — Spotlight Concert (optional, performer tickets $10)
Example 3
Apr 6, 5:00-5:30 p.m. — Performance
Apr 6, 5:30-6:00 p.m. — Performance observation
Apr 6, 8:00 p.m. — Spotlight Concert (optional, performer tickets $10)
Example 4
Apr 4, 2:00-3:00 p.m. — Workshop
Apr 4, 3:00-4:00 p.m. — Workshop observation
Apr 4, 5:00-6:00 p.m. — Performance observation
