FROM PDH!
Hello, wonderful singing humans!
First… about registration
There are a number of ways people can participate in this choir, most of which have come under intense scrutiny as of late!
The University is on a campaign to make sure that every person in every classroom is officially registered for a course, including Schola Cantorum. For students, thats easy peasy, for faculty, staff, and emeritus, also pretty doable, but for most community folk, not that easy at all!
We created a system perhaps 15 or 20 years ago where community people could participate in Schola by paying a “community registration fee,” which goes directly into a discretionary account to pay expenses associated with our operations. Thankfully, UD pays me to “teach the course,” Lori to be the pianist, and provides us with a space (with risers in need of TLC) in which to rehearse. If you were to add all those things up, you’d realize that’s a significant chunk of cash for which we’re not responsible.
But, every time we hire a soloist, contract an orchestra, buy sheet music (including score and parts for said orchestra,) or bring in a guest composer or some such thing, that comes out of that discretionary account! Suffice it to say, we never have enough cash from community registration to cover all those expenses. This semester, despite the high cost of sheet music to you, we still have to subsidize that cause to the tune of about $3000!
All this to say that for students who are paying tuition and have registered for Schola for a college credit, they are good to go. In a way, they are paying some of those fixed costs, like salaries for Lori and me. (Thank you for that!) But even for folks who register with a credit waiver as staff or faculty, we typically ask that they pay the community registration as well, as that goes directly into our coffers, and we count on those funds to keep the machine running. Some work around that by making a designated gift. That’s fine as well.
In the meantime, if UD goes to the mat on making everyone find a way to register as an official class, we’ll have a massive reorganization on our hands! That will neither be cheap nor user friendly, and any revenue raised in that process would almost surely go to UD and not back into our designated fund.
I’ll address this tonight as well, but when you read the notes from Amy below, I wanted you to have a context of the situation.
You’re Right – It is Endless!
From the time I decided to program the piece, I was pretty sure this would end up being the running gag for the semester, so here you go! I’m putting it out there first! Tom LaVoy’s piece is not our usual fare!
I have recurring dreams when I’m under a lot of stress that I have a rehearsal that completely comes off the rails, and every time we’re about to get back in the groove, something else happens to blow things up! (The dream is usually with a bunch of high school kids involving paper airplanes and pin-darts, but last week had plenty of other bizarre happenings that overwrote some of those sordid memories from my early career.)
I really wanted to introduce LaVoy’s piece to you in a way that would help you find the meditative state that the composer was clearly seeking to achieve. Repeatedly, I have found his music to be elusive in the first read, but the longer I live with the interaction of the music and text, the more I am drawn into the nuance and profundity of it all. That has most certainly been the case as I have prepared to teach this score. I find the piece deeply moving, even when it falls into hypnotic stasis!
I’m pretty sure that affect didn’t land last week. As one alto said upon departure, and I paraphrase… “Call me back when I get to sing something other than a “D!”
She’s not wrong. There are a heck of a lot of them while the other parts are noodling around you.
But especially in this setting, Lavoy’s music tends toward being atmospheric. I believe he is literally attempting to put the singers (and hopefully the audience) in a mystical place of contemplation that becomes increasingly agitated, then resolves into a deep sense of consolation.
I am well aware that message did not land at last week’s rehearsal amidst various distractions and tornado warnings.
We’ll try again, tonight, but…
Not before I reseat the choir and make sure we’re in an optimal position to make this piece work! (We’re too far in to back out!) That will likely involve a lot of revoicing in various sections. (There’s hope for you, altos!) And, in fact, if there are altos who are aspiring second sopranos, now is your chance! Just sit in the soprano section tonight and we’ll call it a draw!
With all that said, below is what I hope to accomplish tonight.
REHEARSAL PLAN: 8 September 2026
- Warm-ups
- Photos for the Schola Directory and reseating the choir. (This process will likely take 45 minutes to an hour.)
- Runestad: Your Soul is Song (p. 10)
- Lavoy: Dream that Remain (p. 32)
- Lavoy: Endless
- I know not how… p. 8
- reprise p. 13
- That Shoreless Ocean p. 24
- reprise p. 39
- Time is endless p. 116
- Dett: Listen to the Lambs (opening and closing sections.) Meet our intern, Max!
- LaBarr: Midwinter Song (read it, I hope!)
- Runestad: Wild Forces (p. 9)
We may not be lucky enough to get through the whole list, but I hope it turns out to be a bit more cohesive than last week.
We LOVE Amy Anderson
Hello! My name is Amy Anderson. In addition to singing in Schola Cantorum, I work part time helping Dr. Head keep things organized in the UD choral world. The new semester brings a few housekeeping items, including registration, fees, and attire. Please read this in its entirety to make sure you are all caught up.
- First, and most importantly, make sure you have our website (www.udscholacantorum.org) bookmarked somewhere. This site hosts every important piece of information, including every email blast that goes out. If you have a question, it can most likely be answered there! The password to access the internal information is schola-2026 (all lowercase, no space).
- Secondly, please make sure you’ve filled out our registration form, which can be found on the website. Please fill this out before our next rehearsal, even if you’ve been a member in the past. We have over 100 registered, so thank you!
- Fees: Semester fees are outlined below. Click here to pay semester fees. The music fee can be paid as a bundle or a la carte if you have some of these pieces at home already. Even those using digital copies will need to pay since we are required to buy a license for each digital copy in use.
- Community Members: $85 registration fee + $48 music fee (registration fee waived for music teachers)
- UD Students: $48 music fee (please register for Schola through UDSIS, course number MUSC461)
- UD Faculty/Staff: $48 music fee
- If semester fees will create a financial hardship for you, please let us know. We do not want anyone to miss out due to finances.
- Attire: If you are new to Schola or you need a new uniform, click here to view the attire page. Follow all of the steps on the page (browse, let us know what you picked, and make necessary payments). Attire will remain unchanged from last year.
- Attendance: We DO take attendance each week! Please check in with Max or me at the start of each rehearsal. If you know you won’t be at rehearsal or at a performance, please let us know in advance by filling out the rehearsal attendance form. This can also be found linked on the internal page of our website.
- Music: The sheet music folder is live on the website.
That’s all for now. If you have questions or concerns, you can email me (Amy) at amyander@udel.edu or Dr. Head at pdhead@udel.edu.