IT'S AS EASY AS ABCD

I just spent a captivating two days at the annual convention of the Association of British Choral Directors. Because I'm getting involved in writing a lot of choral music for forthcoming projects I decided to join this association and went along to introduce myself to the choral fraternity of the United Kingdom.

In truth I didn't know what to expect but I was delighted to find a very open and welcoming community of dedicated musicians.

The association breaks down into regional cells and I had been placed in the one for the South of England. I went along to my first area meeting and was delighted by the warmth of welcome I received from Kate Allen, the South Area Organiser. She kindly allowed me some time to explain who I was, what I was doing there, and so on.

My area group was made up of a variety of choral directors, each with a strong identity and plenty of ideas – which is, I guess, just what you'd expect from a group of people who are, by definition, natural leaders with a strong creative instinct. They were genuinely interested in what I had to say, both as a professional composer, but also as someone with a background in publishing.

The convention was heaving with choral directors from all over the UK. There were church choirs, community choirs, school choirs, male voice  choirs, pop choirs – you name it, just about every kind of choir was represented.

All the major music publishers were there in strength too, all giving away sampler CDs, folios, promotional materials etc., so that delegates who turned up empty handed at the beginning of the weekend found they needed a forklift truck to take home all the freebies by the end of it!

I went to a number of sessions ranging from straightforward repertoire readings, where we sight sang books of new repertoire from the leading publishers, to specialist sessions on conducting, to open sessions led by such luminaries of the choral world as John Rutter and Eric Whitacre.



Eric Whitacre

For me, though, the high point of the weekend came in the form of a couple of sessions I gate-crashed. These were the Young Conductors' Sessions run by Amy Bebbington. I entered a room to find half a dozen or so nervous-looking students, I'd guess in their early twenties, singing rounds they had composed. 

They were being encouraged, cajoled, enthused and enlightened by someone in whom I immediately recognised the rare talent of an instinctive and gifted teacher – Amy Bebbington.

Herself a talented musician, composer and choral director, Amy seemed to have that pricesless ability to inculcate in her charges a feeling that, yes they were nervous and, yes, standing in front of a choir for the first time is a daunting challenge and, yes, there are a million and one things to think about whilst trying to appear calm and collected, but, hey – you can do it. And not only can you do it, but you're going to be really good at it AND you're going to enjoy it!



Amy Bebbington in action leading a class

As an experienced conductor I had gone along mainly to observe the students – to get a feel of the general standard and the kinds of issues they were facing – but found myself captivated by Amy's combination of inspirational motivation and thorough professionalism. I found myself thinking hard about my own conducting and found that, in different ways, I was learning as much from her as were the students.

The main event of the afternoon was a session featuring the National Youth Choir under the guidance of Eric Whitacre as he unveiled his new piece "Alleluia". Having seen Eric Whitacre's rather idiosyncratic conducting style on numerous videos I was curious to see how he would handle leading a large group through a piece with numerous tempo changes, time signatures and 'corners' in its geography.

I'm delighted to report that I was very impressed by his command of the choir, his general adherence to the conducting conventions of up-beats, cross-beats and so on, and I was especially impressed by his humility and overall, well, niceness! 

And the piece? Well, that too was something of a revelation. For those of us who recognise in Eric Whitacre a rare, but perhaps under-developed, talent it was gratifying to see him come to grips with a piece that had real formal and thematic meat. No longer the isolated pastel shades of a musical moment that gives a frisson of pleasure with minor 9th and suspended 2nd harmonies only to dissipate into the ether before another similar moment replaces it.

No, this piece had some great thematic ideas which Eric extended and developed very artfully into an extended piece that I hope and believe will go on to find a place in the choral canon. And he was humble enough to admit that he was on a journey as a composer in which he was trying to overcome his natural tendency to gravitate towards that bitter-sweet pastel-coloured sound world.

So, Bravo Mr Whitacre – I suspect you won many (more) friends this weekend.

So, overall, a great introduction to the ABCD and an experience I look forward to repeating.