Building Voices

Building Voices is a new initiative designed to bring together the experience of teachers and conductors who have inspired hundreds of young people to sing through the adolescent years of voice change. Over the next year (2021-2022) we will be providing an in-service module Building Voices: The Cambiata Way for teachers and conductors seeking to renew and enhance their work with young adolescent voices - in the classroom and on the concert platform.

The module will be delivered through:
  • Five webinars over the year.
  • The opportunity to observe and work with a choir currently practicing cambiata.
  • One live masterclass.
Assessment:

It will be possible to be assessed on the Building Voices: The Cambiata Way module. However you can attend the webinars and training events without being assessed if you prefer.

Further details about the training:

Webinar 1: Two sides of the Atlantic

This webinar will cover:

  • What is cambiata? Its origins in the United States - or Tudor England?
  • Key trans-Atlantic differences in choral traditions and practices.
  • Key differences in the organization of schooling.
  • Successful adaptations of cambiata in the UK.
  • Singing lessons and the compromises of singing in chorus.

Webinar 2: Toast, Jaffa Cakes and Haka

This webinar will cover:

  • Boys and girls performing the Haka?
  • Making cambiata inclusive.
  • Incorporating digital technologies, the lessons of lockdown and the digital divide.
  • The realities of fitting singing around sport in school.
  • Using cambiata to strengthen youth choir programmes.

Webinar 3: Grumpy moods and impossible bedrooms

This webinar will cover:

  • What all teachers of singing need to know and understand about puberty.
  • How to explain it to young adolescent students.
  • How to monitor it and cope with a constantly changing choir demographic.
  • How to keep voices healthy.
  • How to travel with students as their identity changes and their emotions develop.

Webinar 4: Different Journeys

This webinar will cover:

  • Singing experience in the pre-adolescent years.
  • Choristers and Ragazzi
  • Expansion or contraction of the voice?
  • SSA + TTBB or CICIIB? (but never SAB!)
  • How long does adolescence last?

Webinar 5: A rose between the thorns?

This webinar will cover:

  • Screeching trebles and roaring baritones.
  • Understanding the acoustics of cambiata.
  • Artistry in composition and arrangement.
  • Artistry in part allocation.
  • Artistry in conducting.

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