The Bob Cole Conservatory Chamber Choir has been selected as one of eight schools from across the country to perform at the National Collegiate Choral Organization conference this weekend.
The Chamber Choir will perform at the fifth conference to be hosted by the College of Charleston in South Carolina. The conference will open on Thursday at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, S.C., and run through Saturday.
“Our choirs are well-respected nationally, and our programming is innovative, thoughtful and challenging,” Chamber Choir Director and Conductor Jonathan Talberg said via email.
The Chamber Choir, which has mostly undergraduate students, is comprised of the top 29 singers at Cal State Long Beach, according to Stephen Salts, a graduate student and assistant conductor to the choir.
Talberg said that choosing choir members entails looking at the students’ quality of singing, their musicianship and their sight-reading skills.
The Chamber Choir was accepted for the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) conference in May and has been preparing for its performance since selecting its singers this fall.
To perform at the conference, collegiate choral ensembles like the Chamber Choir submit an application and recordings to a panel of five judges who select the eight choirs to perform, Salts said.
Long Beach will be one of three schools representing Southern California, along with Cal State Fullerton and Fullerton College.
Talberg said he purposefully chose to perform difficult music for the choir’s audition to secure its spot at the NCCO conference.
“I chose the music of Dominick Argento because it’s beautiful, insightful and not frequently performed because of its difficulty,” Talberg said.
The choir spent five minutes at Friday’s rehearsal, trying to get down the proper pronunciation of the word “praise” in the song Talberg chose.
“This is my second year in chamber, and this is the hardest music I’ve ever done,” said Becca Bishop, Alto singer and senior vocal performance major.
Stacy Oh, a graduate student and Soprano singer, said a lot of outside work and rehearsal time is required to prepare for the conference.
“When I found out we were performing, the first thing I thought was that we have to bring our A-game,” Oh said.
The Chamber Choir also took a three-day retreat to Arrowbear Music Camp in Running Springs, Calif., to prepare and held extra rehearsals and sectionals, Talberg said.
The NCCO aims to serve the needs of university and collegiate choral conductors and is comprised primarily of college-level professors who work directly with the choirs at their schools, according to the NCCO website.
“This conference provides an opportunity for collegiate choral directors and student musicians to engage with one another, sharing ideas and music,” Salt said.
Approximately 400 choral directors from universities across the nation will be present at the NCCO, according to Talberg.