2012 Autumn Showcase

Vocal Summit 2013

October 2012 Sectionals

A few pics of the team making music.

True Colors, Come Sunday

Harmonique

Swoosh & Selig

Shining Some Light On Sunshine

Tayloring The Part

Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding

Crayola

Live in San Sebastian

July 23, 2009

Vocal Jazz Retreat 2012

This past weekend, a good portion of the troupe gathered in Merville near Comox, BC, for a working retreat. Voice parts were assigned, charts were polished and the group is taking on a unified sound.

Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me, True Colors, Sunshine and If I Loved You were the feature songs workshopped at the retreat.

Of course, all work and no play would not make for a very fun day. So, amidst the music making was... good food, good humour, good conversation, air hockey, pool and much more music making around a beachside bonfire Saturday night. Songs from previous years were soon taken up by the veterans gathered around the campfire.

Claire played guitar and sang for us an original song as well as several familiar songs drawn from the rep of her favourite artists.

Many thanks to the Nelsons for providing lodging. Thank you Wendy (Doug's mom) for providing excellent meals and great hospitality!

2012 Audition Results

First, thank you to all those who came to the Meet & Greet!

Second, thanks to all who auditioned! Well done!

2012/2013 UVic Vocal Jazz Ensemble

Danielle Olmstead

Renn Bibeau

Andrea Paddock*

Olivia Selig

Monique De Plessis

Claire Butterfield

Marta Lefsrud*

Sarah Tradewell*

Josh Lovell

Stephen Fong

Doug Nelson

Nick Allen

Taylor Caswell

Matt Foster

*newcomers

A special note of thanks

to those who served on the

Audition Panel!

Organizational Meeting

Wednesday

Sept. 12th

6pm to 7pm

B016

School of Music

Hand out and review scores.

Discuss Review & Lift Project.

2012 • A New Season Dawns

Lahaina, Maui

Greetings. I hope everyone had a restorative and productive summer.

Hopefully, by now, interested singers have found all the information necessary to help orient themselves toward the Meet & Greet (Sept. 5th) and Auditions (Sept 10th). I received many inquiries over the summer. My apologies if I didn't respond quickly. It was summertime after all. 

Thank you to all who used the blog to investigate the Ensemble. Of course, a positive development is the addition of the Facebook page. Click here or at right to link to our Facebook page.

In addition to recruitment via social media and the School of Music website, posters are up in student residences and most other buildings on campus. And, this year we have a splashy notice running on the big screen at the Welcoming Centre.

! - We need two or three people to help greet passersby at the UVic fountain on Tuesday (4th) and Wednesday (5th) from noon to 1pm to hand out posters.

I'm looking forward to meeting singers new and returning, and I'm looking forward to an exciting term filled with good music and good times.

See you soon!

Wendell

UVic Ensemble Auditions 2012

Important Dates

1. Wednesday, Sept. 5th • 6pm to 7pm • First Meet & Greet. Hand out Audition Material. Sign up for an audition time. 
2. Monday, Sept. 10th • 5:30pm to 8:30pm • Auditions for Vocal Jazz Ensemble (B016). Audition results are usually posted within 24 hours: online and on the School of Music Vocal Jazz bulletin board.
3. Wednesday, Sept. 12th • 6pm to 7pm • Music handout and Ensemble membership confirmation.

Audition Material

click to enlarge

These excerpts can also be found at:
http://finearts.uvic.ca/music/current/students/

Questions? Leave a message here at the blog.

Re... recording session.

Thank you! Thank you, one and all, for your enthusiasm and dedication this evening and this past year. 

I hope to have the raw audio and video from this evening's recording session processed in the next couple of weeks and begin assembling a promo package.

Charts have been ordered for next year. I hope to include a few more charts in the coming months.

Here's to a great summer!

P.S. - Some more pics from the P.R. excursion.

Recording Session this Friday!

Details have been sent out by email... but just in case:


Friday April 13
Room = B016
set-up and warm-up: 5pm
Session starts: 5:30pm


Charts
Alice In Wonderland
Our Love Is Here To Stay

"Peak" Performance

UVic Vocal Jazz sighting in local media - The Powell River Peak.

Powell River and Vocal Summit

Ready to Sing • Saturday Night

 Wow!... fantastic... great work!...

You put UVic on the map!...

Cool!... you guys were awesome!

That was amazing - you took what Vijay said

in the clinic and immediately put it into action

on the concert!

Just a small sampling of the exuberant comments praising the performances of the Ensemble at the recent Vocal Summit in Power River.

After a highly successful daytime performance and clinic with Vijay Sing, the Ensemble was offered the privilege of performing on the Saturday evening headliner concert as a featured group. UVic opened for the sensational vocal group Groove For Thought, and received an exuberant standing ovation.

The host of the Summit, noted jazz educator Peter Taylor, offered gracious and enthusiastic praise and appreciation of the Ensemble's performances. Peter very graciously supplied the Ensemble with several charts at our group's inception, as did Vijay.

Celebrated educators and choral gurus Janet Warren and Scott Leithead offered their own high praise for the Ensemble's presentations.

A few more words about the exceptional clinic. The Ensemble members were treated to a forthright, incisive, inspiring clinic by Vijay. Focussing on fundamentals such as timbre and rhythmic precision for blend, as well as providing biographical  sketches of the composers and arrangers of the works we presented, Vijay led the Ensemble in a detailed exploration of the music. His comments were unanimously and throughly appreciated by all the singers. He acknowledged the excellence of the Ensemble while providing entirely constructive comments for our continued improvement.

Immediately after the daytime performance for the adjudicators, the Ensemble was offered an invitation to the prestigious MusicFest Canada.

Many, many middle school and high school singers expressed their ecstatic appreciation of our performances. Perhaps we'll see more than a few of them in the Ensemble in the coming years!

More to come as the photos arrive.

Rehearsal on the Ferry to Powell River

Celebrity Cruise

Left to Right: Stephen Fong (tenor)
and Matt Foster (bass)
Photo by Alicia Baas

Left to Right: Monique Du Plessis (swing),
Chelsea Kanstrup (alto) and Josh Lovell (tenor)
Photo by Alicia Baas

Posing

Vocal Summit 2012

UVIC VOCAL JAZZ 2012

Well, we're soon off to the Vocal Summit in Powell River!

Set List

1
Alice in Wonderland featuring Nick Allen

2
April In Paris featuring Matt Foster & Josh Lovell

3
Am I Blue featuring Stephen Fong, Olivia Selig & Renn Bibeau

4
Our Love Is Here To Stay featuring Olivia Selig

5
I Could Write A Bookfeaturing Stephen Fong & Andy Slade (piano)

SPRING SHOWCASE UPDATE

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

REHEARSALS FOR SHOW WEEK

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Around The Web: Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet

For your listening pleasure... click on the links to check out this able group of vocal jazz adepts.

Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet

From the website:

"Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet has been delighting audiences worldwide with their tightly harmonized renditions of jazz, big band swing, pop, original songs and American Songbook classics. The stylishly entertaining quartet has captivated guests at festivals, concerts, parties and special events, with their lush harmonies, toe tapping rhythms, inventive lyrics, and versatile repertoire... all wrapped up in an irresistible stage show fueled by a hot jazz band accompaniment."

To All Valentiners - congratulations, and thank you!

An outstanding day of "sharing the love" in song and cheer!

Well done, Chelsea, for your indefatigable effort and gift of expertise!

The looks of embarrassment, stunned surprise and sincere appreciation by the recipients of the Valentines, their joyful tears and affectionate hugs, will linger on for everyone who participated in this fundraiser. I'm sure there are many stories to be shared with our colleagues and friends this coming Monday. 

As we briefly discussed on the road, perhaps those stories merit an opportunity to celebrate after Monday's rehearsal... ?

Well done, everyone, and thank you for a fun and thoroughly successful day!

I'll update the results once some photos start rolling in and the figures are tallied.

Monday January 23rd

6pm • Review: Primetime Blues
6:15: off-book The Look of Love (Krall version)
6:30: off-book He Ain't Heavy (The Hollies)
6:45: Tenor Madness (reminders: Sos/Allen; Olm/Lovell)
7:15: Break
7:30: rehearse: April In Paris (Basie version)
8pm: perform: Mashed Potatoes

Monday January 16

6pm • Warm-up: Love Is Here To Stay
6:20: Review & Perform - He Ain't Heavy
6:45: Review & Perform - Look of Love (off book)
7pm: Tenor Madness
7:30: break
7:45: Score Reading - new chart TBA
8pm: Mashed Potatoes (women's chorus)
8:20 • end of rehearsal.