2024 Youth Choir Concert Camp
Saturday, August 3, 2024 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.
For many years prior to the pandemic, the Cathedral youth choir participated in an annual summer residential camp to learn new music for the upcoming season, welcome and bond with new singers, and enjoy a range of fun outdoor activities. This practice will resume in summer 2025.
For this summer, Peter Berton, the new Director of Music and Cathedral Arts organized a one-day Singing Camp on Saturday, August 3, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., held at the Cathedral. Six local singers were joined by two from the choir of St. Stephen’s Church, Middlebury and one from Rhode Island. Rather than looking at a broad range of repertoire, the day was designed around a fall concert on November 3 featuring the Fauré Requiem which the Cathedral and Middlebury choristers will perform along with the Vermont Choral Union under the direction of Eric Milnes. Cathedral choristers will also have the opportunity to sing the work the previous day in a concert at the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-du-Lac in Quebec, with professional adult singers and the period instrument ensemble L'Harmonie des Saisons. For a preview of the music in a 2023 performance at the Abbey, click here.
For many years prior to the pandemic, the Cathedral youth choir participated in an annual summer residential camp to learn new music for the upcoming season, welcome and bond with new singers, and enjoy a range of fun outdoor activities. This practice will resume in summer 2025.
For this summer, Peter Berton, the new Director of Music and Cathedral Arts organized a one-day Singing Camp on Saturday, August 3, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., held at the Cathedral. Six local singers were joined by two from the choir of St. Stephen’s Church, Middlebury and one from Rhode Island. Rather than looking at a broad range of repertoire, the day was designed around a fall concert on November 3 featuring the Fauré Requiem which the Cathedral and Middlebury choristers will perform along with the Vermont Choral Union under the direction of Eric Milnes. Cathedral choristers will also have the opportunity to sing the work the previous day in a concert at the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-du-Lac in Quebec, with professional adult singers and the period instrument ensemble L'Harmonie des Saisons. For a preview of the music in a 2023 performance at the Abbey, click here.
Choir camp welcomed all who are interested in singing sacred music, regardless of church affiliation. The camp focused on music literacy, vocal production, and Latin pronunciation using the Fauré Requiem as the primary workbook. We learned about the Requiem text and, in a greeting from the cathedral’s Dean and Rector Greta Getlein, considered the value of singing to comfort others in a time of grief. Lunch, a walk to nearby Burlington Bay for a creemee, and a video-making activity (with overdubbing of parts recorded via headphones) rounded out the day. For a sample of what we consider to be a fun video including overdubbed singing, see this.
The camp was sponsored by Cathedral Arts for the purpose of the November 3 concert, and led by two experienced cathedral musicians who have devoted their careers to working with young voices in a professional concert context: Peter Berton of St. Paul's Cathedral, and Robert Ludwig of St. Stephen's Church, Middlebury (formerly Music Director at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, NY).
No religious background is required, nor is there the expectation that campers would join the regular Cathedral chorister program beyond the two months of rehearsals (September and October) to continue the concert preparations.
We invite your inquiry! To join in the experience, contact Peter Berton by emailing [email protected], or calling (802) 861-0244.
The camp was sponsored by Cathedral Arts for the purpose of the November 3 concert, and led by two experienced cathedral musicians who have devoted their careers to working with young voices in a professional concert context: Peter Berton of St. Paul's Cathedral, and Robert Ludwig of St. Stephen's Church, Middlebury (formerly Music Director at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, NY).
No religious background is required, nor is there the expectation that campers would join the regular Cathedral chorister program beyond the two months of rehearsals (September and October) to continue the concert preparations.
We invite your inquiry! To join in the experience, contact Peter Berton by emailing [email protected], or calling (802) 861-0244.