A Cappella - Day 2

Check out this video of A Cappella singing Tshotsholoza at the end of class after their second year. Definitely a solid start to what is going to be a great year! Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Welcome to 2015-16!

Hello and welcome to the 2015-16 GHS Choir season. Here you should be able to find information about upcoming concerts, rehearsals and choir related events. Course Syllabi and a preliminary calendar is going home with students on Monday and Tuesday. You can also follow this LINK to a Google Doc version you can print from home. I've also included my welcome letter beneath. It's shaping up to be a great year so far. The calendar to the left of this post will have all current dates/times and you should be able to link it to whatever calendar system you use. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Hope everyone had a great summer! I look forward to meeting many of you at back to school night.

- John Eisemann

Dear Grant Choir Students & Parents,

Welcome to the 2015-16 Grant Choir Season! I’m very excited to be back at school after a great summer and can’t wait to start making music with all of you. This will be my fourth year at Grant as the Director of Choral Activities which means this year’s seniors I have been their only instructor. Thank you to all of you for your growth, dedication and leadership in the coming year. We have a great year ahead of us and and a lot of really great music to sing.

The Women’s Ensemble has nearly doubled in size and the Men’s Ensemble is growing even larger every day. Both A Cappella and Royal Blues have very strong numbers and a wealth of talent within them. This year will provide a variety of exciting opportunities for all of the vocal ensembles. The Royal Blues are planning on returning to Ashland in the spring for performances at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Men’s and Women’s Ensemble may be performing in a district non-auditioned choir festival as well as traveling to nearby middle schools for outreach performances. The A Cappella Choir, at over 85 singers this year, is slated to sing a benefit concert at Westminster Presbyterian in place of a Grotto performance this year, and potentially host an All PIL Choral Celebration under the baton of a regionally acclaimed director. And don’t worry, Grantasia! is on again for this December 17th and it’s going to be even bigger and better than last year.

The performing arts department would like to welcome a fifth member to our cohort this year, Branic Howard, who has been hired to take over the Audio Engineering program as well as start a beginning guitar ensemble. Both programs look promising from the start and we are all thrilled to be diversifying and expanding our offerings to the Grant student body. Please welcome Branic to the community when you can, he’ll be helping us with our live sound reinforcement at all of the major productions.

I’d like to thank each and every one of you in advance for all of the wonderful support, generosity, and dedication all of you have for the choral program and the performing arts at Grant as a whole. I know it’s going to be a great year and that is significantly because of your involvement. As always, there will be numerous ways for you to get involved throughout the year. If you’d like to volunteer for concerts or chaperone trips such as George Fox University Symposium or to the OSAA State Choir Championship please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. You can always also keep your eyes peeled for one of my Donor’s Choose projects and pass them along to friends and family if you can.

On the back side of this letter there is a list of all of the currently known choir dates for this year. As the year goes on the calendar will fill in a little more and I’ll do my best to keep you updated. I have two students assigned as official bloggers so that my choir blog, grantchoir.blogspot.com, will be much more informative and up to date. If you ever have any questions or concerns for me please don’t hesitate to ask. You can contact me via email jeisemann@pps.net, phone (503) 916-5160 ex 75734, or stop by the choir room at anytime (room 232). I hope everyone had a great summer and is looking forward the year as much as I am. See you at Back to School Night or the Fall Concert!

All my best -

John Eisemann

Thespian Competition Music

Thespians! Here are the .WAV files for your songs. Please download them and be prepared to present them in via iPod or CD at your competition. Good luck! Click HERE

Acapella Links:

Tabula Rasa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J77aNNhNZTA

Awake the Harp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAL16Zrvq3c

Gloria Rehearsal Video

Last night we had a great rehearsal at Grant in preparation for the Rutter Gloria this Sunday at the Schnitz. Here is a recording of the 3rd movement with a few still images from the rehearsal. Enjoy and see you on Sunday at 7:30 pm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ4hs7AKSR8&feature=youtu.be&safe=active

Festival Set YouTube Playlist

Here is a YouTube playlist of all our music (in order) for festival. Please use this as a guide to learning all of our music. The video for "How Can I Keep" is not complete and sung by a women's choir - but they are really good. Please follow the link in the description to sbmp.com to find a great recording of the piece conducted by the woman who arranged it. Good luck listening and have fun!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi193qCaTvGJNqwy-vsrOQBv2z5KhiVJN

Sole & Ensemble Schedule Revised

Here is the new schedule for Solo & Ensemble on Sunday, March 9th at Grant. Many times have been changed from the original posting so please look closely at the time you are scheduled. If for any reason you no longer can or wish to perform please let me know as soon as possible so that I can open your slot up for someone who many need to switch times. Thank you for your understanding with all the schedule changes - that snow storm really threw us all for a loop. Good luck to everyone at the contest!

Here is the link to the schedule - Grant Vocal S&E Schedule 2014