The American Music Performance Invitational for Mixed Choirs refers to a series of music festivals for top school choirs. The festivals are more commonly referred to as the AMP Invitationals. Produced by Choirs of America (COA), the inaugural AMP Invitational took place in Long Beach and Los Angeles on April 29–30, 2011. COA's stated mission is "to engage, inspire and educate choirs across the country." COA was recently[ when? ] named a "Citizen Musician" as part of the Citizen Musician Initiative fronted by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director Riccardo Muti and Yo-Yo Ma. [1] Wenger Corp is COA's title sponsor. [2]
COA's first AMP Invitational took place on April 29–30, 2011. Clinicians and adjudicators included Jo-Michael Scheibe, Cheryl Frazes-Hill (assistant conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Jonathan Talberg, William Belan and Bruce Mayhall. Workshop presenters included Broadway producer Ken Davenport, motivational speaker Norm Hull, David Sears (senior director of education at the GRAMMY Foundation) and Terry Knowles (president and CEO of the Los Angeles Master Chorale).
The event culminated in a massed choir benefit concert with master conductor Eric Whitacre leading over 630 high school singers from three different states in a program that raised over $3,600.00 for L.A.'s Harmony Project. Participants included top mixed high school choirs from Branham, Calabasas, Chino Hills, Highland, Monte Vista, Porterville, Sprague, Thomas Downey, Tualatin, Westwood and Valencia. Highland High School from Gilbert, Arizona earned the coveted top rated choir slot (Monte Vista came in second, with Sprague placing third). [3]
Day one is a bonus day for subsidiary ensembles to have adjudicated performances and faculty reviews. Day 2 will feature adjudicated performances for primary ensembles, full one-hour clinics with Master Clinicians and Adjudicators Andre Thomas, Jerry Blackstone, Jeffrey Douma, and Gene Peterson. Vocal master classes with Matthew Oltman (music director emeritus of Chanticleer) and other workshops are also scheduled for all choirs.
Day two will occur at Carnegie Hall and will feature a massed choir rehearsal and prism concert led by Master Conductor, Anton Armstrong.
Featured clinicians and adjudicators include Jo-Michael Scheibe, Sharon Paul, Joshua Habermann (director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus), Timothy Seelig, and Susan McMane. Matthew Oltman will run the vocal master classes and Roger Treece will lead workshops in circle song improvisation. Day two will take place in Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall with master conductor Grant Gershon.
Day one will take place at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland and will feature Jerry Blackstone, Karen Kennedy and Jameson Marvin as clinicians. Day two will occur at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and will feature a massed choir benefit concert led by master conductor, Simon Carrington.
The BBC Symphony Chorus is a British amateur chorus based in London. It is the dedicated chorus for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though it performs with other national and international orchestras.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Baltimore SO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, it began regular performances at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda.
Westminster Choir College (WCC) is a historic conservatory of music currently operating on the campus of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rider's College of Arts and Sciences, the college under which the historic institution has been reorganized, consists of Westminster Choir College as well as three additional schools.
The American Boychoir School was a boarding/day middle school located in Princeton, New Jersey, and the home of the American Boychoir. The school originated as the Columbus Boychoir in Columbus, Ohio. In 1950, the school relocated after receiving property in Princeton, New Jersey from the Lambert estate. The relocated school was renamed the American Boychoir School. It remained in this location until the sale of Albemarle in 2012. The school served boys in grades 4–8, many of whom came from across the United States and from many countries. It was one of only two boychoir boarding schools in the United States, the other being Saint Thomas Choir School in New York City. The school provided opportunity to boys from across the world to experience the rich world of music. The Boychoir toured across the contiguous United States, through Canada, as well as internationally, allowing students to gain diverse cultural perspective while performing at the professional level. The American Boychoir performed with numerous orchestras, frequently including the New York Philharmonic as well as the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.
The Musique Cordiale International Festival & Academy is an annual festival of classical music, song, oratorio and opera, founded in 2005. It usually* takes place in hill towns of the Pays de Fayence between Nice and Aix-en-Provence in the South of France in late July and during the first two weeks of August. The festival features up to 18 concerts including major choral and orchestral works, chamber ensembles, free lunchtime concerts and late night recitals in churches, chapels and in the open air.. This pattern of concerts only in Britain was repeated in 2022 with an additional concert on 4 June 2022 in Doddington Place Gardens to commemorate the Queen's 70th Jubilee. In past years, the festival has also included staged opera performances and jazz concerts. It is envisaged that future festivals will again take place in both Britain and France from 2023: the 2023 International Festival in Provence is scheduled for 3-12 August 2023).
The Conservatorium High School is a public government-funded, co-educational, selective, secondary day school that specialises in music education. It lies on the western edge of the Royal Botanic Gardens, off Macquarie Street, in Sydney's CBD.
Jeffri W. Bantz was an American classical conductor and teacher.
Dr. Richard Nance is an American musician. He is a former professor of music and conductor of the Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, United States.
Mark Anthony Carpio is a choral conductor, choirmaster, piano accompanist and a countertenor, who is the present choirmaster of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Kilyawan Boys Choir, Voces Aurorae, Pansol Choir, and the Madz Schola Cantorum. He is also a faculty member at the Conducting and Choral Ensemble Department of the University of the Philippines College of Music in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
Daniel Hege is an American orchestral conductor. He is currently the music director of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and the Binghamton Philharmonic, and is the principal guest conductor of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. Hege previously served as the music director of the former Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He also makes numerous guest appearances with orchestras and music festivals across the country.
Jo-Michael Scheibe was the former chair of the Department of Choral and Sacred Music at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Following an unplanned and unannounced sabbatical in Fall of 2022, Scheibe retired from his position as Professor of Choral and Sacred Music. He formerly conducted the USC Chamber Singers. In 2008, he assumed a new post as National President-Elect of the American Choral Directors’ Association. No stranger to the ACDA, Scheibe previously served as the organization’s Western Division President (1991–1993), as well as National Repertoire and Standards Chairperson for Community Colleges (1980–1989). Ensembles under his leadership have sung at six national ACDA conventions, as well as two national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference, and various regional and state conventions.
Paul Salamunovich KCSG was a Grammy-nominated, American conductor and educator.
Jeffrey Alan Kahane is an American classical concert pianist and conductor. He was music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for 20 years, the longest of any music director in the orchestra's history. He is the music director of the Sarasota Music Festival, a program of the Sarasota Orchestra, and a professor of keyboard studies (Piano) at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, California
Ernest Victor Llewellyn CBE was an Australian violinist, concertmaster, violist, conductor and musical administrator. He was the founding director of the Canberra School of Music and is commemorated by Llewellyn Hall, the concert venue at the School.
April 17, 1993 - May 14, 2023
The London Philharmonic Choir (LPC) is one of the leading independent British choirs in the United Kingdom based in London. The patron is Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy and Sir Mark Elder is president. The choir, comprising more than 200 members, holds charitable status and is governed by a committee of 6 elected directors. As a charity, its aims are to promote, improve, develop and maintain education in the appreciation of the art and science of music by the presentation of public concerts.
Founded in 1976, the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras (EYSO) is the oldest and largest youth orchestra program in northwest Illinois and is composed of three full orchestras, two string orchestras, a brass choir, two percussion ensembles, a flute choir, and a large Chamber Music Institute.
The Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony (MAYS) is a youth orchestra in the Central Florida region founded in honor of conductor and cellist, Jonathan May. The MAYS is led by Artistic Directors Maureen May and Michael Miller and features eight orchestral groups spanning beginner, intermediate and advanced skill levels, as well as several in-school strings programs. In 2015, MAYS added Dr. Chung Park, Director of Orchestras and String Music Education at the University of Central Florida, to the artistic staff as conductor of the Symphony. The MAYS currently rehearses at St. Alban's Anglican Church in Oviedo, Florida and Lake-Sumter State College in Leesburg, Florida.
Raymond Hughes is an American conductor and choral director.
Dr. Wallace Harris Long, Jr. is an American choral conductor, educator, and vocalist. He was director of choral activities at Willamette University from 1983 to 2020, founded the Willamette Master Chorus and conducted the group from 1985 to 1998, and was a member of Male Ensemble Northwest. Long has been called "a world-class conductor" and "the ultimate professor, scholar and community-builder".