Choral Collective Residency Programme 2022/23

Overview

Vox Camerata, in partnership with The University of Queensland Australia, presents The Choral Collective Residency Programme(CCRPSG), an eight-month-long programme conceptualised with a focus on developing the skills of budding choral composers. With the generous support of the National Arts Council Singapore under the Presentation and Participation Grant Scheme, this programme provides a platform for composers to participate as Residency Fellows in a structured and collaborative professional development practice, where the goal is to help facilitate the growth of individual professional skill sets and knowledge through closed-loop feedback from peers and invited faculty coming out of a practicum setting. This iteration builds on the experience of the first CCRPSG, which focused on developing the leadership of choral conductors and was funded by the National Arts Council Self-Employed Persons Grant.

This initiative aims to (1) provide a safe and conducive environment for choral composers to come together and develop their leadership and professional skills, (2) promote interdisciplinary collaboration between composers, conductors and singers, and (3) to promote greater awareness and appreciation of contemporary composition within the choral music scene and beyond. The programme has a two-tier participation category, namely the (1) Residency Fellowship and (2) Professional Laboratory Singers/Singer-Mentors. The Residency Fellowship is open to composers at all stages of their careers who are interested in refining their skill sets and developing themselves as all-rounded leaders. The Professional Laboratory Singers (Vox LLinette) position is open to any individual who is able to sing in a choir at a professional level. Participants for both categories will be recruited via an open call, with selected applicants progressing to an interview with the CCRPSG faculty before the roster of participants is finalised.

Programme Rationale and Outcomes

CCRPSG was timed and conceptualised to serve as an intervention to address the disruptions of COVID-19, which develops the capabilities of choral music practitioners to overcome the challenges they faced during and after the pandemic. In particular, CCRPSG aims to address two issues of significance. Firstly, the COVID-19 social and public health policies have had severe unintended effects on work opportunities for cultural workers in the choral music scene in Singapore. These side effects compounded the difficulties that composers have encountered in attempting to get access to professional feedback from mentors, peers, or other performers of works, as there are precious few development platforms of such a calibre for composers of choral music. Secondly, these disruptions have also created opportunities for choral music practitioners to re-imagine and redevelop new ways of arts making and community engagement.

Hence, we decided that the residency programme would address these two issues by creating an incubation and developmental space for choral music practitioners. This iteration of the CCRP seeks to develop composers as Residency Fellows, allowing them to practice and develop their skills while receiving structured instructions from faculty members as well as targeted feedback. Vox Camerata is well suited to head this programme due to the requisite expertise of our members, as well as our experiences in running a programme of a similarly ambitious calibre during the first iteration of CCRPSG.

Programme Details

The residency programme is a platform for choral music practitioners to develop the musical mastery of choral composers and the professional competency to create intricate and representative choral works to represent and benefit the local choral music scene. Scheduled to begin in August 2022, there are a total of three phases to this second iteration of CCRPSG:

1) A Pre-Production Phase (2 months), in which Residency Fellows will participate in a series of workshops and seminars to improve their composition and related choral music skills

2) A Workshopping Phase (3 months), where composers will participate in a series of six rehearsals to introduce the Professional Laboratory Singers to their works before refining their works for the final submission date on 8 January 2023

3) A Concert Phase (1 month) where composers will work with Professional Laboratory Singers to perform their finished pieces on 11 March 2023.

A timeline of these Phases can be found below.

During the two-month long Pre-Production Phase, Residency Fellows will participate in a series of workshops and seminars conducted by the faculty members of the programme. These include two three-hour voicework seminars, a three-hour literature workshop, four thirty-minute pre-production composition lessons, and four one-and-a-half hour long plenary sessions conducted by respected composers from the Singapore choral music scene. The plenary topics include engraving, intellectual property, and commissioning cycles, all of which are critical skills for composers.

The Workshopping Phase will see the Residency Fellows put their skills to the test through an initial round of six rehearsals. Starting on 30 October 2022, the Fellows will be broken up into two groups, and each group will take turns to cover a weekly rehearsal. This alternating arrangement will continue for three cycles of two weeks each before a final rehearsal on 4 December, whereupon the Residency Fellows will spend the next month consolidating their notes and refining their compositions before submitting their pieces on 8 January 2023. The Concert Phase is the shortest of the three, and will begin with the second round of rehearsals on 29 January 2023. After one cycle of Group 1 / 2 rehearsals, there will be another three concert rehearsals in which all the Residency Fellows will be present to exchange feedback with the choir. These sessions will culminate with the CCRPSG concert on 11 March 2023.

Click here to find out more about the Faculty Members

Application for Residency Fellowship (Composer)

Requirements:

  • Open to all Singaporeans/ Singapore-based/Australian composers
  • Age 15 & above
  • Experience in music composition
  • Strong passion in choral music

Submission criteria:

  • a one-page CV
  • a portfolio with 3-5 recent compositions, not limited to specific genres, and written within the past 18 months
  • a short video essay (max. 2 mins) covering these topics:
    • Why they would like to participate
    • What they would like to get out of the programme
    • What they hope to achieve in the future having experienced the programme

Deadline: 25 July 2022

Rehearsal Schedule

DateDayTime Venue
30 October 2022Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
6 November 2022Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
BREAK
20 November 2022Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
27 November 2022Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
4 December 2022Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
11 December 2022Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
BREAK
29 January 2023Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
5 February 2023Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
12 February 2023Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
19 February 2023Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
26 February 2023Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
5 March 2023Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
12 March 2023Sunday12:00-18:00SOTA Concert Hall
19 March 2023Sunday18:00-21:00Aliwal Arts Centre
CONCERT: 26 March 2023Sunday11:00-20:00SOTA Concert Hall
*Subject to change