Explo 2014: Teaching at Yale - The First 3 Days

In the beginning of may I got a phone call from a good friend and colleague of mine asking if I was interested in teaching at Explo.... aside from hearing it come out of my friend Justin's mouth once during the year I had no idea what Explo was... but come to find out, it would easily become one of the best teaching experiences of my life - and I'm only in orientation!

I would go into detail about Explo, but it is a summer exploration and curricular opportunity for students to take classes and workshops in areas that they are interested in. My courses are a cappella and show choir! For more info go here: http://www.explo.org/360/yale

Orientation is... well... orientation. A lot of it has to do with the safety of our incoming students (730+ by the way), our staff (about 130 of us) and ourselves.

We have had meetings with curricular advisors by phone, email, and google docs, writing lesson plans and course maps. The best way to explain is that I as well as my colleagues are hired teachers. Instructors better suits the title, but on top of that we are also resident assistants - sort of like a real life college setting which is exactly what these are expecting. a pre-college experience preparing them to be propelled forward in the coming years.

My room is fun - its an old building - I mean REALLY old. No air conditioning. 3 fans. Its like camp for us too!

My co-RA is Kwali (Quay-lee) and he is a joy to work with - its nice to have someone I can read and respond without having to break it all down and vice versa.

Our orientation ended with a day at the beach - only 20 mins away. Can you tell what I will be doing on days off?

I'll attach some photos as I go - I cannot put picture or videos up of the kids, but if you got to the Explo link above, you can see what we are all about!

Thanks for reading!

-R

OH -Yale has this collection of RARE (I mean Gutenberg bible rare) books at the Beinecke Rare Book Library equipped with a air sealed chamber that, in case of fire, with suck all oxygen out in less than 30 seconds.  CRAZY!

The Road to Carnegie Hall

This post is FAR overdue, mostly because my adventures in music have been relentless in that they have yet to let up. More posts to come in regards to the future!

In the early half of 2013, we at Fredonia were told we would have the opportunity to go to Carnegie Hall under the direction of our choir master, Dr. Gerald Gray. The piece chosen was the fantastic setting of "Dona Nobis Pacem" by Ralph Vaughn Williams.

With the awesome support of community members, family and friends, I was able to put together the bill in order to go on this trip. I have never stepped foot inside of the hall and the first time I would would include performing in front of a live audience - a dream come true for someone who has been performing for most of his life.

The trip was to be part educational, part recruitment and mostly performance. The choir was composed of a collection of students who volunteered to sing. We also managed to stop off at two local high schools for some combined choral rehearsals and solo development.

Next was a two night stay outside of Ronkonkoma, Long Island and a visit to two more schools. Unfortunately the snow took over and the trip because too dangerous to venture and e had to cancel. Instead we were fortunate to ave a large mall complex across the way from our hotel and we spent the day shopping and having a nice meal.

Final stop: New York City. We stayed at the Manhattan Hotel right on Times Square. Rehearsals were were a few blocks away at The Plaza. We were also joined by Dr. Gray's High School Choral Director and their choir for the main concert.

After a few rehearsals along with a symphonic orchestra run-through (Mid-Atlantic Orchestra) we were onto our final dress at Carnegie. The hall is gorgeous from both audience and performer points of view. Acoustically it felt perfect. The audience was close to 1000 people and these were strangers aside from our college Admin: President Horvath (who also bought a bunch of us cheesecake at Lindy's - SO GOOD), Dr. Karl Boelter (Head of the School of Music), and Dr. Blasting (Dean of Schools of Arts and Sciences) amongst others.

From the first note, to the epic C major a Capella choral chord (the low C in the bass section) that resonated throughout the hall, and the haunting Baritone and Soprano solos - the piece was a huge success and a reminder that the year worth of preparation was well worth the efforts and wait.

Let music take you places...