scholarship

interest sessions

Expanding the Choral Canon

National and Regional ACDA Conference Sessions

This session will help you create engaging experiences for your choirs that draw on overlooked parts of the canon. In addition to uncovering more approachable works by well-known composers of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, I will highlight voices often excluded from our choral history: Maddalena Casulana - first woman to publish her own compositions; Vicente Lusitano - first Black published composer; Juana Ines de la Cruz - composer and nun who defended women’s right to knowledge. I will share new resources for this repertoire, while demonstrating how to creatively program these works. Scores and audio provided for every repertoire example. 

Recording Project with Bella Voce
Visit here.

The Choral Music of Imogen Holst

Regional ACDA Conference Sessions

Imogen Holst was a conductor, music educator, composer, and scholar. Unlike her father’s widely celebrated life and works, Imogen has remained in the lesser-known shadows of the canon. Daughter of Gustav Holst, student of Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and dear friend and assistant to Benjamin Britten, Imogen’s life and works merit closer examination and incorporation into our choral canon. In this session I will shed light on her life and career, and share several of her choral works, all varying in length, instrumentation, occasion, and ensemble-type.

(re)Consider the Canon

National ACDA Conference 2021

Liza Calisesi Maidens & Katy Maguire Lushman


Approaching Renaissance and Baroque music can be daunting regardless of your choral forces or budget - but there are flexible voicing and accompaniment options as well as specific rehearsal strategies that can quickly engage any choir and help them fall in love with the music of the past. We provide resources and tips to help you find repertoire and demonstrate how to successfully program these works. In addition to uncovering approachable works by well-known composers, we also highlight voices that have often been excluded from our choral history.

editions

EDITION

As a part of this session, Liza and Katy created a new edition of the 16th century madrigal Allor che ignuda by composer Vicente Lusitano, the first Black composer to be published in the history of western music. View and purchase this edition here

Lusitano, Allor che ignuda
(score)

Bach, Suscepit Israel
(score)

Schütz, Verbum caro factum est
(score)

commissions

COMMISSION

In connection with this session, Liza and Katy commissioned composer B.E. Boykin to write a new work using early music conventions and a text by 13th century trobairitz Na Castelloza. You can preview and order Castelloza's Song here, as well as listen to the SATB version and voice/guitar version below.

Read an article in the Michigan State University College of Music Newsletter about this commission.

Preview and order Castelloza's Song here

Michigan State University, Graduate Choral Ensemble
Liza Calisesi Maidens, conductor

Katy Maguire Lushman, soprano
Grant Stringham, guitar

Interest Sessions



Contact me directly for more information.