North American Choral Company
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The North American Choral Company is a choir based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA.
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[edit] Brief history
The North American Choral Company was founded in 1998 The executive director is Jayne Schuitema and the artistic director is Sanna Valvanne.
In 1998, the North American Choral Company performed at Spoleto USA, in Charleston, South Carolina, astounding critics with their music.
In 1999, the company toured to New York City, Princeton (New Jersey), and Toronto. In April of that year, the company toured to The Netherlands, and, in November of 1999, one hundred singers from the company performed for the 1999 Winners of the United Nations Global Peace and Tolerance Awards, including Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey, Zubin Mehta, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Spertus Museum of Judaica in Chicago commissioned the company during their 2000-2001 season.
In 2002, the company toured in Ireland, and, in 2004, they toured in Finland and Estonia.
In 2006, Caritas and Mandala of the company toured Ghana, in West Africa, while the Midwest Chorale toured Toronto.
Caritas often performed with the Grand Rapids Symphony, most recently in Carmina Burana. In April of 2006, the two groups coordinated to debut Dalit Warshaw's new piece, After the Victory.
Additionally, the North American Choral Company has sung for Richard Einhorn and Eunice Kennedy Schriver, Special Olympics co-founder.
[edit] Choirs
The North American Choral Company, known to its members as the NACC, comprises five main choirs, and one special ensemble.
The Junior Company is made up of the youngest singers in the company, generally six to eight years of age. This choir sings songs in unison. Their uniform consists of (girls) white turtlenecks and navy blue jumpers and (boys) white turtlenecks and navy blue pants. They perform only for friends and family.
The Senior Company consists of older, more experienced singers, of generally seven to eleven or twelve years of age. This choir may sing songs in unison or two part harmony. Their uniform consists of (girls) white shirts, black vests, and knee-length blacks skirts and (boys) white shirts, black vests, and black pants. They perform only for friends and family.
The Midwest Chorale members are aged nine to twelve. This choir generally sings songs in two, three, or four part harmonies. Unlike the younger choirs, this choir also performs concerts for the general public. Their uniform consists of (girls) pink tunic tops and black shoes and (boys) black shirts and black pants. Recently, this group has been demoted to a training choir.
The Vox Lumina choir is made up of those who have recently been judged by the artistic director to be between the level of the Midwest Chorale and the Caritas choir. This group is the newest group in the North American Choral Company, having been formed in the summer of 2006. They mostly perform pop-influenced pieces. While their formal uniforms are the same as that of Midwest Chorale's, Vox Lumina members usually wear sparkly tunic tops and black pants.
The Caritas choir was made up of the oldest singers, mostly fourteen to eighteen; however, some exceptionally strong members are allowed to stay on later than that. This was generally regarded as the premiere NACC choir, with songs in several movements, foreign languages, and so on. Their uniform consisted of (girls) black scoop-neck dresses and shoes and (boys) black shirts and black pants. As of October 2007, the NACC website no longer lists Caritas as being in existence; Vox Lumina has taken over. The reason for this is that, after conductor Sean Ivory's departure and Sanna Valvanne's takeover as director of Caritas, most of the Caritas members left the NACC, leaving Caritas too small to perform to the same extent as they once had, and thus losing their purpose.
Mandala was a special choir, made up of only girls from Caritas. They were chosen by special audition to sing unique repetoire. They performed with the NACC and in one of their own concerts annually. With the dissolution of Caritas, Mandala ceased to exist.
[edit] Directors
Junior Company director: Mary Louise Ott. Mary Louise Ott returns for her third season as conductor of junior company and eighth season with the North American choral company. This past summer she studied with Nick Page at the World Music Seminar held in conjunction with Will Schmid’s World Drumming program. Mary Louise has completed Level 1 drumming studies at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin site and uses the drumming curriculum with her upper elementary students at Orchard View Elementary in the Forest Hills School District.
As an undergraduate at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, she had the privilege of singing in Westminster Choir and the Symphonic Choir with such greats as Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, William Steinberg, and Herbert von Karajan conducting. Her Master’s Degree was earned at West Virginia University where she was a soprano soloist in Orff”s “Carmina Burana”. It was at this juncture in her life that Mary Louise realized performing was not her first love but the art of teaching and inspiring young children. Through the Lifelong Education program at MSU she holds certificates in Music Learning Theory at the Early Childhood and Elementary General Music levels. From that association she was asked to be part of the editorial staff at GIA Publishing for their music series, “Jump Right In”, Books 1 and 2. Mary Louise was the sole editor for the second edition of Edwin Gordon’s “A Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children”. She holds membership in Chorus America, MENC, MMEA, AOKE, AOSA, and the Michigan Chapter, Gordon Institute for Music Learning Theory. Once again she will be the treasurer for statewide GIML membership.
Mary Louise is married and the mother of two grown sons and has a brand new daughter-in-law!
Senior Company, Vox Lumina, and Midwest director: Sanna Valvanne. From the website: Sanna Valvanne is a children and youth choir conductor. She is known world-wide for her Creative Choral Method: Making Music with Body and Soul. Conductors and choirs at international choral festivals have hailed this unique method that combines movement and drama with vocal expression and performing since 1994.
Sanna started working with her own choirs in 1998. Her way of working with choirs has attracted increasing numbers of young singers. In the spring 2004 the choirs became well known to Finnish families through the 20 part series of national television programs featuring Sanna and her choirs. Each program presented music from different cultures blending the music with movement that was organic to each song.
In 2004, Sanna founded the Kameleontti- (Chameleon)-Choirs at the Espoo Music Institute for the growing number of children interested. The choir has grown over 2 years to 160 singers, ages 6-16, from around the Helsinki Capital area. This past season they were featured with the Finish National Symphony and just this summer performed for the Para-Olympic's opening ceremonies and for Finland’s president Tarja Halonen.
Sanna's work with choirs reflects her colorful background of studies in music, dance and theatre, as well as her connection with the Tapiola Choir. Sanna sang in the Tapiola Choir for 13 years and worked as the choir’s vocal trainer for five years. For many years she has been working with both Professor Erkki Pohjola (Founder and Conductor of Tapiola Choir, 1963-1994) and Kari Ala-Pöllänen (Conductor of Tapiola Choir, 1994-) as their assistant in international choral seminars.
In 1998 Sanna graduated with her Masters in Music from the Sibelius Academy’s Music Education Department in Helsinki. She specialized in Music and Movement as well as Combined Arts and wrote her thesis on African Dance. Since 2001 she has been the course leader and main teacher for Multicultural Studies at the Helsinki Polytechnic and Conservatory of Music.
Apart from music education, Sanna is a singer, songwriter and performer. She has performed her songs in concerts, theatres and on television. From 1997 to 1999 she also played the main female role on a weekly children's television program. Note: Sanna also serves as the NACC Artistic Director.
NACC website
