Members of the University of Texas Permian Basin Choirs will be traveling to Cincinnati in February to participate in the National American Choir Directors Convention. They will perform and then talk about what they performed and telling the audience about the composers.
To his knowledge, Frank Eychaner, professor and Department of Music chair, said there has never been a choir from the Permian Basin selected to perform at the National American Choir Directors Convention ever.
About 47 singers will be traveling. The convention is Feb. 22-25.
Choirs taking part will be the University Choir, Concert Choir and Women’s Choir, which will be performing a commissioned piece.
“We’ve got multiple choirs going because of the way that it works, but it’s all the same singers,” Eychaner said.
A blind application was submitted for the convention.
“We didn’t have our name on it. We had to put in the proposal and then send recordings. We found out early summer that we had been selected, so we’ll be one of nine college choirs from across the entire country to be at National ACDA,” Eychaner said.
The selection process is designed to be objective.
“Basically, a panel of choral experts, which is the board, they listened to all of these blind, so they don’t know who the application is (from). They just see the text. They listen to the singers, but they don’t know who it is, or who conducts, or where they’re from,” Eychaner said. “They pick the best based on what they hear and then they find out … this is who’s coming.”
Eychaner said he doesn’t know what the selection says about his teaching.
“But it says that we have an extraordinary number of incredible programs in our area that produce really, really high quality musicians and singers that when they get here we can work together and make a really incredible product which is comparable to, or better than, the best programs from around our country,” Eychaner said.
“So in spite of the fact that we’re small; in spite of the fact that we’re rural; in spite of the fact that we’re isolated, a choir with 30 vocal majors can beat out University of North Texas that has 1,600 majors to perform at national ACDA. So it says it says that we’re doing the right things the right way,” he added.
Choral professionals come from all over the world to be part of the convention, meet other important directors, hear some of the best choirs in the country and learn new repertoire. All of the music majors will have a chance to do the same and bring those experiences back with them.
He said the accomplishment is remarkable because there was no music program at UTPB in 2004. When he arrived in 2014, there were nine people in one choir.
Everyone who is a vocal music major are in the University Choir, the Concert Choir and many are in the Vocal Ensemble, which produces musicals or operas each semester.
Composer Julio Morales put choir members through their paces recently as he has written some of the pieces they will perform.
Morales and Eychaner met in the state of Tlaxcala, where Eychaner was teaching a workshop at a choral festival.
“They invite the best teachers around the globe, so they invited him,” Morales said.
Since then, Eychaner said, they have done multiple projects together.
“We’ve been down to Tlaxcala every year since then,” Eychaner said. “Julio was teaching his own workshop this summer. Two summers ago, we did conducting workshops around the country.”
Morales was commissioned to write three scores. Two of them — Noche and Remanso, Cancion Final — employ the lyrics of Federico Garcia Lorca, a Spanish writer and poet.
The third arrangement is called Afro Blue.
Morales said he could turn out his scores at a rate of about once a month.
Eychaner said Morales is in demand as a composer of scores.
“In the future, I will write the the music of a show of Cirque du Soleil and then we will have a Guinness record in Venezuela,” Morales said.
Eychaner said Morales was going to Venezuela to have 150,000 people sing some of his music all at the same time to set a record for Guinness Book of World Records.
Morales said he will get to attend as a juror.
He added that he has composed music since he was 5 or 6 years old. His grandfather was a saxophonist.
He went to the University of Vera Cruz for music education and piano. Morales then started to write.
Eychaner said they were visiting schools in Odessa and around the area.
“Ninety percent of my students come from five or six high schools here locally,” Eychaner said.
One of the great things about music education is that you never get to a point where you know everything.
“When you’re dealing with a new score, composed by a person with a perspective and influences and passions and their own harmonic language, you get to learn about them. You get to see them and their experiences through the music that you sing,” Eychaner said.
He added that it’s always an incredible privilege to sing any piece of music.
“But I think that it’s even a greater privilege when you get to premiere, which is the vernacular for singing it the very first time to get to take somebody’s musical vision and get to know them intimately through singing that score, making that music with them,” Eychaner said.
Eychaner said they are also raising funds to travel.
“So if somebody would like to help us out, they can find a way to donate on the UTPB music page. We are also going to be doing caroling this year. So if a group, or a business owner, or professional organization, or a company would like us to come and sing as part of their holiday festivities, we would be delighted to come and spread a little Christmas cheer. And at the same time, the proceeds of that will pay the expenses of getting our kids up to Cincinnati,” he added.
They will start caroling as soon as they are booked.
“People could book us today,” Eychaner said.
