PHOENIX CHORAL EXPERIENCE

Phoenix Chamber Choir is a not-for-profit community choir based in the Vancouver area that is now entering its 41st Anniversary Season. Prior to the pandemic, Phoenix hosted an annual event – “Phoenix Choral Experience” – a weekend workshop for educators and high-school music students to share experiences through song.  Last season, we were thrilled to bring the “Phoenix Choral Experience: Cultural Appreciation” to new heights with experiences for educators, and youth & adult choral singers through workshops, special guests, cultural exchange, and newly commissioned choral work.

The Phoenix Choral Experience is a free educational outreach program for singers of all ages to work with and learn from Phoenix Chamber Choir, Artistic Director Dr. Nicholle Andrews, and other music educators and professionals. Our 2023-2024 program will look at ways to connect the broader community to choral music by giving voice to underrepresented composers and cultures. 

To receive more information for our 2023-2024 experience, please email admin@phoenixchoir.com

2023-2024 Phoenix Choral Experience

Phoenix Choral Experience 2023-2024 Season

Are you an educator who is interested in participating in our 2023-2024 Season Phoenix Choral Experience? Please email admin@phoenixchoir.com to receive information.

The 2023-2024 Phoenix Choral Experience student workshops will take place the first week of May, 2024, and include a performance at Phoenix Chamber Choir’s concert on Saturday, May 4, 2024, 3 PM.

To download the PCX scores and practice tracks for the 2023-2024 PCX, click here.

Meet our 2023-2024 Clinicians

Dr. Jace Kaholokula Saplan (they/them) serves as Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music Learning & Teaching and Choral Conducting at Arizona State University where they oversee the graduate program in choral conducting, conduct the ASU Concert Choir, and teach courses in choral literature and pedagogy that weave decolonial and critical theories with communal vocal practice.

In addition to Jace’s work in academia and classical music, Jace is known as a national thought leader and consultant in enacting social change and equity-driven practice through the choral arts. Dr. Saplan is an Obama Equity Fellow for the 2022-2023 year and a Gates DEI fellow for the 2023-2024 year. Jace also serves as a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, and Belonging consultant for arts organizations throughout the country, such as Choral Arts Northwest, The Phoenix Chamber Choir, The Guitar Federation of America, and Native Arts.

As a Kanaka Maoli advocate, artist, and culture bearer, Dr. Saplan is also the artistic director of Nā Wai Chamber Choir, a vocal ensemble based in Hawaiʻi dedicated to the preservation,  propagation, and innovation of Hawaiian choral music. Under Dr. Saplan’s direction, Nā Wai recorded a Global Music Award-winning album entitled Eō Liliʻuoklani under the Mālama Music label and performed for the 2021 Chorus America Summer Conference, the 2021 National American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Conference, and the 2020 ACDA Western Region Conference in Salt Lake.

Melodie Langevin is the Director of Choirs at Seycove Secondary, a vibrant school nestled in a town residents affectionately call “The Cove” in North Vancouver. An avid chorister herself, Melodie discovered a passion for conducting while completing her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Manitoba. She studied with soprano Valdine Anderson and sang under Dr. Elroy Friesen and with several other ensembles in Winnipeg including Camerata Nova, an innovative ensemble that performs early, contemporary, and Indigenous-infused repertoire.

In 2013, Melodie moved to Vancouver to complete her Bachelor of Education degree. Not long after her move, she began singing with the Phoenix Chamber Choir and the St. Andrew’s-Wesley Vocal Ensemble, and over the past few years she has also sung concerts with the Vancouver Cantata Singers, Postmodern Camerata, Aurora Chamber Choir, and musica intima, and sung with various church ensembles throughout Vancouver. Melodie has also been a Music Literacy Teacher for the Vancouver Choral Arts Society, volunteers as the Choral Clinics Coordinator for BCMEA, and she often records vocals for the Cypress Choral Music Publishing company. In addition to her position as Director of Choirs at Seycove, Melodie is also one of four directors for Chor Leoni Men’s Choir’s educational outreach program called MYVoice, leading the North Shore ensemble of young Tenors and Basses.

She is currently on maternity leave so it has been a distinct pleasure for her to continue to work with youth through the Phoenix Choral Experience!

Sponsors

The Phoenix Choral Experience is made possible with thanks to the Music Education Partnership Grants of Chorus America.

Additional support provided by:

The Hamber Foundation