A totally normal experience, SIR. I recommend working on your bi-location between now and then. But ultimately it's just about picking where your interest and skill level leads you. Personally, I go for something that will be challenging, but not freak me out.

No auditions, unless they've changed something this year.

OK... I only went once, but my recommendation is to do a little of each if possible.

Are there still openings in the Midnight Choir?

I used to be a doctor, uh, uh, I was a brain surgeon.

Love this song, used to blast it from my MGB with the top down...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5dtpw7zEm0

melo:

I think it is quite different when I went. At that time there were 47 of us in total including the staff, and I was personally invited as a guest by Fr. Skeris.

its been 10 years, but i think there was a schola cantorum and an satb chorus, maybe about 20 in each.

2007 mine as well, RC, and there was an auditioned chamber choir led by Turk in addition to the large choir under Horst.

In the past, I understand that there were sessions for new compositions by participants, and last year it seems to have morphed into a competition for compositions on a fixed text. On the materials currently at the MS Colloquium page, I don't see any mention of sessions for composers at all. Has this been dropped?

we had a sight reading of comps and then comments. that was very cool and IMHO ALWAYS should be part of the colloquium.

I think the best format was 2012, SLC, where each day composers would, under David Hughes' graceful guidance, debut their works. Peter K's offerings that year were quite noted among others.

The older format for a new composers session (used in the first SLC colloquium) worked well: one informal session with brief practice and sight-reading, and since the works were on differing texts, there wasn't any atmosphere of comparison.

I don't think it matters which choir you choose. There seemed to be a lot of flexibility when I attended. The first day I met a woman and we became fast friends (it seemed to happen often over the course of a couple of days) and she encouraged me to attend the senior women's Gregorian Schola. I had next to no experience singing Chant (though I have a degree in music, so I'm a decent sight reader) and though the learning curve was really high, I took the position of "follower" and learned more in one week than I have ever learned about Chant.

There was a group I joined, which on the first day I realized was not going to be of benefit, so I moved to another.

If this is your first Colloquium you will get a vast amount of information regardless of what you choose. What I recommend is not to be shy and quickly introduce yourself to people and find acquaintances who can help you along.

I agree with Chuck's concerns about the "one text, many version" format. That mode has an element in common with the "y'all just bring copies and ever'one sings em once" format as well- it overemphasizes the popularity, or beauty pageant (in the not so beautiful sense) aspect of a one time judgment.
The thing about the 2012 daily format is that dedicated composers had to make that time alotment decision and commitment every day to have other fellow composers' input, consensus, constructive (always) criticism, and affirmation for the merits of their efforts. It worked for, IMO, all the various accomplishment levels of folks present including those like me who didn't bring anything of my own to be deliberated.
It's always a daunting challenge to know whether a Koerber, a Quick, a Nickel, a Morber, an Olbash will be there any given year along with Kwasniewski, and whether the group will have a competent SATB capability, but the compositions are given a deeper exam. And it may be a bit impolitic, but there have also been past years when the sight reading abilities of the plenum membership reading new comps one after another really lowered the bar of expectation for more refined offerings. Sorry to say.

I didn't attend the composers' forum in '12, but I did last year.

One thing I found interesting was that even though we all set the same text, there were many different interpretations of that text, and it was fun to see that individuality; it was also wonderful working with the folks there, and it was a supreme privilege to have my work critiqued by no less than Frank LaRocca, himself, as well as Wilko Brouwers, Horst Bucholz, and David Hughes (who were the judges) and to sing and critique the works of my colleagues. And any crits were presented very, very positively, and geared towards the levels of the composers.

I do have to say that I enjoyed Michael DeSayes work very much, and it was very rewarding singing/hearing it in the Cathedral, especially the hocket towards the end.

However, it was enjoyable in '12 to read through the works of everyone; granted it was rough - but at least they could be heard in more or less full SATB, unlike in the forum where we (in 2013) had no altos, but a few courageous Tenor 1s who were willing to squeak some alto parts!

I can only imagine that in 2012 the atmosphere at the Composers' Forum was just as congenial and gracious -- it had to be, Melo was there!

One thing that I could say, imagining what it was like in 2012, was that the freedom to bring any piece that one was working on, say, that one had questions about or a sticky place where one didn't really know what to do next, was missing. In 2013 most (actually I think all) of us brought basically finished works, and it was more or less a matter of polishing and tweakoneering ( (c) 2013 Adam Wood - I've been waiting for a chance to use it again).

For those of you pondering which schola and choir to pick at the Colloquium... You may be interested to listen to some of the recordings on the audio archive and get a sense of the difficulty level and style of music. You can also get to the music score PDFs on each of those pages, so you can read through past books while you're listening.

It might help.

Carl's Site

Thanks CHGiffen... It seems that format was very well-received... I'm just wondering how (if the music wasn't finished until Friday afternoon) the copies were made in time for the Saturday afternoon reading session... (logistics, you know).

I'm just wondering how (if the music wasn't finished until Friday afternoon) the copies were made in time for the Saturday afternoon reading session

Although I wasn't there, my guess is that someone arranged to print out scores for people to read from. It's not that I go around everywhere with my printer, but for the Colloquium, I think it would be worth it.

Alright, here's what I'm doing:

Polyphonic Choir: Brouwers

Chant: Refresher

What is everybody else doing if you've made your choices?

Same for me. I've been longing to sing Grieg's Ave Maris Stella since I first heard it about a year ago. It's too good to pass up.

I only chant the propers on a monthly basis at our Latin Mass and my sight reading is pretty poor, so the refresher chant choir seems to make the most sense for me.

Horst and Turk.
Turk and Horst.
Both combos would make great restaurant/pub names.

Or law firms?

I kinda asked the question so I'd know if I'd be working closely with any of you. Looks like just one so far.

This year will be my first go at the advanced women's schola.

For polyphony, I'm going with Malinka.

Andrew, next time just put the period after "chump." ;-) Especially as we'll be chumping together with Horst the Irascible.

I'm sure Horst isn't irascible. Jenny I'm going to have a go at the women's schola as well.

I can't decide between the Cardoso and the Victoria.

Just so everyone knows, I'll be the guy wearing the red carnation. Expect me to be bugging a lot of you with endless questions.