HOME        PANAGYRI 2008       HDF 2009        CHORAL DIVISION      RESOURCES     WORKSHOPS

 
 
Message from the Choral Director This is the year to add to your already unbelievable HDF experience, by entering a group in HDF Choral!! The Choral competition has been a part of HDF since 2005 in Atlanta, and has been a wonderful experience for those of us who have participated, whether by singing or by being in the audience to hear the beautiful choral presentations.  The Choral Festival 2007 in Clearwater was a great success, with the Clearwater Youth Choir taking the Gold medal. They, along with the 2006 Gold Medal winner, the choir from Dormition of the Theotokos Church, conducted by Kevin Lawrence, will be making a concert tour of  Greece this summer, led by Metropolitan Alexios.    Let’s make 2008 the year that your parish enters a choral team! How do we get a choral group started in our parish?  Well, the steps are few and simple.  First A Choral Group Director needs to volunteer or be chosen by the Parish HDF committee.  The requirements are few, the ability to work with youth, and basic musical knowledge should be adequate.  Many of our parishes are already including the singing of folksongs as a part of their dance presentation.  Those parishes are already more than half-way there in terms of the requirement for the Choral Competition.   Second The Choral Director should work together with the HDF dance committee to identify those already a part of the HDF program who would like to sing.   Others in the parish who are not a part of the dancing program, can also be a part of the Choral Competition, and join in the fun of the HDF experience.  Third  The  final step, is to select a choral program and learn it.   The choral program needs to be no more than 9 minutes, and has to include one traditional Greek folk song (this could easily be a folk song that the dance troupe has already learned to dance to) and one Greek Orthodox Church hymn.  More folksongs or hymns can be added to complete the program, at the discretion of the Choral Director.   We at the HDF Executive Committee are ready to provide any help needed in selecting songs or hymns for a choral program, or even in getting the local Choral Group started.   The rehearsal time for a typical 9 minute program can easily be 60-90 minutes once a week for 4-8 weeks, depending on the difficulty of the songs or hymns chosen. So, find a choral director for your parish’s HDF program, even an adult already working with the dance troupe who has some basic musical ability,  chose the songs and hymns, practice for 60-90 minutes after Liturgy on Sunday, or after (before) dance troupe practice for a few weeks and now your parish is a part of the Choral Competition as well! It is really this easy. Having an HDF choral group in your parish is extremely rewarding and worthwhile, and, in my opinion, every parish should make the effort to participate.  The singing of traditional Greek folksongs and the chanting of Greek Orthodox Church hymns enrich us, and open to us a very important part of our ethnic and religious heritage.   Being a part of the Choral Festival adds enormously to the annual HDF experience for those who participate, not only in terms of expressing ourselves with the art form of choral music, but also in terms of fellowship and community. If you have any thought at all that an HDF choral team is right for your parish, please contact me and I’ll be more that happy to help you get started.  The Judges for HDF Choral 2008 in Winston-Salem will be Dr. Constantine Kokenes, Mr. Nicholas Kyrus and Mr. John Michael Boyer.  Dr. Kokenes is the Left Chanter at Annuciation Cathedral in Atlanta, is the Chairman of the Metropolis of Atlanta Chanter’s Federation, and an expert on Hellenic folk music.  Mr. Kyrus is a well renowned Greek Orthodox Choir director from Falls Church, Virginia, and is known on a national level for his many work shops and programs on Greek Orthodox choral music.  Mr. Boyer is the Protopsaltis of the Metropolis of San Francisco, conducts a professional choral group, and  is a founding member of Capella Romana. Michael Rallis    HDF Choral Competition Director
Phone:    910 256 3024 home
               910 619 0014  cellular Email:     mgrallis@aol.commailto:mgrallis@aol.comshapeimage_4_link_0