Summer Camp Registration is Now Opened!

Dear Preparatory Division Singers and Families:

We invite you to join us this summer for Cantabile’s Singing Summer Camp.  Cantabile has partnered with the Parks and Recreation Departments of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills to offer this exciting summer camp.   Our program offers singing, theater, crafts and outdoor fun all taught with Cantabile’s signature Kodaly/Orff approach to children’s music education for a truly enriching and exciting experience.  This year camp is offered for three one-week sessions each with a different musical theme.  Campers can sign up for one, two or all three sessions.  Cantabile’s Singing Summer Camp is a non-auditioned camp for children entering first-fourth grade in Fall 2015.

We will hold a performance on Fridays for families and their invited guests. Children will experience teamwork and build social skills through making props together at camp, preparing their production for an audience.  This is where creativity starts!

Camp Sessions

Session	Week	Time	Performance
Peter and the Wolf	7/6-7/10	8:30AM- NOON	7/10, Friday
Ahoy, There Mate!	7/13-7/17	8:30AM- NOON	7/17, Friday
Tell Me a Tale	7/20-7/24	8:30AM- NOON	7/24, Friday

Camp Location:  Los Altos Hills Town Hall; 26379 Fremont Rd, Los Altos Hills

Registration

You can register two ways: 

Through the Parks and Rec Department in Los Altos Hills please click here and scroll down to register on line: Los Altos Hills Registration

Los Altos Hills residents: $295/ Non-resident: $309

Through the Parks and Rec department in Los Altos please click here:

Los Altos Registration 

Los Altos residents: $307/ Non-resident: $325

You can also register over the phone through each Parks Department:

Los Altos Hills Parks and Recreation: Sarah Gualtieri; 650-947-2518

Los Altos Parks and Recreation: 650-947-2790

Camp is also listed in the Parks and Rec guides for each city and we will have a limited supply of these at prep classes starting the week of March 16.

Materials Fee

Please note that the materials fee of $35 will be collected on the first day of each session. This fee includes materials for crafts, music and our Cantabile Singing Summer Camp T-Shirt! Please make your check payable to Cantabile Youth Singers.

Weekly Camp Themes

Peter and the Wolf               Week 1 (7/6-7/10)

Children will learn to improvise melodies and movements by understanding the concept of leitmotif, a recurrent theme throughout a composition that describes a character. Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev, is loved by children from all around the world. This famous orchestral musical tale is a perfect way to understand the timbre of different instruments since each different character has a specific instrument that represents it in the score. Based on Cantabile’s signature youth music education model Teacher Jina will help campers combine the elements of speech, rhythm, movement, dance and song to present a full musical play of Peter and the Wolf.

Ahoy There Mate!                 Week 2 (7/13-7/17)

Children will hoist the sail and join the pirate crew in Greg Gilpin’s “How to Be a Pirates.” This mini-musical introduces an ornery yet sweet Captain and a reliable First Mate who transform landlubber students into pirates. Through story and song, the shipmates dress in pirate costumes, raise the Jolly Roger, spy with telescopes, find buried treasure, and show “thar” pride in a raucous pirate party. This is fast-paced, funny, and perfect way to splash summer away! Children will be making their own props and costumes for this full stage production.

Tell Me a Tale                      Week 3 (7/20-7/24)

Our Tell Me a Tale program exposes children to world cultures through music. This week features new tales from around the world, explored through multi-instrument and multi-cultural elements each day. The tales include an around-the-imagination adventure of stories from Europe, Malaysia, India, South Africa and other cultures. This collection brings storytelling and literature to life through music. Through singing, dancing, and instrument play, children will discover five delightful folk tales that represents the rich, diverse, humorous and profound legacies of the cultures and eras they feature.

Please contact Jina Han at:  jina@cantabile.org or 510-919-4648 with any questions you have or for more information about the program.

This is a choo choo train!

Dear Preparatory 1 Families,

We are on an exciting journey of exploring train sound, discovering train music and hopping on a train using movements! As children continue to listen and sing to the track Choo choo choo, ask them "Where is the train taking us today?" and see what ideas they come up with. They can also invite families to help build a train (like we do in class.) Simply, families stand in one line and place hands on the shoulder of a person in front of you. The conductor gets to say, "All aboard!"

Children love "This is a choo choo train," a sit-down chant that we do in class with motions. Ask them if they remember and have them share it with you:

This is a choo choo train
Puffing down the track
Now it's going forward
And now it's going back
Now the bell is ringing (ding ding ding)
Now the whistle blows (whoo whoo whoo)
What a lot of noise it makes
Everywhere we go!

Lastly, Sarasponda is a nonsense made up song that children love to say. Please have them listen for an octave leap (low Do to high Do) on "A-dorayo" in the music. They have not learned a high Do yet, but we will explore them next week. See what kind of motions they come up with when listening to this track!

Happy Singing!

Choo Choo Choo

Dear Preparatory 1 Families:

Here is the recordings we will be focusing on next week:

Choo choo choo
(This song is in minor modality)

Sarasponda
(Clap on "ret set set," fill in the missing words, and both hands in the air on "a doray-o")

I pass my shoe
(Listen for the accelerando and tap the beat)

We will be exploring sounds of a train, riding on a train and singing various train songs. Meanwhile, see if your child can solfege "I'm coming out!" from the recording "We are dancing."

We are dancing
(Ask children what they want to do in the forest other than dancing. Then, have them move around accordingly while singing! They can invite parents to the game.)

Cantabile Singing Summer Camp

Dear Preparatory 1 Families:

I am safely back from the 2015 National ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. I cannot wait to share my experience and many new music I have received with my students next week!

Update on Summer Camp

I would like to inform parents that our summer camp registration is now opened and accessible online. Please click here to register as it will fill up fast! I am also including the description of the camp for your review below. Please e-mail me at [jina@cantabile.org] or [510-919-4648] with any concern or questions you may have regarding the camp.

Cantabile Singing Summer Camp

Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley offers the first year of exciting summer camp that includes singing, theatre, crafts and outdoor fun! Cantabile Youth Singers marks twentieth year of anniversary since found by the artistic director, Elena Sharkova who is recognized nationally and internationally an inspirational and versatile conductor, clinician, music educator, and lecturer. Along with the artistic director, the director of preparatory division, Jina Han is thrilled to lead summer camp with the background of master’s degree in choral conducting, teaching in Kindermusik, Kodaly, and Orff. The summer activities are based on Kodály and Orff methodology, a renowned music approach to children that was developed in Hungary and Germany. It is designed to be fun, educational and inspirational. One of our highlights is the location of the camp. Children will experience the beauty of music in a serene environment where nature is close by. Each week, we invite children to their favorite places including under the sea, exploring ranch and animals, and an adventure to multicultural tales!

Ahoy, There Mate! is a fun theme where children will be rocking their boats, visiting long-legged sailors and pirates, and exploring different sounds under the ocean. They will create music with Orff instruments; swim around with great sea creatures with their singing voices! With the added ocean props, children will spend their best summer here!

Many of us may know the story of Peter and the Wolf. This theme will not only educate children to learn orchestral instruments and its timbre, but they will also be learning leitmotivs, the little melody that describes a “character.” Similarly, voices have many different characters, ranges, and uniqueness that we are going to discuss, and eventually transcribe original orchestral work to choral.

What great way is to explore the world through music than anything else? Tell Me a Tale features a new tale from around the world, explored through multi-instrument and multi-cultural elements each day. It’s an around-the-imagination adventure of stories from Europe, Malaysia, South Africa and other cultures!

We will hold performance on Fridays for friends and families. Children will experience teamwork and build social skills through making props together at the camp, bringing unlimited imagination to a theatre, and singing with movements in unity. This is where creativity starts!

Dates                                                Theme                      Time

Week 1  July 6-10             Peter and the Wolf          8:30-12:00

Week 2  July 13-17          Ahoy, There Mate!           8:30-12:00

Week 3  July 20-24          Tell Me a Tale                    8:30-12:00

Location: Los Altos Hills Town Hall

Ages: 6-9

Fee: $325 per week (material fee included)

Happy Singing!

Apple Tree

Dear Families:

I would like to remind you that there will be NO rehearsals next week February 16-20. Rehearsals will resume the following week starting Monday, February 23.
Please have children listen to the song "Apple Tree" I have recorded below. After listening to numerous times, see if they can sing the whole song on solfege. Give them the starting solfege, "Sol." 

This exercise is to work on their ear training/ aural skills which children learn to identify, solely by hearing, pitches, intervals, melody, rhythms, and other basic elements of music. As a process, ear training is in essence the inverse of sight-singing, the latter being analogous to reading a written text aloud without prior opportunity to review the material. Ear training is typically a component of formal music training. 

The study of solfege enables children to audiate, or mentally hear, the pitches of a piece of music which he or she is seeing for the first time and then to sing them aloud. Solfege study improves recognition of musical intervals, tonal memory, and strengthens the understanding of music theory.

Recording:

Apple Tree

Solfege answer key:

ss-m-ss-m
ss-ll-ss-m
ss-m-ss-m
ss-ll-s-m-d

Happy Singing!

"We are dancing in the forest"

Dear Families:

This week, we are continuing on singing "We are dancing in the forest" in text, then on solfege. Here is the solfege singing to the song:

Sol Sol La La Sol Sol Mi Mi
(we are dancing in the forest)
Sol Sol La La Sol Sol Mi
(while the wolf is far away)
Sol Sol La La Sol Sol Mi Mi
(who knows what will happen to us)
Sol Sol La La Sol Sol Mi
(if he finds us at our play)

Sol Mi Mi Sol
(wolf are you there?)
Mi Sol Sol Mi Mi Sol
(I'm putting on my shoes)

Mi Sol Mi Do
(I'm coming out)

*Please remind children that the wolf in this song is a nice wolf who is looking for a partner to play.


Happy Singing!

First Week of Spring

Dear Preparatory 1 Families:

It was great to see everyone at our first class of the term. A special hello to the new faces that are joining us in 2015 – welcome to the Cantabile family! For those of you who are new to the organization, this blog is reading for Preparatory 1 singers and families. It’s updated once a week, and contains class materials on your weekly practice, recordings and details on upcoming special events and performances. Please check the blog regularly, and email jina@cantabile.org if you are experiencing any technical difficulties.

Our theme of the semester is "Around the World." We will be exploring multicultural music and learning about different cultures and ethnicity. 

Please listen to the recordings below to find out what songs we have learned in our first week:

Traditional West African Call and Response Song

Che Che Koolay:

http://picosong.com/L5Bh/

(Children can work on echoing the leader on the recording)

Translation: 

Hands on your head

Hands on your shoulders

Hands on your waist

Hands on your knees

Hands on your ankles

Hands on your ankles

Hands on your ankles, hey! 

European Children's Game and Chant

We Are Dancing in the Forest:

http://picosong.com/L5BK/

(We will be singing this song in solfege next week!)

Review hand signs for "Sol," "Mi," "La," and low "Do"

Happy Singing!