Institute, Festival and Scottish Highlands Retreat
The Music of Mendelssohn for Children and Youth Choirs
STIRLING

In July 1829 Mendelssohn spent the summer in London examining autographed scores of Handel oratorios and other choral works.  As the concert season drew to an end, Mendelssohn took his walking stick and set off for Edinburgh with a friend.  In Edinburgh Mendelssohn climbed Arthur’s Seat and later visited the ruins of Holyrood Chapel, the palace where Queen Mary of Scotland lived and loved.   From Edinburgh, Mendelssohn began his long anticipated journey to the Scottish Highlands from Stirling!  Along the way, he wrote about “the precipices, passes, crossways, beautiful green everywhere, deep blue water, stern, dark, very lonely”.  He was fascinated by the Scottish people in their tartan kilts, speaking their “unintelligible” Gaelic! 

We are writing to invite you to join us for the 2010 CME Institute for Choral Teacher Education to be held in Scotland at Stirling University July 18 – 22.  Be sure to check the website: choralmusicexperience.com and write directly to Mandy Miller if you are interested in bringing members of your choir to Scotland next summer.   We will follow In the Footsteps of Mendelssohn, climbing ruins, visiting palaces and studying a rich repertoire of Handel and Mendelssohn oratorio duets, trios and choruses selected and adapted for children and youth choirs. For contrast, we will study some wonderful new repertoire from CME’s Celtic Voices Series including the choral music of Institute Faculty, Lee Kesselman, Lori-Anne Dolloff and Mandy Miller!

We know how difficult it is for choirs to tour abroad in these difficult economic times, so if bringing your full choir is not an option, we are encouraging cme choral teachers to join us in Scotland with a leadership ensemble of eight or more selected by you to represent your programs.  The Institute will offer a vibrant Festival program of Mendelssohn and Handel choruses, alongside an array of Celtic song and story-telling to be presented at the Institute’s Visions of Peace Concert conducted by Doreen Rao and guests.

Before and after the five-day Institute and Festival in Stirling July 18 – 22,  course participants may elect the optional course retreat by signing up for the Institute Travel Option: In The Footsteps of Mendelssohn will be offered to course participants, families, friends and travel companions and run independently by the Institute’s official travel service. In the Footsteps of Mendelssohn, Travel Option I ofers a pre-Institute two-day Scottish Welcome Weekend in Edinburgh with hotel accommodations, sightseeing, high tea and a Mendelssohn lecture, July 16-17.  Following the Institute, In the Footsteps of Mendelssohn, Travel Option II continues with three days of island hopping through the Scottish Hebrides to the Isle of Skye
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Certified choral teachers holding a CME Artist-Teacher Diploma are invited to attend the 2010 Institute for expenses only.  The reduced CME Artist-Teacher registration fee covers room, board and a small materials fee.