RS ETHNIC & MULTICULTURAL
Brandon Dean is the Director of Choral Activities at Ankeny High School, where he conducts the Chamber Choir, Varsity Men’s Chorus, Concert Choir, and Cantamus. He is also the director and arranger for Visual Adrenaline, the award-winning open class show choir at Ankeny High School. Originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mr. Dean holds a Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Luther College.
Mr. Dean frequently appears as a guest clinician and adjudicator around the Midwest. Most recently he adjudicated at "Great River" in Davenport, "Competition of Excellence" in Omaha, “Midwest Cup” in Lincoln, and the "Best of Show" in Sioux Falls. He has been a guest clinician for All-State music camps in both Iowa and Nebraska, and was an adjudicator for the Nebraska All-State Chorus Auditions. Mr. Dean is a past winner of the Nebraska Choral Director’s Association Graduate Scholarship in Choral Conducting. He also prepared the opera chorus for “The Bohemian Girl,” which won the Best Choral Presentation Award at the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera.
Please let me know if you have suggestions for literature, articles or links pertaining to multicultural music. It is my pleasure to serve on the R&S Committee for ICDA.
Brandon Dean
Multicultural and Ethnic Perspectives R&S Chair
ethnic-chair@iowachoral.org
Octavo of the Month
- May 2008: Suggestions from the newest (Fall 2007) octavos of major choral music publishers
- October 2005: Kyrie (Vytautas Miskinis — Lithuania)
Internet Resources
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http://www.travlang.com/languages/index.html
This web site will allow you to listen to examples of over forty world languages. It may be helpful to gain knowledge of sound “colors” of the languages you sing. -
http://www.pitts.emory.edu/theoarts/multi/country.html
This outstanding site has lists of repertoire sorted by country. The site has not been updated in some time, but is a good place to start looking. There are lots of great ideas here. -
http://www.sbgmusic.com/html/teacher/reference/cultures.html
This is a great resource for teachers and students. The web site is by Silver Burdett, and contains links for information on music from all over the world. No repertoire is listed, but it would be a good source for basic cultural and musical information. -
http://www.cpdl.org/
This is the Choral Public Domain web site. It offers a wealth of literature that is free to download and perform. There is a lot of music here and it is worth your time to look.
Publishers
Earthsongs (http://www.earthsongsmus.com/)
This is one of the premier publishers of world music available. The web site is fantastic, with a searchable database of repertoire, score images and audio samples. If you are looking for new music, start your search with Earthsongs.