First Rehearsal: Fall 2011

Greetings!!

The season is upon us! ACW Men's Choir is back in action.

Wednesday, September 14 was our first night of the Fall semester. We had an amazing group of guys, though we were small in number, we were large in sound. It was a wonderful gift! I am so happy to be back with this ensemble.

We rehearsed in the mess hall instead of the auditorium this week. That was quite an experience. We were able to sit around their dinner tables and have the greatest conversations. We talked about our favorite things, our reasons for coming to rehearsal, and the best subject of all, worlds covered in chili.

It was a really important night for us as a community. We got to know more about each other and connect on a different level. It's all about trust. We can sit and listen and have wonderful conversations and then get up and sing some beautiful music together. I don't think that I could be more proud to say that I work with this group.

Rev. Dawn, you are amazing! Your gift with the Word and your ability to fuse us together never cease to amaze me. Michelle, your desire to grow and learn with these men is admirable. I have seen you grow so much in your teaching just since last semester. Don't stop!

We look forward to meeting more guys this Sunday when the three of us join them for church. We are hoping to encourage some new guys to make music with us. Michelle and I will be singing for them and leading them in song while we worship.

More exciting news/updates to come!

Calling all music education majors!!

Good morning,

Can you believe we start classes in a couple of weeks?!? To tell you the truth, I’m excited to go back but not excited all at once! I hope you all have had an amazing and restful summer. Now, it’s time for back to work, school, and for some of us, prison.

Trust me, it is not what you think. Going to prison on Wednesday nights can be the highlight of your week, if you get to come back home that same night. If the idea of going to a prison creeps you out, it is understandable, but if teaching music to a group of men interests you, please, keep reading.

About Prison:

For the past two years, I have been leading choir rehearsals at a men’s correctional facility called, Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Bordentown, NJ. I have had many students join me throughout my time there and we would like to increase our repertoire and our available number of student directors each week.

I have many ideas for our work this year, including a look at what O Passo can do for our ensemble, balancing major/minor triads, and composing our own poetry to set to music. I would also like to include student works from WCC, as well as our combined compositions, created during the rehearsal.

Time Commitment:

Wednesday nights, we leave the WCC campus between 6 and 6:15pm. We make the drive to the Rider campus and head to Bordentown from there with Rev. Dawn Adamy. We are at the prison from 7-8:30pm, which usually puts us back at WCC around 9:15ish.

I would also like to meet at least once outside of Wednesday nights to discuss our plans for future rehearsals as well as reflections on previous rehearsals. This would require a huge chunk of time. This date can be in person or via Skype. I would also love a journal entry, submitted to me, after each rehearsal. I keep a journal, as well, and I hope to combine each entry to keep our blog updated.

This activity is also good for PDA credit!

What if I cannot make Wednesday nights but I really want to be involved?

Not to worry!

Last year, we offered a music theory class to the guys on Thursday nights. I am unsure of the nature of this class but I am certain that it helps our rehearsals for the following week.

I would like to start something new this semester for those who like the idea of teaching music at a prison, but either do not have the time, or are not sure they can bring themselves to go to a prison each week. We need new repertoire! Our ensemble can sing in unison and we can even manage to sing a canon or two. These pieces can be range anywhere from rap to spiritual and classical to jazz. We do not have access to a piano each week, so all of our work is done a capella. Those who would like to help choose, arrange, and catalog our repertoire would be an important asset to our ensemble. We are hoping to give a concert at some point in the near future and it would be nice to have one place to find all of our music.

Want more information?

Please, feel free to contact me via email at:

fesslerm@rider.edu

Fungi the Mafia: The new mission statement

Hi friends!

Wow, November 2009 was our last post...bad us! (bad me, really!) Well, we're going to fix that right now.

Since we last heard about this ministry, things were still quite new. We were having trouble choosing rep and meeting with each other to talk about those things. Since last November, things have changed a bit. We have seen many of the same men each week but we are under new direction. Rev. Dawn is still a huge part of this ensemble but our student contributions have changed. Oh, and we have a member from "the outside world", Richard that comes with us. Ok, more about student contributions.

Michelle is the newest member of our team. She has added a great deal to this ensemble. With me every week, she leads the men in singing and has created an environment of reciprocal teaching. With her, we have explored the musical world of canon. We have yet to master this art as a group, but we are so close! They enjoy working with Michelle, as do I.

I still go each week. We have begun to sing a song by Eminem called Not Afraid. The guys love it! They get an opportunity to compose their own rap about God and brotherhood. This is me trying to honor their world by bringing in something other than the spirituals that I have been teaching. *More about this ministry to come in an upcoming issue of the Music Educator's Journal.*

In addition to the choir on Wednesday nights, we have incorporated music/theory classes on Thursday night. Lauren and Kaitlin handle this event. Since neither of them were available on Wednesday night, Rev. Dawn decided this was a great supplement to what we learn on Wednesday nights. I could not agree more! I look forward to observing the differences from Thursday to Wednesday in the fall!

Rev. Dawn and I have also decided to create a mission statement. This is what we came up with:

To move beyond barriers

in order to create communities of hope

that restore, enlighten, and

transform lives through music.

What do you think? Pretty accurate, I'd say.

Whew, that was a lot to say! I will be posting more regularly once the semester begins again. I have been keeping a journal from this school year's travels to prison, but I can share my thoughts here as well.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!