{"id":6748,"date":"2021-11-29T11:47:14","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T10:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/?p=6748"},"modified":"2021-11-29T11:49:49","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T10:49:49","slug":"der-kinderchor-der-mdw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/2021\/11\/29\/der-kinderchor-der-mdw\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"The mdw Children\u2019s Choir"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 26 January 2022, the mdw Children\u2019s Choir will present the fruits of this past year\u2019s labours in an atmospheric end-of-semester concert at the Future Art Lab. Astrid Krammer, who teaches at the mdw\u2019s Anton Bruckner Department, reveals how a rehearsal of this ensemble looks and why the benefits of its offerings extend beyond the participating children.<\/h5>\n
\"\"
\u00a9 Stephan Polzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSinging in a choir is about much more than just the musical dimension: it gives rise to a community, an energy, a feeling of togetherness.\u201d Astrid Krammer, who directs the Children\u2019s Choir of the Vienna Choir School and teaches choral conducting for children\u2019s choirs as well as vocal training for children and adolescents at the mdw, knows all about the benefits that children can derive from choral singing. \u201cFor many children, choral singing offers reinforcement\u2014of their self-confidence as well as their self-image.\u201d What\u2019s more, targeted training in vocal technique changes breathing and body-awareness, it cultivates musical skills such as one\u2019s sense of rhythm, and it also allows children to experience the joy of contributing to a full choral sound. \u201cIt\u2019s such a happy atmosphere \u2026 and when I\u2019m exhausted after school, singing in the choir gives me back my power,\u201d says an enthusiastic Ioana, age 12.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in the children\u2019s choir because I love to sing. And what I enjoy most of all is singing together with others and performing, like we are right now at the Raimund Theater.<\/p>\n

Lotte, 12 years old<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u00a9 Stephan Polzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Children\u2019s Choir rehearsal lasts 90\u00a0minutes. Weather permitting, the choir director begins their work in the mdw\u2019s acoustically vibrant inner courtyard with 20 minutes of vocal warm-ups. Afterwards, either Astrid Krammer or music education students rehearse various pieces with them. \u201cSometimes, we\u2019ll also dance or do some work relating to a foreign language for a particular song\u2014and we alternate between phases of concentrated study and relaxed repetition. There\u2019s also time reserved for chatting or doing things like discussing the programme for the ensemble\u2019s next concert. And prior to the COVID-19 crisis, we also included things like going out for pizza together, watching movies, or visiting museums as part of our choir weekends. Unfortunately, those kinds of things haven\u2019t been possible recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every concert where these kids make music with joyful abandon is something extremely special.<\/p>\n

Andrea Pfestorf-Janke, artistic management office of the Vienna Choir School<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u00a9 Stephan Polzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Vienna Choir School\u2014and hence the Children\u2019s Choir\u2014arose from an interdisciplinary \u201cunivision\u201d project in 2009. And the very next year, students of the Anton Bruckner Department of Choral and Ensemble Directing and Music Theory in Music Education were already able to benefit from the opportunity to engage in practical teaching work with the Children\u2019s Choir. Children between the ages of nine and 14 are taught to work at a professional level, here, and students observing the rehearsals are treated to an inside look at educational work with children. \u201cWorking with kids is a far more immediate experience than his working with an adult choir,\u201d Astrid Krammer points out. \u201cYou get a far more direct sense of how positively the kids response to a given piece of music, what the atmosphere\u2019s like, and how well they\u2019re able to concentrate.\u201d Education students also get an impression of what\u2019s important when warming up and rehearsing. And topics such as working with parents and essential elements of preparing for a successful concert like blocking rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and dealing with stage fright are further things to which students get introduced. What\u2019s more, the age range encompassed by the Children\u2019s Choir roughly matches the ages served by schools of general education and music schools. \u201cI learned an incredible amount in my work with the mdw Children\u2019s Choir: rehearsal methods, how to work on vocal technique with special target groups, and how to work professionally with children. And I found it particularly interesting to learn about the criteria that go into selecting repertoire for children as well as about just what child-appropriate repertoire is in the first place,\u201d remembers former music education student Andrea Steger, who now directs ensembles including the Miniseestimmen, a children\u2019s choir in Vienna\u2019s Seestadt Aspern neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Alongside how I was able to gather some early musical experience and get to know the mdw, I\u2019m grateful above all for one thing: the friendships I made back then that have lasted to this day.<\/p>\n

Markus Adenstedt, music education student<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
\u00a9 Stephan Polzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly all of the children involved in the Children\u2019s Choir go on to join the Youth Choir, says Andrea Pfestorf-Janke of the Vienna Choir School\u2019s artistic management office. And: \u201cEvery year, around four or five singers from that ensemble are admitted here as students. Some of them would have never even dreamed of applying here without first having been members of our children\u2019s and youth choirs. But the Children\u2019s Choir made the mdw less intimidating to them.\u201d Markus Adenstedt, who took his musical baby steps in the mdw Children\u2019s Choir, began studying music education at the mdw this year. \u201cIt was choral singing that brought me first to singing itself and ultimately to my studies here at the mdw\u2014and the Children\u2019s Choir played a central role in this. Going to those choir rehearsals and looking up to the university students was always something special, and it\u2019s what made me want to study here myself someday.<\/p>\n

One of the Children\u2019s Choir\u2019s central concerns is developing the children\u2019s vocal technique. Voice teachers show mdw students how to work with an ensemble in such a way that the participating children receive optimal vocal training. And among those who value the high level of vocal, musical, and pedagogical support that these young choristers enjoy are their parents. \u201cThe educators always make sure that our children use their voices correctly. And they help our kids gain access to an entirely new world\u2014the world of music.\u201d Lotte and Marthe\u2019s parents became aware of the Children\u2019s Choir at an mdw Campus Party, and it was at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Vienna Choir School that they ultimately decided to register their two daughters for the Children\u2019s Choir. \u201cThe combination of weekly rehearsals and a wide range of extras like rehearsal weekends, performances, stage productions, and supervision of our children by the Choir School\u2019s competent employees seemed totally unique to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a9 Stephan Polzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I find it extremely meaningful to work with young voices, study pieces with several parts, and convey the joy of music-making.<\/p>\n

Astrid Krammer, director of the mdw Children\u2019s Choir<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just how special the experiences in the Children\u2019s Choir are for these young musicians is something that choir director Astrid Krammer knows well: \u201cThere\u2019s now a large body of research that points to how singing makes people smart, healthy, and happy\u2014which naturally also holds true for children\u2019s choirs. And the feedback I\u2019ve heard from our children over the past 10 years confirms this all the more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a9 Stephan Polzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 26 January 2022, the mdw Children\u2019s Choir will present the fruits of this past year\u2019s labours in an atmospheric end-of-semester concert at the Future Art Lab. Astrid Krammer, who teaches at the mdw\u2019s Anton Bruckner Department, reveals how a rehearsal of this ensemble looks and why the benefits of its offerings extend beyond the participating children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":6751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1217,1175,1230,501,854],"class_list":["post-6748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special","tag-2021-4","tag-gemeinsam","tag-kinderchor","tag-singen","tag-special"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6748"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6977,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748\/revisions\/6977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}