All-State Jazz Choir

This honor choir opportunity is open to singers currently enrolled under the direction of a KCDA member in grades 9, 10, 11, or 12 in a junior high, high school, or community choir program in the state of Kansas.

This ensemble performs  as part of the KCDA Summer Convention on Thursday, July 7, 2022.
Information
Event Timeline: 2021-2022 school year
March 7, 2022 – Ready to receive new mp3 files
April 1, 2022 – Online application completed (mp3 upload deadline)
April 15, 2022 – Audition fees due, *$11 per student* (postmark deadline)
April 18, 2022 – Website notification of accepted singers
May 11, 2022 – Participation fees due, *$60.00 per student* (postmark deadline)
July 6-7, 2022 – Performance at 2022 KCDA In-Service Workshop

Festival Scores – Audition Management System
We will use Festival Scores to manage audition mp3 uploads and judging. Teachers may begin creating their Director account and adding in their student profiles now. In order to get started with your audition profiles and uploads, use the following Event Tag to activate this Audition Event in your Director account: SLLC444

Audition Requirements Checklist: 
All auditioning students will submit four separate unedited audio recordings of themselves performing the following:
  1. Db Chromatic Scale
  2. Db Blues Scale
  3. I’m Old Fashioned (prepared singing excerpt)
  4. 24 bars of improvisation
*see important links above for guidelines, excerpts, and audition materials*

Please send payment(s) to:
Janie Brokenicky
14270 Liberty Circle
Wamego, KS 66547
IMPORTANT LINKS 
KCDA Jazz Choir Chair
Taryn Gervais 
Director of Choirs,
Blue Valley Southwest 
TGervais@bluevalleyk12.org
Dr. Justin Binek, 2022 Clinician 
Dr. Binek is an internationally recognized jazz and classical singer, pianist, and clinician/adjudicator. Selected as a Quarterfinalist for the 2022 GRAMMY Music Educator Award, he is also an acclaimed arranger and composer whose works, including his jazz-inspired Missa Lucis (an ecumenical mass for soloists, choir, rhythm section, and horns) have been published by Kerry Marsh Music and Anchor Music Publications.  As a contributing author to Diana Spradling’s groundbreaking book, Jazz Singing:  Developing Artistry and Authenticity, Justin has presented numerous clinics at the JEN, IAJE, and ISME Conferences.  Justin has served as a member of the National Association for Music Education’s Council for Jazz Education, and also served on the boards of the Pennsylvania chapter of ACDA and the New Jersey Association for Jazz Education. His European quartet (featuring pianist Ewout Pierreux, bassist Jos Machtel, and drummer Toni Vitacolonna) released the album “Songbook” in 2013, he was a guest artist at the 2013 and 2016 Standard Bank National Jazz Festivals in Grahamstown, South Africa, and his trio (featuring bassist Micah Jones and drummer Erik Johnson) performed at the 2014 JEN Conference in Dallas.  Justin served as the director of the New Jersey Honors Jazz Choir from 2007 to 2013, and he has directed numerous other state- and region-level honors choirs, earning a 2020 DownBeat Student Music Award for Honors Vocal Jazz Ensemble Outstanding Performance with the 2019 Oklahoma All-State Jazz Choir.  He serves on the faculties of the Halewynstichting Jazz Workshop in Dworp, Belgium; the Tiffin University Summer Camp in Tiffin, Ohio; and the Jazz Harmony Retreat in Creston, Iowa.  Justin is also a featured in-app clinician on Michele Weir's new ScatAbility app for iOS, the first voice-specific jazz improv practice app for mobile devices. Notable  scholarly works include his 2017 dissertation, "The evolution of Ella Fitzgerald's syllabic choices in scat singing: a critical analysis of her Decca recordings, 1943-1952," and the original song "Oote" and the accompanying analysis "Jan Hanlo's Oote and Jazz Music: A Compositional Journey," published in Ode aan Oote (Uitgelezen Boeken, 2016).