What a week last week! Wednesday, August 11, 2010
This past week kicked off the beginning of Stanton’s busy season. Right now, school is about to start for most music educators across the country, and Stanton’s has been preparing since last spring to help those teachers to get ready. One of the first things that let us know that school is starting is Stanton’s “School Choral Week.”Â
Stanton’s Sheet Music hosts a series of clinics held either at Veterans Memorial or right here in the store. Greg Gilpin started off our extravaganza week as our Elementary General Music clinic. Greg has a wealth of experience in the choral world as an educator, composer and editor that he brings to the clinic, including teaching tips and tricks as he shares his knowledge of the products.  Next was the John Jacobson Workshop, featuring choreography with John Jacobson! If you’ve never had a chance to see John in action, you’d be utterly amazed at the energy he brings to a variety of easily-teachable dance steps and his enthusiasm for music education. On Friday was the big Joy of Singing workshop, featuring four of the top choral clinicians in the country. This year’s line-up was Roger Emerson, Mark Brymer, John Jacobson and Steve Zegree–all experienced music educators and top-notch clinicians.  They presented over 100 new choral titles throughout the day, including ideas for programming, tips for motivating students and suggestions for teachers to keep themselves energized and inspired on tough days at school.
After all of that, it was time to pack up the clinics at Veterans Memorial and move back over to the store for Saturday’s School Choral Super Session– featuring Greg Gilpin, choral editor for Shawnee Press, Mary Lynn Lightfoot, choral editor for Heritage Music Press, and Jen Sper, a school choral specialist here at Stanton’s. Many of the customers stay over night in Columbus to attend both the Joy of Singing on Friday and the Super Session on Saturday. The Super Session clinicians presented 75 new choral titles to the directors in attendance, helping them to find the perfect piece for their first fall concert. We were very excited to have everyone into Columbus and to share our enthusiasm for quality choral music. We hope everyone found something new that they could use this fall in their classrooms!