Liza Calesesi Maidens
Session 5
Friday March 11th - 8:30am
Expanding the Choral Canon
Session Description
This session will help you create engaging experiences for your choirs that draw on overlooked parts of the canon. In addition to uncovering more approachable works by well-known composers of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, I will highlight voices often excluded from our choral history: Maddalena Casulana - first woman to publish her own compositions; Vicente Lusitano - first Black published composer; Juana Ines de la Cruz - composer and nun who defended women’s right to knowledge. I will share new resources for this repertoire, while demonstrating how to creatively program these works. Scores and audio provided for every repertoire example.
Clinician Bio
Liza Calisesi Maidens is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Prior to UIC, she was a member of the conducting faculty at Eastern Michigan University. Dr. Calisesi Maidens' research centers around the expansion of the canon. Her research, “20th-century British Commissions and the Democratization of Music,” highlights two treble choral-orchestral works by Imogen Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams, commissioned by the two largest women’s organizations in Britain. She received her DMA in Choral Conducting at Michigan State University, and holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and Central College.