Associate professor Stephen A. Futrell, director of choral activities at Elon University, presented at the Arizona chapter of the American Choral Directors Association State Conference (Four Corners Choral Workshop) held June 17-19 in Flagstaff, Ariz., at Northern Arizona University.
Futrell’s two presentations were titled “Art is in the Details—It’s a Food of Love Thing” and “Vocal Jazz Nuts & Bolts: Jazz Style, Basic Lit & Sound Reinforcement.” For the “Food of Love” presentation, Futrell cooked south Louisiana style chicken & sausage jambalaya relating the process to the creative process and developing teamwork in performing masterworks of the choral repertoire.
During his vocal jazz presentation, Futrell focused on vocal jazz style and related his philosophy of instilling a legitimate, classical foundation in teaching vocal technique. The presentation also included working with and using sound reinforcement equipment.
While in Arizona, Futrell taught a graduate-level conducting seminar at Arizona State University in Phoenix, focusing on developing a context-specific somatic vocabulary to both master’s and doctoral level students.