uSing uSask Choral Festival
uSing uSask is a non-competitive festival designed to celebrate the successes of choirs and inspire them with feedback to challenge them to greater musical heights. All choirs at every age and stage of development are welcome.
October 24-26, 2024 - Celebration Showcase at 3PM Saturday October 26th, in Convocation Hall on the U of S Campus.
Featuring clinician Scott Leithead, of Edmonton's Korora Choirs
For more information, contact Dr. Jennifer Lang at jennifer.lang@usask.ca.
Festival Information
Clinics
Performances and clinics will be held at various times throughout the weekend. Each ensemble will have up to 20 minutes of performance time, followed by a 30-minute workshop with the guest clinician. All performances and clinics will be held in Convocation Hall at the University of Saskatchewan.
Choral Celebration Concert
In addition to a personalized clinic your choir is invited to perform one song (or 2 depending on numbers of participating choirs) with your choir in the audience showcase and to also participate in a mass choir collaboration that will include the Greystone Singers. The clinician will choose 3 pieces: SATB, treble voices, and lower voices. You are welcome to have singers in all 3 pieces. Original scores will be provided to you and your singers. Your singers must be present at the Friday evening rehearsal to participate in the Choral Celebration Concert.
The rehearsal for the mass choir will be on Friday evening at 6 pm. and the celebration showcase will be on Saturday at 3 pm in Convocation Hall. Participating choirs will perform one (or two) songs in the showcase and we will conclude the program with three mass choral selections chosen and directed by our guest choral clinician.
Directors' Dinner
This will be a welcome opportunity for choral directors to greet each other and converse in an informal and collegial environment. Information to come!
About our Clinician
Scott Leithead is the founder and Artistic Director of Edmonton's Korora Choir Association and TIME Association. He has been invited to conduct provincial and state honour choirs on twenty-six occasions and he has presented workshops in North America and beyond. Notable appearances include: adjudicating the Tampere International Festival in Finland; conducting the 2013, 2015-2019, 2023 Ellison Canadian Honour Choir. He has adjudicated both the ACCC National Competition for Amateur Canadian Choirs and the Kathaumixw International Choir Festival (2014, 2016, 2023). Under his direction, Korora was the winner of both the 2015 CBC National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs and both the 2015 and 2016 Canadian National Music Competition. In the summer of 2019, Korora was invited to perform at the IFCM World Choral Expo in Portugal, where they represented Canada on the world stage. Also in 2019, Korora was featured on an episode of CTV's "The Amazing Race Canada”.
Scott has a passion for music from southern Africa, and he has been invited to work with choirs in South Africa and Namibia on numerous occasions. In 2008–2009, Scott was on sabbatical in Namibia, where he worked with the Mascato Youth Choir and many other choirs in southern Africa. Scott’s passion for innovative and unique choral music experiences has shaped the direction of the Korora Choir Association. In February 2023 he conducted the ISSEA Mass Choir in Johannesburg South Africa featuring international schools from across the African continent.
In 2024, he will conduct the 40th Anniversary Manitoba Sings Adult Choir, the Ellison Canadian Honour Choir (Toronto), the Eastman Honour Choir and the Nova Scotia Youth Choir. He will also adjudicate the 2024 Ontario Vocal Festival. Scott is a longtime member of the advisory committee for the Canadian Rocky Mountain Music Festival and the Edmonton and Whistler Cantando Festivals.
Scott was awarded Choir Alberta’s top honour, the Richard S. Eaton Award, in 2015. He also received Edmonton’s Salute to Excellence award in 2016. He has also been awarded the Syncrude Award for Innovative Direction.