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The New Guy Next Door: Music for Men's Chorus by Dr. Ethan Sperry, Director of Choral Activities, Portland State University by Heather Prinzing, R&S Chair for Male Choirs, ID ACDA
Sometimes we are spot on and other times tend to fall a little short. In my ten years as a choral director I have found remarkable success asking my colleges and/or state, division, and national R&S chairs for advice. In fact, last year I met a conductor/ composer/ arranger through this very process. During my search for collegiate clinicians, and since we were ta I spent hours on Youtube (best gift for choir nerds like us) listening to his arrangements and choirs. They were brilliant! He quickly became a favorite of mine and I had no hesitation emailing him about the possibility of a clinic. Little did I know that we would get much more than that! It turned out that Sperry is the ACDA National R&S Chair for Men’s Choirs. Boy did I find the right guy! I had been searching for something ethnic, something different, and something that no one else in the area had done. He suggested a number of songs including his own arrangements (I added all these suggestions to the end of this article). We chose “Wedding Qawwali”. He emailed me the music and several recordings. Communication with Sperry was effortless and he was incredibly quick to reply! At first glance I had no idea what Sperry’s music had in store for us or what journey it would take us on. All I knew was that, there was a lot of black ink on the paper, and my men’s jaws dropped when they heard the Miami Men’s Glee Choir’s recording. When the recording ended they stood and cheered. They were so excited and so pumped for this new challenge. No sooner than it started, the excitement in the air dissipated as one of the seniors said, “We only have two weeks, Mrs. P?!” Yes, they only had two weeks before tour, but I needed something to challenge and focus them. Making a long story short; we did it! The piece was learned in two weeks, had a clinic with Sperry at Portland State in April, and closed our set at our District III Large Group Festival with it; earning us a superior rating. It was a HUGE HIT and an incredible accomplishment for my men. They still talk about it and are always asking to do another Sperry arrangement! They even burst into song sporadically, chanting the chugging the rhythm and catchy melody of “Wedding Qawwali”. I even hear my women singing it on occasion! If you are looking for something that will challenge your students, add variety to your program, and utilize a new Northwest composer, look up Dr. Ethan Sperry. Sperry studied choral arranging both in classes and in private lessons with Morten Lauridsen at the University of Southern California, however, Sperry started his career arranging pop songs for his a cappella choir in college. Sperry feels that he is mostly self taught, but credits Lauridsen as a mentor, stating that the quality of his arrangements improved remarkably after studying with him. He also found huge inspiration from the Indian musicians he has worked with: Srinivas Krishnan on the classical Indian side, and by watching Ar Rahman compose in his studio. For Sperry, inspiration comes from his material; the music he chooses to arrange. He likes to arrange pieces that are not choral pieces in their original form. “Sometime I hear a piece and think, ‘wow, this would sound really cool if a choir sang it.’ I feel my goal is not just to arrange music, but to expand the genres of music that are available for choirs to sing.” Sperry has roughly 40 choral arrangements of both choral and pop songs for mostly upper level high school and collegiate choirs. Eleven of these are published with Earthsongs and two more are due out later in 2012. Most arrangements are for men’s choir, but has quite a bit of SATB and just recently for SSAA. Some of his published pieces are available in multiple voicing as well. I asked Sperry what his favorite arrangement to date is and here is what he said:
You can find versions of both of these on Youtube. You can also find many of his other pieces on Youtube (how did we choose lit before the Internet?). When you listen to Sperry’s music you can hear, feel, taste, and see the emotion in his arrangements. They are simply complex and textually appealing. Tackling Dr. Ethan Sperry’s arrangement of Ar Rahman’s “Wedding QawwaliI” not only invigorated my students, but also inspired me to reach out and challenge myself both musically and emotionally. If you ever have the chance to work with a composer/arranger on his/her own piece, DO IT! I’m so glad I did. It brings a whole new light to the music. It is scary at first, the payoff is incredible. In fact, we enjoyed our experience with Sperry so much that on tour this year we have plans to work with David Conte at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on one of his pieces. So, as this year closes, start talking to your national, divisional, and state R&S chairs. We are here to help you, give you suggestions, and provide contacts with others for you. I also have TONS of recordings that I would love to share. I hope you can enjoy the same opportunity that we had during your career. Go visit our “new guy next door” in Portland! Sperry was an absolute pleasure to work with and I wish we could have spent more time with him. If you are headed to Portland anytime soon call him up and have him work with your kids, or, watch one of his rehearsals, or invite him to judge your festival (like the Boise schools are this year). You will be inspired! Enjoy the rest of your year Idaho! ~Heather Prinzing Here are some of the suggestions he had for an upper level Varsity Men’s Choir: |
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Music is at the heart of our curriculum. A successful musical performance begins with the selection of the literature weeks, months, and at times even years before the actual performance. A significant amount of time is spent researching, analyzing, listening, rummaging, asking, stealing, and finally choosing repertoire for the year. 
king our spring tour to Portland, I contacted Bruce Browne, former Director of Choral Activities at Portland State. He mentioned that the “new guy” at Portland State was excellent. I jumped on the Internet and found that the “new guy” was Dr. Ethan Sperry from Miami University in Ohio. This
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