Show: Idaho All-State Choir

The Role I Played: Singer / First Tenor

Performance Date(s): April 1, 1978

City: Twin Falls, ID

Venue: College of Southern Idaho Gym

Comments: I was so excited to be selected as a member of the Idaho All-State Choir! I always thought of myself as an actor with an "okay" voice. I was in band and drama in my first two years of high school. After I was in Mame in my junior year, however, the choir director asked me to join the choir. He also encouraged me to audition for All-State Choir. I remember having to sing the national anthem a capella (and something else), record it on a cassette tape, and mail it in to be adjudicated. I was thrilled when I found out I was chosen to be in the choir. It was a wonderful experience, with beautiful songs.

Thanks to contemporary turntables that convert 33 1/3 rpm records to digital audio files, you can hear us here.

Charlene Archibeque

Following 35 years as Director of Choral Activities at San Jose State University where she trained hundreds of today’s choral conductors, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, Dr. Charlene Archibeque returned to the SJSU campus as Acting Director of Choral Activities for the academic year 2010-11. One of America’s foremost choral conductors and teachers, Dr. Archibeque helped put SJSU on the world map by winning seven international choral competitions with the famous SJSU Choraliers. Her choirs completed sixteen concert tours to Australia, Mexico and throughout Europe and she has conducted in many of the major music halls including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Albert Hall in London, and the Berlin Philharmonie and Schauspielhaus. She won prizes for Best Conductor at Spittal, Gorizia and Tallinn International Festivals. Dr. Archibeque has presented multiple choir clinics and conductors’ workshops throughout the US, as well as Australia, England, Canada, and most of Europe. Known as one of America’s top choral clinicians, she has conducted hundreds of honor choirs in 45 states and six provinces of Canada. Active in the American Choral Directors Association she has presented major interest sessions, served on many panels, and her choirs have performed at 25 states, divisional and national conventions. She was the recipient of the Howard Swan Award presented by Calif. ACDA in 2008 and in 2013 the “Excellence in Choral Music,” a new award presented by the University of Colorado.

In the past several years Dr. Archibeque conducted All-State Choirs in Connecticut, California and South Carolina, judged the Golden State Choral Festivals, and presented a major session at the Western Division Convention of the ACDA in Reno. She was Headliner for the National Association of Church Musicians Convention in Los Angeles, one of the Headliners for the ACDA Voices United Conference at James Madison University in Virginia, as well as for the Michigan ACDA Conference. She currently teaches a Summer Workshop on Conducting at SJSU every July.

Known for her knowledge of the choral repertoire and performance practice of all styles, Dr. Archibeque has conducted and prepared over 150 major choral works with orchestras and performs music from all historical periods. She regularly serves as Visiting Professor at various Universities and was on the campuses of both the University of Michigan and Michigan State in 2010 and at the University of Delaware, at Seattle University and at the Westminster Choir College in spring 2012. Her most recent conducting activities included Guest conductor for the California Bach Society in concerts of an all- Handel program, the Santa Clara Chorale Baroque Christmas concerts with Period Instruments and an all Britten Concert in St. Louis Missouri.

Her degrees were earned at the Univ. of Michigan, San Diego State and the DMA at the University of Colorado. She was named Outstanding Alumna at the latter and was given both San Jose State’s highest honors: Outstanding Professor and President’s Scholar. She currently serves on the Board of the American Beethoven Society, is Past-President of the Silicon Valley League of the San Francisco Symphony and is Editor of the Charlene Archibeque Choral Series with Santa Barbara Music Publishers.

Dr. Archibeque produced a DVD published by GIA entitled “How to Make a Good Choir Sound Great” which is available on Amazon. Other activities include Headliner for the Texas Music Educator’s Association in San Antonio in February 2014, Artist in Residence in Massachusetts and at Cal Poly University and Speaker for the Arkansas MEA convention. Her interest session for the National ACDA Conference in Salt Lake City, 2015 was attended by over 1000 directors and was repeated for the NCCO National Conference in Portland in November the same year.

Beginning in 2016 Dr. Archibeque presented two sessions for the Missouri Music Educators, taught a conducting master class, presented a S.M.A.R.T seminar for the Western Division ACDA Conference and a seminar for 100 college students in Los Angeles, judged a number of invitational choral festivals, including the Los Angeles PSICA Collegiate Choral Festival, the California Music Educators State Festival in Fullerton, and the Golden State Choral Festival in Napa. In June she served as Headliner Clinician for the Georgia ACDA Conference in Atlanta.

Source: http://www.sjsu.edu/music/alumni_community/summer_choral_workshops/charlene_archibeque/ (02/25/2017)