Being able to go to all of the classes at UMEA was awesome. One of them was by Bonita Cross, who spoke on finding repertoire for choirs! My high school choir directors were total hipsters when it came to this, and always seemed to find really wonderful and obscure pieces... but I never really thought of how exactly they managed to do so. I've liked to picture them going on these Indiana Jones style worldwide adventures to hunt them down, but maybe not.
Anyway, here is a list of some of the websites we were directed to in the class:
sheetmusicplus.com
Choral Public Domain Library and the Petrucci Music Library
J.W. Pepper
Alfred
Earthsongs
Alliance
Hal Leonard
Beckenhorst
I also found out from some older peers who were at the conference with me that one of the Choral Ed classes I'll take in a couple years requires me to collect around 50 pieces of choral repertoire. Whelp. Might as well start now. Which is perfectly okay with me, actually. Finding and flipping through pieces of music is such an exciting experience for me. I was that weird kid who saved their music in high school, and man, am I glad I was.
I went ahead and actually bought a few things from the booths right there at the conference. Digging through the bins in the exhibit hall was sort of a hectic treasure hunt, but I managed to find (and buy!) some good stuff, including Sleep (by Eric Whitacre) and a fun Beauty and the Beast Medley (arranged by Roger Emerson).
In addition all the sources I learned about at the conference, I have made a Choral Score Wishlist board on Pinterest in which to store some of the pieces I like and that I might use one day.
Happy music hunting!
