Molly, Kimi, and Hunter attend a Giants game!

Dr. Dave meets a local celebrity (and thief)

​The release date is expected to be announced for some time in 2025, but with the post-production process just getting underway there is no established timeline just yet. I hope to share more on our social media platforms as information becomes available, but until then, thank you for following along on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure! It has been a joy to share it with all of you. 

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Welcome back! Double post today, we had a busy day yesterday as we packed our bags and drove south to San Francisco. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time was spectacular, and once we checked into our hotel we were given a few hours to break for lunch. 

Our group of cool kids walked to Chinatown, where we had a lunch that filled the table (and then some!!).

That afternoon, a concert was held at Calvary Presbyterian Church, a beautiful performance space nestled into the heart of San Francisco. The choir performed their repertoire from the recording sessions, as well as Matthew Lyon Hazzard's 'Flight' and Ethan Sperry's arrangement of 'Hallelujah'. 
​
We were joined by friends & family in the area, and even got to goof off a little beforehand. Nic got ahold of a plastic baby arm, and the rest is conducting history...

A Voice is Heard in Ramah
David Walters
Soloist: Julianne Rathbone

​Lao Rahal Soti
Samih Choukeir,
​Arr. Shireen Abu-Khader
Soloist: Lily Sveinbjornsson

Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen, Arr. Ethan Sperry
Solosts: Jonathan Brinkley, Jere Burkholder, Rachel Bard

After the concert, the choir headed to a Dim Sum restaurant for good food, drinks, and celebration. Eveyone chipped in to purchase Ethan a bottle of wine from Skywalker vineyards (yes, grown and bottled at the ranch), and the choir presidents thanked everyone who has worked hard behind the scenes to make this all possible. It was a great way to acknowledge everyone's valuable contributions to this tour, and the night ended with a rousing chorus of 'Hallelujah' for the waitstaff...as well as three separate rounds of 'Happy Birthday'. (Happy birthday to Lily, Julianne, and Marcus!)

But the tour's not over yet - check back in tomorrow to see what the singers of the PSU Chamber Choir get up to during their free day in San Francisco!

Our first session of the day was 'Home/Dirty Paws', a mashup of two pop songs that share the same chord progressions. PSU graduate Allison Cottrell, now serving as the choral instructor at Cleveland High School, composed this piece in her choral arrangement class at PSU. It has gone on to be performed by the PSU Choirs, the CHS choirs, and beyond. 

For me, the melding of these two songs is a whimsical and heartwarming marriage that speaks to themes I adore, arranged during such a special time in my life. Every time someone tells me they are singing this piece, they express the exact things I wanted this piece to inspire - joy, fun and heart. The PSU Chamber Choir is the perfect group to be recording this piece, they embody these exact things and I can’t wait to hear the outcome!!
-Allison Cottrell

Bonus: Watch Allison conduct this arrangement in 2019 with her high school advanced choir

The 3rd Place Winner in the 2019 IFCM Choral Composition Competition, 'A Voice is Heard in Ramah" was arranged by PSU alumnus David Walters, who recently completed his doctorate at Louisiana State University.

Through gut-wrenching harmonies, aleatory, and an emotive alto solo, 'A Voice is Heard in Ramah' tells the story of biblical matriarch Rachel, and her seemingly eternal vigil for the loss of her children. At its heart, this piece is about the loss of children, the cyclical nature of violence, and the emotional exhaustion that comes from realizing we've been here before.

I’m honored (and impossibly thrilled) to have Ramah not only recorded by the PSU Chamber Choir, but at Skywalker Sound no less! Having heard them perform it a number of times, including the World Choral Expo in 2022, I know it’s going to be emotionally eviscerating. Their sound is nuanced and so tangible, as if you could trace the shape of the music with your outstretched hands. The attention that Ethan and all the singers have given to my work is a privilege beyond words. I know it’s work, but I wish the choir well as they enter the studio for another day. Love from Atlanta!
​- David Walters

Wrapping up our recording session was current PSU Chamber Choir member Henry Alexander's composition, 'Ca$h Money'​ - a high-energy song featuring original lyrics and a FAST rap solo by Henry himself. Henry has premiered a number of original compositions and choral arrangements during his time at PSU, including an arrangement of  2016 pop hit 'Despacito', and a setting of Robert Frost's 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' that was premiered on the world stage at the 2022 International Choral Festival in Lisbon, Portugal. Henry is looking forward to pursuing new choral arrangements once the term ends!

Recording at Skywalker Ranch was exhausting, but rewarding. It was great hearing Ca$h Money from inside the booth - Having the choir in my headphones, I was just like, “Aw yeah. That’s some good stuff.” See, by that point in the recording session, everyone was so worn out. But everyone still brought all the energy, and their performance was just, so great.

About two years ago, there was a day when I was really bored in music theory, and I just daydreamed the chorus. And I was like, “ok, what verses can go with that?” I came up with the IRS verse, and ‘gimme them euros’ and then, just…’cash money.’ Inspired, I went back to my computer that day, wrote it down, and thought…”This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever written.” But it ended up being amazing! I’m just so glad that this song made it to this point, it’s been so fun. I hope people like it.

PSU Chamber Choir, and their production team

...And now a silly one!

If my voice departs, your voices will not...
I see tomorrow and my heart is with you...
If the singer goes (dies), the songs will remain...
​bringing together the broken and suffering heart...

Session 2 was "Fall", by Chloe x Halle (Chloe & Halle Bailey), arranged by Chamber Choir alumnus Nic Nipp. We brought this arrangement on tour with us to Italy last Summer, and we're excited to be including it on this album! Nic joined us on this tour to lend his voice to the bass section, as well as to provide insight into the recording of his arrangement.

 I had the chance to sit down with him after the recording session, and here's what he had to say:
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    “I’m at such a loss of words right now - something like this has been a dream for a very long time, and just being here is.. I’m almost, like, having some serious imposter syndrome right now. I’m just in disbelief.

    But that being said, being fresh out of studying my audio degree and all of that, being here is very fulfilling. And educational too, because in school there were a lot of moments where we didn’t go as in-depth into a subject as I would’ve wanted to. So just getting to sit back and watch these three pro recording engineers utilize each other’s skills in so many different ways is valuable. They have a very set-in-stone system that I haven’t really seen before, because I haven’t worked on projects of this scale. It feels like engineers piloting a ship in Star Trek or Star Wars, which is very fitting for Skywalker sound.

Chris & Gabe premiered at PSU's "Gender Bender" concert in 2018 - the kickoff of the de-gendering of our Soprano/Alto & Tenor/Bass choirs, & a celebration of the amazing gender-nonconforming singers who participate in our program. Vox Femina became Thorn Choir, and Man Choir became Rose Choir.

Here's a sneak peek into our recording process, and the work it takes!! In the studio, the choir does not sing the piece in its entirety and hope for the best. Instead, the recording team has split the piece into fragments, to be masterfully stitched together in post. Many hours of fine-tuning and pitch correction are needed to bring this album together, it's tough work!! But our singers are up to the challenge. I'll be back tomorrow to share another selection of songs with you, thank you for reading!

The 2023-24 school year is coming to a close! Before finals start up, our chamber choir is flying to California for a week of music and magic. Thursday through Saturday will be spent recording original compositions by Chamber Choir singers and alums at Skywalker Ranch, and then Sunday and Monday we'll be in San Francisco for sightseeing and a concert at Calvary Presbyterian Church. For those who attended last week's concert, "A New Dawn" featured all seven pieces that we are planning to record in the studio. 

This trip is bound to be fun, fulfilling, and full of surprises; We're glad to be taking you with us.

Located 40 minutes north of San Francisco, Skywalker Ranch is the pastoral home to Lucasfilm’s celebrated sound design, mixing and audio post-production facility, Skywalker Sound- where we will be spending 3 action-packed (and only slightly exhausting) days.

Skywalker Sound occupies the 153,000-square-foot Technical Building, which features a world-class scoring stage, six feature mix stages, 15 sound design suites, 50 editing suites, an ADR stage, two Foley stages, and the 300-seat Stag Theater. The property also includes cows, bees, wild turkeys, the iconic Main House, and the beautiful Lake Ewok. Security is high, and photos of the grounds are very strictly enforced, but do yourself a favor and check out more photos online. The grounds are absolutely beautiful!!

Today was devoted primarily to travel! Meeting at PDX Airport at 10am for a 11:45 flight, all of us who were on any of the international tours in prior years marveled at how short the flight to Oakland was in comparison! 

We rented a small fleet of vans to transport our choir, and drove an hour from the airport in Oakland to our hotel in Nicasio. We checked in, ate a quick pizza dinner, and then headed to Skywalker Ranch to sort out the paperwork, and get microphone setups configured for the following two days of sessions. I'm excited to share photos and stories from our recording sessions in the days following, check back in tomorrow afternoon for another update!