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TENNESSEE TREBLE CHOIR
GUIDELINES AND INFORMATION

Sandy Holland, 2010 Conductor
Robin Lana
2011 Conductor

Robyn Reeves Lana is the Founder, Managing Artistic Director and Conductor Cincinnati Children’s Choir, Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). At CCM, she sponsors undergraduate interns with the children’s choir and mentors graduate choral conducting students. Level III Orff-Schulwerk certified, she also teaches general music at the Montessori Academy of Cincinnati.

Regularly serving as a guest conductor, she has directed international, state and regional honor and festival choirs, most recently in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Her choirs have performed for State, Regional, and National professional development conferences. In demand as a clinician, she has presented workshops on choral artistry and vocal development for Music Educators National Conference regional conventions, Ohio and Indiana Music Educators Associations, Northeast Ohio Education Association, and Orff Schulwerk workshops. In addition, she has presented techniques for educating and performing chamber music for young children at the Chamber Music America National Convention.

Mrs. Lana regularly prepares her choirs for performance with the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops, the Vocal Arts Ensemble, the Cincinnati May Festival, international festivals and CCM choirs and orchestras. She has also had children perform with a Broadway Touring Company and regularly prepares them for performance with the CCM Opera Division. In addition to preparing CCC for compact disc releases and regularly recording concerts, Mrs. Lana has prepared them for two Telarc label recordings with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Erich Kunzel and two national recordings for Earthsongs Publications.

National publications include American Choral Director's Association's (ACDA) Choral Journal, Choristers Guild's The Chorister, and Chamber Music America's CMA Matters. She has served the Ohio Choral Director's Association (OCDA) as Children's Choir Repertoire and Standards Chair developing and implementing the first state children's honor choir in Ohio. As ACDA Central Division Children's Choir Repertoire and Standards Chair, she organized and administrated a multi-state honor choir. She is presently serving ACDA as the National Children's Choir Repertoire and Standards Chair. Mrs. Lana is also a member of Chorus America, MENC, AOSA, and IFCM.

She earned both Bachelor and Master degrees in Music Education from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. With a focus in Choral Conducting, Mrs. Lana earned a Cognate in Voice and has done post-graduate work with Henry Leck at Butler University.



  • Eligibility:
    • Students currently enrolled in 5th or 6th grade at the submitting teacher's school.
    • Submitting teacher must be a current member of MENC/TMEA and a regional organization (ETGMEA, MTGMEA, WTGMEA, ETVA, MTVA, or WTVMEA).
    • Each school may submit only 10 student auditions.
  • Fees: (All fees are made payable to TMEA and are NONREFUNDABLE)
    • There is a $20.00 activity fee per school, plus a $5.00 audition fee per student due at the time of audition.
    • There will be a late fee of $50 assessed for any materials received after the October 20th, 2010 deadline.
    • There is a $50.00 participation fee for students selected for the treble choir, due by mid January.
  • Audition Procedures:
    1. Students record their name, school name, and then sing "America" (“My Country 'Tis of Thee") in 2 keys--F major and Ab Major.  Teachers may include a light accompaniment - (see below).
    2. Be sure each student has sung in both keys before recording the next student.
    3. Complete the online application.  Make sure you list the students on the application in the order they are recorded.
    4. If mailing a CD, be sure to label it with teacher name and school name.
    5. Mail a check for fees (made payable to TMEA), and the audition CD to the TN Treble Choir Chair at the address on the Audition Instructions page. The deadline for the receipt of these materials is October 20, 2010. If audition materials and fees are not received by this date you will be assessed a $50 late fee to be able to participate in the auditions.
    6. Teachers will be notified via email which students have been selected for the choir.  Every attempt will be made to include at least one student per school.
    7. An invoice for participation fees will be mailed to the school address.  These fees are due in mid-January.
    8. A music packet for each teacher and participating student, including rehearsal CDs, will be mailed to the school address.
  • Helpful Hints for Recording:
    • If you have more than 10 students interested in auditioning, record everyone, but only submit your best 10 voices on the audition CD. Everyone learns and grows through the audition process.
    • Make sure everyone sings using open, round vowels.
    • Make sure everyone sings in the right key--double check the starting pitches.
    • If you are able to record to a computer, Audacity is a free download for recording.  Visit http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ for information.
    • Preview your recording before sending it in. Make sure all students can be heard, are using open tones, the accompaniment is not overpowering, etc…

TMEA has provided the following files as accompaniment for your students' auditions. The files are available in two formats. The .wav files are very large (over 6 MB) and have the best sound quality, particularly if you plan to burn them onto a CD. The .mp3 files are much smaller but are of a slightly lesser sound quality. The .mp3 files will be able to transfer directly to an IPOD® or other mp3 player and may also be burned to CDs. Not all CD players will play a track created from an mp3 file.

To download these files to your computer for burning to a CD or transfer to another device, right click on the link and choose "save as..." (on a Mac, hover over the link until you get the popup menu). If you have trouble or questions, contact the webmaster.

To play the files, click the links.