In the above video, I am conducting a choir made up of University of Victoria vocal performance majors. In the fourth year of my degree, there were a number of vocalists who wanted a choral experience that the music program was not offering. Instead of passively waiting for someone to create the opportunity, these students took it upon themselves to put together a choir. Although I was a violin major, I was quite involved with the vocalists because of my experience in vocal jazz. Due to this, I was asked to be one of the altos in this ensemble. 

While rehearsing the three chosen pieces for our choir, the organizers asked me to try conducting a song called "And So I Go On". This song was quite challenging because of a few factors. Some examples of these were that the piece was written in eight separate voice parts, there were major tempo changes, and significant dynamic differences. The rehearsing and conducting of this piece required a lot of study and practice but the performance was worth every moment of time given. 

This performance along with the weekly rehearsals were a collaboration between myself and my peers. Those of us who were in music education took the educational tools that we had been given and applied them in a real life context. In my case, I was able to take the rehearsal skilled I had been given and use them when conducting and rehearsing the ensemble. This situation was different then a classroom setting because of the fact that I was not in an authority position over students but instead working alongside my peers. This meant that I had to actively collaborate with them and take in their opinions. Along with this learning experience came the responsibility of receiving and acting on feedback and finding a common goal amongst the many opinions within the ensemble. This type of learning gave me experience in the BC Core Competency - Communication.