University of Texas Permian Basin vocal students will be caroling, by request, throughout the community this Christmas season to raise funds for their trip to the National American Choir Directors Convention in Cincinnati in February.
Jeffery Howell and Rachael Harper are two of the vocalists. Harper has caroled for church and with family and both have been singing for a long time.
Howell caroled with UTPB the year before COVID hit.
“I enjoyed it. I was only able to do a couple of gigs last time, but it was a fun experience. I got to know some of my choir members more and it helped me musically kind of getting more part independence,” Howell said.
He explained that part independence is holding your own with a smaller group of singers, not just a choir.
This is Harper’s first time in a choir and she’s very excited about venturing out to carol.
“I love just practicing in the Mason (the large classroom/rehearsal space). It’s so fun. I love being able, especially when we mix, kind of like what Jeffrey was saying; (it) kind of helps you be able to hear more and train your ear to be able to read music and not get distracted by other people’s parts,” Harper said.
She added that everyone is so professional and talented, which is a little intimidating. At the same time, they are warm, welcoming and willing to help.
“I think it’s a great learning experience. … I’m excited to see the different, like the diversity of the Christmas parties and events that we’re going to get to go to and see how the audiences are different and also challenging us to interact with people better,” she added.
Frank Eychaner, professor and Department of Music chair, said it’s fun to see people’s faces light up when they hear their favorite carols.
“I think caroling is just such an iconic part of the Christmas experience. So when you can come out and sing that favorite song, it brings back so many memories for people. It kind of makes the holiday season,” Eychaner said.
Eychaner noted that because UTPB is an educational organization, they are always going to have people that are at various stages in their journey.
“One of the things that we worked really hard at is trying to make sure that inexperience, or that growing is never perceived as oh, I shouldn’t be here. So we work very hard to partner some of our younger singers with our more experienced folks that have a very established musical leadership. We have students like Jeffrey, who have been with us for some time, who take an active role in leading the tenor sectionals,” Eychaner said.
“When we break out we take an active role of placing them in a mentor relationship with some of our younger singers so that they don’t feel overwhelmed. They don’t feel like I shouldn’t be here because we were all that beginner at one point,” Eychaner said.
He added that the choirs at UTPB are some of the best in the country.
“We’re raising money because we’ve been invited through a competitive audition to be one of nine choirs to appear at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention,” Eychaner said.
He added that they will be one of nine collegiate choirs at the convention, which happens every other year. Forty-five students are planning to go.
“These folks were selected by virtue of the recordings that we submitted, so they are incredible. If we had this standoffish attitude, you don’t belong here, because you’re not perfect there’s no way we would have gotten where we’re at and there’s no way that we could bring out the best in those young singers and get them ready to perform at that level in a very, very short period of time, just a few short months if we had this kind of you don’t belong here attitude. It’s just the opposite. It’s like of course you belong here. We were in your shoes once come along; let’s show you how to get there. And then we … systematically build those skills into the singers. We’ve got a great thing here,” he added.
Eychaner said Howell plans to go into music education.
“He’s going to be leading a choir; he’s going to be leading those rehearsals; he’s going to be planning those retreats; he’s going to be building those voices; he’s going to be picking that repertoire. So in this role at UTPB, we give him a chance to become the educator that he’s going to become. One of the reasons that our choir program is as strong as it is, is because we have all of these different people at various stages in their journey — either learning the ropes, becoming that, hey, I’m a core; I’m solid, or stepping into that leadership role that they will eventually need to embrace fully when they become a full professional educator. That creates a degree of ownership that just isn’t possible. If you’re just somebody singing an alto part or a tenor part. Everybody has their role and everybody plays it and that’s one of the many reasons that we’re able to produce such a high quality product even though we’re a small school out here in the middle of West Texas,” he said.
Eychaner said they are also strong because they work as a team. With students in leadership roles, there can be more peer engagement.
Harper added that although everybody has a role, there is a lot of freedom and creativity. She said Eychaner is always open to different ideas and suggestions, though he may tell them that something won’t work.
Eychaner said there are an extraordinary number of “incredible programs” in the area that are led by “these fantastically committed and talented educators, who have invested their lives, literally, in our young people that produce” these really capable, skilled and committed students that come to UTPB ready to work at an intense level.
“This is really rare, what we have out here. We should all be thankful that we have such a … strong music education program across the board,” Eychaner said.
This is not only in Odessa and Midland, but the outlying towns.
Harper said another blessing is that because the school is small, the community is tight.
“We’re able to have more personal relationships with the students and the teachers, where you won’t find that as much in the bigger colleges where their name may be more well known, but a teacher can’t tell you who their student is because they don’t have a relationship with them. I think that’s just so important for you to be able to grow personally,” Harper added.
The vocal students can take bookings through the first of the year.
If someone has a specific party they would like a group to go to, they can contact [email protected] or Eychaner at 303-875-5499. There are suggested donations.
