The music we sing
The voice our natural instrument.
 

Pacifica is a special learning environment designed to provide a rich and rewarding musical experience for each child. Our main focus for repertoire is folk music from all parts of the world.

Each spring we focus on a region or country and every level learns some music from that country. We round out the concert repertoire with classical, jazz, pop and contemporary pieces. On several occasions, Pacifica has commissioned local composers to write new pieces for the choir. Our 4th CD, "Soft Rains", has eight newly commissioned on it from our 2004 concert of the same name.

While our main focus is in secular music, we do occasionally perform some sacred music, always striving to keep our repertoire inclusive and balanced.

Concepts about music; melody, rhythm, harmony, timbre, dynamics, form, style, performance and musical skills; singing, theory, sight reading are taught throughout the rehearsals. Musical concepts are highlighted through singing, listening and analysis.

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Singing is the major focus of the musical experience in Pacifica. Singing is a powerfully personal means of musical expression. We hope this experience will form the foundation of a lifelong relationship with music for the singers and their families.

The children are taught the use of their vocal instruments through exercises, posture, breath and tone production. The essence of musical experience is based on pitch and movement as it is "felt" and heard. Because the body is the instrument in singing, musical relationships are internally experienced and are likely to be "felt" and heard by the young child.

We feel that musical re-creation through vocal performance is a way of experiencing and expressing music unlike any other activity. The ability to hear music, to conceptualize music, to perceive and respond musically develops naturally from the human voice. Singing skill and musical understanding are essential components of the creative process and a fundamental resource basic to music education.

Pacifica believes that through singing children can experience the "inner life" of the music in a way that transcends the surface of notation and words. Singing is a way of "touching" the music and a way of being "touched" by the music.

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