The St. Christopher's Glee Club is open to all students who have a sincere desire to learn the fundamentals of singing through the study and performance of choral literature from the 16th to the 21st century.  The course includes the study of proper vocal production, music reading skills, musicianship, foreign language, and historical context of the music being sung.  The group performs three or four concerts/evensongs each year, sings for chapel services, and is invited to sing in the Richmond community.  Several of these performances are in collaboration with St. Catherine’s Chorale.  

Music that will be studied includes: Folk, Ragtime, Blues, Jazz, Swing, Bebop, Tin Pan Alley, Musical Theater and Broadway, Country, Latin-American, Pop, R & B, Soul, Rock and Roll, Motown, Funk, Singer-Songwriters, Rap/Hip-Hop, and Alternative music of today.

The Advanced Music Theory and Composition class will pick up where the AP Music Theory Class left off. Theory concepts to be stressed are advanced four-part writing, use of secondary dominants, jazz harmony, large formal structures, orchestration, modulation, countermelody, fugue, mixed modes, augmented sixth chords, harmonic extensions and chromatic techniques. 

This course will be very "composition" intensive. The student will be working on original music at every turn, utilizing new concepts in their own music. Writing for different sized ensembles will be stressed (piano trio, string quartet, small orchestra, choir).  There may be a piano literature component to the class where the student may work more closely with his own piano teacher or other faculty to more broadly explore music written for the piano from the Baroque era to the present. 

The Upper School Band meets three days each week and is open to St. Catherine's and St. Christopher's students who have played a band instrument for a minimum of one year.  Traditional concert band literature is studied and performed along with jazz and popular music.  Students are also encouraged to participate in District I band events, comprised of public and private school students from the Richmond area.  Performances include both on- and off-campus events, concerts, community outreach programs, and participation in adjudicated festivals.

Honors credit is earned by participation in another ensemble, usually Jazz Band or Saints Singers.

The St. Christopher's Glee Club is open to all students who have a sincere desire to learn the fundamentals of singing through the study and performance of choral literature from the 16th to the 21st century.  The course includes the study of proper vocal production, music reading skills, musicianship, foreign language, and historical context of the music being sung.  The group performs three or four concerts/evensongs each year, sings for chapel services, and is invited to sing in the Richmond community.  Several of these performances are in collaboration with St. Catherine’s Chorale.  

Honors credit is earned by participation in another ensemble, usually Saints Singers or Jazz Band.

This course will introduce students to the world of recording and digital audio in which they will create and record original music and other various audio for different applications using digital technology and will be taught by a professional in the recording industry.

Students will learn about songwriting, creative flow, song structure and have opportunities to explore real and digital instruments. They will also learn audio engineering techniques that directly apply to the ever-growing industries of entertainment, broadcasting, communications and more.

Students will participate in individual and group projects and will have an opportunity to share their creations with their classmates and in some cases will have an opportunity to have their songs performed by a school ensemble. The class will also learn about copyright laws and methods of sharing music on streaming platforms and will have the tools to release their recordings if they choose to do so.

If you:

 

…Songwriting and Production is the class for you!  This class is open to anyone interested in learning new approaches to writing and producing songs. We will learn about the elements that go into creating songs like theory, form and texture. Lots of time is spent working on creating catchy melodies, writing better lyrics, coming up with new chord progressions and making demo recordings of student songs.  Also, classic songs from different eras are studied to see what makes them tick.  Offered if numbers permit.

This course, introducing students to music theory and songwriting, focuses on  note and rhythm reading, key signatures for all major and minor keys, basic knowledge of chords, and song forms.  Students learn to recognize intervals, chords, and scales by sight and sound.  Basic songwriting skills are explored, and students write their own songs drawing from various styles of music like Blues, Pop, Rock, and others.  Songs are graded on effort and the use of materials discussed in class.  Theory knowledge is tested with homework assignments and quizzes/tests.