AMIS Middle School Honor Boys' Choir Festival
12-16 October, 2011
Shekou International School
Guest Conductor: Keith Montgomery
Host Organizers : Melody and Cody Gifford
Accompanist: Tony Mudra

ONLINE Application Registration for the

AMIS Middle School Honor Boys' Choir Festival 2011

The online School Applications will be accepted through May 25.

School names will be drawn from the list of applicants on May 26. When the maximum of participants is reached, the next applicants will be placed in order on a waiting list. Candidates will be notified of results by e-mail on May 26. A list will also be posted on the AMIS web site. All music and registration fees must be received on or before August 20, 2011. Until these payments are received a place in the festival is not guaranteed.
Updated!
August 20		 Due:
Full payment
September 1 Deadline:
Applications for financial aid for students
September 9

Due:
Participants and Housing and
Arrival and Departure Information

NEW PROCEDURE
MSHBC Student Festival Acceptance Agreement Forms should be completed by this date and collected by school directors. Do NOT send these forms to AMIS. Please bring the forms with you to the Festival.- posted 16 May, 2011
October 12 Travel
October 13- 15 AMIS Middle Schools Honor Boys' Choir Festival, Shekou International School
October 16 Travel

General Information | Application | AMIS Policies | Fees
Arrival and Departure/Online Registration/Housing/Director's Expertise
MSHBC Student Festival Agreement Form
Festival Handbooks |Financial Aid Forms | Audition Instructions
Participating Schools | Repertoire | Contact | Director's Hotel - updated 24 May, 2011
Visa Requirements | Concert Information | Dress Code
Travel/Arrival Information - updated 24 May, 2011

Images - Shekou 2011

2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

About the Festival

2011 will be the nineteenth annual Boy Choir Festival for boy singers in grades 5-8. Both treble and changed or changing voices are included, with most of the music in three parts (SAB). The festival is designed to give boy singers a chance to find out what it is like to work with many others of like minds. It sets out to prove that boys can sing very well together and can have a great deal of fun doing so. Be sure your singers are mature enough to spend up to six hours a day in rehearsals. Especially take this into consideration for your younger singers who might find such concentration more than they are ready for.

Host schools for past festivals have been:

Past conductors include:


The 2011 festival will be held at Shekou International School in China, hosted by Melody and Cody Gifford. This is the first time this festival has been held in Asia. The guest conductor will be Keith Montgomery of The American School in London. The music which has been chosen for this festival is largely three part mixed/SAB. Each school should bring students in each voice part, ideally 2 of each part. Each school should bring a minimum of one B (baritone) singer. Applications are invited from schools all over the world.

Fees for this Festival

List of Fees can be found here. Full payment for the festival is due on August 20. Upon return to school, music teachers are requested to check with their business office to make sure payment has been made as requested.

Each school will have been billed for 6 singers and 7 sets of music (including one for the director) for this festival. Unless your school has indicated you are bringing an official chaperone in addition to the teacher, your school has been billed for 1 adult registration.
Please remember that the registration and music fees for AMIS festivals are never refundable. Since the deadline for all payments is August 20, you will need to make your payment before the deadline for submitting the names of participants. Therefore, if you find by September 9 that you cannot fill all 6 places allotted to your singers, you are eligible for a credit on the unused places.

Applications for financial aid for students participating in this festival must be received on or before September 1.

September 9 is the final date for submitting all information about participants, housing requests and arrival and departure information. This information should be submitted via the online database. Earlier completion of these details would be helpful!

Audition Instructions

Teachers are requested to audition their own students for the AMIS Middle School Choir Festivals. This should be a formal audition procedure designed to show that the singer can hold his own part and can learn fairly quickly. You will find attached the vocalises AMIS suggests you use for your auditions.

It is recommended that teachers select their own alternates for this festival. Alternates would be expected to practice the music and would then be ready for one of the school's places should one of the participants be unable to participate.

Soprano Auditions Suggestions | Alto Auditions Suggestions | Baritone Auditions Suggestions - posted 8 November, 2011

Students are responsible for the complete learning of all repertoire and should not be recommended unless they are able to meet the demands of performing challenging literature with other outstanding students. They must be capable of concentrating during long rehearsals each day. Students must be well prepared so as to insure a positive experience. It is the responsibility of each teacher to be sure the students are fully prepared.

Arrival Information

Since most participants will probably arrive at Hong Kong Airport and travel by ferry to Shekou, we are attaching a ferry schedule for your reference when making travel arrangements. This schedule is accurate as of May 2011.

It is important that you are at Shekou before by the end of school on Wednesday. It will be difficult for many families to meet guests other than at this time. Please keep this in mind when making your reservations. If you arrive before Wednesday you will need to organize hotel accommodation for yourself and your boys until Wednesday. The housing with families will be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Please avoid really late arrivals and early departures on Sunday. If you have no other choice, you will probably need to keep your students in a hotel on Saturday night, since we cannot ask host families to be up very early on Sunday morning.

You will find it convenient to fly into Hong Kong. From the Hong Kong Airport you can take the ferry directly to Shekou. The following is what host Melody Gifford has written about transportation:

It is extremely easy to get from Hong Kong airport to Shekou.  There is a ferry terminal connected to the airport and it is so easy.  You don't even go through customs in Hong Kong, you just follow the signs to the ferry and get on the Shekou ferry and it is a 45 minute ferry to Shekou.  Once in Shekou you go through customs and we will be there to pick you up and bring you to school (about a 5 minute van ride from the ferry terminal to the school).  Also, I believe your baggage can just be checked through to Shekou..

We did some research and it appears that you have to buy a one way ticket for the ferry in Hong Kong and it is approximately 19 Euros.  For the ferry back to Hong Kong it is approximately 28 Euros.

There are other ways to do it though.  If you fly to Shenzhen Airport (connecting in Beijing or Shanghai) we can arrange for a bus to pick you up in Shenzhen.  It is about an hour to our school from the Shenzhen Airport, depending on traffic.  There might also be a flight from London to Shenzhen!

Participating Schools

It is important for you to confirm your acceptance of your school's place in the festival. We will need to order music fairly soon in order that it can be sent to you by the beginning of August.

Shekou International School (host)
American School in London
International School of Dusseldorf
International School of Brussels
American International School Dhaka
Jakarta International School
Hong Kong International School
Tianjin International School
American International School Guangzhou

Contact Information

Melody and Cody Gifford, host organizers
Shekou International School
Jing Shan Villas, Nan Hai Road
Shekou, Shenzhen
Guangdong Province
518067
People's Republic of China
Telephone: 86(755)26693669
Fax: 86(755)26674099
E-mail: cgifford@sis.org.cn or mgifford@sis.org.cn

Teachers' Hotel Information

Teachers and official chaperones will be staying in the Festival hotel, while students will be housed with families in the Shekou International School community. Teachers are responsible for making their own reservations for this festival.

A reservation form for the hotel is supplied here in Word Format or as a PDF. It must be sent to the hotel by fax or as an email attachment.

The room rate is 450RMB per room per night, including breakfast. The official hotel for this festival is Ming Wah International Convention Centre, which is about a 15 minute walk away from the Shekou International School.

Contact Information:
Ming Wah Convention Centre
No. 8 Guishan Road
Shekou Industrial Zone
Nanshan District
Shenzhen 518067
China

Visa Information

Unless you are already resident in China, you will need to purchase a Chinese visa for yourself and all your students. This can be done up to three months before you will enter China. Exact cost of the visa will vary depending on where you live and the passport you carry. They usually cost around 100 Euros per person. You will all need to apply for a tourist visa. You will create all kinds of problems for yourself if you apply for any other type of visa.

Some consulates will want you to have a letter of invitation. If this is the case, it can be supplied by the host school.

Repertoire

Music will be sent to the participating schools around August 1st. Some materials will also be available on box.net so you can get to work as soon as possible with your boys. 

Concert Information

The concert will take place in the Shekou International School Amphitheatre which seats around 250.

 

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