Recorder consort?

Question:I conduct a small youth choir, and my principal asked if I could create a flute recorder consort for the school; we would rehearse once a week, about one hour. I've already selected twelve students and I'm thinking about going directly to playing duos, as in sopranos and altos (six soprano recorders and six alto recorders). I play soprano recorder, alto recorder, and tenor recorder. But: how do I go about selecting repertoire, organizing rehearsal, etc.? Is it much like choir rehearsing? If there are any sites that can help, please post them for me. Your help is very appreciated. :D

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I conduct a small youth choir, and my principal asked if I could create a flute recorder consort for the school; we would rehearse once a week, about one hour. I've already selected twelve students and I'm thinking about going directly to playing duos, as in sopranos and altos (six soprano recorders and six alto recorders). I play soprano recorder, alto recorder, and tenor recorder. But: how do I go about selecting repertoire, organizing rehearsal, etc.? Is it much like choir rehearsing? If there are any sites that can help, please post them for me. Your help is very appreciated. :D

First, you do know about the Recorder Home Page, right?
http://www.recorderhomepage.net/
If you don't find what you need there, you'll probably find a link that has it.
Your idea to start with sopranos and altos is a good one, as you won't have to confuse people by switching F and C fingerings. You'll need to find homophonic duos to start with. Also, the beginning part will involve teaching the instrument, so you'll need to find a method that works in the classroom.
Web search "recorder orchestra"...this is where you'd like to be eventually. Whether you get there and how fast depends on budget. Once your SA people are somewhat functional, you need to get some S people onto tenor, and eventually A people on bass. (Yamaha plastic basses are good and not hideously expensive-- it's good to standardize instruments if you can, and the whole Yamaha 300 series is the most bang for buck) If you don't get lower recorders going, you'll be stuck playing weaker music, which will make it harder to defend your program musically and pedagogically. You may or may not want to use a piano at first for some numbers, maybe playing easy SA choir music in appropriate keys. Eventually you'll be playing dances, ricercari, motets, madrigals etc. i.e., the core recorder repertoire.

Start rehearsals with warmups and sectionals, then go into full ensemble.