arrange • compose • conduct
Successful performing is full of contradictions. Nothing to do but embrace them. Be all of them. Focused on what you’ve got to do right. Relaxed enough to have fun as you’re doing it. Thinking ahead so you don’t turn a corner and miss something. In the moment so you can […]
Being nervous about something means that it is something worth doing. My daughter woke up very nervous this morning. She was singing at the elementary school variety show today – outdoors on the playground, in front of the entire school from DK-5th grade. It was a big crowd, and it […]
Want people to come to your event? Social media isn’t it. Every conversation I have for the next three days will include some variation on, “By the way, the Aces have a concert Friday at 7! It’s free and there’s free ice cream after! You should come!” Every conversation. Because […]
It’s a blessing and a curse to recycle past work. My biggest concert of the year coincides with the last day of school this year, so once again I’m building to the very end. I’m thankful for the ability to reuse recycled documents – Google Docs for scripts and programs, […]
I am such of fan of observing other people’s rehearsals. Observing the rehearsal, with active participation, is maybe the best way to get better at the art of effective rehearsal. Alice Parker has said that the real learning happened in her conducting masters with Robert Shaw at Juilliard when she […]
Why is a word-of-mouth recommendation so more commonplace in certain professions? My son, an aspiring concert lighting designer, mentioned that many gigs are still gotten through word of mouth – you assist someone, and they recommend you a gig, and it goes from there. That’s natural for two reasons. First, […]
What are your top tips to pass along to student performers? These are a few suggestions for performance day that have nothing to with the music-making. I try to make sure my students hear them every year. Deodorant is good. Fragrance is bad. On performance day, no fragrance, please. Different […]
I try to be very clear to my ensembles – I don’t want the group to be your top priority all the time. Everyone has a lot of responsibilities they’re juggling, and I’m delighted that making music is one for my students. If it’s among the top 10 or 15 […]
There is freedom and creativity found inside a concert planning formula. The first time I noticed a programming formula in practice was when I was in Gold Company in college. Steve Zegree would consistently program (1) An upbeat pop-centered opener, with choreography, followed without speaking by (2) and up-tempo accompanied […]
It’s a question my kids ask me a lot. How do you still remember geometry, algebra, and trigonometry? How do you still remember the Latin you learned in 1992, or 150 digits of pi, or how to perform stoichiometry, and so forth. The answer is simple: I deeply cared about […]