arrange • compose • conduct
Our family usually counts down the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas not with days, but with concerts. Twenty in these three weeks of school isn’t out of the ordinary. Of course, there won’t be anything close to that this year. What’s to come of a December without concerts? Well, probably […]
With the Michigan Choral Commission Consortium (MC3), last year I commissioned Z. Randall Stroope’s SATB a cappella setting of Sara Teasdale’s “I Have Loved Hours At Sea.” It’s passionate, evocative, and lyrical – it ranks, to my mind, alongside his most beloved choral works. The statewide premieres and performances of […]
I’ve been thinking about a scale of interpretation that ranges from accurate to expressive. So often, so many ensembles, conductors, and academicians focus on accuracy. They focus on composer’s intent, historically-informed performance practice, and ensuring that each ensemble member correctly reproduces what is in their score. But I think that […]
Dish management is the secret to a successful Thanksgiving don’t you think? For a while I thought it was oven management – the flow chart that dictated when each baked dish would slip into the oven so that everything was hot and ready at roughly the same time. But a […]
Okay, I made 5 pies. One I’m passing along to my nearest family members (with whom we are not sharing Thanksgiving dinner), leaving 4 for our 5 family members. Surely that sounds like overkill, to make 80% of a pie per person. But on a special feast like Thanksgiving, I […]
I just finished a Virtual Game Night with the vocal jazz ensemble I direct, GRCC Shades of Blue. Seven of the nine members this semester were able to attend. We’ve been rehearsing and recording virtually all semester, and owing to the nature of our system, they haven’t all even met […]
Over the years, you learn to plan Thanksgiving dinner well in advance. We’re planning an elaborate feast for Thanksgiving this year. (For my immediate family, because that’s clearly the right choice). Each dish is a favorite of one or more in our house; they’ve all been in rotation for years. […]
Yesterday, I finally got to share one of the projects that has been occupying my work daily for the last couple of months. This arrangement, a lullaby version of the Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers,” was written in a flurry the week after we lost a former student, Katherine, at 22. She […]
Many schools have some sort of basic computer skills class. Often, these skills are far behind what adults need to know. If I were designing a 2020 curriculum, I would replace a curriculum centered on word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software with skills and knowledge like the following: Cloud backup. […]
I don’t think Chris Hayes is wrong. Compared to a typical year of school, this will be a “disaster” by traditional (standardized) measures of student growth. Compared to 180+ days of in-person learning, hands-on and personal instruction from caring teachers who feel safe and able to do their jobs without […]