arrange • compose • conduct
Motivation can be external or internal. Each of us uses a mixture of the two to get our work completed. This pandemic, and particularly remote education, has compelled many students to become better acquainted with internal motivation. When the teacher is standing ten feet from you, it’s harder to disengage […]
In the weeks of in-person school, my wife had the brilliant idea to have all the choirs working on the same piece. A perfect message arrived in Gwyneth Walker’s “How Can I Keep From Singing.” It also offered, just before high schools in Michigan all returned to remote learning, a […]
I talked with my students about a specific type of vertical awareness today. I think it’s really essential to train ourselves as choir singers to be able to see beyond our own staff – it’s one of the gifts of being in a choir rather than a band or orchestra, […]
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. […]