arrange • compose • conduct
Sometimes what’s called for is White Rabbit Mode. The white rabbit in Alice In Wonderland constantly shouts “I’m late!” as he bustles and hurries through the story. In plenty of rehearsals, there’s a little time for digression, for stories, for flights of fancy and following musical ideas and experiments. Other […]
Are your singers emphasizing words like they’re the TikTok text-to-speech voice? The ubiquitous text-to-speech voice from TikTok is immediately recognizable once you’ve heard it. And part of that is for the stilted, easily parodied diction. She! kind! of! emphasizes! every! word! excitedly! It’s clear that sometimes choirs can forget to […]
I never want to put my ensembles in this position. So much of our students’ lives are in “It all comes down to this” situations. It could be the big football game, auditions for the musical, the SAT, term papers and final exams, GPA, Prom, college acceptance letters, or any […]
When did you learn the songs that you know cold? There are songs I sang 25 years ago that I could probably perform competently tomorrow. Maybe even without the music between now and the performance. Some of them are intricate arrangement by Darmon Meader or Gene Puerling. But if I […]
How much of a contingency plan do you have as an educator/conductor? I think a lot about this – usually when I get sick shortly before a concert. And what I come up with is always the same: plan on a snow day. In other words, assume that your penultimate […]
What will rehearsal be like if I’m not there? I consider it my goal to teach myself out of a job by the end of the school year. (Never worrying, of course, because a new group with new needs will be with me soon.) That means that my ensemble should […]
Follow your own true north in programming as a conductor. There are a lot of shoulds for conductors. I’ve heard conductors say, “Every ACDA performance program should include a Baroque or Renaissance piece.” I’ve heard conductors say, “Every student should graduate high school having sung X, Y, and Z.” I’ve […]
I’ve been experimenting with a new strategy in my after school rehearsals: starting optional vocal warmups before the rehearsal starts. At 2:45, we start a one-hour rehearsal. At 2:35, I start doing some basic vocal warmups. It’s optional to attend – they have all already sung today, and their voices […]
Get art as close as possible to its final form to hone the last 10%. I’m looking at a printed draft of our tour program for next month. After several hours over a couple of weeks cleaning it up in InDesign, I realized that I needed it on paper. There […]
Know how to recognize that. Sometimes I’m talking to the whole ensemble. Sometimes I’m talking to one person through the ensemble, so they don’t feel singled out. Sometimes it’s in between. To know whether I’m talking to you, you have to be engaged in the rehearsal. You have to have […]