You’re Going To Do This Today
I read the room, and I said confidently, “You’re going to read and learn this entire piece today.”
Conducting
Sing Without Me
I had a quick National Anthem gig for the Aces, but I was double booked. They could be there. I couldn’t. What a great opportunity! A National Anthem performance is the perfect first chance to practice singing without your conductor, for leadership to step up. It’s low-stakes! (The crowd for […]
Zen and Warmups
A Zen proverb goes, “If you don’t think you have time to meditate for an hour today, you should meditate for two hours.” This runs through my head every single time I want to skip past vocal warmups in my Aces rehearsals. Sometimes the motivation is so strong to get […]
In The Past, Students Have Done X
One of the best parts about longevity in a position is being able to say, “In the past, students facing this situation have done X.” It comes with the important caveat that today’s students aren’t yesterday’s students; thus yesterday’s solutions might not be today’s. But it has helped a lot […]
Skill, Vision, and Empathy
If I was asked to describe my ideal choral educator, it would be someone with an equal combination of these three traits. Of course, you must have skill. A great choral educator knows how to tune a chord, cue the tenors, select great repertoire, teach it effectively and well, and […]
Alumni List
Don’t wait on creating your alumni list. It’s incredibly helpful, I find, to have a list of past students. To contact, to reminisce, and someday, to plan reunions. It’s going to be a lot harder to make that list if it’s in the run up to a reunion; looking back […]
Personal
Make it personal. The best educators make it personal. They tailor the instruction to the student. They adjust their lesson plans in the moment depending on what’s happening in the room. They teach from motivations of curiosity, passion, and love that they want to share with the individuals they’re teaching. […]
Worst Part
Tell me what’s the worst part of a conducting job, and tell me why it’s auditions. It can be ensemble auditions or solo auditions – any situation in which I’m expected to make decisions via audition. I don’t have anything but the best interests of the students who audition, and […]
On Not Inviting People To Your Thing
It can be hard to invite people to your thing. For a lot of different reasons. I start several months before the Aces Concert each year (it’s tomorrow, May 26 at 7pm – free admission!) letting my students know that the best way for them to get an audience to […]
Replace Leadership
The best leaders I know lead like conductors. If the word leadership did not exist, what alternative word would you use? Adam Grant, to Brené Brown and Simon Sinek on his podcast ReThinking (The answers they gave were “facilitator” (Brown), “parent” (Sinek, jokingly), and “coach or guide” (Grant)) The word […]