arrange • compose • conduct
One of the things choir leaders will need to wrestle with in the coming months is students afraid of heartbreak. Last year, my students lost musical performances, a trip to Europe, all concerts after March, and so much more. So did everyone else, of course. But it’s easier for adults, […]
R&R is going to be the goal for next year for choir. Recruitment and Rebuilding. We need to reestablish the norms, the standards of excellence, the atmosphere, the spirit. And we need to counteract the loss due to these highly unusual months. It’s not just choir, of course. Every organization […]
One last video for 2020 – or one first video for 2021. We invited students and music staff at Rockford High School to submit video/audio of the traditional canon Dona Nobis Pacem to a click track. Just once through the form. Then, through the magic of Pro Tools and Final […]
I wouldn’t take a gig producing virtual choir project for just anyone. The hours are intense, the work really only attracts attention when you make a mistake, and I’m still learning as I go. So, two scenarios make me say yes. First is if it’s my students, or my wife’s […]
However you spent your remote teaching, you are enough. If you organized and pulled off a 45-minute virtual “concert” … you are enough. If you poured your whole heart into one virtual choir song in tribute to a colleague … you are enough. If you didn’t do any virtual choir […]
The Rockford Aces perform Richard Gregory’s Christmas Medley every year. It’s just so fun, so clever – and it’s a great teaching tool for a lot of concepts, too. This year, of course, we couldn’t do it in person. We had just started learning it when we switched back to […]
My family is wishing you peace and connection this holiday season. We made this little music video together just for you! Wishing you all a Happy Holidays! We’ve built a lot of skills this year in our house – singing, juggling, audio & video engineering. And we decided to put […]
I’m predisposed to look to the future, not the past. As such, with coronavirus vaccinations rolling out and a potential end to rolling lockdowns imminent, I think it’s time to start diverting some thinking away from mitigating the challenges of the pandemic towards planning for what comes after. And the […]
My friends, I’m sorry. I find myself no more able to attend virtual concerts at the moment than I was able to attend physical concerts in Decembers past or earlier, when I was in the midst of twenty concerts in three weeks. Part of it is a consistent overload of […]
Tonight I heard the newly approved vaccine for COVID-19 described as a “medical miracle.” It’s not a miracle; it’s the result of millions of dollars in research, tens of thousands of minds working together and pursuing the results of years of study and discovery. It came mind-bogglingly fast, (the previous […]