arrange • compose • conduct
This is the year to practice abundant grace. Everyone I know is experiencing emotional upheaval – on their own timeline. And in times of emotional upheaval, what we need more than anything from the people around us is grace. We need patience, support, guidance, and unconditional love. Some needed it […]
Teachers, I beg you ramp up your self-care now. Everything about teaching right now feels impossible. Fully Remote Teaching: Impossible.Hybrid Teaching: Impossible.In-Person Teaching: Impossible. It all feels impossible. And so you are doing the impossible, day after day. It takes extra support to do the impossible, and with the sheer […]
I attended a virtual session through Sing! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival yesterday. They, like everyone else, have pivoted to virtual offerings. I admit I didn’t desperately need Anders Edenroth’s session Recording From Home. I’ve done a lot of recording, both in the home and in the studio, and I’m […]
There are skills I’ve built already as a teacher during the pandemic. There are skills I hope I never have to use again. And there are skills and tools I’ve tried and said, “I’ll keep using this.” I’ll keep using remote one-on-one mini-lessons. These have been a great way to […]
Guest blog by Mandy Scott One of the silver linings of the past six months has been witnessing educators across the country coming together to both engage in new technology and commit to the sharing of resources with one another. It has been remarkable and life changing. Speaking from my […]
We are all starting over. We are out of practice… teaching in person. learning in person. conducting gracefully. singing beautifully. interacting with a group. leading. following. trusting. And we have never practiced… conducting with a mask. singing with a mask. recognizing students with masks. safe distancing in the classroom. enforcing […]
We rehearsed together today–I and the next generation of The Rockford Aces. It wasn’t like any other rehearsal we’ve ever had. Between the masks, the distance, and the September wind, we could hardly hear each other. None of us had sung in a group in a solid six months. But […]
I personally think it’s good for students to see their teachers and leaders figuring it out. The idea of the teacher/leader as a fount of knowledge, issuing decrees from a position of authority and wisdom is tempting, but it isn’t very realistic. We are all human, we are all figuring […]
The worst lesson to learn from six months of a pandemic is, “it’s always like this.” It’s hard, at 43, to learn that lesson. Your sense of normal does evolve over time, but I have had enough life experience to know that it’s not always like this. In the nearly […]
I heard auditions today for the Rockford Aces – outside, distanced, masked. They were auditions – nerve wracking in the best of times, and probably doubly so when the singers haven’t had sung with a choir since at least March. So I simplified my audition protocol, I removed aspects, and I tried […]