arrange • compose • conduct
Many of the activities that bring me the most joy in life are all the things that require – or compel! – total focus from me. Writing music. Writing words. Puzzles. Making music with an ensemble. Ensemble music is the trickiest, because it relies on the whole ensemble committing to […]
Without fail, sometime every Sunday this year a list has come pouring out, filling a notecard with current and future projects. My Sunday List is a form of David Allen’s Brain Dump, supercharged by the gift that keeps on giving: my Singing Brook Day. Freed from the temptation, support, and […]
Some say it as, “Early is on time; on time is late.” My family calls it “Scott Time.” It’s the habit of arriving early so you’re ready when an activity starts, instead of hustling to be on time. I prefer the way I heard it, repeatedly, throughout my college career […]
For the last three nights, I have sat in a darkened auditorium – masked, socially distanced, and fully vaccinated – and watched live theatre. The performers were masked too – masked as they sang, danced, tumbled, ran, and performed their hearts out. And I wept. I wept for the lost […]
When I am working through familiar challenges, I tell myself, “You’ve been here before.” It’s the week of the musical and the whole family is involved at one level or another? You’ve been here before. You’re two weeks out from your first concert, and the music isn’t as well-prepared as […]
What they don’t tell you about a pandemic is that at some points it’s easy to forget that everyone else is going through a pandemic, too. I see it in students and parents – the frustration at difficult circumstances is misplaced to their teachers. I see it in customers, who […]
On my morning two-mile walk, there are two dogs who are quite obsessive. You can tell even if they aren’t outside, because they have dug gentle ruts into their yards with repeated running back and forth along the same path. It seems to me that most people want to have […]
One of my favorite expressions is “Be proud but never satisfied.” Indeed, it’s imprinted in my musical DNA from frequent repetition. It’s a perfect description of the balance between satisfaction in a job well done and hunger for further growth. But in my experience, the expression needs to be inverted. […]
The thing I can’t wait to get back to is listening together. We listen alone a lot in 2021. Headphones of our own podcasts or playlists are placing sound into our own ears. The person next to us is listening to something different. (If there’s a person next to us…I […]
I have opened the Zoom for my college composition student at 12:00 every week this semester. Only problem is, it’s at 12:30. My student knows this. My calendar knows this. I know this. But at some point early in the semester, I locked it in at 12:00, and I can’t […]