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This time of year, your choir’s commitments seem to pile up, and rehearsals can be a little frenetic, trying to keep on top of everything. Do you ever just crave a “normal” rehearsal? Remember those September rehearsals, when the year was in front of you and you could dig into new music, […]

Sometimes you need to go off the grid and leave your inbox behind. It’ll wait for you. It’ll be there when you get back. Walk. Garden. Bonfire. Spend a day doing things your great-grandparents would recognize. The inbox can wait.

Dancers know that the moment most likely to cause applause mid-song is not the tricky, dancer-y combination that is their personal favorite. It’s the kick line. A kick line isn’t complicated – it’s so simple and straightforward that a rank beginner can get the hang of it. But it’s powerful – the synchronized, […]

My busy season for writing commissions is behind me, but that means the busy season for hearing commissions is here. I don’t think I’ll ever not float four feet off the ground when I hear music I wrote performed for the first time. Yesterday I was sent an MP3 rehearsal recording – just a “check […]

I said to a student last night, “you’re practically a senior!” The student said, “I still have no idea what I’m doing!” I leaned in and said conspiratorially, “Me either.” My advice: keep faking it, and eventually you have a career. The patterns will only be clear in reverse; keep working […]

In our culturally segmented society, we all-caps NEED Cultural Experiences that help us remove blinders from our entrenched viewpoints. Where in school are you most likely to have these experiences? In the arts, of course. Arts field trips that expose us to fine art we wouldn’t otherwise experience. Travel abroad or around the […]

Performing at a venue like Carnegie Hall is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And yet, probably hundreds of school and community ensembles participate in concerts there every year. Which makes it sound more everyday. Which is it? Once-in-a-lifetime or everyday? It can be both. Even if your school performs at Carnegie Hall […]

Virtually every statement of fact can be appended with the sentence, “The truth is more complicated.” 8th grade physics is a simplification of high school physics, which is a simplification of college physics, which is a simplification of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics…which are simplifications of how the world actually works. The truth is more complicated. […]

As children grow, they crave autonomy; often, before they possess the skills to actually achieve it. Part of the reason children want this self-sufficiency is that they lack so much agency in their own lives – in school and at home, they are accustomed to adults making many or all decisions. Who wouldn’t […]

There is a natural disappointment that comes from not experiencing fabulous live music when it comes right to your door. Over one disappointing week recently I missed local performances from: The Nidaros Cathedral Girls’ Choir (direct from Norway) Roomful of Teeth Chanticleer WMU GCII (featuring two of my former students) […]