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Why are retreats important? Next week will mark my 18th rehearsal with my choir. Since Labor Day. In that time, we will have spent 36 hours together in rehearsal. 36 hours to learn music, become a team, build trust, and discover our collective art. Meanwhile, our September retreat concluded after more than 40 […]

Auditioning soloists is one of my least favorite parts of my job as a conductor. The trust they have been building among themselves is diminished when they have to compete for a solo that only one can get. It is a necessary evil to making the music we want to make; having excellent […]

A former student reminded me last week of my response when she asked in a theory lesson, “Is there a shortcut to learning the order of sharp keys?” Sure, there’s a shortcut. Just memorize it. GDAEBF#C# Repeat 100 times. Repeat 1,000 times. (Skip the #s and you can repeat it once per […]

Your curiosity is a muscle. If you want to travel, learn, discover, grow, change, affect change, meet, lead, conquer, interact: it is curiosity that will get you there. I’m afraid that we in the education world haven’t been doing a good job of nurturing your curiosity for the last 100 years […]

As you shape a freelance career, remember that your last gig helps determine your next one. Don’t want to write music for show choir? Sooner or later, you have to say no to gigs. Actually, make it sooner: the best time is the fist gig, no matter how hungry you are. Once you start […]

I find it helpful to occasionally look at actions I repeatedly take and ask: tradition, ritual, or rut? Traditions are something you do because you always have. There is an important component of nostalgia, but the action still works for you. It’s a tradition to perform a trust fall the last morning […]

We are in the era of Youtubers, remix culture, and pop a cappella. It’s clear that the concept of copyright needs to be debated and changed to reflect the way we’re using culture. Here’s how I started my choir thinking about the ramifications in just a few minutes. Listen to Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel. […]

There are two ways to procrastinate. I used to procrastinate with my mind. What I mean is: I would have a deadline, and then ignore the project, task, responsibility until the last possible moment, when I would furiously finish the job, giving it as much thought as I could in […]

The “January Blahs.” There is a point in any activity when you’ve been marching forward for so long enough that you’re feeling “all kinds of blah”, as a friend put it. She asked colleagues, “Where are your favorite places to turn for inspiration or motivation when you’re feeling burned out?” I […]

I know a high school choral conductor who said, “My job isn’t to train future church choir members.” She meant community choir, even college choir, too – her goal was to put her most talented students on Broadway. I know another teacher whose goal was clearly to make her room a safe […]