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To be a creator you have to hold two opposite thoughts in your mind. The dance of this cognitive dissonance is one of most tenuous parts of ongoing creativity. I can write whatever I want right now, because I will keep it private for as long as it takes to shape it into good art. […]

Frank Sinatra’s 100th birthday was yesterday. For me and many others he is the pinnacle of phrasing. For all the bravado-posturing-political-tabloid public life, when he got to the mic with a band behind him, he was the absolute master. I think for a singer at Sinatra’s level, time actually slows down. He never is […]

They’re making the rounds again. Several different school rankings show up in social media every year. Of course there’s US News & World Report for high schools and colleges. I also regularly see updated rankings from greatschools.org and music school rankings from musicschoolcentral.com. You’ll generally see them posted by: Proud alumni Residents/current students The schools […]

I saw this posted yesterday as the Robert Shaw Quote of the Day: Great choral singing depends upon blending individual voices together, but there’s no magic or secrets, you have to have them sing the same pitch, with the same vowel at the same dynamic level, at the same time. That […]

Dear fellow artists, (hint: that’s everyone) Please stop hiding your art. I need it. We all need it. We need more songs, more sculpture, more drawings. We need more plays, more symphonies, more ballet. More knitting, more gardens, more LEGOs. More novels, more bridges, more cancer research. More of whatever makes […]

Let us pause in life’s pleasures, and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor. We started rehearsing at 1:30 and performed a concert at 7. It was my blessing to spend part of a day with these young men from throughout Southwest Michigan (MSVMA District […]

Last night we had our first quartet tests in my choir this year. I had forgotten just how much I love them. Not because of the abject fear in the eyes of the new members of the ensemble. I’m not villainous. I love quartet tests because they enforce accountability. They demand students to put in […]

I owe a big thank you to the women of Voca Lyrica and especially their artistic director and conductor, Ginny Kerwin. They commissioned me to write a setting of “The Merry Christmas Polka” for SSA & piano 4-hands. It’s the third Andrews Sisters Christmas tune I’ve set for that voicing, and they […]

There are few people as lucky as I in the parent lottery – and one of my goals as an educator is to teach the lessons I learned in my home. With that in mind, here are three lessons I learned from my dad. Let your curiosity guide you. If Dad said “I wonder” to […]