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I’m writing a personal educator mission statement that will hopefully help me recenter on stressful, long, exhausting days when I can’t see the forest for the trees. I’ll hand write it and post it where I can see it every day. Here’s the draft as it stands now; it will […]

College is overwhelmingly thought of as universal trade school now: get the training you need to succeed in a specific job. Actually, high school is increasingly thought of as a trade school, too. What curriculum should I take to get into the right degree program at the right school? In […]

“This time is for this.” When you work with multiple creative projects, it can be effective to get specific about when you work on them. Otherwise all times and no times belong to each project – so you’re equally at risk of both over-focusing on one project and ignoring it […]

New York Voices’ last studio album came a full twelve years ago – 2007’s A Day Like This. (They have released a Christmas album and a live album with Bob Mintzer since then.) So the fact that Reminiscing In Tempo is released today is a great reason to celebrate! Check […]

My vocal jazz ensemble audition consists of five important components. Solo Song Sight Reading Ear Testing Improvisation 24-hour prepared excerpt (learn your part) All of these are important in assessing the overall skills of the singer. I can better assess voice quality in the solo song, but better understand their […]

Creating is the act of repeatedly rediscovering how. In some fields, there might be a sense of repetition – to the point of predictability. But to create is to approach each project, each day, with the humility of not knowing how to proceed. The job is to discover how, and […]

Like many choral conductors, I’ve been finding more and more of my repertoire via digital-only retailers – independent publishers like MusicSpoke and Graphite as well as individual composers‘ sites. I have long been frustrated with the quality of putting 8.5×11 photocopied octavos in my students’ hands. But with digital-only publishing, […]

Over the course of the summer, I’ve delved deeply into Dr. Brené Brown’s work on leadership, and tried to apply her lessons specifically to choral leaders in the rehearsal environment. I’m going to try to tie up loose ends and look back in this final post of the Dare To […]

Part of being a young person is asking a lot, “Is this me?” You try on a way of being, or an activity, a club, a sport. You try it long enough to not be absolutely green, and then you as, “Is this me?” Part of the reason we have […]

When you want an equitable solution and someone else wants to WIN, how do you proceed? In other words, how do you not get run over when you’re willing to compromise and the other party views compromise as losing. Involve other people who are more interested in compromise. Communicate clearly […]