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How often do you say “I made the wrong call” in the course of a school year? Not to yourself, or to a confidant. How often do you say it to your singers, to your students. As small as “I made a wrong call on the phrasing of this piece.” […]

It’s a great mantra for anyone learning anything new. Slow. Down. “If you can’t sing it slow, you can’t sing it fast,” my mentor would say. But of course it’s true for everything from writing to cooking to teaching to learning. We start slow. The unspoken corollary, and one I […]

The hardest part of teaching is being present. Truly, deeply present. The hardest part isn’t grading the essays. It isn’t selecting, teaching, and honing the right octavos for festival. It isn’t preparing a masterful lesson on the quadratic formula. The hardest part is being present – truly, deeply present for […]

Had a day where everything clicked? Do it again tomorrow. Had a day when nothing went right? Do it again tomorrow. The repetition is what makes progress happen. Don’t get over-confident when you have a great day, and don’t get discouraged on a bad one. Just keep doing the work, […]

Great works of art are always worth the wait. Michelangelo’s David will impress when you get to Florence – no matter how long you’ve waited. Same with the Mona Lisa, the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower. The Real Group live. In all cases, you can get a sense […]

Have you tried replacing a demand with a question? Instead of “Have this memorized next Monday!” – ask the question. “Can you have this memorized for next week?” Not a rhetorical question. Wait for a response. Overwhelmingly, in my experience, the answer is “yes.” And with that yes comes more […]

On our college choir tour, we jumped off the bus for our free day in Paris – and ran hand-in-hand to Notre Dame, where we heard Sunday Mass with Duruflé sung by a stunning choir. Quite the spot for a first date, nineteen years ago in May. Notre Dame has […]

I am looking out my window at absolutely beautiful snow-covered trees. Beautiful but wrong. I want my trees to be snowy white in December, but when April rolls around, I am ready for clear roads for walking and driving, and warm sunny days for breathing in fresh air and seeing […]

I used the phrase “Love Army” the other day in a post on Facebook, and I’m increasingly enamored with the image. A group of humans banded together to spread love, increase connection, support each other, and make the world better by putting more love into it. Come to think of […]

Sometimes you can struggle with a piece for weeks and weeks, only to find, all at once, that you’re making music with it. It feels like magic when it happens. Magic created through hard work, diligence, cajoling, high standards, and a committed ensemble. I remind myself in the weeks when […]