Uncategorized

As with every other music educator I know, my household has dealt with its fair share of cancellations in the name of social distancing. In just the last twenty-four hours, we have had the following happen: Moving to online-only until at least April 3 for my GRCC Shades of Blue students […]

If I have a question about a piece of music, I ask an expert – ideally the composer if possible, and if not, then a specific stylistic expert. I don’t presume that I have the specialist knowledge, and I don’t assume that anyone with an opinion about the music has […]

One of my composition students is having the first live read of a piece he’s composed this week. The first read of the piece, and the first read of his life. As we finished our lesson today, I urged him to keep his mind really open during the rehearsal, and […]

On Twitter, an author mentioned the new book she has available for preorder. I thought that my family had read and re-read her previous book (Station Eleven) so many times that she really should be allowed to just publish that book again. (It’s really, really good.) Then again, lots of […]

Being a good parent has a lot in common with being a good leader in any capacity, and especially with being a good educational leader. I haven’t yet invited my readers here to check it out, but I’m really proud of my contribution of a chapter to the new book […]

The Michigan Choral Commission Consortium (MC3) is an innovative new organization committed to facilitating choral compositions by connecting a group of like-minded choral organizations across Michigan. It seeks to make choral commissioning accessible to these organizations by pooling their resources. Past commissioned composers include Alice Parker (2016), Andrea Ramsey (2018), […]

I am very excited to announce that registration is now open for the 2020 edition of the Michigan Choral Commission Consortium. Membership is open to choirs of any age located in Michigan. (Past members include middle school, high school, community college, university, and community ensembles.) I’m glad to be making […]

Four years ago, I offered a Leap Year Challenge. A few prompts to get some thinking around how you want to shape your life over four years. I opened mine today and was really delighted by the way it reflected my thinking four years ago, and was able to reflect […]

I was introduced to this quote via Kurt Elling’s first album, where he sings it during the solo of “Never, Never Land.” “If a little day-dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, dream all the time.” Marcel Proust The quote is […]

There is value in observing someone with a job just like yours to see what they do differently and what they do the same. But there can be much more value in observing proximal jobs. Jobs that are similar but have significant differences. You can probably learn more about your […]