arrange • compose • conduct
The Rockford Aces perform Richard Gregory’s Christmas Medley every year. It’s just so fun, so clever – and it’s a great teaching tool for a lot of concepts, too. This year, of course, we couldn’t do it in person. We had just started learning it when we switched back to […]
There are many more than 95 reasons to love Alice Parker. She is one of the world’s leading choral composers and arrangers (two sides of the same coin, says she. The only difference is in one case you wrote the melody, and in the other case someone else did.). She […]
My family is wishing you peace and connection this holiday season. We made this little music video together just for you! Wishing you all a Happy Holidays! We’ve built a lot of skills this year in our house – singing, juggling, audio & video engineering. And we decided to put […]
I’m predisposed to look to the future, not the past. As such, with coronavirus vaccinations rolling out and a potential end to rolling lockdowns imminent, I think it’s time to start diverting some thinking away from mitigating the challenges of the pandemic towards planning for what comes after. And the […]
Here’s the questions you might ask as you work through learning a new craft. How do I do this?How do I do this well?How do I do this in a way that expresses my own viewpoint?How do I do this in a way that impacts others?How do I impact the […]
My friends, I’m sorry. I find myself no more able to attend virtual concerts at the moment than I was able to attend physical concerts in Decembers past or earlier, when I was in the midst of twenty concerts in three weeks. Part of it is a consistent overload of […]
Tonight I heard the newly approved vaccine for COVID-19 described as a “medical miracle.” It’s not a miracle; it’s the result of millions of dollars in research, tens of thousands of minds working together and pursuing the results of years of study and discovery. It came mind-bogglingly fast, (the previous […]
I’m playing nightly Scrabble games with two precocious young people these days, and I’ve been reminded of the most common trap in Scrabble. It’s focusing entirely too closely on the letters in your rack and not enough on fluidly reacting to the board and the words played on it. Of […]
Today I practiced saying, “I don’t know … but I think …” It’s a powerful statement to make, particularly to students. It’s powerful because acknowledging the real limits of our knowledge, particularly when we are in positions of authority is humanizing, builds connections, and empower students to recognize that their […]
When I was selecting songs for GRCC Shades of Blue for Fall 2020, “Singin’ in the Rain” was the first arrangement I chose. For many reasons, including: It’s a killer a cappella jazz chart – swinging, great harmony, fun to sing. April Tini had a major influence in introducing me […]