arrange • compose • conduct
What could you do if you didn’t “know” you couldn’t? There are so many things we don’t attempt, because we already “know” we’ll never achieve them. But time after time, we are proved wrong when we assume we can’t do something. My eleven-year-old son has been singing along to really […]
I am committed to amplifying more music from Black culture in teaching music theory, ear training, and repertoire. As such I want to amplify these resources from my old friend Justin Binek, who has begun creating an online, freely accessible repository of examples. Included as of now are interval examples […]
I like to think about how it was for a thunderstorm to move in before we had radar, weather maps, and other meteorological predictions. Sometimes, it was a complete surprise. Other times, there were signs that you could use to predict. Signs that we might not even know to look […]
I loved studying Euclidian Geometry in high school. I loved the formality of geometric proofs, the creativity and sense of discovery they provided. And I loved that the entire geometric world could be built by manipulating Euclid’s five simple Axioms. He basically said, “If we can agree that these five […]
Don’t miss this. Säje is releasing amazing new music fairly regularly right now… I’ve been grooving to this since the dropped it to their Patreon supporters recently, but they released it on YouTube today. Great singing, great sense of ensemble, amazing arrangement, super cool song. Tune in and put it […]
I played a new little arrangement for dear friends tonight, and it included a tasty reharmonization that arrived once in each verse. My brilliant musician friend reminded me, don’t overuse the good stuff. As he said, overusing a powerful move can dilute its power. The surprise of a reharmonization is […]
It’s my end-of-school-year tradition to publish the repertoire my ensemble sang over the year. With my third year at GRCC in the books, here are the pieces Shades of Blue learned and performed. Shades of Blue had six singers (2-1-1-2) in the fall semester and seven singers (2-2-2-1) in the […]
I am committed to doing better as a leader, educator, composer/arranger, and choral musician to address systemic racism and white privilege in the choral world, and specifically in the work I do. I was moved to sign the Black Voices Matter Pledge after seeing its tenets shared yesterday; it was […]
Rhiannon Giddens wrote yesterday, on Juneteenth, This song, “Build a House”, came knocking a week ago and I had to let it in. What can I say about what’s been happening, what has happened, & what continues to happen, in this country, in the world? There’s too many words & […]
Today, take a minute to read the wise words of the elder stateswoman of song, Alice Parker, as she reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic, and, relatedly, the overdue steps to right systemic wrongs. No one can take away from us the ability to sing. Remember that it is always present […]