arrange • compose • conduct
The second-best part of Halloween after the trick-or-treating is definitely the trades. My kids will spend a remarkable amount of time devising increasingly Baroque trades of candies to optimize their stash to their tastes. This always strikes me as ironic, since much of their candy ends up uneaten, even months […]
“You won’t understand anything about the imagination until you realize that it’s not about making things up, it’s about perception.” From The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman (Chapter 9) I came across this quotation today and was struck by it. Do you think of imagination as invention, or as understanding? […]
Memorization is a consistent challenge in ensembles, and I think that a big part of it is an overarching strategy that musicians learn with experience. When I’m memorizing a piece of music, I am often focusing more on the differences, not details. That is, I recognize that music almost always […]
Tired piles on tired as activity piles on activity. What does the director do? Demand a vigorous rehearsal, denying the exhaustion of the singers? Slow down, offer sympathy and a restful, unproductive time? Surely there’s a middle ground to find – one which honors the time that the singers have […]
Our family set aside the afternoon today to watch a movie we’d seen before – Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli masterpiece Spirited Away. Why watch it again? Because we were able to see it as intended: on the big screen, thanks to a special event re-release. Artwork has an intended medium, and […]
One of the underlying mindsets we give ourselves throughout 16+ years of education is that projects have discrete endings. School years, semesters, term papers, sporting events, homework…they all have a start date and a date and time at which you’re finished. The most interesting things in life, though, don’t really […]
Just a little pet peeve as I begin working on another round of band charts for our Fall Cabaret. I would say that over 90% of the songs we heard in auditions ended with the instructions “Repeat and Fade.” Can we agree that, even if that is an accurate representation […]
I’m not what you could call a classic Country Music fan, but I am bowled over by the new podcast from WNYC and Jad Abumrad, Dolly Parton’s America. The first two episodes of the 9-part series are out now, so it’s not too late to catch up and listen as […]
In this classic instructional video from Phil Mattson, the main topic I’ve always gravitated to is the one with the heading “The Rehearsal as Sacred Time.” As Phil says, “the goal of the rehearsal is to learn to serve the music….without attitude of respect and the spirit of servanthood, one […]
I’ve had this passage stuck in my head since I read it as a high school freshman in 1991 or 1992. It resurfaces whenever I’m thinking about what it takes to be an outstanding learner. In Chaim Potok’s masterpiece The Chosen, the narrator and protagonist Reuven Master, is studying the […]