arrange • compose • conduct
Diane Wolk-Rogers is a stellar educator and speaker who has almost unwittingly influenced the trajectory of the American conversation in 2018. Her entire recent TED Talk is well worth watching, but I want to focus on this statement from early in the speech: “There’s a method to being an engaged […]
Ideas come unpredictably – in the shower, driving, in the middle of rehearsal. The most important tool I’ve found for getting better at capturing those ideas for future use is this phrase: I won’t remember this. The more often I remind myself this truth, the more often I write it […]
Science YouTuber Mark Rober has a fun video about making great Pinewood Derby cars. One point he makes is that it’s good to concentrate as much weight as possible in the back of the car, because it spends longer on the slope, adding speed till the end. That’s why I […]
If you are anything like the educators I know, you find yourself saying many times a day, “Why am I so tired?” You are so tired because you have… …put in 10-, 12-, 14- hour days since August. …taught music, language, history, and life, every day, to dozens or hundreds […]
Lin-Manuel Miranda heard Sam Seaborn say it on The West Wing: “Before I look for anything, I look for a mind at work,” and put it in Angelica Schuyler’s voice for Hamilton. No matter where you first heard it, this idea has plenty to offer the director at audition time. As you’re […]
“I really haven’t written anything that I wouldn’t love to get back and write again” – Aaron Sorkin We think of great art as something that is toiled over until it’s just the way that the creator wants it, and then shared with the world. It’s in the creation stories […]
Choral educators interact with their students on many levels. Lecturer. Conductor. Director. Accompanist. Parent/Surrogate Parent. Counselor. Listener. Disciplinarian. Advisor. Cheerleader. But we must interact with each student as a human first. We cannot be effective at any of those other roles until we see our students as human beings, worthy […]
When balancing a chord, it’s important to take into mind tessitura, dynamics, chord note function, vowels, and any number of other possible challenges. But there’s a particular issue that clarifies the challenge. When you have two voices a half-step away as part of a chord, it’s important to make sure […]
Fred Rogers famously was a lifelong vegetarian because, as he said, “I don’t want to eat anything that has a mother.” As I wrap up Mother’s Day, I am reflecting on the intention to greet each human interaction with the understanding that the person I’m talking to has a mother. Perfect […]
What about next year? When is the time to start thinking about next year’s programming, events, calendar, fundraising, logistics, and so on? The Monday after school gets out? Nope. That day is a day of well-deserved rest and human re-connection. The time to start thinking about next year is now. While you’re […]