arrange • compose • conduct
I re-shared my post “Discovery Day” yesterday, about how to make a Snow Day productive and fun. Yesterday for me, like many snow days, was about extra writing time. And I finished the day feeling light and free. Enervated, rejuvenated. I wrote a tremendous amount for me: about 2/3 of a choral […]
The last year of a president’s term in office, the last few years before a CEO or superintendent retires or moves on, she is often said to be “focusing on her legacy.” You’ll hear it a lot in 2016, describing virtually every action President Obama makes. You don’t build a legacy […]
I like to save recordings for as late in the year as I can – an ensemble matures as the year goes on, so why record earlier than you have to? The exception is Christmas music. I’ve been slowly assembling a Christmas album for the last five years with my choir; […]
I’ve been trying to sort out why I am not outraged about the Old Navy shirt designs that caused so much uproar last week. So much that Old Navy removed them from the store. I understand why people are feeling outrage; these are the reasons I can’t muster any. It’s poorly designed – I’m […]
I’ve been making homemade pizza for the better part of a decade. It’s gotten consistently better over the years as I’ve honed recipes and learned tricks. Every year or so, I get to a plateau in my pizza where it’s pretty consistent from one week to the next. But every time I […]
I think it’s too easy in a choral rehearsal to skip talk about how the music works. We want to train smart musicians, but in the moment, we’re solving problems to improve the piece we’re working on. Most of us are far more likely to reach for vocal technique to solve the problem […]
We need to feel temporary discomfort to get anything worthwhile done. Trouble is, society teaches us to meticulously avoid pain. The “right to pursue happiness” that we champion is often translated as the right to a discomfort-free existence. I will never do anything of value while remaining perfectly comfortable. Learning to play a new piece. Composing […]
My choir came back from break sounding solidly better than they did in their performance three weeks ago. Wait. What? More in tune, more musical, more sensitive to the ensemble around them. After more than 15 days of not singing together? Yep. Here’s what I think happens. (this is not close to the […]
There are three contributors to success, but only one is in your control.
I wrapped up my reading year with seven books in December – more than a quarter of my 2015 reading. Part of this was the break: a few days away can do wonders. But another big part was chain-reading. Like chain smoking, it’s using the last book to get started into the next book. Here […]