arrange • compose • conduct
Katarina Henryson, founding member of The Real Group, has a strong, flexible, and distinctive voice. She has performed solos ranging from jazz to pop to rock as part of the group, and worked for years as a studio singer on pop and soul recordings. Her husband, Svante Henryson, is a world-class cellist […]
Today I want to honor the complexity of our students. Too often, I think, we tend to see a few data points (he’s a starting tackle on Varsity Football, she dyes her hair bright pink, he loves to sing and dance, she wears sleeveless shirts to school) and fill in the […]
Statisticians and labor experts tell us that today’s college graduates can expect five to seven careers in their lifetime. Not job changes, but wholesale career changes. With that future, I see no alternative but to tell students to pursue their deepest passion as a college major. If they can expect […]
That’s what a graduating senior said to me right after our Farewell Concert last spring. “It’s fine, I just never cry.” (Seniors around him were falling apart.) I told him he should work on that. Tears are a physical sign of being in touch with our emotions – if you can’t […]
The flu happens. You might be able to predict it a bit (based on attendance in class, or your kids’ behavior) but when it gets you, it’s always a shock. Being ready for the flu, then, means being ready to miss a rehearsal and still be ready for the concert. It means building slack […]
Let me tell you a secret: We know. I overheard a young man in a piano lesson play a piece for the sixth week in a row. He clearly hasn’t spent much time on it beyond his lesson time; if he had, he’d be five pieces farther in the book […]
About a decade ago a friend paid me a compliment – though I’m not sure she meant it the way I took it. “You’re really comfortable with silence.” She happened to be around the choir room as I was teaching a music theory lesson; I had asked a question and […]
I just received my second major commission for the Rockford Aces. After the success of our 2013 commission of Alice Parker (Cindy) I was hungry to commission again, and with the help of a grant from my local education foundation I was able to commission Michael McGlynn, founder and music director […]
The first performance of a new group is kind of like a Band-aid. Best to tear it off fast. My personal preference for first performance includes two big criteria: 1, slightly before they feel ready; 2, in front of an audience without astronomical expectations. One great solution is to book a performance of the […]
If you are worried about people rejecting, criticizing the art you want to make, don’t worry. They will. No art is for everyone. People reject Lin-Manuel Miranda’s brilliant Hamilton, saying “I hate rap.” The crowd rioted at the first performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Your art won’t be […]