arrange • compose • conduct
Twice a year I get to unite current and past members of my choir. First came the spring concert, which we close every year with our version of Stand By Me, combining the current group and all alums. For the last three years, though, it has been the Aces Christmas party I […]
I have a job I love with work to keep me occupied every available moment. I’m not busy. I have three amazing, brilliant, demanding sons and the best wife. I’m not busy. I have projects I don’t quite have time for, that I’m necessarily ignoring until I can give them proper attention. […]
Spoiler Alert: Absolute pitch has virtually no impact in your future musical success. Right now, there’s a video going viral of a kid with absolute or “perfect” pitch undergoing “the hardest ear training test of all time.” Absolute pitch is the ability to recognize pitches the way you or I recognize colors. Practice and some vestigial brain […]
I have several students preparing for music school auditions. You probably do, too. The next two weeks of school vacation are crucial in their final preparation. In my experience, students overwhelmingly squander them. Here’s what I want to say to them: You are letting fear win. You are choosing the quality of your audition. I […]
It’s your last day of school before a well-deserved break. I’m taking a few minutes to reflect, as I often do at mile-markers like this one. What have we done well so far? What will we want to refocus on when we get back to rehearsal? What do I love about my job? […]
It’s Star Wars opening night; it’s also the night of our choir concert. My wife had to start warning students in October that Star Wars isn’t a valid reason to miss the concert. There are showings literally every 15-30 minutes at our local theater this weekend. There are two kinds of communal activities we can experience: […]
Alice Parker is a living American treasure. Today she celebrates her 90th birthday. I’ve written before about her influence on me, both as a musician and as a person. If you aren’t familiar with her work, get familiar. Read one of her books. Stage one of her operas. At the very least, dig deep into […]
I love to set aside time for a guided Christmas listening during the last week of school before Christmas Break. A Christmas listening is especially enlightening because the songs are so familiar. You can find a bunch of wildly different versions of one song, and listen back to back. Because the song is known, […]
To be a creator you have to hold two opposite thoughts in your mind. The dance of this cognitive dissonance is one of most tenuous parts of ongoing creativity. I can write whatever I want right now, because I will keep it private for as long as it takes to shape it into good art. […]
Frank Sinatra’s 100th birthday was yesterday. For me and many others he is the pinnacle of phrasing. For all the bravado-posturing-political-tabloid public life, when he got to the mic with a band behind him, he was the absolute master. I think for a singer at Sinatra’s level, time actually slows down. He never is […]