arrange • compose • conduct
Sometimes being first with the right idea can look the same as having the best idea. When Spotify first released the soundtrack to Hamilton the musical, it was difficult to find. It didn’t come up if you searched “Hamilton”. You had to search for an artist, click through two or three things, and […]
For my birthday, I chose to make a list of 38 things I know with my heart. I’ve divided them into four categories: Love, Work, Play, and Learn. Love. 1. Love is the bottom line motivation for everything I do. 2. My family is the center of my heart. 3. Love isn’t […]
One reason we’re afraid to start projects is that we know the tough part is after we start and runs right up until we finish. I was reminded of that as I was preparing for my rehearsal Monday night with the Rockford Aces. We had now had our newly commissioned piece, May by […]
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 […]