arrange • compose • conduct
I had the privilege of attending the Little Traverse Choral Society spring concert last night – 90 minutes with intermission of great choral music – Parker/Shaw, Luboff, Copland, Stroope, Vaughan Williams, Rutter. I was delighted to hear their conductor’s strong speech to the audience, urging them to join a choir, […]
I spent a long time in a hotel pool yesterday, ferrying my 3-year-old around the perimeter. At first, he kept flailing and begging to go back to the steps; until I turned around and let him see where we were heading. He immediately started laughing and talking about the experience. […]
Sooner or later, you are going to miss one of your choir’s gigs. It could be illness, a double booking, or an unavoidable meeting relocated across the state. Whatever your reason, it’s important to have done the work well in advance to ensure that your choir still gives its best […]
A tale of two responses: In response to the violence in Baltimore, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra played a free public concert on Wednesday at noon. In announcing it, they shared one of my favorite quotes from Leonard Bernstein: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more […]
Alice Parker’s book “The Anatomy of Melody” is remarkable in its conciseness. She has distilled a lifetime of knowledge into something so condensed and insight-rich that it proves difficult to take notes. (I am taking notes and will share them here soon.) How did Alice get to such clarity? By […]
In October, my singers need to know the program several weeks in advance. We’re just gelling as a group, learning new music, and they want to be ready. By April, they’re learning music faster, have an intuitive sense of each other, and are (secretly) hungry for a challenge. That’s why […]
I love Mondays. There’s a simple reason – it’s the day I get to spend two hours rehearsing with my favorite group of singers. I get so jazzed about the 7pm rehearsal that I’m moving fast from the second my feet hit the ground. But it’s gotten me thinking – […]
Trust comes from showing up. Your audience, your friends, your students – they won’t truly trust you until they know without question that you are going to keep showing up. Build a streak of showing up – on the easy days, on the hard days. Show up for the successes and […]
Justin Binek and I are old friends and fellow WMU alums – we sang together for a year in Gold Company in 2000-2001. He is currently a Vocal Jazz Doctoral Fellow at the University of North Texas, and as such got to be on the inside for a lot of […]
I’ve written before about replacing the term talented in my vocabulary. Because I’m trying to encourage a growth mindset in my students (and sons), it’s important to me that I never imply that their success comes entirely from something innate. Here are some phrases I’m trying not to use, and […]