arrange • compose • conduct
Overheard at a sight-reading-centric rehearsal last night… “I can’t wait till we can just get up and sing this.” Me, neither. (And the better you read, the faster we get there!) The truth is, while I love putting a new piece in my choir’s hands, and I love performing music […]
Getting to good isn’t hard. You can get to good pretty fast when the pressure is on. But you can’t get to great when your back is against the wall. To get to great, you need to be doing the hard work when your goal is far in the distance.
I’ve now seen Disney’s Frozen several times with my family, and we’ve all enjoyed their re-telling of Andersen’s The Ice Princess with wonderful animation, songs, and comedy. But I was struck by one moment in particular that speaks to our current a cappella cultural phenomenon. The film opens, before any action, with the wonderful Norwegian choir Cantus singing Vuelie, […]
Not long ago I had a nice conversation about early rising and writing with Z. Randall Stroope and it motivated me to write a little about my relationship with these early mornings. Why did I decide to get up so early? Why 4:30? When my second son was an infant, I […]
I started running in 2013. In April I started walking every day, which turned into a bit of running on a mutual dare with my wife. That turned into a bit more and eventually into signing up for a 5K and a formal running plan that by August had me […]
As a composer and arranger, I’m accustomed to bringing new pieces into the world. So it’s surprising to me how much joy I got from commissioning a new piece from someone else last year. When I presented my grant proposal to the Rockford Education Foundation to help fund a commission […]
Last summer I was helping my organic farmer friends at the Rockford Farmer’s Market when we needed more $1 bills for the cash box. I jogged over to the bank and exchanged three twenty dollar bills for sixty ones. On my way back I was struck by the fact that […]
My brother recently needled me about The Real Group visit to West Michigan – or more precisely, about the many, many posts on Facebook leading up to the February 14 concert. By my count, I posted thirteen times about The Real Group on my own page during the twelve days […]
I was lucky to have amazing jazz vocal masterclasses throughout my time at Western Michigan University – arranging with Clare Fischer; group masterclasses from The Real Group, New York Voices, and more; and solo masterclasses with the likes of Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy, and Janis Siegel. But there is one […]
The Rockford Aces second CD, “Close Harmony,” was essentially a record of the songs we performed at the 2012 World Choir Games – eight songs from our two competition sets, plus one pop song (“Good Old A Cappella”) and one classical piece (Joseph M. Martin’s “The Awakening,” accompanied by then-student […]