This is the first in a series of blog posts highlighting various ChoralNet Communities. Communities are a tool for subcultures of the choral world to get together and address their own particular areas of interest.
The first Community to really take off on ChoralNet was Composers of Choral Music. All the discussions of rehearsal logistics, tours, vocal pedagogy, and the like which are so prevalent on ChoralNet’s forums are kind of remote to the composers, who have specialized topics of their own: what kind of software to use for notation, how to set up websites for self-publishing, how to find suitable lyrics. The composers never really had a place to get together and share their specific issues before, so the ChoralNet Community has done wonders for them.
But the predominant topic on the community is figuring out how to interest choral conductors in performing new music. There’s a huge amount of choral music being written for every level of ensemble, but conductors are largely unaware of it. There’s a limit to how often composers can go on ChoralNet’s forums and answer repertoire requests with “check out this piece of mine”, and subscribers would quickly tire of composers promoting their websites.
One person suggested having a central place for composers to place their music for sale, so conductors could easily browse it, and composers would be freed from the hassle of operating their own websites. This suggestion has led to the ChoralNet Composers’ Marketplace, which is under development, and has its own community.
I’ll be back with more community success stories in future posts.
Deborah King says
Director and Founder, PROJECT : ENCORE™ of Schola Cantorum on Hudson
. . . transcending expectations!
Owner, Voice and Conducting Studio and Consultation
Coordinator, Repertoire Committee, New York Choral Consortium
Coordinator, NJACDA High School Choral Festival
office: 888-407-6002 x4
cell: 973-698-6927
fax: 973-414-0229
http://www.deborahsking.com
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