“I choose music very carefully, trying to match the right piece with the right choir-like the Durufle Requiem with the Texas All-State and the Rutter Requiem with the Eastern ACDAHonor Choir. The reverse wouldn’t have worked nearly as well. A lot of repertoire can be deceiving. For instance, it takes a great choir to do the Palestrina Tu es Petrus; and the Victoria Ave Maria, although simple in appearance, is a difficult work, very intricate.”
“I am also very attuned to the needs of an audience when I do programming. I pick music I know I can get excited about so I can, in turn, excite the singers, who then can communicate this excitement to the audience. I tell singers not to judge music as they are working on it. Sometimes we have to work very hard to get through to singers-to educate them. We have to sell the music since they have predetermined they won’t like it. I oftentimes tell them, ‘The piece we’re working on is the only one you’re ever going to see, so learn to love it. But you can’t love it without knowing it-to know is to love-so you might as well save time and make up your mind to love it before you know it!’”
“I also make sure there is variation in a concert program so that I don’t have seven courses of potatoes . . . I happen to love potatoes-but only as one part of a meal. I want variety. So I take different style periods and varying moods between the periods, treating each piece as though it were the best in the world.”
“I was interviewed once in Missouri on a little radio station and the interviewer asked, “Now, if you were put on a desert island with one piece of music, which would it be?” I said, “Whichever piece I’m working on.’”
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