Choral Caffeine: Making a Meaningful Musical Menu

You’re planning a dinner for some friends.  What to serve, what to serve?  Okay, let’s start with calamari and stuffed portabella mushrooms as an appetizer.  So far so good.  Then we’ll have a lovely salad of field greens with freshly made wild berry vinaigrette.  Yummy – go on!  For the entrée a frozen pizza, then we’ll have lime Jello® for dessert!

 

 

Wait a second . . .

 

The menu above started out alright, but then something went awry.  Of course, you probably wouldn’t serve a meal that didn’t make sense; why, then, would we program our concerts with anything less than the best possible ingredients, carefully chosen to coordinate and complement one another?

 

In her article, “A Thematic Approach to Planning Choral Programs,” Shereé Stoppel shares several ways in which a choral program can go from being just a loose collection of pieces to a cleverly constructed concert with a unifying theme.  She discusses some of the considerations in programming thematically, including locating repertoire, evaluating the needs of the audience, inclusion of soli and small ensembles, the season of the year, and philanthropic service connected to a concert.

 

Among the programs that Shereé shares are “Songs of War & Peace,” “If Music Be the Food of Love,” “The British Invasion,” True Colors,” “That 70s Thing,” “Fun in the Sun,” “Broadway Since 1980,” and “Once Upon a Time.”

 

Now, reconsider next season’s musical menu!  After all, frozen pizza and green Jello . . . not so much.

 

(To access the full article, simply click the highlighted title. For additional articles on a dazzling array of choral topics, visit  ChorTeach.)