Choral Ethics: Regrets

“Lost time is never found again.” Benjamin Franklin

As the school year and concert season winds down, do you have regrets? Was your concert repertoire everything you hoped it would be? Did your students make progress singing in a new foreign language or was it a bit beyond them this year? Was the new approach to fund-raising successful? Were your rehearsals productive every time? Do you consider this school year/concert season something worthy?

Walter Camryn, one of my ballet teachers, used to say, “everyone is good for something, if only to be a bad example.” What he meant was no one is completely unworthy; sometimes good comes from bad. My late Mom loved this thought because it is a positive in a world full of negatives.

Have you found your positives among your negatives this year? Thomas Edison is famously quoted as saying he did not fail; he just found 1000 ways it didn’t work. Perhaps that is the positive way to look at your failures; rather than think of them as FAILURES, it is better to think of them as learning experiences which will become successes down the line.

Malcolm* tells me he will never again allow his Freshman Chorus to decide their Winter Concert attire. It was silly and offensive, and he should have known better. He shared the negative remarks he received with his chorus, and they blamed HIM for letting them do it. He’s learned his lesson, from now on, it’s concert black for everyone, with no flare or style, boring, boring, boring—which is what these Freshmen whined at the beginning of the Fall semester–but not offensive. He shared this with me because he felt I would appreciate his realization. By the way, Malcolm never told me what the Kiddos wore!

Jennifer* made a HUGE mistake last concert season by choosing repertoire far beyond her very nice community chorus. This year, she chose pieces well within (probably below) their skills and they sounded FABULOUS. Everyone was pleased, from the Board to her singers to their audiences. After last year’s debacle, this was redemption of a sort, but Jennifer has been beating herself up ever since their last concert of the year—why didn’t she realize what they could handle to begin with last year and save everyone some misery? I suggested she focus on what she LEARNED from last year’s difficulties and go from there. And maybe, backtracking a bit with only one or two more difficult pieces would be fine if the rest of the repertoire was within their scope. That would be a win/win for everyone.

Jordan* believes he wasted his time this year with a church job not challenging enough for him. He wasted a year that should have been more productive and career advancing simply because he was helping a friend called across the country for a family emergency. And he’s angry about it. He skidded through, his organ and piano skills not stretched AT ALL. The choir he directed was mediocre at best and dreadful at worst. He claims he followed his friend’s instructions and didn’t think it was his place to change anything. I told him I thought he could have challenged himself by occasionally not doing standard organ registrations for hymns. Or choose different—and simple—anthems for the choir that could have challenged THEM. He didn’t have to accept their mediocrity but could have tried to pull them up, perhaps not to his level, but made them better than they were. He can complain and have regrets all he wants but HE could have done many things to make the situation better and he didn’t. Jordan thanked me and said from now on, if he can change some situation to make it better, he will.

Malcolm, Jennifer, and Jordan have a few regrets this year but are doing what they can to not make the same mistakes again. They will make DIFFERENT mistakes in the future, but not the same ones they made this year. What are the mistakes you’ve made this year and what are you doing to prevent making them again in the future?

*Name Withheld