Choral Ethics: Doing the Right Thing

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” Theodore Roosevelt

This is a Choral Ethics Blog post repeat from 2017-2018. I need to slow down during the summer as much as all of you. I try to be here, one way or another, every week because I know many of you look forward to this blog and I don’t want to disappoint you. Hope you’ll enjoy one of our Oldies but Goodies! You can always reach me for help with your Choral Ethics Dilemmas during the summer by email: . Please note, this is my new email. Have a great summer! MLGA

About half of all emails I receive are from folks who want my opinion about the right thing to do. I’ve written about this before; many choral directors, for various reasons, don’t trust their instincts and want validation. I don’t blatantly tell them what to do; I ask questions and let them work it out in their own minds. I believe everyone who asks really knows what to do; they just want to be given permission.

You know the right thing to do means including all who want to sing in your non-auditioned church choir. And your church choir members and clergy know this too. While your inclination might be to ask the 80-year-old soprano who has a vibrato you can drive a truck through NOT to sing, it would not be right. You are perhaps sacrificing musical perfection, but you are making up for it in your music ministry. We often forget, as professional church musicians, our ministry includes our choir members as well as our congregation.

Your highly auditioned community chorus has a reputation of musical excellence. Each singer is proud of the level of musicianship of your chorus. You are getting complaints about one of your long-time members. He is one of your founding low basses, and has developed a terrible, distracting vibrato. You very gently ask him if he feels he is still able to contribute. Relieved, he tells you he is no longer able to sing but would like to manage the box office.

Another choral organization in your community tends to contact only those who successfully audition. Your organization has always contacted everyone who auditions, whether they pass the audition or not. Now your board thinks they should no longer be bothered by those who don’t make it and do not want to contact them. You still think it is, not only the right thing, to contact all but will make your organization look bad in the long run if you change your long-held policies.

Your chorus posts a list on the chorus room door of those who successfully auditioned for various things. Each person is required to initial their name, so you know they have seen it. One person did not initial their name last time and was quite miffed they were being asked to do so.

Your academic chorus has a tradition of having many soloists for each concert. If you perform a large work with multiple solos for the same voice type, you have a different soloist for each solo. You like being able to give many of your students a chance to sing in public but your new department chair has different ideas.

One of your tenors is your usual soloist. He has a great voice but with every solo you’ve given him, he has gotten a bit more demanding and arrogant. The last time, he threw his music at your accompanist. You decide enough is enough and choose someone else. He quits in a huff.

One of the singers in your children’s choir did not show up for your last concert. You have half a mind to ask them not to return. When you call their parents, you find out they did not have concert dress because they could not afford it and were ashamed. The child said nothing to you about their situation. Knowing this now, you change what your chorus wears for concerts, so everyone is able to participate and feel comfortable.

The policy of your university chorus is to give ‘As’ to everyone who sings the concert. If they do not sing the concert but have attended most rehearsals, they are automatically given a ‘C’. One of your singers did not sing at the last concert because they were in a car accident two days before and was in the hospital. You decide to give them a ‘B’.

The community chorus which is in direct competition with your community chorus is having difficulties. Several of their members have joined your chorus, gossiping all the way. This is an organization that has a history of gossiping about and maligning your chorus, but you get no joy from their misfortunes. You walk away when their gossip starts because it makes you feel uncomfortable.

Each situation has a different “right thing” to do. You know, in your heart, what that is. Now do it!