Choral Ethics: A Five Part Series, Part One

I am re-running a series on Choral Ethics beginning today and for most of July. I am taking a bit of a break but will be back soon with new blogs. Enjoy! MLGA

The five parts are:

Part One: An Introduction

Part Two: Amateur Versus Professional

Part Three: Kindness is NOT for Wimps

Part Four: Reaping What We Sow

Part Five: “Maestra Manners” Explains All

Part One: An Introduction

Over ten years ago, I decided I would write a book about something I now call “Choral Ethics.” A few things motivated me, including a rather unpleasant encounter at a community arts event with a choral colleague.  Nothing seemed to provoke our confrontation; in fact, I had just recommended the person for a rather nice job. But she was hellbent on being unpleasant, so unpleasant she was.  At the time it was happening, I thought she was simply being “unprofessional” as well as something else I couldn’t define. As I was recovering from my encounter; I began thinking about behavior, specifically what we deem “professional” behavior in the choral world.

“Professional” means different things to different people and we musicians throw around the term all the time.  It may mean being on time for rehearsals and gigs, being cooperative and even collegial.  It may also mean practicing and being prepared— having the right music or a pencil handy–for rehearsal.  All would agree being a professional can mean being on time or bringing a pencil, but it is something much more. Professional may also be used to describe a conductor’s behavior—they may be calm and DON’T throw temper tantrums or are volatile and DO throw temper tantrums—there are those who believe either behavior indicates true professionalism in music.

There are plenty of people, both musicians and “civilians,” who give conductors and singers a pass for bad behavior simply because they are so talented and artistic and so…..well, you fill in the blank.  They reason since *they* are so talented, they must be justified behaving like four year olds and the rest of us must not be as professional and talented because we don’t behave like jerks.  Somewhere along the line, it’s become acceptable within our profession to be prickly.  The bad behaviors can range from nastiness, bullying and crabby impatience in rehearsals, making impossible demands with little notice, slighting of singers/colleagues in public, gossiping, treating accompanists and accompanying musicians like dirt, judging and criticizing —aloud—of other organizations/public schools/universities choral programs and personal remarks about others.  When we accept these behaviors as being “professional,” we can be sure to be treated to another round of something new and even more outrageous.

As I began to think of what I would categorize as a lack of professionalism, it occurred to me it is not a lack of professionalism but a lack of some sort of accepted ethical guidelines within our profession. There are things we should not be doing, of course, and we all think we know what they are.  As far as other things are concerned, it is subtle.  Since the choral instrument is people, we must be concerned with people—our people—and that’s where the subtly comes in. It has only been recently, as I write, I understand what I believe to be choral ethics.

Physicians take an oath—the Hippocratic Oath–as they graduate from medical school and are awarded their M.D.s. They swear to “do no harm.”  I wonder if we should be required to do the same.  We must do no harm to our singers, both physically and emotionally, by using our knowledge of the human voice to prevent injury and by not emotionally abusing them by our behavior in rehearsals and out.  We must do no harm to our colleagues by not bad mouthing or undermining them in public to singers or audience members or the community at large. We must do no harm to our profession as a whole by upholding ourselves to as high a musical standard as possible within our scope of expertise and by respecting the rights of the composers we perform.

Each of us needs to think about our own personal code of ethics, ideally, beginning to develop our own code while in training. Those working with young conductors can begin the process by being a good example first and sharing their own codes of ethics with their students. Many believe it important to choose repertoire not in conflict with their own belief system, whether because of a composer’s behavior or a composition’s message.  That may be part of conductor’s personal code of ethics and is at least a place to begin.

I find my own teachers and conductors I have worked with as a singer influencing my own ethical code, whether positively or negatively. My own personal choral ethics code is a work in process but has three basic parts.  I try to treat my singers and accompanists as I would want to be treated.  I try to always say something good about my colleagues if at all possible and if I am not able, to keep my mouth shut. And I try to keep my own skills as good as in my capability.

Choral Ethics isn’t rocket science, complicated or anything we haven’t heard before, we just need to be reminded. Regularly.