“Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.” Leonard Bernstein We all know music’s ability to heal and sooth. We know how it comforts the ill and the despondent. Music can help both the dying on their trip “home” and the woman giving birth as she brings new life into the world. It teaches […]
Choral Potpourri: We Had A Plan
“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” Leonard Bernstein If you are anything like me, your December concert and worship music for this year was planned during the summer or before. Your plans are coming to fruition or close to it. You are calm, knowing things are […]
Choral Potpourri: Going Back
“In the olden days, everybody sang. You were expected to sing as well as talk. It was a mark of the cultured man to sing.” Leonard Bernstein Is what we do “relevant?” Are the Old Masters we sing, or even the New Masters, relevant to the world as it is now? I have been doing […]
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; Songs My Mother Taught Me
“My mother was a lady like yours, you will allow……” Jimmie Rodgers My Mother would have been 89 years old today. Born on Thanksgiving Day, she loved the holiday, the food and having her family around her. Today my family is gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving of course, but also to reminisce about Mom on her […]
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; It’s All Right!
“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” Robert Louis Stevenson I hate whiners. When my boys were young, they knew I would not “hear” them if they complained in a whiny voice. They could complain about life not being fair or that someone got a bigger […]
Choral Potpourri: Getting to Our Zen Place
“Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind.” Zen Proverb Our fall concert is in a few days. As in past concert cycles around this time, I’m joking around; telling my choir I’m trying to get to my “Zen Place” and this cycle is no different. You may have a different term for it, […]