Scott Dorsey

Recently, passengers stranded on commercial airliners have spontaneously turned to the live performance of music as a way to both pass the time, and presumably lower their collective blood pressure.   When members of the Philadelphia Orchestra were trapped in an aircraft in Beijing, they performed an impromptu concert for their fellow aviation inmates.  On […]

(An excerpt from the New York Times article, “Why Music Makes Our Brain Sing,” by Robert J. Zatorre & Valorie N. Salimpoor)     MUSIC is not tangible. You can’t eat it, drink it or mate with it. It doesn’t protect against the rain, wind or cold. It doesn’t vanquish predators or mend broken bones. […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Alienation and Entertainment,” by Kirk Mechem)          “On Alienation of Audiences was the title of an article in the January issue of the Choral Journal, I read this excellent piece with great interest but I have to admit that at the end I was still not sure […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Teaching Musical Concepts through Performance,” by Lois M. Wells)          Assumed basic concepts: High school students who perform a fine quality of repertoire at a high level of artistry must have already established certain basic concepts: a) A strong interest in choral music. b) A basic musicianship […]

ACDA needs YOUR creativity to name the label. The American Choral Directors Association has entered into an agreement with Naxos of America® for the development of a recording label devoted exclusively to choral music.  There is just one thing missing; a name for the label.  ACDA is staging an online contest to find an appropriate […]

(From the Choral Journal article, “Letters to a Young Musician,” by Royal Stanton)          You enter the field in times of turbulent change. Many of the traditional bases for choral music are being eroded away, have been reduced to mere tokens, or have been supplanted altogether. The media revolution of the last 50 years […]