(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “An Interview with Six Successful Elementary School Choral Directors,” by Angela Broeker) We have found that boys become very enthusiastic when separated from the greater chorus and are permitted to perform as a small ensemble apart from the girls. There are many folk song octavos in which […]
CJ Replay: Government and the Arts
(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “An Interview with Robert Shaw: Reflections at Eighty,” by Jeffrey Baxter) A citizenry concerned about its intellectual, artistic, cultural, and spiritual life will find ways to increase its support of that life. There’s no assurance that art and music will escape the bureaucratic problems that we experience […]
CJ Replay: The Challenge to Composers
(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “An Interview with Rodion Shcherdrin,” by John Stuhr-Rommereim) STUHR-ROMMEREIM: What do you feel are the special challenges facing choral composers in the latter part of the twentieth century? SHCHEDRlN: I think we must return to natural means of expression. I am not a conservative, but I […]
Is It Really THEIR Voices? Teaching the Urban Youth Choir
(An excerpt from the interest session, "Is It Really THEIR Voices? Teaching the Urban Youth Choir," by Nicole Becker & Jeanne Goffi-Fynn. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.) A person's voice is their means of expression in their everyday lives. They have lived with their voices, they are comfortable with them, it […]
The Legacy of Lawson-Gould
(An excerpt from the interest session, “The Legacy of Lawson-Gould” by Alice Parker with Sally K. Albrecht and Michael Spresser. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.) Walter Gould and Robert Lawson Shaw established the Lawson-Gould choral catalog in 1953, first publishing the music of Alice Parker and Robert Shaw, consisting primarily of […]
Sweat, Tears, and Jazz Hands: The History of Show Choir from Vaudeville to Glee
(An excerpt from the interest session, “Sweat, Tears, and Jazz Hands: The History of Show Choir from Vaudeville to Glee,” by Mike Weaver. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.) As any American choral historian knows, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians were doing show choir before show choir was cool. Long before television, […]