A remarkable interview with Sir Colin Davis in the Guardian, a portion of it here: Davis tells me he has spent a lifetime fighting a battle. Not against orchestras, managers, or musicians, but against his ego. "One's ego becomes less and less interesting as you get older, to oneself and to everyone else. I have […]
Choir director saves choir, bus driver, and bus
A great story I found on A Cappella News: STOCKHOLM — Quick action by the head of a Canadian choir touring Sweden narrowly averted an accident when the driver of their tour bus suffered a heart attack at full speed, Swedish media reported Monday. About five minutes into the University of Manitoba choir’s journey from […]
Technology and Choral Music: A Special Focus Issue of ACDA’s Choral Journal
Article submissions are now being accepted for a “Special Focus Issue” devoted to technology for ACDA’s “Choral Journal” for publication in or around May 2012. I’ve been asked to put together an issue devoted to technology for the choral musician and I am reaching out to the broader choral community for help. For this […]
Fewer administrators, more choral directors
An astounding factoid if true: “And while the proportion of tenure-track teaching faculty has dwindled, the number of managers has skyrocketed in both relative and absolute terms. If current trends continue, the Department of Education estimates that by 2014 there will be more administrators than instructors at American four-year nonprofit colleges. A bigger administration also […]
Learning from Others – Ideas You Haven’t Considered
Paul Carey has a great blog post up containing rehearsal insights from Rick Bjella, Randal Swiggum, Nick Page, Larry Doebler, Lucy Thayer, Tim Bruneau, and Patty O’Toole. Really great stuff: Student investment and ownership: have students develop their own text interpretations use story telling (composers, personal experiences relating to the text, communing with nature, […]
Skyping my way through a choir audition
The situation: 1. An incoming student, passionate about choral music, wasn't scheduled to attend orientation until the day before school started in August. 2. Auditions were scheduled to be completed at the end of June. The solution: a skype audition It worked very well! I had heard about voice teachers using […]