This blog post was contributed by the staff at Edco, one of ACDA’s partners in online fundraising. In it they share information about their product. Profile of a choir director: This year I need to scrape together over $20,000 for travel expenses, new music, and uniforms/risers/music folders and I know about half of that is […]
Fall Tune-up, by Dr. Michael Murphy
The job of a choral music educator, while rewarding, is a complex one. Sometimes it seems that managing the choral music program has very little to do with music making and more to do with paperwork, parents, and politics. For many, time actually spent practicing the artistry of conducting represents a small percentage comparatively to […]
Professionalism, by William Baker
On the day I turned 40 years old I was a professional church music director. I held an advanced degree from a state school with an average music department, and I had 23 years of experience. My salary and goodies package approached $100,000 a year. On the day I turned 50 years old, I held […]
Reflections on a Lifetime of Music Making – Peter Tiboris
I began looking back on my 60-plus years of music study and performance, which began in 1952 when I first took piano lessons from Mrs. Meyer at age 5, and then, two years later, when I became church organist at the St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in Sheboygan, Wisconsin (my father, a dentist, was […]
For Singers: Don’t Relax, Worry
“If you’re nervous, that means you care and you want to give your best.” – Adriana Lima Whether you’ve been singing since Beethoven figured out which end of the pen the ink went on or this is your first performance ever, concert night can (will) bring on the nerves. It’s natural; for months, you’ve been […]
The Four Functions of a Church Choir
Since starting at my current church, the choir has rallied behind four “functions” of a church choir and has been central in helping the church become what song-enliveners affectionately call a “singing congregation.” As the director of a church choir I use four functions to explain why the church choir exists. Those priorities help determine […]