“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” Jean-Jacques Rousseau It is easy to forget we need to work regularly with others. Unless you are a soloist all the time, you must work with other musicians. Unless you conduct exactly the sort of ensemble you wish, with the musicians you wish, you must […]
Choral Culture
Choral Ethics: Who Is Doing Towels?
” The buck stops here!” Harry S Truman The Choral Ethics Cyber-Mailbag is still filled to overflowing. Sit back for another Choral Ethics blog about concerns familiar to everyone. When we first dream of becoming a choral director, we think of the music. We work hard to become good musicians; we practice, learn repertoire and […]
Choral Ethics: October Ghost Story
“As a child I loved ghost stories.” Rebecca Hall The Choral Ethics Cyber-Mailbag is filled to overflowing. Sit back for Choral Ethics blogs about all sorts of problems. We will deal with some newish Choral Ethics concerns as well as some familiar to everyone. Today’s Choral Ethics dilemma is perfect for a mid-October day. Jacob* […]
Choral Ethics: Following Through
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.” Martin Luther This October, we’re revisiting some of the staple issues of Choral Ethics. I’ve written a BUNCH about each of these subjects during the last few years. Today we speak of Following Through. One of my HUGE […]
Choral Ethics: Don’t Waste My Time!
“If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.” Benjamin Franklin ChoralNetter, Kristie*, wrote to me a few weeks ago about a problem she is seeing—AGAIN–as rehearsals begin this fall; the lack of punctuality of her fellow choral singers. I wrote about something similar a few years ago […]
Choral Ethics: Judging Others
“Whoever degrades another degrades me, and whatever is done or said returns at last to me.”Walt Whitman This will be my last blog on uncomfortable subjects for a while. Over the summer, I had many ChoralNetters contact me about “Choral-Conductors-Behaving-Badly” and thought to address those emails first thing this fall. I had plenty of the […]