I am taking a bit of a Choral Ethics break during the summer, and this is the first of my Choral Ethics Blog repeats, taken from Choral Ethics blogs from 2018 through 2019. We will also have a guest blogger a time or two. I will be working on the fall’s Blogs during the summer, […]
Choral Culture
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Talking With Friends
“A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I’ve written quite a few times here about my conversations with choral friends, most of whom I’ve known for decades. Some of them have shared conversations with me they’ve had with their choral […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Pretension
“Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.” Margot Fonteyn Jamie*’s highly auditioned and highly respected community chorus sing at a (you can guess) high level. Though not a professional chorus, they are often used by a local […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Chorus Cults
“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” Alexander the Great Many of you read the title of today’s Blog and understood exactly what I was writing about. You might know someone who is a member of a […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Gatekeeping
“If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow This is not the Blog I had planned to write this week. I had planned to write about our concert on Sunday, how this is the concert we originally planned for Spring 2020 […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Old Lady Musicians
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw I’ve known Janice* for over twenty years. We met at a church music conference on the east coast and have been friends ever since. We are of a similar age; our children are of a similar age […]