“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Arthur Conan Doyle Believe it or not, I get many emails about loyalty. Loyalty to a chorus or church choir or alumni group and perhaps another type performing group of some sort. I get questions such as: if my university […]
Choral Ethics
Choral Ethics: Cicadas, Brahms and the Approah of Summer
Dad, Peter Genaro and me at a dance workshop in the 1970s “The truth is, I’ve been lucky. But just like the waltz, life has its own rhythm of rise and fall.” Len Goodman Here in Chicago, the cicadas are out in force. In my area, I awaken to hear a low hum in the […]
Choral Ethics: Regrets
“Lost time is never found again.” Benjamin Franklin As the school year and concert season winds down, do you have regrets? Was your concert repertoire everything you hoped it would be? Did your students make progress singing in a new foreign language or was it a bit beyond them this year? Was the new approach […]
Choral Ethics: Being True To Yourself
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” William Shakespeare A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about the scandal (no need to repeat it again) at the New York Philharmonic. I asked for comments and opinions. No […]
Choral Ethics: Mother’s Day–Songs My Mother Taught Me
My Mother, Rose Marie (Ditto) Grass, in a 1956 production of “Martha.” “Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.” William Makepeace Thackeray This Sunday is Mother’s Day in the United States. I am a mother but am also a daughter, missing her mother especially this year. I think […]
Choral Ethics: Pettiness
“Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.” George Carlin Jackie* and I became friends at a long ago ACDA national conference and have stayed in contact for several decades. She directs a community chorus two states over and emailed me about a situation which came up during her summer audition period […]