“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Ernest Hemingway Today we reach back into the ol’ mailbag and pull out two more stories, this time from community chorus directors. Both have similar problems which are trust related. I have no answers for either one. It Will Come […]
Choral Ethics
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; Being Good to Ourselves
“Well-ordered self-love is right and natural.” Thomas Aquinas The choir year is winding down. We end this year while we begin our plans for the next. It’s a tough time for many of us as we look back on what we’ve accomplished, or didn’t accomplish. It is often painful. The right, positive mind frame is […]
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; Can’t We Just Be Nice?
“I can live for two months on a good compliment.” Mark Twain This week we will look at stories from two high school chorus directors. One teaches in a private school and the other teaches in a public school. Both have had to deal with administration’s lack of understanding about their choirs this spring. What […]
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; Make Yourself Comfortable and We’ll Talk
“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.” Abraham Lincoln I don’t know what it is but there is something strange going on this spring. I have had more than my usual number of emails about People Behaving Badly as well as Conductors Being […]
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; Bag of Tricks
“The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.” Ralph Waldo Emerson I have a bag of tricks—I am not ashamed to admit it—to get my choirs to do what they need to do. Some are appropriate for young singers, some are appropriate for older singers and […]
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; Snubbed
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi A few weeks ago, I wrote about Donald* who felt uncomfortable when a colleague, who usually snubbed and ignored him, began treating him normally. Of course, there was a reason for Donald’s sudden promotion to Lyndon’s* “Best […]