Choir is not my family, we aren’t adjusting choral curriculum sufficiently with the times, we don’t know how to get choirs to sing in tune and we don’t build “real” cultures in our classrooms. Geez! Is this a negative podcast?! Not. At. All. These four conversations do have an element of constructive criticism, but that […]
Choralosophy
Teaching Our Choirs to Listen with James Jordan
“If you don’t learn what listening is, your choirs will never sing in tune.” James Jordan is one of the most prolific choral conductors in the modern era. Not just in terms of performance and recordings, but also in scholarship and pedagogy. Introducing, the NEW GIA/Walton Series on Choralosophy! I recently had the privilege of attending two […]
Music Literacy Live Hive Mind (Highlights with the Community)
Recently, we offered a free virtual meetup to practice “Choir Nerdery.” If you missed it, I have carefully curated some of the most useful and interesting moments for this episode. Discussion topics were derived from survey responses from 120 educators. The full 2 hour and 15 minute work session is available unedited over at Patreon or Substack for show […]
Excluded in the Name of Inclusion with Michal Dawson Connor
“I cannot believe I’ve been muzzled by my own people.” All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA cancelled a concert that was set for June 2nd, 2024 citing the “pain and anguish felt by 18 Black members of the church.” The response was that Michal and the choir, and the music they were set to […]
Starting the Year Off Right in Middle School Choir
This article was generated from an email conversation between Ian Henning and Mitch Al-Ubaidi regarding ideas presented in Episode 172. “Dispelling Middle School Myths” By Ian Henning and Mitch Al-Ubaidi Cross Posted from Choralosophy Community If you have questions, or ideas generated from any Choralosophy episode, and would like to collaborate in this way, pitch […]
Expanding the Boundaries of Choral Music with Katerina Gimon
Standard music notation that is now used ubiquitously around the world does some things really well. But it also has limitation. Katerina Gimon is a composer who is actively working to dream up new ways to use notation to communicate sound ideas to musicians that expand our written music vocabulary. Katerina first exploded onto the […]