Choralosophy

Singers often have the mentality that if they go to the audition and don’t get the gig, they have failed. Choral directors often feel that if someone doesn’t hire them for the tenure track, or the honor choir gig, then they have sufficiently been told “no.” “I guess this isn’t for me after all.” The […]

Another Installment of the Oxford Series on the Choralosophy Podcast Cecilia McDowall has long been one of my favorite Choral composers. If I were to boil down my reasons for this it would come to her masterful ability to transport both audience and performer through space and time with her writing. In this conversation, I was […]

In this episode, Dr. Ryan Board of Pepperdine University and I discuss the role we see for Choral Music education in filling the void of psychological and emotional development of young people and adults. The epidemic of the loss of resiliency in young people is well documented. Dr. Board walks us through the work of […]

Want your singers to make fewer mistakes while sight reading? In this episode I outline some approaches, philosophies and even a rubric. But first, one obvious tip, and one counterintuitive one: Obvious: SRF assignments, quizzes and most importantly daily class work, and test EACH kid individually at the level appropriate for their current aptitude. Not […]

I say it’s steering them. And I think that’s bad news. I believe that Social Media has a tremendous upside and potential for good. But only if it is reflective of the common humanity that we experience when we are in person. My concern is that this has been reversed. That, as we begin to […]

I am very unlikely to to give much credence to a person who is critical of the music education practices of colleagues, if they have nothing better to point to. Criticizing is easy. Building something better is hard. Show me your program and how your ideas have shown results, then I am more likely to […]