Are there core skills that MUST be acquired in order to teach music? Should there be? This week, I welcome Lynn Atkins to discuss the current challenges we face getting young teachers ready to teach music in an era when our current students and recent graduates had a pretty serious interruption in their education. In […]
Choralosophy
Getting off on the Right Foot with a Young Teacher Panel
We are doing something different and fun this week! Just me, and three young colleagues about half my age. Over the last few months, I have gotten several requests to do an episode dedicated to the issues and concerns faced by the next generation of educators. What better way to do that than host a […]
The Performance Practice of African Choral Music with Chukwuebuka Ezeakacha
The quest for diversity in Western art music has led to the influx of ‘Westernized’ African music into the choral canon, albeit tagged as ‘world music’. This approach to the inclusion of diverse repertoire has led to the homogenization of indigenousAfrican folk tunes by non-indigenous composers, thus creating Western-sounding African music. In this episode, we […]
2023 Year End Special: What The Heck is Going on With Choir People?
Over the last few weeks I have noticed a storm after the calm in choral music circles. We saw a boil over in Texas when a clinician withdrew from a conference based on a letter from two members that made her feel unwelcome, and a downstream fallout stemming from how the organization handled the issue. […]
Episode 177: Teaching Skills not Songs with Anthony Trecek-King
This week, Dr. Anthony Trecek-King joins the Choralosophy conversation by joining me to discuss two related topics. The teaching of musical fundamentals in our classrooms AND how we can have better and more productive conversations about social justice and the inequities in our society. We range from concrete, in class activities to try with a […]
Cementing the Spiritual as American Art with Dr. André Thomas
Over the last year, I have seen Dr. Thomas present twice on the importance of ensuring that the African American Spiritual is passed on to the next generations through our choral ensembles and music classrooms. In these presentations he also speaks eloquently about the challenges we face in doing so. We have parents, students and […]