“Whoever degrades another degrades me, and whatever is done or said returns at last to me.”Walt Whitman This will be my last blog on uncomfortable subjects for a while. Over the summer, I had many ChoralNetters contact me about “Choral-Conductors-Behaving-Badly” and thought to address those emails first thing this fall. I had plenty of the […]
Leadership
Choral Ethics: Doing the Right Things
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Mark Twain Many of my ChoralNetter correspondents have Choral Ethics queries I know they KNOW the answer to. I wrote a blog a few years ago about knowing what the right thing to do is but being unsure–or uncomfortable–actually doing it. Folks […]
The Conductor as Yogi: The Calmest Person in the Room
It doesn’t matter how long I have taught. How many fall semesters I have started as a conductor, teacher, leader, administrator. Human. There is always a mix of excitement, curiosity, trepidation, and exhaustion, even before we begin. Welcome to our life. It was Monday morning, the first day of fall classes. I had been preparing in some sense for […]
Choral Ethics: It’s Our ELEVENTH Anniversary!
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” George Eliot Happy anniversary to US! It is hard to believe, but I have been writing the Choral Ethics blog every week since the Fall of 2015 when Scott Dorsey […]
Choral Ethics: Not Ethical Behavior
“Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life, it is bad to damage and destroy life.” Albert Schweitzer I am re-running four Choral Ethics Blogs which I feel are topical and important for the month of August. I am taking a bit of a break but will […]
Choral Ethics: Part Five
Part Five: “Maestra Manners” Explains All I am re-running a series on Choral Ethics this July. I am taking a bit of a break but will be back soon with new blogs. Enjoy! MLGA “Fine manners are the mantle of fair minds.” Louisa May Alcott Do you ever say “please” to your singers? Or is […]