“If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow This is not the Blog I had planned to write this week. I had planned to write about our concert on Sunday, how this is the concert we originally planned for Spring 2020 […]
Leadership
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Old Lady Musicians
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw I’ve known Janice* for over twenty years. We met at a church music conference on the east coast and have been friends ever since. We are of a similar age; our children are of a similar age […]
The Conductor as Yogi: Lighten-ing Ways
As I write this, it is 5:47 AM on a Saturday morning. It is light outside and has been for a while. While I prefer sleeping in a little later, there is something about these longer spring days of earlier sunrises and later sunsets that creates an expanded sense of space and time. We can […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: The Hills Are Alive With the Sounds of……..Mahler
“The real art of conducting consists in transitions.” Gustav Mahler I have mentioned my late mother, a coloratura soprano, more than once here in my Blogs on ChoralNet. Her insight, through many years of being “in the business,” has held me in good stead and I’ve shared many of her wisdoms with you. Today I […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Try Mind Over Matter–If You Don’t Mind, It Doesn’t Matter
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” Marcus Aurelius The end of the choral year is fast approaching and ChoralNetters have some thoughts. Jock* tells me it’s been an almost normal choral year for him and for his high school students. There were two times […]
The Conductor as Yogi: Living Ahimsa
Early on as a blogger, I posted “Living Your Namaste” in the wake of violence that escalated on a national level in late spring of 2020. It was a way to reflect on the moment and bring something from the yoga practice to inform our thinking so we might move toward a better life in […]