“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” Voltaire I became a regular blogger here at ChoralNet in the Fall of 2015, so it’s a few weeks more than seven years I’ve been writing this blog. Before that, I contributed about ten blog posts in 2014/early 2015 as a Guest Blogger […]
Leadership
The Conductor as Yogi: This Is Your Brain on Stress
One of the most common reasons people come to a yoga class is to de-stress. Stress is at the center of our modern lifestyles, so engaging in the physical practice of yoga, as well as the meditation, mindfulness, and breathing that are built into the eight-limbed yoga practice, go a long way to helping us […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Guest Blog: Another Issue for Our Time, “White Privilege”
The Conductor as Yogi: Letting Go
“Letting go” is hardly a surprising topic for a yoga blog. But for the conductor? Now there’s an interesting exploration. Letting go is central to yoga and other wisdom practices. We sit on the mat and focus on our breathing, letting go with each exhale. We consider the words of poets and sages, of scripture […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Stupid Questions
“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” Thomas Szasz Like many of you, I’ve had a few teachers in my time who would announce—often–that there is no such thing as a “stupid question.” No one was asking questions and the teacher must have felt […]
The Conductor as Yogi: The Illusion of “Done”
We are list makers, task accomplishers, and detail managers. We juggle between our professional and personal lives, never really stopping for long because there is always one more item on the list, one more email to send, one more errand to run. When we finish that, we think, then we will be “done.” The only […]