Others

Frank Sinatra sings a little vocal ensemble music with the Hi-Lo’s. (Oh, and it’s a love song, which works today since it’s Vanentine’s Day.  You forgot, didn’t you?)    

None of us in the choral profession have ever been tempted to do this when a singer pulls out a cell phone in rehearsal.  Noooooo.    

Here’s a little video to prove that pop music is nothing more than formulaic sonic pabulum.  These six country-pop hits are completely interchangeable in terms of key, harmonic progression, tempo, and instrumentation.  Astonishing.          

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Achieving Peak Performance: Rehearsal, Performance Attitudes, and Pre-Concert Routines,” by Daniel Taddie)          Singers can raise the level of their performances by keeping in mind, and executing, six performance attitudes, which can be grouped in pairs: “Think!” and “Feel!,” “Watch!” and “Listen!,” “Communicate!” and “Sing with Energy!” […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Messiah 1985: A Practical Approach to Rehearsing,” by Richard A. Smith)          One of the greatest challenges as we study and rehearse the choruses from Messiah is to approach the work with a new diligence that will allow us to go beyond our past associations with it: […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Choral and Orchestral Conducting: An Interview with Robert Shaw” by Antonio M. Molina)   Molina: Would you now care to comment, based upon your wide range of experiences, upon some ideas or concepts which I have come upon in my comparative study of choral and orchestral conducting? For […]