COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig (Each week we look at one or two of the best choral works posted in the Composition Showcase here on ChoralNet. This is where we store a treasure trove of works that your choirs will love to sing and your audiences will love to hear.) Reflections by Dale Trumbore for SSA and piano […]
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The Young Conductor II – what does a conductor need to know?
When I taught beginning conducting (which I did for 18 years at Pacific Lutheran University), I'd begin by asking the class to tell me what the conductor did. What did she need to know? What skills are necessary? What roles does the conductor play? What's important to become a very good conductor? This would always […]
Perfect Pitch? Take a Pill!
This story is fascinating. Harvard Professor Takao Hensch gave a pill to some adults and was able to teach them to have perfect pitch. So how many of you would take a pill in order to have perfect pitch? An entire choir full of singers with perfect pitch? I see some problems, as well a lot […]
Use Word Clouds to Show Important Text
(Word Cloud of Beatles’ singles: LEOL30,Flickr.com) Whether implicitly or explicitly, the pieces that we select for our concerts tell a story and convey meaning. As conductors, choosing areas of text to emphasize or using specific diction can be part of our toolkit to communicate our interpretation of the piece. That interpretation has to be […]
It’s About the Phrase – Following the Poetry (part 2)
The Young Conductor I – Introduction
Welcome back! I hope you all had a good break. It's time for a new series, this time thoughts on the preparation for the young conductor. This could mean an undergraduate planning on a career in music education, or it could mean a young conductor, teacher, or graduate student who's started his/her career. How does […]