This point of the year is always tiring, especially with extra performances, events at church, or end of semester grades due. Unfortunately, we can add the Omicron variant, quarantines, and contentious times this year. On social media, I’ve seen posts about wonderful performances, as well as stressful scenarios such as a large portion of a […]
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Health, Happiness and Balance for the Choral Director
At times, we, as working professionals, struggle to maintain our health and balance. As a result, our happiness suffers. In this episode, I will share my thoughts on this as well as get a reality check from my wife, Beth, on whether or not I am “balanced.” The Inaugural episode of the Choralosophy Podcast was […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Let There Be Peace on Earth
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Leonard Bernstein For the month of December, I’m rerunning some Choral Ethics blogs from years past with a few modifications where needed. Two of my MOST REQUESTED December Blogs will be making their yearly appearances, including […]
The Conductor as Yogi: It Does Not Go Unnoticed
We made it through the semester. Our return to in-person music making. I have been reading our singers’ reflection papers, their one-page response to three prompts: What did you learn musically? What did you learn beyond the music? What suggestions do you have for the future? On music, they wrote about re-learning how to sing […]
Stories of Healing and Reimagining: Commonalities Part 1
The next two blogs are going to review some of the common themes from this blog over the past 6+ months. If you’ve been reading regularly, you’ll know that this series has focused on managing music-making during COVID while also addressing ADEIB. In Part 1 of Commonalities, we will review the logistics of music-making in […]
The Conductor as Yogi: Living Seasonally
I am intrigued by the wisdom of living seasonally. Taking cues from the shifts in nature, in daylight and temperature and foods that are fresh and available. Living in harmony with the rhythms of nature goes a long way towards making us feel well. Instead of fighting the cold or the heat, the dampness or […]