“Doubt is the brother of shame.” Erik Erikson Like many of you, I am in the midst of trying to choose repertoire for a concert that may—or may not—happen. Usually by now, I have chosen most of my fall music and am gathering scores and octavos together and any language resources or other material to […]
Self Care
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Father’s Day Ruminations
“You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s.” Robert Frost As I write today’s blog, I am sipping a glass of iced tea, brewed with mint from my own garden. The mint was the first thing we planted when we bought our house 26 years ago, but we should […]
Choral Potpourri/ Choral Ethics: Make Me An Instrument
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace….” St. Francis of Assisi Like many of you, the last few weeks I’ve been scrambling to craft an appropriate statement for my chamber choir to make about the murder of George Floyd. I am heartsick, trying to make sense of the difficulty in our country and how […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Finding Our Voice
“We can hear the silent voice of the spiritual universe within our own hearts.” Ruth St. Denis It’s been a tough week, in several months’ worth of tough weeks. I’m exhausted, heart-sick and worried, and not necessarily in that order. I feel helpless and hopeless and a bit frightened. Today I had planned to write […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: The Not-So-Merry Month of May
“The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit.” Thomas Malory I had big plans for May 2020, BIG PLANS. On May 1, I was to be singing with my Alumni Chorus (along with the Kiddos in the Conservatory Chorus and Orchestra), performing my favorite large […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Choral Music Will Survive Only If We All Help
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein I’ve been having an ongoing email dialogue with a friend and colleague since we aren’t able to see each other. We email each other once a week or so since our state’s “shelter-in-place” order went into effect in […]