“A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.” Omar Khayyam For the rest of the month of August, my Choral Potpourri and Choral Ethics Blog will focus on things to get you thinking so you are able to hit the ground running in the fall. Every Thursday, while you are sipping a nice, […]
The Choral Life
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Judging Our Colleagues
“If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.” Alice Roosevelt Longworth It does no good to gossip about our colleagues and their ensembles. It doesn’t help the arts community in general or the choral community specifically to “bad mouth” others. We are all in this together and the […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Ethics Should Matter
“We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.” W. H. Auden What does it mean to be an ethical choral conductor/director? Our own Choral Ethics code should be a model of behaviors for how we treat our singers, but shouldn’t it be a […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: I Don’t Know How She Does It
“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.” Lucille Ball I really like helping people with my Choral Ethics project; it brings another layer to what I perceive as my work. In many ways I’ve been preparing to be the Choral […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Slipping Through the Cracks
“Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.” Nadia Boulanger How detail oriented are you? There are plenty of details, having nothing to do with the actual music which must be handled by SOMEONE for any music organization to run smoothly. And if you […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Audition Time is Here
“We don’t want nobody that nobody sent.” Timothy O’Sullivan, Chicago Ward Committeeman, 1948 It’s that time of year; we are finishing the academic year or our concert cycles and by rights, we should be able to relax. You and I know that isn’t the case at all. If we are in an academic setting, we […]