“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’” Alfred Lord Tennyson Happy New Year from Choral Ethics! We hope you had a lovely, wonderful Holiday, no matter what you celebrate or didn’t celebrate. We also hope your concerts and services came off without a hitch. Perhaps it all […]
The Choral Life
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 Have you ever noticed the best holiday stories portray some sort of dream? From the ballet, “The Nutcracker” to all of the many incarnations of Dickens, “A Christmas Carol” someone is always sleeping and […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: We Had a Plan
“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” Leonard Bernstein If you are anything like me, your December concert and worship music for this year was planned during the summer or before. Your plans are coming to fruition or close to it. You are calm, knowing things are […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics:”…….and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.”
I love “Messiah”. Truth be told, it is probably my favorite large choral work. There’s a little something for everyone–from show piece arias to choruses that are both difficult and poignant to recitatives that move the story along while being musically interesting. The story that is told, using scriptures from both the Old and New […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Pushing Through Difficulty
“The best way out of a difficulty is through it.” Will Rogers What do you do, when YOU are falling apart, or someone you love is, during this most busy of times for our profession? Do you take extra vitamins or sip tea or soup? Catch a nap or sleep or few extra minutes in […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Being Grateful
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” Henry David Thoreau I always try to be grateful. In this season of Thanksgiving, I am more grateful than usual. Perhaps our world is in upheaval but there is one thing I know for sure; there is plenty more Good than there […]