In March 2020, spring break was extended. Olivia Vestal, now a first-year choral teacher in Durham, NC, was supposed to go to Regional NATS. Instead of performing live, she recorded a video, and remembers that was the last thing she did without a mask. After they finished, she wiped down the piano and recording equipment, […]
COVID-19
Stories of Healing and Reimagining with Dr. Anne Lyman
Dr. Anne Lyman wears many choir director hats: community choir, church, and community college choir. She is the past president of Washington ACDA, loves sharing the joys of early choral music, and is clearly a service-oriented conductor. During the first 10 days or so of March, things went from “normal” to unsettled to cancelled. At […]
Stories of Healing and Reimagining with Dr. Ahmed Anzaldúa
This was a remarkably invigorating, inspiring, and humbling conversation with Dr. Ahmed Anzaldúa, Founder and Artistic Director of Border CrosSing, and Director of Music Ministries at Unity Church in St. Paul, a congregation with a robust music program including four adult choirs, children’s choir, and an annual musical. In the initial months of COVID, […]
Stories of Healing and Reimagining: A Pause
It’s that time of year. We are all starting (or are a few weeks into) a new school year, a new church season, community choir rehearsals, or new composition projects. Yet this isn’t where I thought we would be when I started this blog series in June. I fully expected to be looking at COVID […]
Stories of Newness: Healing and Reimagining with Jazzmone Sutton (Advocacy)
Jazzmone Sutton, now the State Advocacy Engagement Manager for National Association for Music Education, was teaching elementary music when her school shifted to virtual teaching. Due to concerns about screen time, there weren’t formal music classes, so she provided music resources for students. Pre-COVID, she implemented “Technology Fridays,” which proved to be helpful for online […]
Stories of Newness: Healing and Reimagining with Alan
*Alan had just finished rehearsing one of his choirs on a piece of music they were going to be presenting at an upcoming concert when he received the email: School was closing. They were projected to be out until April. “We’ll do [the concert] when we come back,” he thought. Within a week, though, it […]