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Amanda Bumgarner

Who’s a Good Director? Dog-Training Strategies for Better Rehearsing

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The September issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Who’s a Good Director? Dog-Training Strategies for Better Rehearsing” by Eliza Rubenstein. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction.

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“Your goal for yourself and your students,” a veteran of my profession once said to me, “is meaningful work, joyfully done.”

She wasn’t a choral conductor; she was a dog trainer, one of dozens I knew during the nearly twenty years I spent as a dog trainer and an animal-shelter administrator.

Balancing two careers—one about music, one chiefly about mutts—gave me more than just a unique spin on my professional bio (“Eliza Rubenstein is, to her knowledge, the only choral conductor in the nation who is also licensed to perform euthanasia”); it also afforded me an intriguing perspective on the choral art form. In the past quarter-century, the field of dog training has undergone a renaissance of sorts, moving away from coercive, dominance-based methods and toward positive, reinforcement-based strategies. Thanks to an improved understanding of how and why animals learn, today’s dogs are being educated more quickly and more happily than ever before—and, luckily for choral conductors, much of the science underlying this shift applies as neatly to singers as to spaniels. This article explores some of the principles of positive behavior modification that can make our choral learning process more efficient and more successful.

I do not, of course, mean to suggest that dogs and choral singers are equivalent or interchangeable, no matter how flattered either species might be by the analogy. I do, however, fi nd the lens of dog training an irresistible and invaluable one through which to see anew the craft of choral conducting. Dogs and people are distinctly different creatures, but the scientific language of learning applies to both, and the fundamental principles of educating bright, complex, creative beings are virtually universal.

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Read the full article in the September 2021 issue of Choral Journal at acda.org/choraljournal

October Choral Journal Preview

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The newest issue of Choral Journal is available online. This is A Focus on Mental Health. Following is a list of the articles you will find in this issue.

ACDA members can log in with their username and password to view and download the newest edition. You can also read our electronic version. Below is a preview of the articles you will find in this issue. If you are not already a member of ACDA, join today to start receiving your monthly Choral Journal!
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>>FOCUS ARTICLES

Remember You: Mental Health in a Life Dedicated to Choral Music by Stephanie and Troy Robertson

Burnout Prevention for Conductors and Their Choirs by Amelia Nagoski

Breath, Body, and Being: A Yoga-Inspired Choral “Practice” by Ramona M. Wis

Sound Teaching: Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Choir by William Sauerland

Book Review

>>ARTICLES

African American Spirituals in the Public-School Choral Ensemble: Our Most Powerful Weapon Against Racism by Dara A. Gillis

Singing in Hebrew by Joshua R. Jacobson

Student Times
Representation, Mentorship, and Empowerment: Insights from Contemporary Female Choral Conductors by Gracie Palmore

Utilizing The Principles of Storytelling To Design Engaging Concert Programs

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The September issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Utilizing the Principles of Storytelling to Design Engaging Concert Programs” by Emilie Bertram. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction.

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The creation of an engaging concert program has been a topic of interest among choral music professionals for decades. Conductors consider numerous factors when choosing repertoire: the current and potential ability of the ensemble; the performing venue; representation of a variety of time periods, composers, key centers, styles, genres, languages, and textures; a balance of difficulty, both in terms of preparation and ease of listening; considerations of text; and the amount of rehearsal time available. In an academic setting, concert programming entails choosing repertoire that constitutes the course “textbook” during a student’s involvement with a particular ensemble.

The already complex task of selecting repertoire becomes even more challenging when one factors in the listening audience. Conductors must choose repertoire that keeps audience members engaged and attending concerts, essential for the longevity of any choral program. The formulation and presentation of engaging and relevant content, including repertoire, is a key contributing factor to the sustainability of choral programs and the well-being of choral singers and music patrons. Conductors have developed numerous organizational constructs to assist in designing concert programs that allow for these considerations. Some of the most commonly employed structures include: featuring the music of a specific composer(s), presenting music of a particular country, or creating a themed concert.

In addition to these time-tested frameworks, a “new” concept is emerging, one as old as humankind: storytelling. Neurological research has found that the human brain is hardwired to crave story. The power of a story lies in its ability to elicit an emotional response by tapping into universal values, while the familiar format encourages full attention and immersion.
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Read the full article in the September 2021 issue of Choral Journal at acda.org/choraljournal

IJRCS–Knowledge Practices: Changing Perceptions and Pedagogies in Choral Music Education

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The International Journal of Research in Choral Singing (IJRCS)  is ACDA’s scholarly publication that welcomes studies that apply rigorous, systematically-grounded methodologies, either quantitative or qualitative, to investigate phenomena of potential interest to all who sing in, work with, or are otherwise interested in choral ensembles. Below is the abstract from this article written by Karen Howard titled “Knowledge Practices: Changing Perceptions and Pedagogies in Choral Music Education.”

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ABSTRACT

Preparing choral music educators who are sociocultural pedagogues requires the development of a knowledge base of diverse singing traditions, the meaningful inclusion of culturally diverse content in the choral curriculum and rehearsal, and thoughtful adaptation in the delivery of instruction that shows a sensitivity both to the learners and the represented music cultures. The purpose of this case study was to analyze the outcomes of a newly designed graduate course for choral conducting students as they engaged in singing traditions from marginalized and lesser-known music cultures.
The research focused on inequities in music education based on race, ethnicity, and music cultures that have resulted in asymmetric power relationships between choral directors and students. I applied Maton’s (2016) Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), a research framework inspired by Bourdieu’s (1986) work with “rules of the game” and Bernstein’s (2000, 2003b) work with knowledge codes.
LCT allows examination of knowledge practices and can be used to shape teaching practice and curricular content. The research was guided by the following questions: (a) what beliefs do music educators hold about repertoire and music cultures that they do and do not include in their choral curricula in relation to the place and time in which they teach, and (b) what can be discovered regarding successful pedagogical strategies based on knowledge and knower structures. Two relevant themes emerged including the impact of cultural elitism in the choral conducting community with subthemes of perfectionism and concerns related to performance practice, and the development of a reflective praxis.

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Visit https://acda.org/publications/international-journal-of-research-in-choral-singing/ to read this article

**The ACDA Symposium on Research in Choral Singing will take place April 29, 2022. Find out more here.**

Michael Praetorius’ Nigra sum à 6: A Pedagogical Experiment

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The September issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Michael Praetorius’ Nigra sum à 6: A Pedagogical Experiment” by Kristina Boerger. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction.

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When the Augsburg Choir at Augsburg University in Minneapolis was first shut down in spring 2020, I began to explore the powers of the iDevice application called Acapella (sic) to keep students in touch with one another—vocally and otherwise—and with their own musical creativity. A newcomer to the technology (and, in fact, an inveterate Luddite), I had limited imagination for its pedagogical potential.

I designed a series of thirty-second duetting assignments in which students—working in pairs I reshuffled weekly—alternated between recording original melodies into the app and recording original countermelodies in video synchrony with their partners’ starter tracks. I began to consider the extent to which the app could support development of all the skills involved in excellent ensemble singing.

I offer here an account of the experiment I designed for our fall 2020 semester and the lessons I learned once we had wrapped the project. I have concluded that even when we can rehearse in person, I will continue to use Acapella as a practice and collaboration tool for students and an evaluation tool for myself. The silver lining of our shutdown has been the necessity of discovering new pedagogical methods and the unanticipated benefits they alone may bring under any conditions.
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Kristina Boerger is the John N. Schwartz Professor of Choral Leadership at Augsburg University, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

IJRCS: Real Voices, Virtual Ensemble 2.0: Perceptions of Participation in Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs

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The International Journal of Research in Choral Singing (IJRCS)  is ACDA’s scholarly publication that welcomes studies that apply rigorous, systematically-grounded methodologies, either quantitative or qualitative, to investigate phenomena of potential interest to all who sing in, work with, or are otherwise interested in choral ensembles. Below is the abstract from this article written by Stephen Paparo titled “Real Voices, Virtual Ensembles 2.0: Perceptions of Participation in Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs.“

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of participation in Eric Whitacre’s virtual choirs among mostly amateur singers (N = 312) from 31 countries and answer four research
questions: (a) What did participants gain from their participation? (b) What did they learn about
their voices and themselves as performers? (c) What were their perceptions of the similarities and
differences between in-person choirs and virtual choirs? and (d) How did virtual choir participation influence their current and future choral music participation? Data were collected via a researcher-designed, anonymous online survey. Results indicate that respondents gained a sense of personal satisfaction and global connection. The virtual choir afforded opportunities for those who were unable to participate in in-person choirs due to geographic isolation, schedule conflicts, personal disability, and audition barriers. For many, viewing their performance on video was a new experience and resulted in mostly negative critiques of their own voices. Respondents identified the lack of musical and social interaction between themselves, the conductor, and fellow singers as well as an absence of the embodied experience of being a part of the ensemble. In general, virtual choir participation seemed to encourage future choral singing participation. A discussion of access, assessment, connection, and post-production in virtual choirs as well as recommendations for integrating in-person and virtual music-making to enhance choral participation are provided.

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Visit https://acda.org/publications/international-journal-of-research-in-choral-singing/ to read this article

**The ACDA Symposium on Research in Choral Singing will take place April 29, 2022. Find out more here.**

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