Latest Blog Posts
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Dance Class
“My dance classes were open to anybody, my only stipulation was that they had to come to the class every day.” Merce Cunningham Last week, I blogged about my early training as a dancer; what it meant to me, how it has shaped and led me to the choral profession. My ballet-life and my choral-life […]
Leading Voices: Reimagining and Improving Instruction
As I look ahead, I know I will once again teach and enjoy the company of my students and colleagues in the future. But what it will look like, or sound like, I do not know. I do know that it will not be the same. I am not the same. My students are not […]
Off The Podium: The Legacy of Guido d’Arezzo
continued from Solfège: Part 1: The Joy of Solfège Solfège: Part 2 The Legacy of Guido d’Arezzo Solfège is a practical method for teaching sight-singing (singing music from written notation). Each note of the diatonic scale is assigned a solfège syllable. This practice is called solmization. Solfège is the oldest and most widely used […]
CJ Replay: The Singing Sergeants of the U.S. Air Force
_____________________________The November 2019 issue of Choral Journal features an article titled “The Singing Sergeants of the U.S. Air Force: A Career Path for Singers” by Technical Sgt. Jilian McGreen. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Click “Search Archives” and choose November 2019 from the dropdown menu._____________________________ Right now, United States Military musicians are stationed […]
An International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): Introductory Primer to American-English
It is not as inscrutable as you might imagine. Sometimes what you’re most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free. – Robert Tew There are certainly enough instructional papers, blogs, and seminars about the IPA, but they beg some significant questions: How long does it really take to become proficient […]
One from the Folder: Repertoire Thoughts for Women’s/Treble Choirs
#60: “Moon Goddess” by Jocelyn Hagen
Text from Enheduanna
SSA, 4-hand piano, percussion
If you are looking for a Fierce and Feisty selection for your women’s choir, this is the one! Written in 2011 for the ACDA Women’s Chorus Commissioning Consortium, this work by composer Jocelyn Hagen has brilliant drive and musical energy. And it has text to match, sourced from Sumerian poet Enheduanna. This is a can’t-miss selection for your women’s or adult-treble ensemble.
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Remembering Who I Am
“God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it – from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do.” George Balanchine I follow many composers, musicians, performers and many other artist types on Social Media. Before COVID-19, I did so to keep up with […]
Marie Grass Amenta Thoughts on These Times, by Lynne Gackle
The realities of our new “normal” are becoming more apparent each day as we end one semester and plan for the way things might look in the fall. Many things have changed and, as the “visionary adapters” that we are, we have taken things in stride and made necessary changes to our teaching, our communication, […]
Off The Podium: The Joy of Solfège
This week and in weeks to come I will be sharing this introduction to the ancient method of solfège with the ChoralNet community. The series has accumulated more than 15,000 views on Off The Podium since originally published in 2015, and when it was run in its entirety in my Choral Director magazine column over […]
CJ Replay: Choral Elitism is Real
The June/July 2018 issue of Choral Journal features an article titled “Choral Elitism is Real: What It Is and What We Should Do about It” by Chris Maunu. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Click “Search Archives” and choose June/July 2018 from the dropdown menu._____________________________ I have been a high school choral director for […]