Latest Blog Posts

“I don’t care much about music. What I like is sounds.” Dizzy Gillespie When I was about 18 or 19, soon after I began my undergraduate program, my late mother, a coloratura soprano, told me music is the easy part of being a musician. Being 18 or 19 and knowing EVERYTHING (as you do) at […]

“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” Socrates Today is the Summer Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s wonderful to have so much light during the evening of a balmy day. Sitting outside, with an adult beverage or lemonade or iced tea, is […]

“I cannot believe I’ve been muzzled by my own people.” All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA cancelled a concert that was set for June 2nd, 2024 citing the “pain and anguish felt by 18 Black members of the church.” The response was that Michal and the choir, and the music they were set to […]

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 Ryan […]

“You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s.” Robert Frost As I write today’s blog, I am sipping a glass of iced tea, brewed with mint from my own garden. The mint was the first thing we planted when we bought our house 30 years ago, but we should […]

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Arthur Conan Doyle Believe it or not, I get many emails about loyalty. Loyalty to a chorus or church choir or alumni group and perhaps another type performing group of some sort. I get questions such as: if my university […]

Self-efficacy (one’s belief in their ability to succeed) is an important component when establishing a positive and productive choral environment.  In Episode 33 of ChoralEd, Dr. Greg LeFils describes methods for developing self-efficacy and pitch matching skills in the choral ensemble. An inability to match pitch can lead to negative self-perceptions of musical ability resulting […]

Your Advocacy & Collaboration Standing Committee has been quiet over here on their monthly blog post…why? We’ve been curating the most incredible A&C focus issue heading your way this fall! To get everyone excited and ready for the new content coming, we wanted to highlight some of the incredible articles from our first focus issue […]

This article was generated from an email conversation between Ian Henning and Mitch Al-Ubaidi regarding ideas presented in Episode 172. “Dispelling Middle School Myths” By Ian Henning and Mitch Al-Ubaidi Cross Posted from Choralosophy Community If you have questions, or ideas generated from any Choralosophy episode, and would like to collaborate in this way, pitch […]

The June/July 2024 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Tips for Teaching Vocal Percussion” by Rob Dietz. Following is a portion from the article. _________________ Whenever I talk to directors who are interested in starting a contemporary a cappella group, there is almost always one concern that jumps out above all others: How […]