Latest Blog Posts

As I mentioned, I’m leaving ChoralNet blog posting in another week. Next year will be interesting, to say the least.   l’ll be taking over Jerry McCoy’s Director of Choral Studies duties in an interim year at UNT, so conducting the A Cappella Choir, being the primary teacher of conducting for our graduate choral conducting […]

 (Maestoso: Handwriting-based music theory software. Screengrab from “Maestoso Prototype,” Laura Barreto, 1:15)   It seems like the last 12 months have seen great growth in the field of pen and touch computing, both for the computing industry in general and music technology in specific. The release of the first iPad in 2010 promised to launch widespread […]

Ward Swingle died this past January and, after reading his Facebook post about Ward, I asked Bruce Sellers if he was willing to allow me to copy his post about his experiences with him. Here’s a bit about Bruce: Bruce Sellers is an American tenor and conductor with a rather extraordinary background as an ensemble […]

HOW MUCH DOES THIS POSITION PAY? by Thomas Vozzella   You find a great position. It might even be a position you have dreamed of being offered. Because you are overwhelmed with excitement, as soon as you are offered the position, you say yes without regard to the salary and benefit package. How many have […]

As you know if you've read many of my posts, I enjoy reading in other areas, from psychology to sports/coaching, and trying to learn things from them I can apply to music and conducting.   I think that the biggest thing I've taken from Daniel Coyle's two books has been the idea of gradually building […]

Last time I wrote about StaffPad, a new Windows 8 notation program that works on pen input to allow users to handwrite a score into the computer. While StaffPad is a very exciting product, it’s not the first viable handwriting notation program, and more people are interested in mobile device solutions than ones which require […]

CHORAL ETHICS (Part 13): SLIPPING THROUGH THE CRACKS by Marie Grass Amenta   “Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.” Nadia Boulanger   How detail oriented are you? There are plenty of details, having nothing to do with the actual music which must […]

CHORAL ETHICS (Part 12): TRUTH TO TELL by Marie Grass Amenta   “Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.” Lord Byron   Since writing about Choral Ethics here on ChoralNet, I have received a number of emails.  Folks who contact me either want to thank me or to tell me their stories. And their stories […]