Latest Blog Posts
18 Tips To Prevent Choral Teacher Burnout
Teacher BURNOUT is Real. I have spoken with hundreds of choir directors across the country who are feeling stressed and even BURNT OUT during festival, competition, and musical season. I’ve written a blog post to provide tips on preventing burnout! Here’s my blog post: 18 Tips To Prevent Choral Teacher Burnout
Five Years of Changing and Expanding the Conversation
In the digital realm where voices meet ideas, there’s a podcast that’s become a community hub for Choral Music: The Choralosophy Podcast started in February 2019. It was just a small gathering of a few hundred colleagues, sharing their love for choral music. Then, the unexpected happened. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, episode 33 of […]
Choral Ethics: The Annual “Have Some Manners” Blog
“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.” Tecumseh Do you ever say “please” to your singers? Or is it always a […]
The Conductor as Yogi: Abilities vs. Gifts
Our professional life’s journey is very much focused on developing our abilities—the ability to play or sing, to read music, conduct, plan effective rehearsals, and understand the context of the music we teach. In time, we get really good at it, and even receive pieces of paper to demonstrate that we “made it” in our […]
Retirement and the Professional Choral Director: We Never Get too Old to Make a Difference
The February 2024 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “We Never Get too Old to Make a Difference” by R Wayne Bailey. Following is a portion from the article. This is part of our series of columns on Retirement and the Professional Choral Director. _________________ Remember, all of us need a purpose. […]
It’s Time for Anti-Racism with Love, with Chloé Valdary
Activist, author Chloé Valdary is a diversity and anti-racism trainer with a refreshingly loving approach. This week, on Valentine’s Day, I am encouraging us to approach our ensembles, our classes, our colleagues and our neighbors with Agape. In music education, we have a very popular, and important euphemism: “I want my students to see themselves […]
Choral Ethics: Doing Right
“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” C. S. Lewis Every ChoralNetter I meet in person wants to know what kinds of questions I get for […]
Assessment in the Collegiate Choral Classroom
The February 2024 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Assessment in the Collegiate Choral Classroom” by Andrew Bruhn. Following is a portion from the article. _________________ College choirs often inspire other choral musicians by modeling excellence through artistic performances. Likewise, collegiate conductors can provide inspiring pedagogical models through the ensembles they lead and […]
Bringing the Wisdom of Hebrew Texts into the Choral Canon with Nicholas Weininger
Nicholas Weininger, software engineer and composer, joins me this week to discuss the power of the Hebrew language in choral settings. Both in terms of its sonority and aspects of diction, but also in the contributions many ancient Hebrew texts can make to our philosophical discourses to this day. We discuss the difficulties finding choral […]
Choral Ethics: Self-Fulfilling Prophesy
“America’s future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.” Jane Addams I have been around the performing arts, LITERALLY, all my life. With an opera singer mother and a tap/ballet dancer/choreographer/stage director father, I […]