Latest Blog Posts

Famed conductor and scholar Christopher Hogwood shares his thoughts on the value of performance practice in this brief excerpt from his presentation during the 2007 ACDA National Conference.      

When did “youth” become a synonym for “incompetence?”  How can we accept – and teach! – musical pabulum just because it seems “age-appropriate?”   It could be argued that our younger singers need the BEST possible literature, just like their physical growth requires good nutrition.  You wouldn’t serve your kids a diet of Doritos®, would […]

Male singers are like dollar bills. We never seem to have enough.  Choral conductors have been dealing with this problem for centuries; certainly we have commented about it time, after time.   What’s a choral educator to do with only a handful of male singers bobbing helplessly amid a sea of female voices?  One possibility […]

​ With all due respect to Twitter, there’s no tool that is more powerful to my professional development as a teacher and musician than blogs. While the reflective process of writing for my own blog is extremely meaningful, I gain endless knowledge and inspiration from subscribing to the work shared by many of our colleagues. […]

Thomas M. Sterner's The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life. Sterner is a musician, worked for years as a piano tuner/technician, as well as having an interest in Eastern philosophy. It's one of the best books I've read about developing better habits of discipline and focus. He has a wonderful little section […]