Latest Blog Posts

I read the blog Study Hacks regularly. It’s a great resources examining the use of time, particularly at the college level, but it applies elsewhere. In this post he examines his work load, common things that he works on, and the disparity between a “good week” in which he gets to do a lot of single-minded, […]

We’ve talked in the past about setting up websites for sharing your choir’s information with the world, but you might want a website for a different purpose: sharing information internally with your choir. There are some immediate benefits to having a central place where all of your musicians can access materials, see the practice calendar, […]

COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig   (Each week we look at one or two of the best choral works posted in the Composition Showcase here on ChoralNet.  This is where we store a treasure trove of works that your choirs will love to sing and your audiences will love to hear.)   Evening Star by Michał […]

NELSON MANDELA'S IMPACT ON CHORAL MUSIC, by Ben Allaway               Nelson Mandela's passing is very poignant for me because he had a great influence on my early interest in arts activism.  I wanted to learn about how choirs could help raise awareness of social issues such as apartheid, and there were terrific things happening […]

Regardless of our age, some of us boys never quite grow up.  We LOVE our toys . . . though they do tend to get bigger and more expensive. (But, dude, if you're going to drop the coin for a Mustang, why not get it in red?)  

Before you step on an ant, consider this . . .  

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “The Best Voice for Mozart,” by Robert Russell)          If Baroque violinists sought to imitate the voice, then by reversing the analogy we may discover significant information about the nature of the voice. The beauties of violin playing consisted in the swelling and softening created by the […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal column, “Da Capo,” by Alfred Mirovitch)          Education’s primary aim should be to foster the growth of the whole [person], the complete human being, not the dedication to one specific skill, or technic, or specialty, nor solely the accumulation of knowledge, of cold facts, rules and statistics. Practical […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal column, “Get Down,” by Gene Grier)          Can a classically trained singer with a strong interest in jazz find satisfaction from directing a show choir? That depends on the educational goals of the particular teacher. After bearing the trials of friends who think I’ve sold out jazz and […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Editing Early Music: Some Notes on Procedure and Presentation,” by Ronald Broude)   In general, a responsible editor seeks to present an "authoritative" version of the work he is editing. A version is by definition "authoritative" when it conforms to the "author's" (i.e., the composer's) intentions; the editor's […]