Latest Blog Posts

TODAY'S PRELUDE: CHURCH CHIT-CHAT by Thomas R. Vozzella          Just prior to the start of most worship celebrations, there is always some kind of music. This music has historically been used to center our hearts and minds on worship, and to introduce music being used in the service.  Often times this music is viewed […]

Estes, Lauren. The Choral Hierarchy Examined: The Presence of Women’s Choirs in Monographs on Choral Literature and Choral History. Master of Music thesis.  Syracuse University, 2013.   Women’s choirs have been perceived as less prestigious than, and inferior to, mixed choirs.  There is a well-documented choral hierarchy in academia that favors mixed choirs above other […]

Last week I addressed a number of John Wooden's ideas about pedagogy, taken from Gallimore and Tharp's 2004 article.   So now it's time to see what his pedagogical ideas can offer us as conductors. Part of the last post deals with our responsibility as teachers–is it our responsibility just to present material, or is […]

I wrote this sitting in the airport in Charleston, SC, waiting for the first flight on my longish trip home. I was coming home from the National Collegiate Chorus Organization's biennial conference (NCCO, not to be confused with the NCCCO – National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators). I love this conference. It's only […]

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.)   Requiem Aeternam by Joseph […]

Are you still handing out practice CD's? Are you not handing out anything at all? The ease of sharing audio with our singers has blown up the idea of the practice tape, and offers myriad ways to customize a practice resource depending on what you want to accomplish. Chris Russell wrote a post this week […]

Many people treat the daily eight hours that they should use for rest as some sort of chronological credit account, withdrawing time to do other things.  The problem is, of course, that after about 14 to 16 hours, our little brains start to turn to sludge, our reaction time drops, and our higher reasoning skills […]

One has always been mystified by trends.  Or more appropriately by how quickly something can move from “The Big Thing” to “Snore.”  Without question, the media are the high priests that preside over the worship service at the Church of the Flavor of the Moment (with a healthy dose of obscene corporate greed tossed in […]