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(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article “Performing Dido and Aeneas with Adolescent Singers:  Purcell’s Original Commission,” by Marie Stultz)          Purcell wrote Dido and Aeneas in 1689, by most accounts for Josias Priest’s Boarding School of Gentlewomen in the Chelsea section of London. Priest, a dancing master, accomplished choreographer, and occasional collaborator with […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article “Forming a Student Chapter of ACDA,” by Lori Wiest)          Student chapters of ACDA have been established by the American Choral DirectorsAssociation to provide opportunities for future choral directors to be involved with their professional choral organization while still in college and high school. A student chapter […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal  article, “Thoughts on Choral Music in America: Report on a Sabbatical Trip to Six American Institutions,” by Frauke Haussemann)          The relationship between choral conducting departments and orchestral conducting departments was different in each school. In one institution, there were five symphonic organizations. Even then, the fundamental difficulty […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal  “Understanding and Applying Aesthetics,” by Randall Gill)          “Junk!" "Drivel!" "Pabulum!" Perhaps every choral director harbors a secret fear that these adjectives or others like them will at some point be directed toward the literature performed by his or her choir. If it is the conductor's intent to […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal  “Research Reports” column on music in the Renaissance by Richard Cox)          The author has examined a number of seventeenth-century documents relating to the use of the choir in the Papal Chapel. The choir roster included about 24 singers, plus several more on roll but officially retired. Of […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, "The Lyric of the African American Spiritual: The Meaning Behind the Words,” by Marvin V. Curtis)          To understand the lyric of the slave songs, it is important to understand religion in West African society. Worship of God in West Africa does not require a building because, […]

Before he was the intergalactic villain, Khan, Señor Montalban was considerably smoother while still being just a bit menacing.  

Here is an excerpt from the musical Working (based on the book by Studs Terkel) for your Labor Day weekend.  

While one does love riding his bicycle (with the scars and broken bones to prove it), this two-wheeled rollercoaster is a little over the top.  

Of course, NO ONE has ever pondered such a crass gesture toward a member of the wind section.