Latest Blog Posts

Yanson, Eliezer, Jr.  Philippine Choral Music: A Conductor’s Guide to Selected Works Composed between 1900 and 2010. Doctor of Musical Arts dissertation. University of South Carolina, 2010.   The Philippines is a country that possesses unique choral traditions, excellent choirs, and fascinating composers. Along with deep tribal roots, the musical practices of the Philippines are […]

Your input is needed to understand the health of conductors!   An online survey has been created to better understand the medical issues and injuries related to conducting. This survey is for both choral and instrumental conductors and is being sent to the members of many different conducting organizations.  The research is being conducted by […]

Yesterday’s column featured a “CJ Replay” in which a colleague opined, “It is only logical that the choral director who memorizes his music like his/her singers shows respect for the singers by being equally prepared. After all, music is the director’s business.”   Of course, memorizing an entire program can be challenging.  However, if one […]

We’ve all said it: “Music is the Universal Language.”  It’s probably trite; but one suspects it just happens to be true.   In this brief selection, we hear a choir from Korea singing for the 2009 ACDA National Conference.  Does the audience understand Korean?  Doubtful.  However, as choral musicians themselves, the members of the audience […]

(An excerpt from a Choral Journal  Letter to the Editor by Lawrence B. Larsen [p.11])   It never makes sense to me either why choral directors use music when their singers have taken the time and effort to memorize it. I have heard countless numbers of directors demand, "WATCH ME," and yet they never as […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “The Nature of Doctoral Choral ConductingAuditions at Selected Universities in the United States: A Survey,” by Hilary Apfelstadt)   In order to determine the main components of doctoral choral conducting auditions at selected universities throughout the United States the author conducted a survey of established degree programs_ The […]

Depending upon the environment in which you conduct, the use of solo voices can run the extremes:  from driving your programming to leaving you on the podium pondering “What on earth was I thinking?”  The correct solo voice can elevate a choral work to new heights.  Having the wrong voice in a musically-exposed situation, well, […]

“Students live UP TO or DOWN TO our expectations”   One has said this countless times to music education students.  While, yes, we have occasionally had an incorrigible student in our care, I suspect most choral conductors would agree with this axiom.   As you listen to this performance from a previous ACDA National Conference, […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “From Youth to the ‘Sins of Old Age:’ The Choral Music of Rossini,” by William Braun)   While a student, Rossini wrote some sacred music and a secular cantata for tenor, chorus, and orchestra, entitled Il pianto d’Armonia sulla morte d’Orjeo, for which he won an academic prize […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, "Choral Music Accompanied by Woodwinds: An Annotated List," by Jan DeShera)   Programming choral pieces with instrumental accompaniments other than keyboard can be difficult. Accomplished string players are often scarce, and brass accompaniments create balance problems for the small choir. Woodwind accompaniments for choral pieces may be a […]