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It that time of year . . .   Despite our best intentions some among us are going to come under fire for the use of a sacred text in our holiday concert.  Never mind that the inherent message is one of peace and goodwill, your administrator has a carpet with your name on it.  […]

THE ENDURING POWER OF MESSIAH  ~ by Marie Grass Amenta “……..and the tongue of the dumb shall sing” It is my favorite time of year—Advent. In addition to the usual busyness inherent to the holidays, I am preparing to conduct the choral portions of the Rotary Club of Park Forest’s DIY Messiah. When I began […]

Has your objectivity gone ‘bye-‘bye?   Sometimes, we get to this point in the choral season and are so tired and frazzled that we are unable to see the value of our craft through the fetid smoke caused by whining divas, attacking helicopter parents, and less-than-supportive administrators.   Try never to forget that our art […]

With the end of the semester and lots of “cleanup” to do, I’ll put my “Culture” series on hold and probably won’t post more until after the break (although you’ll see culture mentioned!). Here, part of an earlier blog post of mine on the concept of “mindset”:   Mindset I’ve started reading an interesting book […]

Here’s a thought for the holiday season:  Why do we bother wrapping presents?  We find gifts for those we love that are wonderful in-and-of themselves, but then we add all sort of additional time and expense to cocoon shiny new things in equally shiny paper. Pretty dumb, isn’t it?    Of course, it’s not.   […]

Art has been a vehicle for social commentary for millennia; from the bitingly provocative images on ancient Grecian pottery to hip-hop diatribes on the desperate realities of the 21st century urban landscape.   While a plethora of songs with stinging social commentary have been written over the ages, the chorus is not usually the musical […]

What is it we seek to develop with our choirs?   Any basic list would probably include such items as beautiful tone, a well-honed phrase, ever-growing musicianship, poised stage presence, the development of an appreciation for good literature, and healthy vibrant singing.   One certainly need not conduct a choir full of college music majors […]

(Yesterday’s “Stick Time” column on ChoralBuzz featured a choral work accompanied by Koto.  Today we continue examining Japanese choral music with an excerpt from the Choral Journal article “Choral Music in Japan: A Hybrid Art” by Anthony J. Palmer)          Japanese choral music has adapted a Western form and transformed it by fusing it […]