Latest Blog Posts

Conducting + Star Wars + LEGOS?  Seriously!?  That’s a trifecta from my perspective!  Come to think of it, a light saber might come in handy in a rehearsal.  Hmmmm . . .  

There is no doubt that an honor choir is a wonderful experience for the students involved.  The opportunity to study in an intensive environment with other select and highly-motivated singers under the baton of a master teacher can be life changing.  (Truly, many of us in the choral profession can trace our “light-bulb” moment to […]

(From the Choral Journal article “Dating Josquin’s Enigmatic Motet Illibata Dei virgo nutrix” by Leslie Clutterham [scroll to p.9])          Most modern analyses of Josquin’s miniature masterpiece Illibata Dei virgo nutrix have focused on the text and music of only the first part of the motet. The secunda pars, difficult toclassifY stylistically, has been […]

(From the Choral Journal article “An Englishman’s View of North American Youth and Children’s Choirs” by Malcolm Goldring)          The first thing I would say is that, to a foreigner, you take your choral singing seriously. You may think that this is a strange thing to say, considering our vaunted cathedral choral schools, but […]

(From the Choral Journal article “Literature of Quality for the Treble Choir” by Raymond Sprague)          All choirs should perform literature of high quality; yet as I search for music for my women’s choir, I am accosted by musical pap of the lowest caliber. Insipid texts, bland rhythms, static or predictable harmonic structures, and […]

(From the Choral Journal article “An Interview with Vladislav Chernushenko, Director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and Glinka Cappella” by John Stuhr-Rommereim)   [Responding to the current need of Russian music education . . . ]   From my vantage point, the current needs of music education in Russia are first and foremost material in nature. […]

This is an appeal to the robust choral community out there. I am looking for old video of historically important choral conductors conducting, preferrably in rehearsal, but also in performance. The older the better. I think the pool of video out there on youtube just isn't deep enough, and we as a community probably could […]

I just got back from a photo shoot for a campaign we are putting together to bring more men into our program. At the shoot, I had 10 ties of various types, safety pins, binder clips, studs and cufflinks, and extra jacket buttons. I was pinning coats and tying ties all over the place. The […]