Latest Blog Posts
One Hundred Ninety Four Days
Do you know what happens in 194 days? If you answered, “That’s the approximate gestation period for a baboon,” you would be correct. It also shows that you either have entirely too much free time on your hands or that you are reading the wrong web-site. The REAL answer is that in 194 […]
Stick Time: Monteverdi
A performance of “Si ch’io vorrei morire” (Monteverdi) by the Heritage High School Concert Choir (Joel Karn, conductor) during the 2012 ACDA Northwestern Division Conference in Seattle, Washington.
Stick Time: Yes Kids CAN!
A couple years ago I was pleased to make repeated treks to a local elementary school because the director of the school’s fifth-grade chorus asked for a little help in improving the esthetic quality of the group’s performance. Back on the college campus after one such jaunt, a member of the voice faculty sniffed derisively, […]
Atlanta Symphony Discriminates Against the Wrong Skin Color
Fascinating news from the Old South – from the Marietta Daily Journal: Who knew that the most important qualification for performing onstage with The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra was not one’s musical expertise, but the color of one’s skin? Who knew that the defining characteristic of its performances was not the sound it produces, but […]
ChoralTech: (Pain-) Free Audition Scheduling with Doodle
At the beginning of the season, it can seem like there’s a never-ending pile of things to organize and schedule in order to get our groups off the ground. Thankfully, we can take audition scheduling off the list using a free online scheduling tool called Doodle. Designed to allow groups of people to remotely agree on a […]
Scholarly Abstractions: Using Dalcroze
Daley, Caron. Moved to Learn: Dalcroze Applications to Choral Pedagogy and Practice. Doctor of Musical Arts dissertation (in progress). University of Toronto. Over a century ago, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) began experimenting with a pedagogy that would give students access to their personal musical voice and a system of technique to express that voice […]
A Primary Proposal
In the new issue of the Choral Journal (September 2012), "Children’s Choir" column editor Ann Small offers this worthwhile challenge . . . I am asking every director of elementary age children – community, school, or worship choirs – to write three or four “brainstorm blog-like sentences to go in the Children’s […]
Stick Time: Nunc Dimitis
The performances at an ACDA Conference are always wonderful, but our poor ears can only absorb just so much choral music in that short amount of time. Luckily, we can help you by both spreading out the sounds over a large block of time and transporting you to Conferences you just might have missed. […]