Latest Blog Posts

COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ Jack Senzig   (Each week we look at a piece of useful repertoire from the ChoralNet Community Composition Showcase.  A variety of voicings and levels of difficulty will be presented. Enjoy!)   Orpheus With His Lute by Brian Holmes for SSA, Bb trumpet and piano Level: High school sophomore women’s choir and […]

A core challenge for many choirs of all ages/ranges is helping our musicians practice between rehearsals. Thankfully, there are many ways that we can extend what happens in the rehearsal room and make it possible for our singers (of any level) to get work in on our literature in that “rest of their lives” time […]

(From the Choral Journal article, “A Choral Conductor’s Preparation for Choral/Orchestral Concerts,” by Kerry Barnett)          Orchestral scores can be confusing to choral conductors, many of whom are primarily used to looking at only choral parts, perhaps with some form of keyboard accompaniment. The process of becoming comfortable with the visual presentation of orchestral […]

(From the Choral Journal article, “The Need for a Choral Transfusion,” by Gary L. Anderson)   A continuing challenge facing nearly all choral directors is keeping an established choral program fresh, exciting, and appealing. Unfortunately, many directors are committed to thesame recruiting procedures, the same number and types of choirs, and the same rehearsal schedule […]

Listening to masterpieces of the standard choral repertoire is like visiting with a well-loved friend.  There is a sense of instant familiarity, comfort, and kinship.   It is, however, critically important to remember (or perhaps to realize for the first time) that while a work may be well known to many in a room full […]

Get your week off to a finger poppin’ start with this performance of the Darmom Meader chart “Stolen Moments” by the vocal jazz ensemble from American River College.  This recording, from the 2011 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, gives just a small sample of one of the many vocal forms on display […]

So, the school year is several weeks old.  How is your voice holding up?  Yes, YOUR voice. You spend hour after hour caring for the vocal well-being of those around you, but who is looking after your pipes?   The is the question at the heart of Mary Lynn Morrissey Doherty’s article, "You Might Not […]

The newest edition of the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing is now available.  Founded in 2003, this exclusively on-line publication is now the scientific journal of the American Choral Directors Association.        “We are delighted that IJRCS has become a part of ACDA’s publishing outreach,” said the Association’s Executive Director Tim Sharp. “Join […]