Latest Blog Posts

(This article by Bryan Black will appear in a forthcoming issue of the ACDA Southern Division newsletter, Southern Harmony.)        Conductors are always eager to add new repertoire.  New repertoire finds its way into our libraries and, over time, becomes the collective record of musical experiences shared by choir, conductor and congregation.  Depending on […]

Recently, an intern at NPR walked into the middle of an international debate by claiming that she has only purchased 15 CDs in her lifetime, though her "entire iTunes library exceeds 11,000 songs." Read her post here.  Her intent, I believe, was to point out that file sharing is wrong, that the age of physical […]

Wow, do we take things for granted in this country.   What would our lives be like if the state dictated that we must practice the “official” religion?  Would you enjoy being limited to a particular profession simply because of your family’s status?  What about speaking your mind publicly about elected officials, gathering openly with […]

ACDA is on the hunt for a person to develop the membership.   From the website:   The American Choral Directors Association announces an opening for the new position Director of Membership Development. This added position will join the current ACDA Membership Coordinator position, specifically targeting membership growth and retention.   Position Description: The ACDA […]

The inaugural tour of the ACDA National Youth Honor Choir was a smashing success and the ensemble has now returned safely from England!    You can now share in the excitement with commentary from singers as well as a bevy of photographs taken during their ten-day adventure in the UK at the Choir's Facebook site.

The American Choral Directors Association announces an opening for the new position Director of Membership Development. This added position will join the current ACDA Membership Coordinator position, specifically targeting membership growth and retention.   POSITION DESCRIPTION The ACDA Director of Membership Development is a full time position, working directly with the Executive Director on location […]

Standardized testing in the arts?   I haven't heard anything about it, but this Nancy Flanagan has.   Here is a little bit of her blog post – read the whole thing here. Why would we deliberately advance a worthless (and expensive-to-develop) mode of assessment for something as crucial to kids' well-being and our own […]

This is a compelling presentation about integrating social media.  It looks like everything is linked so that the teacher has to do only minimal work – worth a look!     Gluing together Blackboard, Facebook, and Twitter View more presentations from Matthew Leingang

I didn’t get to go to Chorus America last week, but Frank Oteri did, and he blogged about it:   Directors of choruses are frequently composers themselves, and composers and new music—even when not front and center—has played a role in about every session of this conference I had ever attended. But ACF’s construction of […]

We don’t know how to control our “vocal muscles.”   That is from Scientific American and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: In a series of pitch-matching experiments, nonmusicians were pretty good at adjusting an instrument to match a specific note, suggesting that they could hear it just fine. They had much more trouble, however, imitating […]