Latest Blog Posts

Did you know that it takes exactly thirteen hours to memorize a piece of music?  Yup!  Twelve hours to complain about it and one hour to get the job done.   Of course, I’m being glib.  Depending upon the complexity of the work at hand, memorization can be almost instantaneous, or it can present significant […]

The ACDA website is sporting a new look!  After months of development, the Association’s website has been completely rebuilt from the ground up.  This improved site will allow ACDA to better serve its members. “We are happy to present this completely redesigned site to our members and hope it will be a useful tool,” said […]

Helping you Harmonise has a great blog post about how charisma can transform into tyranny, especially for choir directors: There’s a scene in the film The Iron Lady in which Margaret Thatcher is chairing a cabinet meeting just ferociously. Hardly anyone dares speak, and when they do she slaps them down. There is an edge […]

Today for our conducting study, let’s focus on the face.   Generally, how do people react when you scowl at them?  Now take the opposite view: when you smile as someone, isn’t that smile returned?  (try it sometime)  The giggles of children usually make those hearing their little peals of joy laugh too.   So […]

As conductors, what we DON’T do is oftentimes vastly more important than what we do.  Far too many conductors become their own worst enemy by presenting obstacles to success.   Even the most stout-hearted among us has felt at one time or another some degree of nervousness before a concert.  We are all aware, however, […]

One of the challenges of choral performance is to make our concerts visually interesting without detracting from the music.  Here is one example from a recent ACDA divisional conference that included dance as a part of the performance.

Somewhere on this lovely June day, a recent graduate is asking herself what she is going to do to continue singing now that her days in the college cocoon are over.  She is probably feeling a sense of loss.    It’s one thing to sing every day in the controlled environment of an educational institution.  […]

One of the on-going topics of discussion in the choral profession surrounds the matter of programming for performance at a divisional or national ACDA conference (scroll to page 8).  The question boils down to this: do we program the great works of the standard canon, or do we seek out new music?  (I know I’m […]