Latest Blog Posts

Randall Thompson’s The Testament of Freedom, with words by Thomas Jefferson. This performance by the Turtle Creek Chorale and the US Army Chorus, along with the Dallas Wind Symphony.     For the embedded-impaired: http://youtu.be/ruojMCl_DKg  

Education blogger Diana Senechal writes about the difficulties of assessment in music. Musicians in an orchestra, for instance, assess themselves continually as they play but have no need to document such assessment.  One of the biggest challenges is assessing the development of musical judgment, which Diana, quoting NASM’s Samuel Hope, describes as “knowing when to stop”. Knowing […]

The American Choral Directors Association is south of the border this week for the inaugural U.S. / Cuba Symposium of Choral Music, May 25-31.  Taking place in sunny Havana, the event features rehearsal demonstrations by Cuban choral conductors and performances by some of Cuba’s best choral ensembles; including the National Choir of Cuba, the Exaudi […]

The Composers’ Community’s Composer of the month is Iceland’s Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir. Blog author Jack Senzig writes: Her music has depth and a wonderful sonority that rings with a Nordic flavor.  This flavor is trademarked by a sense of melancholy, lyrical melodies, modal keys and open 4ths and 5ths.  Hildigunnur’s music has been compared to Jon Nordal, […]

You will want to reserve the date of March 13-16, 2013, now, for the next National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association.   Pictured here is the Meyerson Symphony Hall, the Winspear Opera House, and the entire contiguous art district of Dallas, the home for our 2013 National Conference.   Not only are the […]

The blog “From the Front of the Choir” captures a few reasons we seem to always have “one” singer out of step with the others.  Can you think of more?   There are many ways in which an individual singer can be out of step with the rest of the group. They can be: an […]

(From the Choral Journal article “The Canzonets of Thomas Morley,” by James McCray.)          Thomas Morley (1558-1603) was the most important and prolific composer of canzonets in the English Madrigal School. The canzonet influenced all of his writing, and its characteristics carryover into his madrigals and ballets. His preoccupation with the canzonet affected […]