Latest Blog Posts
NPR suggests a cappella music as antidote to primary season blues
All Things Considered's David Was encourages his listeners to try choral music: The next 40-some weeks are going to be a screaming tower of political babble; a cacophony of accusing and boasting, pandering and slandering. I watch the news these days with the mute button permanently depressed, lest I fall into a permanent depression myself. […]
CJ Replay: The Value of ACDA
“It is indeed a challenge to try to satisfy everyone’s professional interests. Like many of you, I belong to MENC, ACDA, and now, NCCo. Some of you also belong to the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Each organization is unique; each provides something of great value to us as choral musicians. What concerns […]
CJ Replay: Success in Music
“There is no short cut to success in music. We find budding musicians who are graceful stick-waggers, but unless they possess the ability to hear an inner part, unless they can read a score, unless they cail visualize sounds, and unless, above all, they have the power of holding their players and singers, of molding […]
Saturday Respite: Ode to, to, to Something
We take our art with such seriousness all week. Let’s laugh a little . . .
Children’s Choir Conductor Retreat Starts Tomorrow
Want a weekend getaway with a purpose? Cash in those frequent flyer miles and jet to Denver tomorrow for ACDA’s Conductor’s Retreat for directors of youth and children’s choirs. This special event, called “Peak Your Vision,” will take place this weekend – January 14 & 15, 2012 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown. “We are eager […]
Paypal destroys violins!
If you buy something via PayPal, and dispute the authenticity of the item you purchased, their terms of service might require you to destroy the item in question. This makes sense if we're talking about a pirated DVD, but in other cases… I sold an old French violin to a buyer in Canada, and the […]
Surviving Innovation
In a recent Wall Street Journal article (Sat/Sun, January 7/8, 2012), columnist Spencer Ante outlines how corporations survive beyond the corporate life expectancy of 40 years, and how to avoid the terrible toll of not responding to ongoing innovation. Most of us work for non-profits, but the lessons are easily applicable. Business leaders, academics, and […]
Music in our Schools
Many opportunities for the American Choral Directors Association await us individually, as well as an association, in this New Year as we engage in the process of creative collaboration. Collaboration is significantly different than its sister processes of mediation, arbitration, negotiation, compromise, or co-existence, in the fact that collaboration actually creates something new. And while […]
ACDA 4 U: Children & Community Youth Chorus Conductor’s Retreat
The American Choral Directors Association will offer a Conductor’s Retreat for directors of youth and children’s choirs. This special event, called “Peak Your Vision,” will take place next week – January 14 & 15, 2012 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown. “We are eager to welcome conductors and teachers from throughout North America to this unique […]