Latest Blog Posts

Since the Alfred Burt Christmas Carols were first recorded and published in the 1950s, they have resounded through a score of countries in many languages. This music is one of the twentieth century's great contributions to the celebration of Christmas. Alfred Burt was the son of Emily May Bailey and the Reverend Bates Burt, an […]

Today, let’t look at a blending of performance practice and entertainment.  Here, we see a choir that performs not only with fabulous musicality, but also presents the selection in a manner that is engaging on multiple levels.  With so many performances taking place at this crazy-busy time of year, how could you add just a […]

Love the variety of percussion instruments used here (what’s the difference between the red mushroom and the green one?) and the, um, subtle facial expressions. Any of you ever used a Christmas present as a percussion instrument?      Link for the embedded-impaired: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ZwnmJgC-g

Taking the lead from Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir, a church choir from New Jersey is putting together their own technology-driven choral music this Christmas: Liquid Church of New Jersey is inviting people around the world to participate in the first virtual Christmas choir, utilizing webcams and YouTube. Singers from around the world will be united […]

There is an interesting rant here on giving music away for free.   I’m not sure where it plays into our long-term brooding about music publishing and copyright, but it certainly relates to the discussion:   For example, I am paid $0.00029 per stream of a song on Spotify, and even this amount depends on […]

A Facebook friend pointed me to this article today:  The Best Way to Improve an Orchestra:  Get Rid of the Bloke with the Baton.   An interesting proposition using a few orchestras as examples (or prototypes): Spira Mirabilis represent a transformative vision of what a symphony orchestra can be. They are a revelation, proof that […]

2012 will be an exciting year of Goal Setting and Prioritizing for the American Choral Directors Association. Our Strategic Planning process hits the ground running in the new year as our National ACDA Board and Strategic Planning Committee ask all of our members to participate in ACDA’s first-ever membership survey.   This Strategic Planning Survey […]

  ACDA has been encouraging the ChoralNet development team to make its Communities more useful for both internal ACDA uses and general ChoralNet uses. Accordingly, ChoralNet is waking up this morning with expanded Community features.   Right away you'll notice a new appearance for the communities, with an internal navigation bar, eliminating the need for sidebar […]