Latest Blog Posts
Publishers that understand
Allen's post yesterday about the "print on demand" problem with a publisher reminded me of a two great experiences I have had lately with online publishers. They have different business models but both offer superb service: First, Saint James Music Publishing. For a yearly fee of $139, I have access to every piece of […]
On demand or not?
Today's gripe: print-on-demand bureaucracy. I ordered a piece for my Christmas concert for choir, organ, and trumpet. I placed the order with my usual vendor for the p/v scores and a separate trumpet part. Today (six weeks after I placed the order) I get a phone call saying they can't send me just the […]
Choral Caffeine: Take Care of the Teacher!
By now the choral season is a month old (for some, even older). You’re back in the swing; the initial jolt of new-year energy has faded and we should all be settling in for the long haul. Now is the time when our singers start to get sick, the drama-queens become shrill (sorry, but […]
Changing Education Paradigms
Ken Robinson gives us another insightful lecture. Watch the whole thing:
Clausen featured at 9/11 memorial
This from A Cappella News: A musical piece composed by a Concordia College professor will be on center stage in New York City for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rene Clausen will conduct “Memorial” on Sunday at Lincoln Center. He was commissioned to compose the piece based on the events of […]
Learning About Sound
Eric Whitacre is pointing me to all the great videos these days:
Celebrity Voices do Whitacre’s Sleep
Pretty creative. And I’ve heard of Britney Spears.
What Are You Good At?
In the late Peter Drucker’s book Management Challenges for the 21st Century, the management guru and former Marie Rankin Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University, stated, “Most people think they know what they are good at. They usually are wrong.” Drucker continues, “More often, people know what they are not […]
Choral Caffeine: You’re NOT Alone
She thought she was all alone . . . While talking with a newly-minted choral music teacher about the initial couple weeks in her first job, it soon became all-too apparent that she was the only music teacher in that school. Sadly, she was already feeling lonely. Rather than being surrounded by other choral […]
Copyright forever less one day
I know I'm beating a drum that no one's listening to, but I'm not the only one who thinks copyright protections are way too long. Short version: Remember all the good old Disney movies? Yeah, all of them came from works no longer under copyright protection at the time. The whole of the Disney Empire […]