Latest Blog Posts
A virtual church choir
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 […]
Is .00029 cents really money?
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 […]
Get rid of the conductor for real musical excellence
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 […]
Prioritizing Goals for the American Choral Directors Association
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 […]
New ChoralNet Community features
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 […]
Saturday Respite: Percussion
Saturday. You’re beat. So is this astounding drummer.
Stick Time: Conducting Study 2
Today we look at the conducting line. Notice in this brief example the graceful gestures used by the conductor, and how his fluid movements emulate the music and ultimately encourage the sound that is produced by the choir. Also note that the conductor uses a lateral motion to reinforce the phrase. In the space of […]
CJ Replay: Choral Conducting Auditions
Imagine for a moment a pianist who went in to audition for a jury and faced the following problems: 1) The piano, which he had had no opportunity to tryout previously, was out of tune, and he was expected to tune it in front of the jury. Sections of it needed voicing, and some notes […]