Latest Blog Posts

School is starting?  Time to plan your next retreat!   ACDA has got something new for directors of youth and children's choirs – they are calling it “Peak Your Vision,” and it will take place January 14 & 15, 2012 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown.  “We are eager to welcome conductors and teachers from throughout North […]

Returning from the World Choral Music Symposium in Porto Madryn, Argentina, here is a taste of the opening night's concert. There were many fine workshops, conversation with world colleagues, and special encounters, but it is the choral music, once again, that moves us to travel half-way around the world. And in Argentina, there is also […]

School is starting again. (surprise)   I know many of you are in class already – I start later this month. I saw this remark on twitter today:     “I got my school schedule today.  The only thing I’m looking forward to is choir.”   Believable, isn’t it?  This particular student needs to work […]

At one of the colleges where I taught, the full faculty gathered once a month for a (usually incredibly long) meeting.  Of the many things I took away from those sessions was one item that has left an indelible mark:  once away from critical gaze of their students and left to their own devices a […]

Isn’t it delightful when former students “check in” to let you know how they are doing?  I simply adore those calls!   Recently a colleague-who-used-to-be-a-student (there has to be less cumbersome descriptor) contacted me to share that she had taken a new job as an assistant principal.  Bless her heart, she was concerned that I […]

Communicating non-musical information to choir members can be . . . well . . . let’s be nice and just say it’s a challenge.   Of course, the responsibility for following instructions and maintaining schedules rests squarely on the shoulders of the individual choir members.  But ultimately, it is the director who has to deal […]

At this moment, our newest colleagues are stepping into their classrooms for the first time.  These freshly-credentialed professionals are joining our ranks brimming with ideas, enthusiasm, and energy.  But if truth be told, many of these good people are also apprehensive about their new lives.   To new colleagues . . . Welcome! We’re glad […]

ACDA’s Wall of Honor just went online:    

It seems that choir directors aren't the only ones that can't find enough men to build a program:    

Allegra Martin blogged her answer to a question from the Massachusets ACDA convention a few weeks ago: “I don’t remember who it was, but someone raised a hand and made a sad comment about how all the “real composers” (not my words!) were not writing for chorus nowadays.”  She has a fantastic two part answer. […]