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This story reminded me of 1994, when an album called "Chant" took over the radio waves. That CD/album featured the monks of the Benedictine abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos; this one features composer Allessandro Striggio and English group I Fagiolini: (Reuters) – A sumptuous first recording of a long-lost 450-year-old Italian Renaissance mass written […]

Frank Albinder, pictured here with Eric Whitacre, pointed me to this story about how music and singing is helping Rep. Gabielle Giffords recover from the gunshot: Since Giffords was transferred to TIRR Jan. 21, reports of her singing "Happy Birthday" for husband Mark Kelly and Don McLean's "American Pie" have signaled what some have called […]

On the morning after the conclusion of our 2011 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, I went to the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago to reflect, as well as decompress. The night before, I had completed the Conference by hearing Helmuth Rilling, the recently announced winner of the Herbert […]

Another great day to be in Chicago for ACDA 2011.   It is the end of a long day that included definite highlights:   University of St. Thomas and director Angela Broeker gave a refined and elegant concert today – their best work was on the Monteverdi Ecco and Le Pont Mirabeau by Lionel Daunais. […]

Brad Holmes and his Millikin University Choir did it again – another stunning performance involving incredible musicianship, humor, passion, creativity, and tonal variety.   This is what you hope to find at a national conference – a stellar choir performing at their very best.   They took the stage quickly and sang an energetic performance […]

It is exciting times for ACDA in Chicago as the conference begins this morning.   ChoralNet is here tweeting and blogging and planning and listening.  A few reminders for people who are attending the conference: We have Google Calendars for both Gold and Scarlet tracks. Many are tweeting!  #ACDA2011  Join the conversation! Tim Sharp’s blog about the […]

I hope most of the ChoralNet membership is traveling to Chicago today for a spectacular National ACDA Conference.   I expect that we'll be blogging multiple times a day about the conference, so check into ChoralNet often for some official updates.   If you want to take part in the conversation about ACDA Chicago, you […]

Bobby McFerrin is interviewed by Huffington Post's Bianca Bosker: When I was a kid growing up and we bought albums, we treated them with such reverence, we would listen to every single cut, first to last, whether we liked the pieces or not, we were patient enough to at least give the [pieces] a chance. […]

Guardian columnist Tom Service growls at audience members who break the silence following the final chord in a piece of music: But it was a moment of dizzying collective rapture that was all too predictably ruined by some eejit in the Royal Festival Hall shouting "bravi!" – from one of the boxes, I'm pretty sure […]

ACDA is fortunate to have an Executive Director who is also a published scholar – see this new publication from Pendragon Press entitled "Jubilate, Amen!"   A description of the book: Many facets of Donald P. Hustad's distinguished career as professor, author, and church musician are celebrated in this volume by 29 peers and former […]