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Here are two additional reasons I now add to my list of why I want the National Endowment for the Arts and other federally funded arts entities to remain healthy and grow in significance in our national budget. The two following reasons augment the established case for what the National Endowment for the Arts does […]

The following thoughts related to leadership come from an interview with Hugh Ballou via Creator Magazine. Check it out at http://bit.ly/frrqNH   Ballou: Tim, as you know, I teach Transformational Leadership. The perfect example of this style of leadership is the choral conductor. What advice do you have for the church musician as Transformational Leader […]

This article in the Sioux City Journal finds important distinctions between the TV show “Glee” and show choir.   The whole article is here – but here are the first five points:   1. Show choirs don’t get to learn new songs every week, just to express their feelings. They rehearse and rehearse and rehearse […]

I am fortunate to have Spring Break this week to consolidate my thoughts about Chicago ACDA before plunging into more teaching and performing.   The opportunity to share my thoughts here on the ChoralNet blog helps me find the will to think through what over 5000 experienced together.  Here is a list of the music […]

OK, so he wrote it in 1997.  It takes me more than a decade to find great things but this William Hawley piece is quite beautiful – I need to do more Hawley!   I spotted this on the UND Concert Choir blog – it is a great piece and deserves to be sung:   […]

Passionate Cecilia Bartoli took on a recording project that features some of the famous music of the castrati.  Her beautiful voice and powerful singing is wonderful to behold, especially Handel's Ombra Mai Fu.   The description of her DVD features some well chosen words: The ‘Sacrificium’ project tells the story of the castrati in all […]

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 […]