Latest Blog Posts

Today is Franz Schubert's birthday.   We celebrate with the Kyrie movement of one of his most popular works:     And look here for the January 30 blog post I didn't get up in time about the pretentious parent who loves choral music.

 In Pam Schiller's article on Early Brain Development Research Review and Update, appearing in Exchange, the author documents new research and thinking on the link between music and language. Once again, the case is clear for mainstreaming music into early childhood education: Linguists, psychologists, and neuro-scientists have recently changed their long held opinion about the […]

It is always a sunken-treasure-surprise to come across a jewell of the past, known only to a few, that now is available to everyone. I have experienced several such epiphanies, as new works by Bach, Handel, and recently, Vaughan Williams, are "discovered" and brought to light by the musical world. This has been my recent […]

Liz Garnett talks about changing your vocabulary regarding dynamics so that your singers don’t get that unsupported, airy sound when singing soft. I have been developing a vocabulary of expression to substitute for words like ‘loud’ and ‘soft’ for some time, depending on the repertoire I’ve been working with: intimate, conspiratorial, introspective versus joyful, triumphant, […]

  h/t ChoralNet user marija peljhan

The Wall Street Journal reviews an a cappella opera premiered by Opera Memphis and Playhouse on the Square, which has a sort of pit-orchestra consisting of singers, for which they use the Bobby McFerrin-invented word “voicestra”: [Michael] Ching’s remarkably inventive opera is a celebration of what voices can do and still, with the exception of […]

If you are a choral conductor who likes to plan ahead (and is relatively tech-savvy), check out these two google calendars for ACDA Chicago:   Gold Track here in iCal format. (XML format here) (updated 3/8/2011)   Scarlet Track here in iCal format . (XML format here)

Liz Garnett articulates a problem I often have: what to say to singers who ask how the performance went. I never know what to say, and it’s not always because I don’t want to admit it was awful. Often I just don’t know. Liz explains why: It’s not surprising, then, that directors find it hard […]

Not long ago and in a country far away, I attempted to explain to a taxi driver taking me from the airport to a conference location why I was there and what I did for a living. After explaining I was a choral conductor and I was visiting to hear choral performances at a choral […]

An inspiring story of singer Charity Tilleman-Dick, American soprano and recipient of a double-lung transplant.