Latest Blog Posts

Liz Garrett proposes an experiment: practice your music for 5 minutes every day for the month of June. That still leaves open the question about how much difference 5 minutes will make, of course. From one perspective, you’d expect it to be largely ineffective, as it is an absurdly short time. You’re hardly even starting […]

Journalist Kristine Aghalaryan discovers a choir in Turkey: The next stop on my journey through Turkey took me to the ancient city of Antioch (Turkish Antakya), founded near the end of the 4 century BC by a general of Alexander the Great. Antakya was annexed by Turkey in 1939. There’s a multi-national choir in this […]

ECS is announcing plans to add digital publishing to their lineup.   Here is the advertisement – I hope to post an interview with their president soon:  

Mischievous Mind, a blog dedicated to short stories, has one about a conductor: The conductor’s head snapped to the left to see what happened, his mouth falling open as Tim’s pale hands withdrew from the keys, grabbed at the lapels of his jacket, and yanked the jacket from his body.  Loud gasps jumped out from […]

Political commentator Joe McGinniss: The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reports today that the principal of Wasilla High School told members of the school’s symphonic jazz choir that they would not be allowed to perform the 1975 Queen song “Bohemian Rhapsody” because Freddy Mercury, who wrote it, was gay. In the face of student protests, and fearing ACLU involvement, the […]

A nonprofit group in Australia creates choirs as a tool to “enhance wellbeing, social inclusion, innovation and productivity”: THE story behind the beautiful harmony resonating through the halls of the Ashburton Baptist Church each week is almost as good as the music itself. Creativity Australia, a not-for-profit group that fights social isolation, turned to the […]

It is a busy week, so enjoy some Monteverdi.    

Belgian group Witloof Bay sings “With Love Baby” at the Eurovision Song Contest:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWDbKbdGgho   h/t The Fredösphere

This came across my email a couple of days ago . . . congrats, Alexis! Noe Middle School was celebrating the arts Wednesday, and they were celebrating their choral teacher who is the newest Excel Award winner. Alexis Paxton has been teaching choral music at Noe Middle School for ten years. In that time, the […]

Dear Secretary Duncan,   Thank you for your open letter to America’s teachers.  We appreciate that you want to work with us and that you respect our opinions.  Therefore, we would like to bring a few items to your attention on behalf of the music education community.   As you know, local budget cuts are […]