Latest Blog Posts

  If you’re unfamiliar with the original song, it might be helpful to view it first.   Performers: the Gifford Children’s Choir, directed by Jack Senzig.

Composer Robert Kyr will soon premier a work with Conspirare.   Here is what he says about it: Each of four programs focuses on a major choral composer: Josquin Des Prez (early Renaissance), Orlande de Lassus (Renaissance), Tomás Luis de Victoria (late Renaissance), and J.S. Bach (Baroque). “Songs of the Soul is one of most […]

This is too funny:       But you won't get it unless you are aware of the YouTube phenomenon that started with this young man:       And that story spawned this song:       Antoine has become quite a star:  

I found this today via a twitter search on choral music.  Read the whole post here.   Choral singing also has something to teach us about the joy of work. We speak glibly of this all the time, of course, and it’s not that there aren’t other places we experience it. But I think there […]

I grew up as television grew up, so I feel confident in saying that as we enter 2011, choral and vocal music have never before experienced the brightness of the current popular media spotlight. We witness choral flash mobs springing up as the new choral rave party with purposed "spontaneous" performances of Handel at Walmart […]

Throughout the literature of every culture, fictional mentors have entered the imagination of writers and storytellers, passing along the lessons of life through characters of fantasy, myth, legend, heroics, and even the most ordinary of individuals. For King Arthur, it was Merlin. For Harry Potter, it is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. For me, it […]

According to the Business Committee for the Arts (a Division of Americans for the Arts) in 1968 7,000 companies were asked how much they give to the arts and why they give to the arts. In the original BCA Survey of Business Support of the Arts which was conducted in partnership with the National Industrial […]

For those who accuse choral music of being a hobby of the leisure class, here’s a choir composed of homeless people:     Chris Cottam is the director.

My choir experimented with a new tool this year: Square, a little plastic box which plugs into the headphone jack of an iPad or iPhone (and lots of other devices) and allows you to swipe credit cards. This allowed us to accept credit cards for concert tickets at the door, a convenience audiences love.   […]

This came from the Facebook page of my friend and colleague Eric Mathis at Samford University – a tale about emotional manipulation and music in the worship setting.   Here is when the truth hit home for one worship leader: As a freshman at a Christian university, I spent the majority of that first year […]