Latest Blog Posts

I'm slightly aware of this rather common practice:   1.  sponsoring a composition competition  2.  requiring fee from the composer 3.  cash from the composers is given to the competition winner as the "prize" – or it helps fund their organization   I'm not a composer, so I don't see this sort of thing much, […]

Not my idea of fun, but the ideas are refreshing: Conspirare is about to begin its new year with some very old music, and with a challenge: to deliver four unique concerts in three days. Its “Renaissance and Response” festival, held Friday through Sunday , will celebrate complex and beautiful music that’s rarely heard or […]

Twitter exposes me to a wide variety of choral expressions – this one from a twitter user I do not know that pointed me here.  Check out this Haitian choral music – also linked here for my Austrailian friends:  

I found this great story about singing and science at the Episcopal Cafe – how “science can now tell what it is about the voices of young choiristers that gives us goosebumps. It can tell us how they produce the sound, and how it could be artificially recreated.”:   More from the website:  “The hypothesis […]

In England, the Education Secretary has pushed back against a training video created by the musicians’ union which advises music teachers never to physically touch students, even to reposition their fingers on their instruments: “It plays to a culture of fear among both adults and children, reinforcing the message that any adult who touches a […]

I wanted to publicly congratulate Eric Whitacre for his upcoming engagement with TED2011.   Eric will be talking about the "Virtual Choir" that we've heard about and watched evolve over the past several years.     Eric is one of the first composers to combine a number of talents and skills to really thrive in […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Whether it’s the Beatles or Beethoven, people like music for the same reason they like eating or having sex: It makes the brain release a chemical that gives pleasure, a new study says. The brain substance is involved both in anticipating a particularly thrilling musical moment and in feeling the rush […]

We have a new recruiting tool!   From the article: It may be the chorus of a pop song or the slow movement of a symphony… we all know that our favourite pieces of music make us feel good. But scientists have now unravelled how they do it. They say a best-loved aria or guitar […]

I know what you are thinking – Christmas was weeks ago.   And I know that Christmas is all about giving . . . but I got some great presents.   My wife and mother (two different people – Alabama isn't that backwards) each gave me a Keurig coffee maker.  I just love those quick-clean-heatproducing […]

It is a blessed time in my part of the world – our occasional two inches of snow/ice has shut down roads, schools, and airports.  That, combined with the National Championship football game tonight, has really captured the state of Alabama.   In honor of the weather event, I bring you the SFSU Women's Chorus […]