Latest Blog Posts

The beginning of the calendar year—ahhh! . . .  Resolutions.  Big plans.  Massive change! And how long do those resolutions last? We know the statistics, that resolutions set on January 1st are often abandoned within the first month, depending on whose reporting you read.  There are countless guides for determining and keeping resolutions to create […]

ACDA’s annual free summer workshop and festival listing will appear in the March/April issue of Choral Journal for events taking place May 1 – Sept 1, 2023.  Submissions are due by January 15 to . Please format your submission as follows:  Date of Event Event Title Location (specify if Virtual) 1-2 sentence description of the event Contact name Contact email/phone […]

Now is the perfect opportunity to make changes to your choir rehearsal! In my blog post, I list and explain 11 things you can do to improve your choir to start off the 2023 year! Check out my latest blog post: 11 Quick-Fix Rehearsal Changes You Can Make to Start the New Year Read my latest blog […]

Is it possible that the over-politicization of classroom education could be contributing in some way to the epidemic of mental health problems amongst teens and young adults? Clinical Psychologist, and child of Egyptian immigrants, Christine Sefein thinks we should not ignore this possibility. The modern vogue for activism that kids are learning focuses on the […]

“Ring out the false, ring in the true.” Alfred Lord Tennyson This Holiday Season, I’ve rerun several Choral Ethics blogs from years past with a few modifications where needed. Today will be the last of the reruns; all new blogs will begin again next Thursday. ~MLGA Happy New Year, ChoralNetters! It is 2023, can you […]

In ChoralEd Episode 16 Vicki Bailey shares some vocal exercises for the development of ensemble cohesion.   Ms. Bailey suggests the use of kinesthetic movement as a means to enhance an ensemble’s collective musical experience.  Kinesthetic activities to internalize the pulse include gently tapping the shoulder of a neighbor or walking in tempo.  Additional kinesthetic activities […]

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels but specifically K-12 and community choirs. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/publications/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For more information, email  or visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the Fall 2022 issue […]

Year in Review! Top Episodes of 2022 2022 was an exciting year on this show! The first solid year of weekly episodes, a wide range of topics. (Only ONE Covid episode, thank God.) We saw lots of growth in the audience, exciting LIVE recordings, and so much more. In this episode, I have curated some […]

“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Leonard Bernstein For the month of December, I’m rerunning some Choral Ethics blogs from years past with a few modifications where needed. Two of my MOST REQUESTED December Blogs will be making their yearly appearances, including […]

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. (“Closing Time”) Tell me you are a member of Generation X, without telling me you are a member of Generation X. [Starts final blog with a quote from the song “Closing Time” by Semisonic] This column marks the end of my series on mindfulness and meditation on […]