Latest Blog Posts

OK – officially it is known as the iBand, but some people get a little bothered when this blog doesn't deal with choral music.   However, one of our frequent subjects is music and technology – and this YouTube video fits the bill.  Special thanks to Emily Floyd from Shallowford Presbyterian for sending this in: […]

It starts about three weeks before the winter concert. The conductors admonishes the choir to be careful about their health, to wash their hands, get lots of sleep, take vitamins, whatever. While I understand the motivation (no one wants to have singers miss concerts due to illness) does anyone really think such lectures do any […]

David Griggs-Janower is reading “The Maestro Myth” and is using his blog as a place to flesh out his thoughts while reading the book.  I love it – and really appreciate him doing that!   Here is some of his thinking:    A listener heard the same piece performed a few weeks apart by different […]

I got this from Primarily A Cappella:   Best Classical Crossover Album: – Vocabularies – Bobby McFerrin   Best Choral Performance:- Baltic Runes – Paul Hillier, conductor (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir)   Best Traditional World Music Album:- Grace – Soweto Gospel Choir Pure Sounds – Gyuto Monks Of Tibet   Best Small Ensemble Performance:- Ceremony […]

  This video is created by a free do-it-yourself video creation system called xtranormal, which creates an animated video like this using stock characters, based just on a text script. I've seen much better-done ones than this example, with more interesting backgrounds, camera angles, and so on, but I'm blown away by the power of […]

Steven Johnson’s new book Where Good Ideas Come From brings new energy to the notion given by scientist Stuart Kauffman of the “adjacent possible.” In this phrase we get a glimpse of the real nature of the creative potential of change and innovation. This notion is something of the opposite to an epiphany or a […]

Via Jeffrey Tucker, a press release from Eastman illuminating (heh) the history of the Ave Maria text, through musical sources: Michael Alan Anderson, Assistant Professor of Music at the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester) has discovered that the second half of the prayer—the sinner’s direct plea to Mary—dates considerably earlier than commonly thought […]

Last week I had the opportunity to conduct Vaughan Williams' Hodie for the fifth time. For me, Hodie is the classy version of a lawn full of every illuminated seasonal character, stopping short of Santa and Frosty. The potpourri of English poetry, along with the wide variety of musical styles evoked, make it such a […]

John Neal of Primarily A Cappella pointed me to this article from the BBC about "The Great Choral Study."  Here is a little from the BBC article: Researchers from the Great Choral Study will aim to "investigate the current and future trends, opportunities and challenges facing British choirs". "Major questions are being asked throughout the […]

…and then there’s Singing Christmas Trees with 300 singers, who start rehearsing in September and sing 23 songs memorized.     And it costs up to $60 per ticket to see them. Oh, and they record an annual CD.