Latest Blog Posts
Boys voices changing earlier?
A recent article in the UK Daily Telegraph discuss the earlier onset of puberty and how it impacts boychoirs: Growing numbers of boy singers, known as trebles, are having to leave prematurely because they can no longer sing the high notes. Instead of singing until the age of 15 or 16, many now stop at […]
Creativity and Effective Use of Choral Music
Gotta love creative thinking, even if it comes in the form of a criticism. This from The Atlantic Wire about tonight's Simpson's episode: This Sunday, an episode of The Simpsons featured a title sequence storyboarded by Banksy, the graffiti artist and provocateur. Banksy's opening included a minute-long interlude apparently set in a Korean animation sweatshop, […]
Killing Classical Music
A compelling new website I just found, Killing Classical Music, a site “dedicated to rescuing the world’s best music from a slow, certain death at the hands of tired traditions and oppressively ordinary thought.” On it, I read this great post about “spaces.” At some point, any discussion about re-imagining the possibilities and […]
Garage Band and Choral Assessment
An interesting way to use Garage Band! (Part 1 and Part 2) Ever done anything like this? Listening to students individually takes time—a precious commodity for choral directors. MENC member Shari Tarleton uses GarageBand to assess her choral students individually in a group setting, and it’s saved a lot of time and effort. […]
The healing effects of singing
acappellanews gives us another great article about how singing brings health benefits. Speech and Language therapist and cofounder of The Brainwave Singers Robin Matthews said “We know that singing makes us feel good. Now science is discovering how singing can help people suffering from Parkinson’s to Aphasia (stroke),” he said. “Singing uses different parts of […]
The Big Choir sang the Cow Song
A world record, it seems: A choir of 2,000 attempted to set a world record on Saturday by singing one of Switzerland’s best-loved traditional songs, a herdsman’s melody from canton Fribourg. Saturday’s performance at Villars-sur-Glâne was recorded on camera, and a legal attestation will be sent to the Guinness Book of Records for approval. The […]
Five reasons why best-selling authors (composers?) are going direct
I applaud every move in the book publishing industry as authors go direct to their customers and I long for the day music publishing abandons the paper-postage business model. (You’ll find recent posts of mine on the topic here, here, here, and here. In an article published on Gizmodo, Micheal Ashley charts the benefits […]
Registration Opens for ACDA Chicago National Conference
Our long-anticipated registration for the 2011 American Choral Directors Association Chicago National Conference opens this week, and I am pleased to share all of the exciting details. We return to Chicago, Illinois this year for the National ACDA Conference the week of March 9-12, 2011. Chicago was home to our 1999 National Conference, the […]
Have you heard about the Show Choir competition for NBC’s Today Show?
NBC is sponsoring a Show Choir competition. Look here for details and dates: IMPORTANT DATES: Wednesday, September 29th: Launch Friday, October 15th: End of Competition Thursday, October 21st: Announce 4 Finalists on-air Friday, October 22nd: Announce Winner on-air Wednesday, November 10th: Winners fly to NYC Thursday, November 11th: Winners perform on-air […]
A Resounding Success: Online ACDA Honor Choir Submissions
In yesterday's ChoralBlog, we read Tim Sharp's excellent preview of the 2011 ACDA National Conference in Chicago. On the heels of that, I want to speak briefly about the audition process for the 2011 ACDA Honor Choirs in Chicago that ended on October 1st. I want to take a moment to celebrate the process, because […]