Latest Blog Posts

Beethoven's fifth, by a conductor who could give us all lessons in enthusiasm:     h/t Podium Speak

Horrible news: Without any further explanation the future of four highly renowned broadcasting ensembles has become uncertain. The rug is being pulled out from under a distinctively Dutch music culture that can be heard in abundance via radio, television, online, and live in well-filled concert halls such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn in […]

In bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley's autobiography, he speaks of a defining moment that signaled the process of generativity is his life. At the age of eight, at the Point Truth Primitive Baptist Church in Scott County, Virginia, Stanley's father put his hand on the young singer's shoulder and asked him to line out the hymn […]

San Francisco Classical Voice points us to an iPhone app for music theory: The app is aimed at college music majors and budding music majors at the high school level. Still, beginning musicians can use the section on note names to reinforce the lessons they’re learning at their music classes, while advanced musicians can test […]

Jeffrey Tucker reports on remarks made by Pope Benedict after a concert of the Mozart Requiem: Allow me, however, to express once again the particular affection that has united me, I could say, always, to this great musician. Every time I listen to his music I cannot help but return in memory to my parish […]

The Arts Action Fund of Americans for the Arts, the advocacy group for the American Choral Directors Association, graded the members of the U.S. Senate on their support for the arts. The grade was based upon criteria such as voting in support of the arts, joining the Senate Arts Caucus, and more. Senators had three […]

Liz Garnett creates yet another interesting column, this time on the communicative mode of conducting gesture. Quoting a research study by Michelle Sampson of Roehampton University. Referring to a study in which singers and conductors watched videos of conductors in action, I observed that when the singers watched the video clips, they could usually write down immediately […]

We've all seen lots of bad choir logos, and lots of unimaginative ones which put the choir name on a staff, or substitute a treble clef for a G (or worse, S).    But recently I've run across a few good ones, which I thought I'd highlight here. This isn't the result of any systematic […]

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 […]

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, […]