Latest Blog Posts

I’m preparing a concert of all misattributed works for my next program, and it’s been lots of fun. There are so many pieces to choose from! The BWV is full of bogus Bach works, and unscrupulous publishers in the 18th and 19th centuries claimed that all kinds of stuff was by Mozart, Pergolesi, etc., so […]

Composer Michael Kaulkin remembers Joseph Castaldo and points to some exciting things happening with the Choral Arts Society in Philadelphia: This month the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, my choral alma mater, will present a concert that epitomizes the kind of music making that went on in Philadelphia when I was a student there in […]

UPDATED:  Check out Paul Carey’s blog   Three posts so far about Tucson: Day two thoughts, University Choirs, Thursday night choirs   and   Cincinnati’s ACDA   He’s doing a great job of keeping us informed!

Composers often complain that choirs don’t perform enough new works. Here’s a choir dedicated to only doing new works by Connecticut composers. Composers pay a fee for a fixed amount of rehearsal time with paid singers. They make a recording and a public performance.   Maybe it’s not the wave of the future, but it’s […]

Not just for special effects.    

Some exciting plans are underway for ChoralNet and ACDA.    Three of us met in Cincinnati at the Central Division conference this past weekend:   Jim Feiszli, the founder of ChoralNet Tim Sharp, ACDA executive director me, the occasional blogger aka user 32   We brainstomed ideas for the future for ChoralNet and ACDA – what […]

This was a bit alarming: Gloria Y. Gadsden, an associate professor of sociology at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, was escorted off the campus on Wednesday because of jokes she had made on her Facebook page about wanting to kill students. On Monday the professor posted this update: “Had a good day today, didn’t want […]

A story from The Chronicle of Higher Education has me exploring another tool to communicate with my choir quickly and efficiently.  Don’t miss this.   Here is the article from the Chronicle and here is how I announced it to my choir.  If you follow my tech presentations, this looks like the logical solution to […]

A story in The Chronicle of Higher Education caught my eye the other day about copyright.  It discusses lessons from the history of book publishing, the evolution of copyright and what might happen in the future.  It has some fascinating history – a few excerpts:   Nothing is sacred about intellectual property: But he believes […]

Liz’s blog provides a list of tips to minimize choir’s performance anxiety. My favorite is this: If your normal rehearsal warm-ups are about getting people up and going after work, you’ll find that using them just before a performance produces a completely over-hyped choir poised to sing sharp and rush tempi. Meditative warm-ups that slow […]