Latest Blog Posts

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” William Shakespeare I like smart people. I enjoy their observations and insights. I love being around them and learning something new. I am convinced that when I work with smart people, I am (and feel) smarter. Do you […]

Do not accept the concept of failure.  You are Antifragile. The idea of antifragile is one of the concepts that I am asking my students to experience this year as they learn to sing, work, and learn together during rehearsals.  I am asking them to trust me and take a vacation from some of their […]

Every moment is a fresh beginning. T.S. Eliot With my last CAY post (“Beginning . . . Again”), I began again as a blogger after a summer off for recalibration and for research on an article for this month’s Choral Journal focus issue on mental health.  In Breath, Body, and Being:  A Yoga-Inspired Choral “Practice,” […]

The newest issue of Choral Journal is available online. Following is a list of the articles you will find in this issue. ACDA members can log in with their username and password to view and download the newest edition. You can also read our electronic version. Below is a preview of the articles you will find in […]

In this episode, I read some recent reviews from the Apple Podcasts App, as well as some questions that came in through the website. Tune to hear the discussion. “How do I teach score marking?” “I am hearing some colleagues say that students are LESS excited about singing during the pandemic due to masks and […]

“No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.” Samuel Johnson Today we’ve made it through our second Pandemic September—-YIPPEE! Things are both better and worse than they were last September, depending on how you look at it. But we’ve made it through, which is […]

By Karen Bruno What is advocacy? Advocacy is an opportunity to share with other people, many of whom are decisionmakers in some way, why choral music matters—to us, to our singers, and to the world. Advocacy should not be a term that frightens us. It should be a term that inspires us to explain to […]

Now that we are well into the program year, my guess is that many of you might be thinking ahead to events in December. Before the pandemic, many of us may have hosted a concert or special worship service celebrating the Advent and Christmas seasons where we crammed singers into the Chancel or onto a […]

The October issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Breath, Body, and Being: A Yoga-Inspired Choral ‘Practice’” by Ramona Wis. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction. _________________ I recently found a paper on motivation that I wrote as an undergrad in a Psychology of Coaching […]

I believe all students can learn to successfully sight-sing. The more ownership they take in honing this skill, the better they will become. The better they read, the quicker your choir reads….and the more effective your rehearsals become. This is why sight-singing homework is so important. This blog post explains exactly how I assign, grade, AND motivate the students […]