Latest Blog Posts

“You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s.” Robert Frost As I write today’s blog, I am sipping a glass of iced tea, brewed with mint from my own garden. The mint was the first thing we planted when we bought our house 27 years ago, but we should […]

This week’s blog is sharing highlights from a conversation with Amanda Stevenson, founder and artistic director of Omaha Children’s Choir (OCC), an organization focused on making choral music education accessible to all children. OCC just wrapped up their 6th season (2020-21). You can read more about OCC and their amazing work here. In late January […]

Welcome to this summer series on questions and possibilities for a new era in our personal lives, professional lives, the choral landscape, and in society! I’m so glad you’re here for the journey.   Despite the seemingly impossible circumstances during the pandemic, I’ve been amazed at how choirs have adapted to provide meaningful art. Even […]

The May issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “International Conductors Exchange Program to Sweden: Building Bridges Through Choral Conductors” by Jeremy D. Jones and Joshua Habermann. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction. _______________________ Jeremy D. Jones Following exchanges with Cuba in 2012 and China […]

In this episode, Dr. Ryan Board of Pepperdine University and I discuss the role we see for Choral Music education in filling the void of psychological and emotional development of young people and adults. The epidemic of the loss of resiliency in young people is well documented. Dr. Board walks us through the work of […]

“Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” Margaret Thatcher When I was a child, I was often reminded by Mom to behave like a lady. As a 7- or 8-year-old, I was never sure exactly what that meant. I thought it might mean wearing fancy clothes, […]

We are very pleased to introduce a new voice to ChoralNet blogging today. Shannon Gravelle posts today and beginning next Wednesday, will be posting every other week sharing interviews with a variety of choral professionals about their experiences during the pandemic and their plans as we look forward. In March 2020, choral professionals made massive […]

We are pleased to introduce a new blogger to ChoralNet. Austen Wilson, a church-based choral conductor, will be writing weekly about the ways that he and choral colleagues are making the transition back into a post-COVID world, or at least looking ahead toward that. Enjoy! During the first week in March 2020, a good friend […]

The International Journal of Research in Choral Singing (IJRCS)  is ACDA’s scholarly publication that welcomes studies that apply rigorous, systematically-grounded methodologies, either quantitative or qualitative, to investigate phenomena of potential interest to all who sing in, work with, or are otherwise interested in choral ensembles. Below is the abstract from this article written by Sandy P. Hinkley […]

Do you find it overwhelming to find new repertoire? Finding new repertoire is like surfing through endless television channels and finding nothing to watch. There’s so much repertoire out there, but how to do you find repertoire that works for YOUR group? I’m going to share 9 SIMPLE ways to sort through a lot of choral […]