Leadership

Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Take a Chance

August 29, 2019 by Marie Grass Amenta Leave a Comment

“Necessity is the mother of taking chances.” Mark Twain

August is winding down; September is almost here and summer is over. During most of August, we here at Choral Potpourri Blog have tried to get you thinking of ways to hit the ground running this fall. Today, the last Thursday of the month, we’d like you to ask you to think about one more thing; what could you do this academic/choir year, which would require you to take a chance?

What would happen if you forced yourself to take some other sort of chance, on purpose? Programming a different sort of repertoire on purpose or performing for a different sort of audience could take you out of your comfort zone a bit. These could be small ways of taking a non-threatening chance with your choirs.

Through no fault of our own, occasionally we have to make a choice we would never, not in a million years, have chosen. But it turns out to be the best thing, ever. Such as, our regular venue is not available so we have to find someplace else at the last minute. The new venue, while not our first choice, is better than we thought it would be. We would never have had the opportunity to discover it if it hadn’t been for the flood (or fire or building sale or ????) forcing us to find another venue. The new venue, while perhaps not our first choice, is still a good alternative.

Taking a chance with your choir on purpose can be likened to pruning a rose bush; your rose bush is beautiful but has gotten a little scraggly with age. Doing some pruning in early spring, removing some of the dead wood, can encourage new growth in different areas. The rose thrives. Deadheading the spent blooms as the season progresses along also helps focus the bush’s energy into creating new buds, new potential beautiful blooms.

Doing something different, doing something in another direction can also encourage new growth in your choirs. We all get stuck in a comfortable groove. It’s scary to try something new and different but if we don’t try, we’ll never know.

Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Changing OUR Behavior

August 22, 2019 by Marie Grass Amenta Leave a Comment

“Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.” Mark Twain

During the last two weeks, Choral Potpourri Blog focused on what you need and what you do. Today we’ll be thinking about our behavior inside of rehearsal. It’s easier to be objective when not actively in the midst of rehearsals or the academic year. While we are on break, it’s time to take a look at how our behavior impacts what we do and those we direct, both positively and negatively.

I’ve written about behavior before in this Blog, including both conductors/directors and choral singers behavior. I’ve spoken of what many perceive to be professionalism in rehearsal (terse, snarky and non-welcoming) and what a negative impact it can have on those we direct. I also have written about a more relaxed approach in rehearsal and how it can also have a negative effect. Nastiness, pettiness and small-mindedness have also been touched on in this Blog.

Many of you, I hope, use a cause and effect behavior scheme in your rehearsals. Sometimes called an “if/then” plan, it is a way of guiding behavior to a desirable conclusion by understanding most behaviors—both positive and negative—have a predictable outcome. For example; if you are clear in your instructions, then your chorus will know what you want and try to give it to you. Or, if you are confused in your instructions, then your chorus will be less able to discern what you want, flail around and waste time until they are able to figure out what you want. In this example, it behooves you to know what you want, be clear in your instructions and have a clear plan to get there.

Positivity and negativity also play a part in behavior. If you have a positive attitude about your chorus’s ability to do something, they will more than likely prove you right. If you have a negative attitude, they will ALSO more than likely prove you right. If nastiness and pettiness reign in your rehearsals, there will be an atmosphere of nastiness and pettiness in all aspects of your choral organization, not just in rehearsals.

The old, “reap what you sow” is true; if you are unhappy and project that image in rehearsal, your choir will reflect that unhappiness back to you. Are you fairly happy with your position and are able to project that to your choir? If you are not happy, are you able to at least not make it worse by your attitude? Many choral directors/conductors refuse to believe their behavior has anything to do with their choir’s behavior and ability to accomplish things in rehearsal and yet, it does

During a choir or academic year, it is impossible to be upbeat, happy and positive at all times. There are a few occasions snarky and cranky comments are called for. Impatience and disappointment are not usually the best way to get the job done, except when they are. We, as directors and conductors, need to have all sorts of tools in our bag of tricks including those perceived as negatives. The judicious use of those negatives can add much to get things accomplished. But we must take care not to over-do them.

Think about behavior and what you can do this fall to improve rehearsals. Are you more positive or are you negative? Are you able to objective with your own behavior? What can you do to be more productive by changing one thing this year? What should that one thing be? You tell me.

Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Working in Your Garden

August 15, 2019 by Marie Grass Amenta Leave a Comment

“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.” Rudyard Kipling

In last week’s Blog, I mentioned for the rest of the month of August I would be blogging about things to get you thinking. Last week, I asked what you need to do a good job right before a concert. This week, I want to know what you do during the summer to get yourself ready for fall. Do you do nothing? Do you work just as hard as you do during the choir year? Do you take a working vacation? Do you head out to the country so there are no distractions? Do you run to the city to soak up culture? Do you sing with someone else? Work at a Theme Park? What do you do?

Most civilians think choral directors take the summer off. They imagine us lying in the sun, a floppy hat on our head and a cool, adult beverage in our hand. In their minds, we are draped across a lounge chair dozing our cares away. Hah! If they only knew!

Many of us take courses or private lessons during our time off in the summer. Some of us may be the ones teaching those courses or giving those lessons. Our state ACDA chapters may be having meetings or sight reading opportunities. Summer might be the only time we have time for all-important professional development.

During summer break, our choruses may be singing at Garden Walks in our communities or singing the National Anthem at a ballgame. It may appear effortless, but you and I know we have to practice for those things so we sound nice next to those hydrangeas! Plus, it’s nice to get together with our singers in another environment and sing something different. We also have choir retreats, either toward the beginning of summer (my chamber choir has ours the Saturday after July 4th) or a week or so before rehearsals begin again in the fall. A relaxed atmosphere does wonders for choir morale.

We might be at the lake, but instead of dozing, we listen to music or study scores. Our minds can relax and soak up the music as we go at our own pace, instead the fast-paced clip we usually need to operate at. There is something so refreshing about listening or studying music in the midst of nature!

And, of course, there is the planning we do in the summer. We choose repertoire. We choose new venues. We audition and prepare for those auditions. Perhaps we plan something new for this fall with our choirs; like singing in an art gallery or organizing a coat drive for the December concert. In order to stay fresh, we need to try new things. Summer is the perfect time to plan something outside of the box. Whatever you do during the summer, I hope you take time for reflection as well.

Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Judging Our Colleagues

August 1, 2019 by Marie Grass Amenta Leave a Comment

“If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.” Alice Roosevelt Longworth

It does no good to gossip about our colleagues and their ensembles. It doesn’t help the arts community in general or the choral community specifically to “bad mouth” others. We are all in this together and the sooner we realize it and behave accordingly, the sooner we will reap the benefits.

We should be supportive of each other, since if your group is doing well, my group should be as well. Many forget this truth. They attend concerts and gossip about the performance or the concert wear or who is doing what and how well WHILE THE CONCERT IS HAPPENING. They repeat gossip they hear to their friends and the truth, whatever it is, morphs into something unrecognizable, the victim of a game of “Telephone.” It might be “fun” but it is damaging because it destroys good will. And art organizations, no matter on the church, school or community level, need good will to survive.

I hate the gossip which surrounds some art organizations. I won’t tolerate gossip in my rehearsals from singers about other groups, especially if they are former members of those other groups. You won’t hear a bad word from me about my conducting colleagues or their choirs in public or private, but my spouse and children know my opinions. I will nod or be non-committal when gossip swirls around me but I won’t join in the “fun” no matter what. I know when the gossip is directed at me in my presence and I refuse to acknowledge it, I look stupid or naïve. If I say anything in retaliation or make an equally nasty comment, I will be sinking to their level. And I will look as poorly as they do. Better to be thought of as stupid than nasty!

There is a difference between networking and gossip. If someone retires and there is an open position, it’s good to know. It’s also good to hear why the person is leaving so we can decide if we really want to apply. Whoever applies for the first job and then gets it will create another opening. And so on, down the food chain of choral jobs. We’ve all heard stories about colleagues in our community: the “too big for his britches” fellow who got the plum church job and was asked to leave after eight months or the college conductor who retired and left a mess for his successor to clean up or the community chorus director who didn’t try to be a community member. I never believe such stories unless I hear it from a person I respect. I believe the church member/piano professor who was the one to let the church director go or the college conductor’s replacement. The alto with an attitude I don’t believe when she tells me the director was asked to leave for the simple reason he didn’t attend the fund raiser! I don’t repeat these stories to anyone because I don’t want to perpetuate gossip. It’s not fair to my colleagues and I don’t want to get that reputation.

My own chamber choir is not the norm around here and, as often as not, is referred to as that “little choir” in a rather disparaging way. The singers in my choir understand we are that “little choir” until proven otherwise. Recently, I had a conversation with one of my altos after our fall concert. This particular concert’s attendance was pretty good and my alto noticed several members of other, larger choral organizations from our community attending. Both of us in this post-concert conversation opined their attendance probably wasn’t so much a desire to hear our concert but probably a desire to see us fail. My alto is one of the most laid back, non-gossipy people I know, so when she offered her opinion, I took her seriously. She told me a friend of hers, a member of one of those other choral groups, spoke with her after the concert and told her she was surprised we were so good because “rumor has it” we weren’t. The saddest part of this whole story is in that one phrase, “rumor has it.”

Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Ethics Should Matter

July 25, 2019 by Marie Grass Amenta Leave a Comment

“We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.” W. H. Auden

What does it mean to be an ethical choral conductor/director? Our own Choral Ethics code should be a model of behaviors for how we treat our singers, but shouldn’t it be a bit more? Don’t we need to be Choral Ethical to our colleagues in addition to our singers?

Vance*, who teaches at a community college and has a church job as well, has strong opinions on the subject and what it means to be ethical to our fellow choral colleagues. He believes being ethical in our profession means supporting each other with singers, recommendations, concert promotions, publicity, encouragement, and concert attendance. We may feel alone in our institutions and organizations; we are rarely alone in town. There are conductors in other schools and churches or nearby communities and he thinks developing a personal and congenial working relationship with them which is not just over the phone is important. Working together no matter the choral group you direct Vance believes is good, not just for the individual director, but for all directors and choral organizations in the community.

Vance also has opinions about what he considers to be unethical choral professionals. He has been left “holding the bag” a few times in his career, cleaning up messes—literally and figuratively–left by predecessors and has wanted to ask them one question: how can you leave a choral library in the shape you did? Leaving a disorganized choral library might not be considered unethical behavior by some and Vance realizes everyone has different standards as how exactly a choral library should be organized. However, we can all agree dumping a year’s worth of octavos collected at the end of the school year in one collective heap regardless of title and leaving it for your successor to take care of it not exactly the most stellar of behavior. Music dumping by his predecessor makes no sense to Vance, since now the guy looks like a big jerk to his former colleagues in the music department, in addition to his successor. Vance has gotten over it, but does wonder how the fellow is doing in his new position.

Maggie* has lived in her community for several decades. She’s made quite a name for herself, often being referred to as “a teacher’s teacher.” She is also a lovely person; with a history of taking a chance on singers no one else seems to want and turning them into excellent musicians. Or rather, her fine reputation is agreed upon by everyone except those in the local “premier” choral group and their director.

The chorale Maggie directs is a bit different from other community groups; it’s unique in that it focuses on a certain kind of ethnic music. Her chorale is not in competition with any other group in the area but it doesn’t stop those in the “premier” choral group from taking verbal swipes at her and the chorale. All of the other community choral directors have spoken to her with their support, both together and individually, and feel she is being treated terribly. But it does make it difficult to invite her and her ensemble to the biannual local choral fest or to have a group meeting of local choral directors. They do what they can by making sure to invite her and her group to the fest or director meetings, but they can only do so much without causing trouble.

Maggie and her chorale attend local choral events when invited but sometimes wonders why they do. The “premier” group’s director is condescending or just plain rude and so are his singers. It’s very humiliating for her chorale to have to deal with this behavior in public and she is at a loss. Maggie wonders what to do because by attempting to make her look bad and behaving the way they do–without Choral Ethics–they are hurting their own organization, whether they realize it or not. It makes Maggie sad for our profession.

*Name Withheld

Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: I Don’t Know How She Does It

July 18, 2019 by Marie Grass Amenta Leave a Comment

“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.” Lucille Ball

I really like helping people with my Choral Ethics project; it brings another layer to what I perceive as my work. In many ways I’ve been preparing to be the Choral Ethics Empress, as one of my regular readers M.W. calls me, my entire life. With my background as the child of a ballet dancer and an opera singer, I’ve been in the arts my entire life. I have seen or heard some crazy things which have prepared me for your problems. Just when I think I’ve heard it all, someone will contact me about a problem and I will be dumbfounded yet again. But there is more to me than what I write about here on ChoralNet.

I think of myself as a musician and singer and conductor and former dancer but I always wanted to be a mother. I am the oldest of six children, mothering them and even stepping in for Mom if she needed me to. I am even Godmother to my youngest sister. It’s just part of my personality and who I am.

I thought I could do it all; have a good relationship with my spouse, raise perfect children and have a career conducting choirs. And while I do have practically perfect sons, a loving relationship with my spouse and a career conducting choirs, things didn’t turn out exactly how I imagined through no fault of my own.

Motherhood certainly wasn’t how I expected it to be. I am not just a mother but the mother of a special needs child; my eldest son has autism. And that has made a huge difference in what I believe is important. There are things more important than that perfect job I applied for, got and then realized it would conflict with my son’s therapy. My younger two boys needed me at various times in their lives so I began to apply for jobs I could work around their schedules. It always seemed someone else’s needs were taking president over my needs for a while but I knew how important it was for my sons to have stability. And my spouse? He’s a physician and his profession made it possible for our children to get what they needed; but I was the one to make sure they did.

We think we can have it all but we can’t. Something has to give. As much as I love to cook (I really do love making food for those I love), when I am nearing the end of a concert cycle, my family knows it is time for frozen pizza and Take-Out. And when Christmas comes and I am busy with concerts or Messiah or something, store bought frozen cookie dough tastes pretty good when baked with love!

As my boys got older, I have had more freedom to do more of the things I imagined doing and I have. But I also realize I have a need to advocate for those with special needs in all walks of life. I need to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. And I began to examine our profession and what it brings to those folks.

I have learned to pick my battles, be organized with a schedule and not to sweat the small stuff. Oh, and it’s all small stuff. Family is important. If that means staying up to talk to your kid when he’s struggling when you have a performance the next day, that’s what you need to do. The performance will be over but your kid is your kid forever.

Our profession can be stressful. I believe we add to our stress by expecting impossible things from ourselves and from those in our lives. It’s taken me many years to know I can’t be everything to everybody. I will settle for being a good conductor and person, a loving wife and as good a mother as I can be. Period.