Latest Community Posts

I am building a choral program at a new private Christian high school.   I have about 40 singers (90% beginning), but have two FABULOUS cello players.   Any repertoire ideas to incorporate my cellists (one also plays double bass).  THANKS!

I’m thinking about doing Haydn’s “Creation” with my community choir this spring. It would be with organ. A few questions: Does it work well with organ? Are there any ‘standard’ cuts that are recommended? If not, what solos, if any, could be cut from the score? What edition would you recommend?   Thank you, in […]

Dear Stephen, I’d like to suggest the happy swinging choral song “HAVE A NICE DAY”, you can sing it a cappella or with accompaniment, it’s availabble in the settings SATB or TTBB or SSA   Listen to HAVE A NICE DAY – voc.-instr. on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCantemus#p/u/12/TIemzfAuAcE   Lorenz

Betsy Sansby, who leads the One World Community Choir of Minnetonka, MN, has just produced the first in a set of work discs for community choir leaders.  Each 60-70 minute disc contains all the parts to five or six  a cappella songs from around the world.  Cost: $15 plus shipping.   The first disc includes: […]

As part of a 50 strong community choir, I have been given the task of researching the replacement of our ancient, very heavy speakers and amplifier which we only use when away from our home base (where we have a fixed electronic piano). Our excellent (travelling) keyboard is a Yamaha P-140 stage piano which has […]

The training choir (4th-6th grade) I direct is participating this year in a festival that would include being hosted by unfamiliar families for one night.  Our executive board has raised concerns about this idea due to the age of these children.  They requested that we look into the policies of other youth choir organizations.  Do you have any policies you would […]

I am calling on your collective wisdom.  I am exploring doing Rene Clausen’s  A New Creation with combined high school choirs and orchestra.  I have not been able to find much detailed information on the web so far, any help with the below questions would be appreciated.   1. What exactly is the instrumentation?  Is […]

Looking for a secular major work that will be about 45-60 minutes long, uses SATB choir and soloists and piano/organ or small ensemble accomp.  It would also be great if it was available via CPDL (this is not a necessity, but it never hurts to save the budget a bit).  I’ve got some ideas, but […]

  I have been asked by my director to find a similar piece; in recent years (for a contemporary festival) our choir has had great success with Monk’s Panda Chant  II  and Tjak! and I am searching for a similar piece; rhythmically intense, vocally not too demanding and something that has required percussive/movement but that is […]

By now, nobody in Philadelphia should be surprised that conductor Donald Nally is making a hard-to-explain departure: Lyric Opera of Chicago is expected to announce this week that chorus master Nally is leaving at the end of the 2010-11 season to spend more time with his Philadelphia choir, The Crossing. What wasn’t said: He’s leaving […]