Latest Community Posts

Hi Everyone,   My name is Brian Jones and I am a bass section leader at a Congregational Church in Hartford, CT. I was asked to select and conduct a piece for Pentecost Sunday, and am looking for suggestions. The choir is roughly a 60 member SATB choir that has sung works such as Bach’s […]

Listers, there seem to be at least three translations of the well-known chorus from Mendelssohn’s “Christus.” Can anyone shed some light on the history of these translations? Did Mendelssohn have a particular English translation in mind (although the libretto is in German)? Aside from singability, is any of these more “authoritative” than the others?   […]

 Friends – we’re preparing BWV 4 (Christ Lag…) for an April 10 performance with an excellent chamber orchestra.  As I’ve studied recordings, I hear that Gardner, for instance, does the piece a semitone lower than written, and Koopman and others do it a semitone higher than written.  Others, of course, have recorded it in the […]

I will concur will Mary Jane on that issue. I was a student in an inner-city school district (FWISD) and under the direction of Mrs. Sherylynn Porter at Southwest High School. Our choir program was in the dumps before she came, and now, it is one of the stronger ones in the district, but not […]

Coming next week, I will be holding a rehearsal for my church choir since the choirmaster will be unavailable. I am in my senior year at TCU and almost on my way out, but there is a problem that lies ahead. While he is gone, I will have to rehearse Beethoven’s 9th with them and […]

In honor of its 40th anniversary, Wallingford Chorus is sponsoring a choral composition competition. The chorus is reaching out to experienced choral music composers to enter an original, unperformed piece of music for consideration. The winning piece will be debuted by the chorus at a future concert with the winning composer receiving a $500 prize. […]

While I agree with the above suggestions, I do have some ‘quick fixes’ which will also be the basis for long-term vocal development. I guest conducted a high school group whose sopranos were untrained last fall for just a few sessions, and these vocalises did yield some instant results. I think my own demonstration was […]

Anyone know where to download a good arrangement for an 8 women’s choir. I saw a youtube of Yale Slavic Women’s Chorus that was awesome.   Also open to other suggests in any genre, for 8 personal women’s choir. We are going diverse, world, gospel, classical… The group is super skilled.   Looking in general […]

I’m giving a concert “in remembrance” of a person who died last year, and I’m struggling to fill the program without doing all slow, sustained music — a good concert needs more balance. The person wasn’t particularly religious, so a Gospel going-to-heaven-hallelujah wouldn’t really work, although a requiem wouldn’t be a problem. Obviously not all […]

I’m looking for some renaissance music for my choral literature class. Just some good choral music for middle school or high school choirs.