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The growing field of choral music now has its own YouTube interview series hosted by Andrea Goodman, director of the Cantilena Chamber Choir in Western Massachusetts. “Talking Choral Music” features noted composers, conductors and business leaders in the choral community.
The first video showcases Barney Smith, the director of the London-based vocal ensemble VOCES8. The a cappella octet has toured internationally and has released recordings of classical music to include early English and Renaissance works, jazz, pop and their own arrangements, most recently on their own label. Smith, the founder of the group (with his brother Paul), discusses their unique sound and the repertoire that has struck a chord with audiences, especially in Europe, The U.S. and Asia.
Watch the video trailer that will take you to the first two interviews here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQQ3LSWSnE
The second video in the series features Nolan Gasser, a composer, musicologist and author of “Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste.” He has served as the chief musicologist for Pandora Media, the Internet radio service, and he conceived the Music Genome Project, the analysis system that enables Pandora to pinpoint and program for the musical tastes of its listeners. Gasser will recommend some of his Renaissance favorites and explain how Pandora determines the music preference of its subscribers.
New videos videos to be released every two weeks include an interview with Dale Warland, a panel discussion by four New York City choral musicians about how to make a living as professional performers, an interview with Rosephanye Powell, the American choral composer, singer, professor and researcher whose influences include African American musical styles and composers, and the publisher who brings us the best in Russian choral music- Musica Russica’s Vladimir Morosan.
Andrea Goodman, Director of the Cantilena Chamber Choir, has been a professor of conducting at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has prepared choirs for the Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, and has previously served as the director of the Concord Chorus (Massachusetts), Director of Choirs at Skidmore College and New York University. Guest appearances have included the Aspen Music Festival, the Fribourg Switzerland Festival de Musique Sacree and the Singing World Festival of White Nights in St. Petersburg, Russia. She holds a DMA in Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and has served on the board of Choral Arts New England.