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“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Arthur Conan Doyle

Believe it or not, I get many emails about loyalty. Loyalty to a chorus or church choir or alumni group and perhaps another type performing group of some sort. I get questions such as: if my university has disbanded an ensemble I was a part of and I don’t see why they disbanded it, should I still donate to the university? Or: the new choir director at my church often schedules anthems not to my taste, should I still sing every Sunday, even if I don’t like what we’re singing that morning?

In addition to those types of questions of loyalty, several of my recent correspondents are board members or audience members of community or professional choruses. All want to know a variation of: if I don’t like the music on a particular concert, do I still have to attend?

The answer to all these queries is simple: it depends. If your idea of loyalty is punishing someone when they do something you don’t agree with by withholding money or attendance, then sure, do what you want with your money and attendance. But you’re not being loyal. If you see a chorus or church choir or other performing arts organization as someone providing you a SERVICE and you are unhappy, then don’t attend, don’t donate, and don’t support them in other ways. But I feel music is different from hiring a contractor or ordering take-out.

In our household, I am usually the one who organizes home repairs with the plumber or hires the lawn service or gets estimates. If I need a plumber, I hire someone I’ve had a pleasant experience with, not the company who punched a hole in my ceiling for no good reason. If I need the lawn mowed, I contract with someone who has done a good job for me and continues to do a good job for me. There have been a few times when my current Lawn Guy has NOT done a good job and he usually explains WHY. The backyard was too muddy and his mower kept getting stuck in the goo or he didn’t want to mow over 100s of Cicadas. The reason he is my Current Lawn Guy is for exactly this reason, he explains why.

If you are upset your University’s Glee Club, or Show Choir or Swedish Chorus has been disbanded, ASK WHY. Perhaps there isn’t interest from current students or not enough funds to pay the director. If you want to be loyal, see what you can do to prevent the disbanding, perhaps you and other Alumni could start a fund. Or you can accept their explanation. No one expects you to continue to donate if you don’t like their explanation unless YOU WANT TO.

Church choirs are notorious for using attendance and participation as some sort of punishment for anthem choices. If you think you shouldn’t sing if you don’t like the anthems, then don’t sing but TELL the director why you won’t be singing. Perhaps there is a reason for the choices, such as getting younger singers involved or it’s a request from clergy, for those Sundays and if you knew, you would want to sing. During Lent, I had a tenor in one of my former church gigs moan about the “Dirge of the Week” because he thought the music wasn’t “peppy enough.” He threatened not to sing unless the music was happier. It was LENT and the music wasn’t peppy because it was LENT. As we began rehearsing for Palm Sunday and Easter, he was much more at ease, but I’ll never forget having to EXPLAIN to him why we didn’t sing more upbeat anthems during LENT.

If you are a board member of a chorus and you’ve attended board meetings, you should know why certain repertoire is chosen for each concert. If a concert is not to your taste, don’t attend, but purchase tickets for the concert, that would be loyal. If the music for every concert is no longer to your taste, then perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your relationship with the chorus. And if other board members feel as you do, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your music director.

As an audience member, if you don’t like the repertoire, don’t go to the concert! A concert of “not Beethoven or Mozart” or “All New Music” might appeal to others and if that’s not you, it’s perfectly fine. In this case, the chorus provides a service, and no one suggests you need to attend a concert if you don’t like the music to be performed. It’s the chorus’s responsibility to choose music to get “behinds in seats” and if they don’t, it’s on them. However, they might be surprised, good or bad, what their repertoire selections bring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Search Results for: choir

Ave Maria – a new setting

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I have a new setting of  Ave Maria (in Latin) for SATB (with some div in the sopranos and altos) and cello. The choir music is chant-like (very multi-metered) in a homophonic texture and the cello part requires a very good player. I wrote it in memory of a choir member who passed away last year with […]

Big Voice – A Documentary about Choral Directors

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Michael McGlynn shared this on Facebook and I think it is outstanding: </div> <div> </div> About BIG VOICE: a musical feature documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Varda Hardy. This uplifting documentary explores the lives of the top-singing students of the Santa Monica High School Choir, and its visionary choir director. At a time when drastic […]

BCCS Artistic Director Lloyd Named Creative Connector

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Bucks County Choral Society artistic director and Haverford College associate professor Thomas Lloyd has been recognized and honored as one of seventy-six Creative Connectors in the Philadelphia area by Leadership Philadelphia, the region’s premier community leadership organization. Leadership Philadelphia seeks to “shine a light on all the good leadership that happens in this region, and […]

Play List for Great Sacred Music, Sunday, October 9, 2011

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8-11 a.m. eastern. Hosted by Rob Kennedy. On 89.7 fm in central North Carolina and online at http://wcpe.org. Please join me!   08:00:20 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Agnus dei II ~ Missa Papae Marcelli Josquin Despres: Agnus dei ~ Missa L’homme arme super voces musicales Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips   08:15:33 Franz Schubert: Agnus dei […]

ICC founder Henry Leck receives distinguished alumni award

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Founder and Artistic Director of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, Henry Leck, will be honored by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Alumni Association on October 8.  Leck, who founded the ICC over 25 years ago, will receive the award for Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Fine Arts & Communications for his accomplishments and blazing significant […]

Stick Time: Faces Matter

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Sometimes choral singers look, well, dour.  I’m not talking about the serious face that accompanies the singing of some profound work. No, I’m referring to the pasty-faced, dead-eyed, I’d-rather-be-getting-a-tooth-drilled look that some singers have.  Not so with today’s choir. Look at their sunny expressions and the sparkle in their eyes.  That’s the joy of singing. […]

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