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“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.” Winston Churchill

I’m rerunning some Choral Ethics blogs from years past with a few modifications where needed. Two of my MOST REQUESTED December Blogs will also be making their yearly appearances.

In a few days, it will be Christmas Eve. Your plans have been made for months if you’re anything like me. But this is the Christmas of 2025, so you probably have a “Plan B” if you’re smart and I know you are. Here in the Midwest, there could be a blizzard predicted, so that always adds another layer of planning. Just when we think things are back to “normal,” something happens to mess it all up!

Advent and Christmas, more than Lent and Easter, are much more stressful for our profession. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s the gift giving and baking and traveling to see family and friends and all the concerts and services we must prepare or attend. Or maybe it’s just the time of year, who knows? We have many things to accomplish, usually in the dark, and we rarely get all accomplished. I do know for a fact we’re all stressed.

I am here today to remind you to try to be as relaxed as you are able to be, in this super busy season for Choral Folk. Take a breath and when you are thrown for a loop, take another breath. And be kind. Be kind to those around you, whether they be your family, your choir or those you work with. Make kindness “your thing” this Christmas, no matter what happens. Be kind, my dear friends, and reap the benefits later.

Stress cancels out the beauty of the season and there is plenty of beauty so take a breath, do your Alexander Technique breathing or yoga breathing, and take a moment to relax and enjoy. You deserve the beauty; you deserve the goodness you’ve been creating for everyone else this holiday season. You deserve to have some cookies and eggnog and punch, so have some. And you deserve to have some Fa-La-Las directed by someone else for a change!

Know you’ve made a difference in someone’s life this holiday season and you may never know it. Be okay with not knowing because that will be your gift to the world. Your choir singing “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” may have comforted a child who lost a parent this year or someone newly widowed. Singing “Silent Night” may be the only time a rough and tough teenager uses their voice and finds they like singing. Something you do, something you have planned, something you are not aware of will make a difference. You may find out, you may not, but know you have made a difference.

Much love to you all, ChoralNet, as we ’round the corner to Christmas.

Search Results for: choir

Tell me what this choral piece is about

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ChoralNet reader Michael Zaugg recommended this video to me but didn't tell me what the work was about.   It is an impressive piece of videography, especially on my 27'' monitor!  Can you help me figure it out?     <p><a data-cke-saved-href="http://vimeo.com/29583282" href="http://vimeo.com/29583282">Männerstimmen Basel | TRAILER | tøngedrøhn</a> from <a data-cke-saved-href="http://vimeo.com/maennerstimmen" href="http://vimeo.com/maennerstimmen">maennerstimmen basel</a> on <a […]

Stick Time: Clever Concert Presentation

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The addition of sound effect and movement is a good way to enliven a choral concert.  In our current media-driven world where we are all bombarded by non-stop video images (TV screens in the grocery store!? Please.), people seem a little uneasy when they are challenged to contemplate music without a visual component.  I hold […]

WCG Update: Cincinnati Pops to Headline Opening and Closing Ceremonies

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CINCINNATI (OH) – This was Erich Kunzel’s vision when he led the charge to bring the 2012 World Choir Games to Cincinnati USA. The beloved Cincinnati Pops founder and icon, who died Sept. 1, 2009, dreamed of watching the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in the Opening Ceremony of the 7th World Choir Games at U.S. Bank […]

Stick Time: Communicating Powerful Poetry

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It occurs to me that we sometimes underestimate the emotional capabilities of those in the choirs we conduct.  Take for instance men’s ensembles.  I love “Brother’s Sing On,” the various college fight songs, and the other rousing standard repertoire for the men’s chorus.  Listen though to the text of this too-seldom heard work by Lee […]

ACDA Member Receives Fissinger Prize

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Indiana State University Director of the School of Music and ICDA member Nancy Cobb Lippens is the 2011 recipient of the Edwin Fissinger Choral Composition Prize. North Dakota State University Music honors the legacy of its long-time choral conductor, Edwin Fissinger, through this annual choral composition competition. Cobb Lippens, who publishes her music under the […]

Boy Soprano Faces Discrimination

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YANKTON, SD – It’s every student’s dream to earn All-State honors. From the hardwood to the stage, those opportunities abound across KELOLAND. But one Yankton student was turned away because his talent breaks the rules for a state-sanctioned event. The music flowing from these walls on Roberts Street is enough to make anyone want to […]

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