ChoralNet

The professional networking site for the global online choral community.

“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

Tuesday Treat

by Leave a Comment

Here’s a little something for you from the kind folks at SoundWaves (the firm responsible for recording the concerts at ACDA National Conferences). Soundwaves would like to offer a gift of one free CD. Simply browse MEtunes, choose any album, and use the coupon code below for a free choral CD when you check out. Contact […]

Real boys don’t sing soprano

by Leave a Comment

A ChoralNet user forwarded me this article: 14 year-old Garrett Adam is good at many things. Music is one of them.  “I play the flute and piccolo in the band,” Garrett said. “And I've been interested in singing a long time now, really interested in singing.”  He's been in junior honor choir, band, marching band […]

“The Cherry Tree Carol” for SATB and Piano by Adrienne Albert

by Leave a Comment

I hope it is not too late to post for the Christmas season!  Hopefully, this Carol will find it’s premiere this Season or next!   A lovely, haunting melody, my setting of “The Cherry Tree Carol” is for SATB and piano. A wonderful song for the Christmas Season, this version is not difficult and could […]

Play List for Great Sacred Music – Sunday, September 25, 2011

by Leave a Comment

Great Sacred Music airs 8-11 a.m. eastern on 89.7 fm in Central North Carolina and at http://theclassicalstation.org     08:00:20 Chant: Processional hymn: O gloriosa domina Anonymous 4 08:03:39 Samuel Sebastian Wesley: Psalm 94, “O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth” Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Philip Ledger Francis Grier, organ 08:10:44 Franz Schubert: Sanctus […]

Fishing trip nets music for Chor Anno

by Leave a Comment

Howard Meharg knows how to catch more than salmon when he has a fishing rod in his hands. Meharg, the conductor and music director of Chor Anno, went fishing last year with Tim Sharp and ended up with a commitment from the composer for a new piece of sacred music, which Meharg’s Vancouver-based choir will […]

Tim Sharp’s “High Lonesome Mass” Premieres in Washington

by Leave a Comment

Banjo-pickin’ may not be a familiar sound in church, but audiences will hear one — and a fiddle and mandolin — during a “High Lonesome Mass” to be performed in Longview. Chor Anno, a 25-voice choir of experienced singers directed by retired local teacher Howard Meharg, will sing the work during the St. Stephen’s Celebration Concert at […]

© 2025 American Choral Directors Association. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy