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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

Free Warm Up Guide for Choirs, Part 2

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  I have started a series of articles on effective warm ups at the request of my colleagues.   It is a three-part series, beginning with this article.  I have posted part two today here.   For my final post, I’d love to hear about some of your favorite warm up exercises.  Please do share! Best, […]

Free Warm Up Guide for Choirs

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I have started a series of articles on effective warm ups at the request of my colleagues.   It is a three-part series, beginning with this article.  Hope you enjoy, and please do share your own warm ups, too! Best, JD

CONDUCTING HOPE: A New PBS Documentary (Prison Choir Sings RIVER IN JUDEA)

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  For more than twenty years, the “singing, ringing” RIVER IN JUDEA has rung out in countless voices in varied venues in many lands.  But now “the river that freely flows” has wound its way into a highly unusual place…the Lansing Correctional Facility near Kansas City, Kansas, home of the only secular men’s prison choir […]

I Hear America Singing: The American Boychoir Releases New Recording

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The American Boychoir Releases New Recording Entitled I Hear America Singing   CD Officially Launched Blocks Away from Walt Whitman’s Former Residence in Camden, NJ   The American Boychoir, regarded as one of the best vocal ensembles of its kind, released its highly-anticipated recording entitled I Hear America Singing (inspired by the Walt Whitman poem) […]

National Catholic Youth Choir 2014 Summer Tour

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NATIONAL CATHOLIC YOUTH CHOIR is seeking high school students entering grades 10, 11, and 12 in fall of 2014, to audition for the 2014 camp and multi-state concert tour June 16-July 1, 2014. The choir is led by Dr. Axel Theimer and founding director Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB. View a video of the 2012 choir […]

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