choral ethics

Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: The Pause That Refreshes?

September 6, 2018 by Marie Grass Amenta Leave a Comment

“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein

Well, I’m back! I hoped you enjoyed the Choral Ethics Repeats during the month of August. They were part of the first series I wrote for ChoralNet as a guest blogger four years ago. I thought they were worth repeating and I hope you did too.

I am writing this today from a lovely cottage in northern Wisconsin; on vacation with my husband and all three of our children. There is a music festival up here and an artist’s colony, the shopping is great and there are wonderful restaurants. We’ve been coming up since 2002 and we love it.

We come together in this beautiful place once a year to gather and center; our family and ourselves. While we may take other trips (for business or pleasure) during the rest of the year, this is the time to relax and fresh ourselves. We hike, bike, take boat tours and trolley rides and go to concerts. There are many games of Scrabble, we watch movies or talk about things important to us and to our lives. We ask advice from each other and we laugh!

By the time we start back home, I am usually refreshed. This summer I started out more irritated than usual. It has been a difficult year; with my father-in-law’s death as well as an aunt’s, my husband’s health scare as well as various responsibilities being thrust on me because no one else wants to do them. I was pushing the limits of my stress level when I left. Why was I stressed? For a number of reasons but mostly because I let someone’s snotty behavior get to me; I’m over it now.

I held auditions for my chamber choir throughout the summer and sent email blasts out to my usual data base. I posted here on ChoralNet, on my chamber choir’s Facebook page, on Twitter and on our local community’s newsletters. I sent out flyers and postcards, posted posters and got the word out in all my usual ways. Because the audition period was quite long, I did all these things at the beginning of the period as well as several weeks before it ended.

I had several folks audition toward the beginning of my audition period but none made it past the sight-reading portion of the audition, unfortunately. If they had, I probably wouldn’t have sent out a second round of email blasts. Two people responded to that second round of emails; a former boss who has moved out of state and the music director of a local medium/large Roman Catholic Church, St. Mikey’s*.

I get about a dozen email lists myself, from Music Tours and concert opportunities, and all sorts of composers. Some emails I don’t open and some I peruse, eventho I am fairly certain I will never use their services. I never tell them to take me off their lists though, thinking I might use them or need them in the future; I am very much a not burning my bridges kind of person. And usually, when someone asks me to remove them from my list, they are nice about it but not the Guy from St. Mickey’s!

My former boss was surprised I hadn’t heard she had moved. I responded I had not known she had left the area and wished her well. The Music Director from St. Mikey’s was snippy about the whole thing. I responded by telling him I removed him from my email blasts and was so sorry I bothered him and blah, blah, blah. He had been in my blasts since 2013 and never said a word before, so how was I to know?

I was still a bit irritated when I met a good friend, who is also up here for vacation, for lunch last week. My friend has sung in my chamber choir, attended graduate school with me and is now the orchestra manager for a local symphony. We were talking about our families when I remembered her symphony often has their holiday concerts at St. Mickey’s. I showed her the email (on my phone) The Guy sent me; she wondered why he needed to send me that email in the first place. She also said she will now think differently about him. It wasn’t just me overreacting; it was him being a snot. Remember this story; you never know who knows whom. Or who will share your behavior with their friends.

*Name Modified

Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; Thanksgiving Day Blog

November 23, 2017 by Marie Grass Amenta Leave a Comment

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” Henry David Thoreau

As I begin preparations to cook another huge Thanksgiving Day meal, I am more thankful than usual this year.

It’s been a rough fall for our family but things are looking a bit better. My spouse had a health scare (the Big C) during the last couple of months and has recently gotten some good news. For that—and for my spouse—I am thankful. Our children are healthy, happy and productive and have turned out to be wonderful young men, and I am very thankful for them. Their support, help and their coming together when, and where, needed during this ordeal have made me not only thankful for them but proud as well.

Our house always needs something fixed but I am thankful, nevertheless, for its shelter. I am thankful for our beautiful piano and a home filled with music. Of course, I am thankful for the things in our house but I am more thankful for the people and the love that fills it. I am oh-so-thankful I am surrounded by a family who “gets” me—both my spouse and children.

I am thankful for the food I will cook for this meal of meals, and thankful for the ability to share because, “To those whom much is given, much is expected.” I am thankful for my Dad’s continued good health, at almost 90, my brother’s friendship and sharing of memories from holidays past. I look forward to spending the day reminiscing with Dad and the rest of our extended family; eating, talking and laughing as well as missing those family members no longer with us. And am thankful we will have the opportunity to do so again this year.

I am thankful for the wonderful musicians I journey with in our quest to bring a different choral repertoire to our community. Their musicianship, tolerance, appreciation and willingness to step beyond their comfort zone is something I value. And really, after Palestrina, doesn’t everything else seem easy? I am also thankful for my education and training, giving me the tools to believe we can do this; we can do anything we set our minds to. And I am thankful I get to sing and conduct such beautiful music on a regular basis.

I am thankful for my friends in music, and out of music. My best friend from graduate school who is singing with me and my best friend from high school who has decided to follow her dreams of painting in retirement; both of whom I am extremely thankful for! My voice teacher and her accompanist who keeps me sane (“if this is the sanest part of your week, Marie, it must be pretty bad!”) and who believe in my voice, I am thankful beyond measure.

I am thankful for the wisdom to finally believe in things beyond my control, letting go and allowing things to happen as they will. There is such a peace which comes from doing so and wish I had believed this long ago. I am thankful for my own good health, despite the usual Soprano Complaints, and know I am very lucky.

I am thankful for colleagues who have become friends and a rich, diverse choral community which reaches beyond my own suburban life. I am thankful for ChoralNet allowing me to come to you every Thursday with a regular blog. To those I have touched and helped with Choral Ethics, even in a small way; you are such a wonderful part of my life that I never expected to have. I AM THANKFUL FOR YOU TOO!

14 “Secret” Indicators That Your Choral Program is Outstanding

June 20, 2017 by Adam Paltrowitz Leave a Comment

How do we measure success? This, of course, is a lifelong question that stares us in the face every day. This article is far less philosophical, but does perhaps pose a way in which we should change the way we view success in terms of high school choral programs.

Find out the 14″Secret” Indicators that YOUR choral program is outstanding!

I published this blog last June, and it caught fire. This was the very first post I had written as it’s huge response became the very premise of the Choral Clarity Blog; every post that I have written since has been based on the premise of what is presented within the 14 “Secret” indicators.

Andrea Ramsey on Her Newly Commissioned Work, “But a Flint Holds Fire” in Support of the Flint Water Crisis

September 26, 2016 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

I was recently introduced to an article on the Michigan ACDA website (editor, Jed Scott). It was an interview with composer Andrea Ramsey about her recently commissioned work, “But a Flint Holds Fire.” The piece was composed for a Chorus America consortium project and is part of an effort to raise awareness and monetary support for the Flint Water Crisis.

Ramsey states that she lived in Michigan for three years while working on her PhD at Michigan State and that “[t]he Flint Water Crisis has weighed on my heart since it began. I remain stunned that over 100,000 people have been living since April 2014 without usable running water and that the government has yet to replace a single pipe for the mess they created.”

Through Internet research, she discovered a poem written by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894). Ramsey says, “I was slack-jawed when I read the poem. It is a beautiful poem from the 1800s with wildly haunting relevance to Flint being overlooked and underestimated, yet powerful. As beautiful as the poem is, it is a picture of brevity. I knew it was too short, and that is when I brainstormed an idea to elongate the work by reaching out to Flint residents and gathering their words to include in the piece.”

When asked if she has any specific hopes for how this piece might affect the listener, she replies: “I hope listeners respond with action. My greatest hope is that people will listen, be moved, and act. My greatest fear is that people will listen, be moved, and do nothing.”

Twenty-one choirs across the United States and Canada will be performing “But a Flint Holds Fire,” and there are also opportunities to hear it in Michigan in January 2017 at the Michigan Music Conference and on October 28, 2016, at the ACDA Michigan Fall Conference.

For those interested in learning more about the Flint Water Crisis and how you can help, go here.

To read the full interview article, go here.

Choral Potpourri: Interview Questions

May 19, 2016 by Marie Grass Amenta 1 Comment

“Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.” Oscar Wilde

You have the perfect Music Director Search Committee gathered. You’ve soul-searched and all members of your committee are on the same page for the future of the organization or ensemble. You’ve hired a competent interim. You have sent out audition notices (and advertised for the position here on ChoralNet) and have sorted through the résumés. You have scheduled the audition/interviews. Now what? It’s time to formulate your interview questions so you may hire the best and most Choral Ethical director for your choir.

Each member of the committee probably has one or two questions they feel are of utmost importance to ask your candidates. Those questions should be asked but limit those *musts* to one per person. Are there some questions important to the group as a whole? If your former director handled a sticky situation particularly well, you’ll want to ask your candidates what they would do in a similar situation. If your former director didn’t handle a sticky situation well, it’s fair to ask what the candidates would do in the same situation. It is important to decide on interview questions during your committee organization meetings before any interviews take place so you may be efficient and comprehensive in your questions. Allow yourself at least thirty minutes (an hour would be ideal) for the interview per candidate; faster doesn’t mean better.

If you are at a loss for some music/choral ensemble related interview questions, ChoralNetter Lulu* sent me quite a few last fall. There are sure to be several fitting for your particular organization. I feel her list of questions is quite comprehensive as far as breathe of scope for leading a performing arts organization including some ethical questions too. Thanks Lulu!

What efforts do you make to guide the members in learning the music? What is the minimal number of rehearsals you give a piece before programming it?
How far ahead do you give your accompanist the music?
What would you do if you asked the accompanist to lead a sectional, and found that s/he was criticizing your choices and changing the way you had directed your singers?
How would you handle a squabble over who gets the solo?
Without naming a name or situation, how recently can you recall criticizing a colleague?
How would you handle it when a singer did not show for concert, and called a week later to say there had been a death in the family?
What would you do if the music ordered was late and the concert imminent?
Once or twice a year, schedule permitting, will you accept requests for the choir to sing in a charity situation where you would receive no [extra] pay?
What efforts would you make to encourage diversity in the choir? In the audience?
What would you say to a member who showed up for practice and performance with a heavy fragrance – either perfume, or cigarette smoke, or something equally risky?
What would you do if you witnessed a member being harassed – verbally, physically, psychologically, or any of the above?

If you still feel the need to ask the ubiquitous “where do you see yourself in five years?” why not ask, “where do you see the Okay Chorale in five years?” You’ll probably get the same basic answer but the second will spur the candidate to think about the organization and not just themselves. It is your responsibility to hire the best director, musically and ethically, for your ensemble and the whole interview process should be about the organization and not just the committee or the candidate. And the music, it should be about the music.

Please feel free to chime in with your own question suggestions. Questions you believe need to be asked or wish you had been asked as a potential music director. Next week, we will discuss being interviewed for such a position.

*Name Withheld

Choral Potpourri: What’s a Committee to Do?

May 12, 2016 by Marie Grass Amenta 1 Comment

“They sit there in committees day after day, And they each put in a color and it comes out gray. And we all have heard the saying, which is true as well as witty, That a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.” Allan Sherman

You are a choral singer. You sing in your worship community’s choir or a community chorus or another kind of a choral organization not in an academic setting. You sing with a great choral director. I mean a great director. Your director is SO great, you don’t know what you will do if he leaves. And then, he does. Your chorus is so happy he has been offered a better job in a community far away or he’s retiring or he’s won the lottery. But you are a little dazed since he was the best choral director you have ever worked with. What do you do?

You are a choral singer. You sing in your worship community’s choir or a community chorus or another kind of a choral organization not in an academic setting. You sing with a choral director who can best be described as a “short-tempered jackass.” I mean a jerk of a director. Your director is SO much of a jerk; you don’t know the best way to fire him without creating more of a mess. And then he does something so terrible and awful, you have to. Your chorus is so happy he is gone but you are a little dazed since he was the nastiest choral director you have ever worked with. What do you do?

Surprisingly, the answer is the same for both of the above scenarios; hire an interim. That interim should be someone who will be a calming factor for your choir, to bridge the gap between the old director and the new director. You will need the interim, you really will, so your chorus has time to choose the best director possible. You should not feel pressured to hire right away because a) you want to hire someone as awesome as your previous director OR b) you want to hire someone nothing like your previous director. First you need to put together a director search committee and the make-up of that committee is very important.

The board president or clergy usually begins the committee selection process. The board president (clergy) as well as any paid staff working directly with the director such as an accompanist (organist) and executive director (personnel chair or council member in worship communities) should be members of the search committee. Any singers with special interests such as educators or a parent of a children’s choir singer or bell choir ringers or other music staff (other music directors working in the organization) should be asked. An “at-large” community member or congregation member could be included. You do NOT want the whole committee to have the same background and viewpoint simply because only one view will be represented. A committee with varied backgrounds, varied interests and varied hopes will choose someone everyone connected with your choir will be happy with. Or, that is the theory. The search committee’s biggest challenge as you begin your search is to agree on the direction your choir and organization should go and the type of person you want leading you.

The first work the director search committee should do is to decide what your organization wants and needs AT THIS POINT IN TIME. Is it the time to expand your organization or to cut back? Is the repertoire still satisfying to the majority of your singers (and to your audience/congregation) or do you need to rethink the music? As you begin the search for a new director, it is the perfect time to do some organizational “soul-searching.”

With a Choral Ethics view, what type of person do you want for your organization? Do you want a clone of your former director or do you want someone nothing like them? Do want someone patient or someone demanding? Do you want someone gregarious or someone soft-spoken? It goes without saying you want someone moral, but perhaps it should not go without saying in this day and age.

Next week, we will discuss interview questions. Please feel free to contribute!