If you're going to spend your professional life getting up in front of groups of people and telling them what to do and how to do it,...

I think everyone seeks validation in life, as a matter of course. We all want to feel like we matter, like we can achieve something...

I have never ever had a perfect performance. I’ve done some great, even remarkable concerts, but the truth is that something always goes...

I direct a number of choirs at various levels, and I also teach at the university level. So I spend a fair amount of my time (usually in...

…is the wrong note. End of story. Apparently this is a quote from Robert Shaw, but honestly,  it’s just the plain truth. I’ve always felt...

I am a runner. I started running a few years ago, mostly for weightloss and fitness, and I got hooked. Now I’m one of those crazy people...

I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. I conduct choirs for a living. Multiple times per week, I stand in front of a group of...

One of the most challenging aspects of choral rehearsal is communication. Now, that word covers a lot of ground; but in this case, I’m...

Want to shake things up in your rehearsals? Wish you knew how to get better, or just want make some kind of change? Try any or all of the...

I had a conversation yesterday with a young choral conductor, who has recently taken on her first “real” conducting job, working with a...

In rehearsal today with my men’s choir, we were working on on a lovely arrangement of Loch Lomond. This is a well-known standard, which...

This comes up an awful lot with my students, so it seems worth putting here. Ok, first, we all agree that a warmup is a necessary thing,...

Last fall, I started a new men’s choir. Our initial recruitment was what I like to call the “Y’All Come” approach: we made it clear that...

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about breathing as it relates to the choral singer. As a singer and voice teacher myself, I obviously...

Not too long ago, I read somewhere that “an amateur is someone who practices until they get it right; a professional is someone who...

Conducting is a lonely profession. Oh sure, we all have friends and a professional network, but the fact is that when it comes down to...