This page is dedicated to driving a conversation for choral musicians with the PHILOSOPHY of Choral Music at the heart of every post and podcast episode. Topics will be wide ranging from the technical aspects of our jobs and careers all the way to the artistic interpretations and values that make us who we are as artists. Join me in this conversation in which I hope we can learn from each other.
Episode 22: The VOCES8 Philosophy with Paul Smith
Oct 30, 2019
Show notes
For this episode, I sat down (twice… long story) with Paul Smith, co-founder and CEO of VOCES8 and the VOCES8 Foundation while he was in Kansas City. We had a lot of great conversations about the state of music education in the U.K. and the U.S. and the role of VOCES8 and other performing ensembles in sparking a passion for choral music in young singers. The talk ranged from discussions of disparity of music education quality regionally all the way to the interesting differences between the preferred “British” choral sound vs. that preferred by most American Choral Directors.
Paul Smith- CEO of VOCES8Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
Paul Smith is an innovative and creative performer, conductor, composer, an inspirational educator and an empowering public speaker. As co-founder of VOCES8, author of The VOCES8 Method and CEO of the VOCES8 Foundation, his annual programme sees him working globally in prestigious concert venues, festivals, schools and universities.
Paul is passionate about the impact singing and the arts can have in the widest possible context – from academic improvement to social skills and building more cohesive communities. He uses that passion to design and deliver unique, inclusive and uplifting performance projects.
In the 2019-20 season, highlights will include: leading the ‘Singing Brussels’ massed choir project with BOZAR in Brussels; touringhis new album and concert programme titled ‘Reflections’; a series of concerts and workshops at the VOCES8 Centre in the City of London; leading his family concert ‘The Winter House’ programme with the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia; conducting the Orchestra of Avignon in a series of concerts for families and young people; conducting the Orchestre D’Auvergne in a new concert for students; leading the Israeli Vocal Ensemble for a series of concerts in Israel; leading a series of concerts across France with VOCES8 and Apollo5, supported by Vivendi,and concerts and workshops in Germany, the USA, New Zealand and Japan. Paul will be continuing his work at the University of Cambridge in 2019.
The VOCES8 Method, written by Paul, is published by Edition Peters in four languages, and is now being used in thousands of schools in numerous countries around the world. The Method is designed to link specific music-making activities with academic improvement in numeracy, literacy and linguistics.
https://youtu.be/qwyqJoTmPCM – Paul’s new setting of the Nunc Dimittis. There’s a link to the sheet music on the video blurb.
https://youtu.be/kSZubXsjUmI – New arrangement of the Edo Lullaby, a Japanese traditional song. Again, sheet music links are in the video blurb.
Episode 21: Anyone can get an A in Choir…
Oct 20, 2019
Show notes
Is choir a real class? Can the group goals be balanced with the individual academic accountability that we owe to our students? I think the answer to all of this is yes. You can grade your students INDIVIDUALLY in sight singing to ensure that no one falls through the cracks, and stick to a rehearsal rubric that can nearly eliminate classroom management issues. The secret? It’s how we grade.
Let’s talk about assessment. One of the biggest challenges as I see it facing our field is the fact that many in education don’t see our content as an academic subject. How many of you are governed under the “Activities” umbrella in your school or state? Yet, you can get a PhD in Choral Music, but you can’t get a PhD in Football…Choral music is an academic field of study for good reason. It is rigorous. It requires research, practice, and individual skill development to learn it and understand it. I believe that one of the reasons our Education colleagues don’t see us as a subject on par with theirs is the way that we grade. They see our students getting almost all A’s with very little individual accountability due to the “group” nature of our performance goals.
In this episode, I will walk through some systems that have worked well for me to balance the group performance goals with the educational IMPERATIVE to hold each student accountable as well as to hold ME accountable to teach each student.
We will talk about daily rehearsal grades and why I DON’T grade on participation. We will talk about grading kids on the QUALITY of their singing both alone and in small groups. We will also talk about moving past “showing up is enough” at concerts.
By increasing the rigor, and accountability in your classroom you may experience a backlash at first. It will take time to adjust and you might lose a student who doesn’t want to do the work. However, if you frame it the right way, they will give it a chance. In my experience, this type of rigor only makes kids feel more pride in their work in our classroom. The reality is that a student who is riding on the coattails of stronger singers in the section, but still getting an A, KNOWS they are not earning that grade. Humans will usually accept the unearned, but it takes a toll on the self esteem.
Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
Episode 20: Choral Appropriation? Or Cultural Sharing with Brandon Boyd
Oct 03, 2019
Show notes
One of the hottest topics of discussion online in the last few weeks in the choral world has been the topic of cultural appropriation. Who should be allowed to perform, compose or arrange which kinds of music? Where do we draw the line? Does intent matter? What should a conductor do if they are worried about how a performance will be interpreted? In our chat, Brandon and I make no attempt to define what is or is not appropriation. That is not our focus. Instead we center on the WAY we should communicate about this important topic as professionals and as fellow human beings.
Brandon BoydEp 20: Choral Appropriation?Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
Dr. Brandon A. Boyd is the Assistant Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of Missouri, where he conducts the Concert Chorale Men’s Ensemble. In addition to his conducting duties, he teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting, choral arranging, and choral music education. He appears regularly as a conductor, clinician, composer in residence, collaborative pianist, and lecturer for conferences, conventions, collegiate choirs, church choirs, choral festivals, and workshops.
As a proponent of choral singing to help build community, his research interests include organizing choirs for the homeless, social and physical effects of choral singing on seniors and field experience for music therapy and choral music education students. For three years, he co-directed three community choral partnerships: The Tallahassee Senior Choir, RAA Middle School Chorus, and the MTC Women’s Prison Glee Club. He was recently invited by the Santa Fe Desert Chorale to serve as the composer in residence and community engagement lead for their Giving Voice to the Voiceless program. The Chorale premiered his commissioned work, “I Search,” during their 35th Anniversary Summer Justice Concert series where he served as assistant conductor, pre-concert lecturer, and guest pianist. Boyd used a text written by “Poet V,” a participant in the Voces de Libertad program at the Santa Fe County Youth Development Center, to set to music. His duties also included organizing and conducting the Interfaith Community Shelter Street Choir, creating a safe place for men, women, and children experiencing homelessness within the Santa Fe community.
An active composer and arranger, his music is sung regularly by ensembles throughout the United States and abroad. In 2018, the “Brandon Boyd Choral Series” was launched as a division of Hinshaw Publishing Company. His music also appears in GIA Publications’ catalog.
He holds a Ph.D. in choral music education and M.M. in choral conducting from Florida State University, where he studied with Drs. André J. Thomas and Judy S. Bowers. He earned a B.S. in music education (emphasis in piano) from Tennessee State University. He is a proud member of the American Choral Directors’ Association (ACDA), National Association for Music Education (NAfME), National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), American Guild of Organists (AGO), and Chorus America.
October Edition!
Episode 19: Seeking Anti-Fragility in the Choral Rehearsal with Eric Barnum
Sep 12, 2019
Show notes
I feel like this episode might be PHILOSOPHICALLY the most important episode I have published to date. Eric and I pick up right where I left off in Episode 18 when I claimed that students should lose the net when learning to sight read. The psychological principal at play is Nassim Taleb’s coined term, “Anti-Fragility” referring to systems that require stress in order to improve. What processes in the choral rehearsal can apply the right amount of stress on your singers in order to make them stronger, and better.
Episode 19: Eric BarnumReceive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
A conductor and composer, Eric William Barnum continues to passionately seek new ground in the choral field. Working with choirs of all kinds, his collaborative leitmotif endeavors to provide intensely meaningful experiences for singers and audiences.
Barnum is currently the Director of Choral Activities at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa and previously, the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. He holds a DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington (Seattle, WA), under the direction of Dr. Geoffrey Boers. He has an advanced degree in conducting from Minnesota State University (Mankato, MN), primary study with Dr. David Dickau, as well as BAs in Composition and Vocal Performance from Bemidji State University (Bemidji, MN). He has appeared as a conductor across the United States and the International stage, and has had the opportunity to work with some of the most innovative minds in the choral field.
His voice and vision continues to gain popularity around the globe with performances from choirs Internationally. He composes for choral ensembles of all types, from professional to youth choirs, and has received numerous awards and prestigious grants such as a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship and a McKnight Foundation Grant. He has also held residencies with such ensembles as Choral Arts (Seattle, WA), Cantus (Trondheim, Norway), The Rose Ensemble (St. Paul, MN), Kantorei (Denver, CO), Magnum Chorum (Minneapolis, MN), Coro Vocal Artists (Tucson, AZ), as well as with many high schools and collegiate choirs.
Episode 18: Ripping off the bandaid
Sep 03, 2019
Show notes
Why you CAN and SHOULD stop playing notes and making tracks for kids tomorrow.
The sight reading episode
In this episode I will take you through a topic that I believe should be CENTRAL to all of our philosophies as choral educators. Should I be the high priest in my classroom or the shepherd? The high priest is the conduit that the masses must pass through in order obtain musical knowledge. Put plainly, the student cannot learn the song without your help. Or do you want to be the shepherd who guides the class to the source of the information and then steps back to allow them to drink it in?
This really is NOT an elitist position. I know many will list the reasons it can’t work in their classrooms. I believe it can happen ANYWHERE at any level. If it CAN happen, then I think it is our job as educators to put a system in place for our students. This episode outlines my system. I hope you find something you like!
Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
Be sure to head to the Patreon Page for the FULL powerpoint for this episode.
Episode 17: Beyond Elijah Rock with Dr. Marques Garrett
Aug 18, 2019
Show notes
In this episode Marques and I discuss importance of the music of black composers that do NOT fit into categories of idiomatically black music like Gospel, Jazz and Spirituals. The conversation ranges from the social aspects at play in spreading the word about this music, all the way to what it’s like to be minority seeking to be seen. Since composers like R. Nathaniel Dett, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and others are gone, Dr. Garrett is fighting for their music to be seen AND heard. You find the Rep list referenced in episode here!
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MUSIC IN CHORAL ACTIVITIES AREA OF FOCUS: CONDUCTING, VOICE PhD, Music Education, Florida State University MM, Choral Conducting, University of North Carolina at Greensboro BA, Music, Hampton University
A Virginia native, Marques L. A. Garrett is an Assistant Professor of Music in Choral Activities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the Glenn Korff School of Music. Before earning his PhD in Music Education (Choral Conducting) at Florida State University, he was the Director of Choral Activities at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, he holds an MM from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a BA from Hampton University.
Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
An active conductor, Dr. Garrett has served as a guest conductor or clinician with several church, community, and collegiate choirs throughout the country and served as the festival conductor for the Harry T. Burleigh Spirituals Festival at Tennessee State University. At the Hampton University Choir Directors’ Organists’ Guild Workshop, he has served as the basic conducting workshop clinician. His formal conducting studies were with Dr. Andre J. Thomas, Dr. Carole J. Ott, Dr. Carl G. Harris, Jr., and Mr. Royzell Dillard.
A versatile voice that performs both as a baritone and countertenor, Dr. Garrett has sung with several community, church, and university groups as both a chorister and soloist. He was the baritone soloist for the Germantown Concert Chorus’s performance of Haydn’s Missa in Augustiis. Recently, his premiere as a countertenor in Dan Forrest’s Jubilate Deo served as the work’s European premiere in Limerick, Ireland. Additionally, he performed the role of Lil Lud in Bernstein’s White House Cantata with the Tallahassee Community Chorus.
Dr. Garrett is an avid composer of choral and solo-vocal music whose compositions have been performed to acclaim by high school all-state, collegiate, and professional choirs including the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and Seraphic Fire. His music can be heard on recordings by the National Lutheran Choir, Winston-Salem State University Choir, and Missouri State University Concert Chorale. GIA Publications, Walton Music, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Hinshaw Music, G. Schirmer, Beckenhorst Press, and Carus-Verlag have published several of his compositions.
Dr. Garrett holds membership in the American Choral Directors Association; American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; National Association for Music Education; National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc.; National Collegiate Choral Organization; and Pi Kappa Lambda.
Episode 16: Growing the Choral Pie with Beth Philemon
Aug 12, 2019
Show notes
In this episode, I had a blast chatting with Beth Philemon of the Choir Baton Podcast and Instagram Takeover account about MANY concepts related to the business of the choral profession. We hit scarcity mentality and the fixed pie fallacy of economics all the way to being more mindful of the “products” we create with our students. I am also excited to feature the first COMPOSER EXPOSER episode brought to you by Graphite Publishing, featuring composer and cofounder Tim Takach. I hope you enjoy.
Episode 16Beth Philemon- Choir BatonReceive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more. Composer Exposer with Tim Takach
Beth Philemon is National Board Certified Teacher and choral conductor based out of Raleigh, NC, where she is currently pursuing her Masters in Business Administration with a focus in marketing and entrepreneurship from North Carolina State University. After ten years of teaching choir in public schools, she found a personal and institutional gap in the understanding of how to run school choir programs like the businesses they are and she hopes to educate others how to effectively promote, manage, and build choral music programs through the art of business. Conversely, Beth believes the world of business has much to learn from choral singing and she is passionate about delivering opportunities for community involvement in choir.
Beth earned an undergraduate music education degree from Trevecca University in Nashville, TN, and a master’s degree in choral conducting from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. At NAU, Beth conducted the Shrine of the Ages choir, Women’s Chorale, Chamber Singers, Northern Voices vocal jazz ensemble, and opera scenes. Beth was Assistant Director for the 100+ member Flagstaff Master Chorale and Arizona Mountain Chorale and currently serves on the choral music faculty of the North Carolina Governor’s School. Beth taught middle and high school choral music in Tennessee and North Carolina (and several other courses along the way like musical theater, fundamentals of music, show choir).
In 2018 she founded CHOIR BATON, a collaborative online community about life and choir. CHOIR BATON seeks to engage others through social media takeovers, the CHOIR BATON podcast, and online resources, under the mission of #morepeoplesinging. CHOIR BATON sends weekly newsletters to the community and information about how to sign-up for an Instagram takeover. Sign up at bit.ly/ChoirBatonEmail or follow along @choirbaton on Instagram. While on Facebook and Twitter, Beth’s main love is Instagram where you can see what shenanigans she’s up to @bethphilemon. And because she’s in business school, know you can also connect with her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/bethphilemon.
Episode 15: Making Your Choir Thoughts Public with Adam Paltrowitz
Jul 30, 2019
Show notes
I have noticed in the 6 months I have been doing this show that there is a hunger for questioning and exploring choral and educational topics at a philosophical level, about asking why, offering answers, and dialogue. We don’t get much of this at conventions, we get presentations. We get it a bit in college, but they are mostly lectures and prescriptions. So I invited Adam Paltrowitz of the Choral Clarity Blog to join me in discussing this brave new world and his experience in the choral blogosphere.
Making Your Choir Thoughts Public with Adam Paltrowitz
Adam Paltrowitz is a master educator, composer, conductor, and clinician.
During his 21-year tenure as the Director of Choral Activities at Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School in New York, his groups have toured throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States.
What makes his choirs unique is his belief that anyone can sing; as a result, his ensembles are always self-selected, while maintaining the highest standard of musical excellence. He also has pioneered a philosophy that every student is a soloist. All students in his choirs continually learn and perform solo repertoire in various languages. Adam’s choral program has also gained great acclaim for the cultivation of eight student-run a-cappella ensembles; some of these ensembles have performed on national and local television programs.
Adam earned his B.S. in music education from New York University, M.A. in vocal pedagogy from Columbia University – Teacher’s College, and Ed.M. choral conducting from Columbia University – Teacher’s College.
His weekly blog, Choral Clarity, has gained a large international audience as it provides a unique perspective to both the role of the choral director and the empowerment of all students.
Be sure to check out all of Adam’s great work at www.choralclarity.com and on the Choral Clarity facebook page.
Adam resides in Manhattan with his wife, Blair Goldberg, a professional Broadway actress, and their daughter, Lyla, and son, Nolan.
Episode 14: The Divide Between Pro and Amateur Choirs with William Baker and Patrick Neas.
Jul 15, 2019
Show notes
In this episode, I joined William Baker and Patrick Neas of the Choral Conversations Podcast to discuss a variety of topics including the distinctions and practices that set the amateur choral ensemble apart from the professional ensemble, and in what ways they are similar. Is a professional ensemble “better” than an amateur one? Are they so structurally different, that a comparison is useless? We discuss programming for large and small ensemble, the development of a sound ideal, as well as the business aspects of running a choral organization. Dr. Baker is the founder of the William Baker Choral Foundation . Patrick Neas is an arts contributor to the Kansas City Star and KC Arts Beat and serves as the moderator for the conversation.
Choral Conversations meets Choralosophy! Dr. William O. Baker
William O. Baker has earned a reputation as an entrepreneurial conductor and creator of choral organizations. He founded the DeKalb Choral Guild in 1978 at the age of 19. By the age of 21 he had conducted Brahms’ German Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Schubert’s Mass in G, and Handel’s Messiah with professional orchestras, launching a career of ambitious artistic leadership that now has extended over forty years. In the last few years he has conducted the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor of Bach, and the Sacred Service of Ernest Bloch, at the time of the performances the only Kansas City-based conductor to lead the works in over a quarter-century.
Baker created the Atlanta-based William Baker Festival Singers, originally called Gwinnett Festival Singers, in 1985, and established the William Baker Choral Foundation in 1990. In 1998 the conductor moved his home to the Kansas City area and created the Kansas City ensemble of the Festival Singers. The Choral Foundation has created over a dozen ensembles based in three states, involving hundreds of singers during the course of any year. His choirs have performed for numerous conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education, and the American Guild of Organists, in addition to the 1982 World’s Fair and music festivals in the United States and Great Britain, most notably appearances before capacity audiences at Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival since 1989. He has led the Festival Singers in the production of 25 nationally released recordings and in television and radio appearances across the nation, including The First Art, The Sounds of Majesty and National Public Radio’s Performance Today.
No stranger to the orchestral podium, William Baker created the Mountain Park Wind Symphony in 1994 and the Kansas City Wind Symphony in 1998. Recent orchestral performances have included Vivaldi: The Seasons, Sibelius: Finlandia, Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Bizet: Suite L’Arlesienne, Haydn: Symphony No. 59 “Fire,” Mozart: Symphony No. 41,Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 and Symphony No. 9. Choral collaborations have included projects with members of the Kansas City Symphony, the Kazanetti Chamber Orchestra, the Atlanta Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, the Baton Rouge Symphony, the Gwinnett Symphony Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and, in recent years, the Atlanta-based Orchestra of the American Heartland.
An Atlanta native, Dr. Baker studied voice and choral conducting at Mercer University and the University of Georgia before culminating his formal education at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting. His accomplishments have been recognized in his home states through proclamations by two Georgia Governors, Joe Frank Harris and Sonny Purdue, by Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer, by United States Congressman Phil Gingrey, by proclamations from the cities of Kansas City, MO and Roeland Park, KS, by the Johnson County (KS) Commission, and by a 2015 proclamation by the State of Georgia House of Representatives. In 2012 he was honored for his contributions to the cultural life of his hometown by the Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta. In 2015 he was named Conductor Emeritus of The DeKalb Choral Guild.
Special Edition: Summer Institute Panel Discussion
Jul 08, 2019
Show notesBonus Episode!
A special JOINT production of the Kantorei Summer Choral Institute and the Choralosophy podcast that took place on June 19th, 2019. Each of the guests were in Kansas City working with the 120 regional young singers that participate in a one of a kind week of intense rehearsals, collaboration with adult professional educators and performers, and finally, a performance in beautiful acoustical venues. While they were here, I thought it would be great to sit them all down and pick their brains. This special episode features Dr. Allen Hightower of the University of North Texas, Dr. Alyssa Cossey of the University of Arizona and Robert T. Gibson of Reed Academy in Springfield, MO.
I moderated a broad range of topics from the stories that led each of the guests to where they are today, their philosophies on programming, representation, tone building and much more. As always, if you have anything to add after listening, be sure to head over to FB, and join the Choralosophers private group and share your thoughts. You can also find the show on Twitter and Instagram! I hope you enjoy!
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