[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from almost 30 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of Songs from traditions ac...

The basis for the Utrecht Byzantine Choir lies in a group of Ukrainian seminarians with its professors who came to the Netherlands shortly after the Second World War. Born and raised in Ukrainia dr. Myroslaw Antonowycz conducted the worship services in C...  moreThe basis for the Utrecht Byzantine Choir lies in a group of Ukrainian seminarians with its professors who came to the Netherlands shortly after the Second World War. Born and raised in Ukrainia dr. Myroslaw Antonowycz conducted the worship services in Culemborg for the reestablished Ukrainian seminar. After the seminarians were graduated, they swarmed out to fulfill their priestly vocation for the Ukrainians all over the world. The now outside the monastery walls well-known seminarian choir fell apart while applications for the singing of liturgies and concerts throughout the Netherlands, kept coming. On the initiative of Msgr. AG Smith, dr. Antonowycz founded the Utrecht Byzantine Choir on February 9, 1951, consisting of only Dutch men, who specialized in singing the liturgy according to the Slavic-Byzantine rite. In cooperation with the Apostolate of the Eastern Churches, the UBK initially only sang liturgies according to the Byzantine Rite. Hundreds of parishes in the Netherlands became familiar with ...    less

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I often get asked this at workshops after people have struggled to get their tongues around a few foreign Songs.     I point out that ...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I have a low boredom threshold. There are 100s of gorgeous new Songs I want to teach and it’s hard to cram them all in.   Photo by Leo Reyn...

[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from 25 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of Songs from traditions across th...

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I’m always on the lookout for new Songs to use with my singing workshops and choirs.   Sara Bareilles in concert by Anirudh Koul   Th...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir] Some people are put off when they come across a song with foreign words. They prefer to sing Songs in English. photo by Chell Hill Not only are they missin...

[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from 25 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of Songs from traditions across th...

Five Mystical Songs - Vaughan Williams Downtown Voices Edmund Milly, baritone Janet Yieh, organ Stephen Sands, conductor Trinity Church, NYC Five Mystical Songs Song Cycle by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958) Text Authorship: by Georg...  moreFive Mystical Songs - Vaughan Williams Downtown Voices Edmund Milly, baritone Janet Yieh, organ Stephen Sands, conductor Trinity Church, NYC Five Mystical Songs Song Cycle by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958) Text Authorship: by George Herbert (1593 - 1633) 1. Easter Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise Without delays, Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise With him may'st rise; That, as his death calcined thee to dust, His life may make thee gold, and much more, Just. Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part With all thy art. The cross taught all wood to resound his name Who bore the same. His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key Is best to celebrate this most high day. Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song Pleasant and long: Or since all music is but three parts vied, And multiplied; O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part, And make up our defects with his sweet art. 2. I got me flowers I got me flowers to strew thy way; I...    less

[this is an updated version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   Last week I wrote that you shouldn’t believe everything you read when it comes to researching Songs.     Photo by Ashley ...