[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...

[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...

A slideshow with photos taken at a few performances over the past year. A cover of Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle". Recording is taken from their performance at Drake University's Practice-A-Thon. Soloist: Jon Edgeton Arranger: Deke Sharon

The concert "ACH! PG Carnivalesque" under the patronage of Prof. Krzysztof Wilde, rector of Gdańsk Tech, attracted several hundred people who listened to daring performances of popular pop music hits. During the performance we heard choral arrangements of...  moreThe concert "ACH! PG Carnivalesque" under the patronage of Prof. Krzysztof Wilde, rector of Gdańsk Tech, attracted several hundred people who listened to daring performances of popular pop music hits. During the performance we heard choral arrangements of hits such as: "Dancing Queen", "Memory", "California Dreamin'" and "Maria". This time it was not Mozart or Bach, but ABBA, Queen and songs from the musical West Side Story that graced the walls of the Gdansk University of Technology in carnivalesque musical artistic creations. Jazz musicians performed along with the choir, and the musical effects were accompanied by a unique lighting arrangement, which required appropriate space and audience arrangement. The more-than-hour-long performance by the Academic Choir of the Gdańsk University of Technology, conducted by Prof. Mariusz Mróz and accompanied by musicians from the Music Academy in Bydgoszcz, ended with joint singing, encores and a standing ovation.  less

The concert "ACH! PG Carnivalesque" under the patronage of Prof. Krzysztof Wilde, rector of Gdańsk Tech, attracted several hundred people who listened to daring performances of popular pop music hits. During the performance we heard choral arrangements of...  moreThe concert "ACH! PG Carnivalesque" under the patronage of Prof. Krzysztof Wilde, rector of Gdańsk Tech, attracted several hundred people who listened to daring performances of popular pop music hits. During the performance we heard choral arrangements of hits such as: "Dancing Queen", "Memory", "California Dreamin'" and "Maria". This time it was not Mozart or Bach, but ABBA, Queen and songs from the musical West Side Story that graced the walls of the Gdansk University of Technology in carnivalesque musical artistic creations. Jazz musicians performed along with the choir, and the musical effects were accompanied by a unique lighting arrangement, which required appropriate space and audience arrangement. The more-than-hour-long performance by the Academic Choir of the Gdańsk University of Technology, conducted by Prof. Mariusz Mróz and accompanied by musicians from the Music Academy in Bydgoszcz, ended with joint singing, encores and a standing ovation.  less

When most people think of choir warmups, they picture scales, tongue twisters, or breathing exercises - all designed to help Singers find their pitch, focus their sound, and prepare for rehearsal. And of course, that’s exactly what warmups do, and w...

Many directors, even though they deeply care and want to give their Singers the best, simply can’t afford to commission new works or secure premieres. Odes of Love is an honest work—an ode to what we love most: life itself...

Choral Holidays is a small company that specialises in taking groups of amateur Singers to beautiful locations and forming them into choirs. Last year we took a group to the beautiful location of Milton Abbey in Dorset, and also to Florence, where we sta...

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   I don’t like rehearsing. I’d much rather turn up on the day, trust the Singers I’m working with and just busk it.      ...

The Student Choir of the Belarus State Academy of Music (BSAM) was formed by the BSAM Department of Choral Conducting.Today under the direction of Inessy Bodyako the student choir with well known conductors represents the project «Choral pages of the XX-t...  moreThe Student Choir of the Belarus State Academy of Music (BSAM) was formed by the BSAM Department of Choral Conducting.Today under the direction of Inessy Bodyako the student choir with well known conductors represents the project «Choral pages of the XX-th century» in which frameworks concerts of modern Polish, Swiss and Bulgarian choral music have already taken place. Students of chorus constantly take part in master classes of leading representatives of foreign choral culture.