[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 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...

Dear choirs and Lovers of Choral Music,   We know that your schedule could be tight as well as preparing extensively for an international competition needs time. That’s why we would like to assist you in planning and show you our events for c...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir] I had a friend who moved to a new town and set up a new choir, blissfully ignorant of the 100+ community chorus that already existed there.   phot...

[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...

Rain by LaDamion Massey Kansas City Kansas Community College The Standard Vocal Jazz Ensemble Rehearsal recording from 12/10/14

Okay- so I've been a bit slack about blogging lately.  Not that I have been idol- there is so much to blog about but 24 hours in a day a full time job and more music than I can ever learn to play means there  isn't enough time!   In the l...

I. A WATER WHEEL TURNS Inside water, a water wheel turns. The star circulates with the moon. We live in the night ocean wondering, What are these lights? Texts by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks © 1995 Coleman Barks. Used by permission. ...  moreI. A WATER WHEEL TURNS Inside water, a water wheel turns. The star circulates with the moon. We live in the night ocean wondering, What are these lights? Texts by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks © 1995 Coleman Barks. Used by permission. Performed by the Millennium Consort, Martin Neary, conductor, and the Pomona College Choir, Donna Di Grazia, director. Water Ruminations is a setting of six poems by the thirteenth-century poet Rumi, in English translations from the Persian by Coleman Barks, for double choir and organ. The poetry sings of literal and spiritual connections between water and sky, a drop of water and human life, flowing water and love, drinking water and its container, the giddiness of spring and rolling seas, and the ocean's gifts and singing. Its images, from 800 years ago, speak to us with both vivid immediacy and transcendence. The idea for the piece originated with the Mellon Elemental Arts Initiative, which proposed funding activities that would involve students in ar...    less

Many choir MDs find that one size definitely doesn’t fit all when it comes to sheet music for their community choirs. You may be running a mixed ability choir, or a choir with a limited vocal range. It may be (as the case sadly is with many communit...

[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...