[this is an updated version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   Last week I wrote about 10 ways to be a better choir member. This was prompted by an earlier post on whether you need singing lessons or not i...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   Of course it depends on how complex the song is and how many verses there are.   Photo by Frodo Babbs   But how long does it take to ...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir] There are plenty of studies now about the many benefits of singing together. But they only look at the experience of the singers in a choir.   I&rsqu...

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   There are choirs for gay men, choirs for women, choirs for socialists, choirs for hire, choirs for weddings and choirs for the deaf. There are Welsh ch...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   This weekend I’m running a ‘voice clinic’ for members of my choir. I’ll be spending time working on basic vocal technique and conf...

[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   One of the many bees in my bonnet is the photographs of choirs.     Photo by sludgeulper   I have yet to see a photo of any reasonabl...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   It turns out that the devil might not have the best tunes after all.     AlThough I run a secular choir (I don’t have a religiou...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]   You work on a song in choir week after week, but slowly things seem to get worse. You worry about getting the words right, you can’t seem to re...

[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]I’ve been praised many times by the singers I work with for being so patient. Which makes me wonder: what’s the alternative?I must admit that I ...

SINGING When the soul first put on the body's shirt, the ocean lifted up all its gifts. When love first tasted the lips of being human, it started singing. Texts by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks © 1995 Coleman Barks. Used by permission. ...  moreSINGING When the soul first put on the body's shirt, the ocean lifted up all its gifts. When love first tasted the lips of being human, it started singing. 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 a...    less