Thoughts on What ‘Elitism” Means in Choral Music

Episode 196: Educating the Anxious Generation: Choralosophy Book Club is back with a discussion of the book I am currently reading. “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt (author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” and “The Righteous Mind”) which is #1 on NY Times Best Seller List This book has powerful insights and implications for teachers in addition to parents. … Continue reading "Episode 196: Educating the Anxious Generation" by Choralosophy

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Episode 195: Elementary Choirs-Our Manhattan Project with Bruce Rockwell: Is it possible that we are all grasping at the wrong straws trying to reach program growth in an equitable way? Bruce Rockwell believes we need a transformative revolution in choral music. One where we turn our collective focus toward the Elementary School Choir. Bruce is a high school choral educator who teaches in a … Continue reading "Episode 195: Elementary Choirs-Our Manhattan Project with Bruce Rockwell" by Choralosophy

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Episode 194: A Round Peg Voice in a Square Hole Choir with Timothy Mount: Tim’s article “How to Ruin an Alto” was published in 1982-83 in The Choral Journal and in MENC’s publication. It included some strong language like “there are no good reasons for allowing women to sing tenor.” In this episode Timothy Mount, a Professor Emeritus at Stony Brook University, joins me to discuss his very strongly … Continue reading "Episode 194: A Round Peg Voice in a Square Hole Choir with Timothy Mount" by Choralosophy

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Episode 193: The Aeolian Way with Jeremy Sovoy Jordan: The Oakwood University Aeolians have a long standing and proud tradition. Over the last few years, they shot to international fame. Jeremy Jordan is tasked with keeping the flame alive. Ever since Jason Ferdinand moved from Oakwood, the choir world started to wonder what was next for the Aeolians. After their 2019 National ACDA performance, … Continue reading "Episode 193: The Aeolian Way with Jeremy Sovoy Jordan" by Choralosophy

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Ep 192: Music Literacy for All: Debunking Myths and Embracing Diversity by Odell Zeigler: Odell’s presentation was discussed in a recent Choral Journal article, but not named. This is his side of the story. Find more blogs at Choralosophy.Substack.com By Odell Zeigler March 23rd, 2024 In April of 2023, I was fortunate to present “An Unconventional Approach to the Urban Chorus Classroom” at the NAfME Eastern Division Conference, which … Continue reading "Ep 192: Music Literacy for All: Debunking Myths and Embracing Diversity by Odell Zeigler" by Choralosophy

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Episode 191: Rise Up and Sing with Shanan Estreicher: Queens is one of the most diverse places in the world. How can music serve as a “common language” for diverse students? This week, I am joined by Shanan Estreicher, a middle and elementary music teacher in Queens, New York. Shanan is also a composer, and songwriter who has found a magic formula to reach … Continue reading "Episode 191: Rise Up and Sing with Shanan Estreicher" by Choralosophy

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Episode 190: Girls Voices Change Too! With Dr. Bridget Sweet: Dr. Bridget Sweet is the first scholar to examine adolescent female voice change through systematic research protocols This week, we fill in a major gap in programming on the Choralosophy podcast. This is the FIRST episode on the feed diving into research and teaching practice of the female changing voice in adolescence. There will be … Continue reading "Episode 190: Girls Voices Change Too! With Dr. Bridget Sweet" by Choralosophy

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Episode 189: Can We Meet Kids Where They Are Without Lowering Standards? With Jonathan Talberg: Is “Tough Love” outdated? Or is it the tool of caring parents and educators? Recently, a “Facebook post dialogue” of sorts went viral amongst music educators between Juilliard professor Geoffrey Keezer and James Falzone. Professor Keezer made a relatively short post related to the problems he is seeing in his teaching position related to reliability … Continue reading "Episode 189: Can We Meet Kids Where They Are Without Lowering Standards? With Jonathan Talberg" by Choralosophy

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Episode 188: Why Don’t Boys Want to Sing? With Martin Ashley: Professor and researcher Martin Ashley from the UK is back to talk about more recent research related to the boys changing voice from both a biological and empirical view, as well as a qualitative experiential one. We discuss his latest compilation of crucial information, which he has made available for FREE. The eBook is called … Continue reading "Episode 188: Why Don’t Boys Want to Sing? With Martin Ashley" by Choralosophy

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Episode 187: Five Years of Changing and Expanding the Conversation and: In the digital realm where voices meet ideas, there’s a podcast that’s become a community hub for Choral Music: The Choralosophy Podcast started in February 2019. It was just a small gathering of a few hundred colleagues, sharing their love for choral music. Then, the unexpected happened. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, episode 33 of … Continue reading "Episode 187: Five Years of Changing and Expanding the Conversation and" by Choralosophy

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Episode 186: It’s Time for Anti-Racism with Love, with Chloé Valdary: Activist, author Chloé Valdary is a diversity and anti-racism trainer with a refreshingly loving approach. This week, on Valentine’s Day, I am encouraging us to approach our ensembles, our classes, our colleagues and our neighbors with Agape. In music education, we have a very popular, and important euphemism: “I want my students to see themselves … Continue reading "Episode 186: It’s Time for Anti-Racism with Love, with Chloé Valdary" by Choralosophy

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Episode 185: Bringing the Wisdom of Hebrew Texts into the Choral Canon with Nicholas Weininger: Nicholas Weininger, software engineer and composer, joins me this week to discuss the power of the Hebrew language in choral settings. Both in terms of its sonority and aspects of diction, but also in the contributions many ancient Hebrew texts can make to our philosophical discourses to this day. We discuss the difficulties finding choral … Continue reading "Episode 185: Bringing the Wisdom of Hebrew Texts into the Choral Canon with Nicholas Weininger" by Choralosophy

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Episode 184: Should We Stop Assessing Sight Reading at All State Choir? With Drs. Marshaun Hymon and Chantae Pittman: This podcast has become the place to go for Music Literacy pedagogical training tools for teachers over the last five years. As a result, I have never received as many private messages about an article that I did not even write than Dr. Marshaun Hymon’s February 2024 Choral Journal Article called “A Skills First Approach … Continue reading "Episode 184: Should We Stop Assessing Sight Reading at All State Choir? With Drs. Marshaun Hymon and Chantae Pittman" by Choralosophy

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Episode 183: At a Crossroads in Higher Ed with Lynn Atkins: Are there core skills that MUST be acquired in order to teach music? Should there be? This week, I welcome Lynn Atkins to discuss the current challenges we face getting young teachers ready to teach music in an era when our current students and recent graduates had a pretty serious interruption in their education. In … Continue reading "Episode 183: At a Crossroads in Higher Ed with Lynn Atkins" by Choralosophy

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Episode 182: Getting off on the Right Foot with a Young Teacher Panel: We are doing something different and fun this week! Just me, and three young colleagues about half my age. Over the last few months, I have gotten several requests to do an episode dedicated to the issues and concerns faced by the next generation of educators. What better way to do that than host a … Continue reading "Episode 182: Getting off on the Right Foot with a Young Teacher Panel" by Choralosophy

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Episode 181: Finding Equilibrium in the Teacher Life with Jimmy Robertson: This week, I welcome a colleague who shares my crusade of teaching teenagers to be the best they can be through choral music. Jimmy Robertson is a veteran teacher from Garland, TX. In this episode we discuss the ways in which being a teacher can, at times, drain us of our joy. We both love … Continue reading "Episode 181: Finding Equilibrium in the Teacher Life with Jimmy Robertson" by Choralosophy

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Episode 180: The Performance Practice of African Choral Music with Chukwuebuka Ezeakacha: The quest for diversity in Western art music has led to the influx of ‘Westernized’ African music into the choral canon, albeit tagged as ‘world music’. This approach to the inclusion of diverse repertoire has led to the homogenization of indigenousAfrican folk tunes by non-indigenous composers, thus creating Western-sounding African music. In this episode, we … Continue reading "Episode 180: The Performance Practice of African Choral Music with Chukwuebuka Ezeakacha" by Choralosophy

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Episode 179: YOUR Favorite 2023 Episodes!: Another year of Choralosophy has come to a close! In this episode I have collected short clips, commentary and show highlights from the top 10 episodes and milestones of the year! The criteria is a a bit complex, because the longer the episode is out, the more total people will hear it. So, to make … Continue reading "Episode 179: YOUR Favorite 2023 Episodes!" by Choralosophy

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Episode 178: What the Heck is Going on With Choir People?: Over the last few weeks I have noticed a storm after the calm in choral music circles. We saw a boil over in Texas when a clinician withdrew from a conference based on a letter from two members that made her feel unwelcome, and a downstream fallout stemming from how the organization handled the issue. … Continue reading "Episode 178: What the Heck is Going on With Choir People?" by Choralosophy

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Episode 177: Teaching Skills not Songs with Anthony Trecek-King: This week, Dr. Anthony Trecek-King joins the Choralosophy conversation by joining me to discuss two related topics. The teaching of musical fundamentals in our classrooms AND how we can have better and more productive conversations about social justice and the inequities in our society. We range from concrete, in class activities to try with a … Continue reading "Episode 177: Teaching Skills not Songs with Anthony Trecek-King" by Choralosophy

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Episode 176: Cementing the Spiritual as American Art with Dr. André Thomas: Over the last year, I have seen Dr. Thomas present twice on the importance of ensuring that the African American Spiritual is passed on to the next generations through our choral ensembles and music classrooms. In these presentations he also speaks eloquently about the challenges we face in doing so. We have parents, students and … Continue reading "Episode 176: Cementing the Spiritual as American Art with Dr. André Thomas" by Choralosophy

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Episode 175: Gratitude Makes Us Better. Thanksgiving Episode: In a world characterized by constant social criticism and a perpetual desire for progress, the often-overlooked emotion of gratitude emerges as a powerful catalyst for personal and societal improvement. While constructive criticism and a drive for change are essential elements in fostering growth, without a foundation of gratitude for what we DO have, individuals and … Continue reading "Episode 175: Gratitude Makes Us Better. Thanksgiving Episode" by Choralosophy

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Episode 174: Adapting the Science of Reading To Music: In this episode, In this episode I will be referencing a few resources, provided in the Patreon Google Folder. The “Science of Reading” refers to a large body of interdisciplinary evidence. The past 40 years has yielded tremendous, interdisciplinary insights into the process of learning to read, gathered from developmental psychology, cognitive neuropsychology, developmental linguistics, … Continue reading "Episode 174: Adapting the Science of Reading To Music" by Choralosophy

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Episode 173: Culturally Relevant Excellence with Dr. Jeffrey Allen Murdock: This week I am excited to bring you a compelling discussion with the esteemed, and often outspoken Dr. Jeffrey Allen Murdock. In this episode we mainly center on three distinct, but not unrelated topics. First, Dr. Murdock shares his passion for Culturally Relevant pedagogy in the choral context as we discuss what it this concept … Continue reading "Episode 173: Culturally Relevant Excellence with Dr. Jeffrey Allen Murdock" by Choralosophy

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Episode 172: Dispelling Myths About Middle School with Ian Henning and Jacob Garcia: Over the years, this Podcast has been a place for many types of conversations, on a variety of topics. But, one of the recurring passions of mine has been the reimagining of the way we teach literacy. Drawing upon the literature known as the “science of reading,” I started noticing that in music education, we … Continue reading "Episode 172: Dispelling Myths About Middle School with Ian Henning and Jacob Garcia" by Choralosophy

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Episode 171: The Culture of Choral Musicianship with David Hill: This week, I have the honor of crossing the pond virtually to discuss the profound yet often overlooked concept of “vocal musicianship.” Joining me is a distinguished guest, David Hill whose passion and advocacy for choral music spans from the professional to the amateur singer. David is the conductor of London’s renowned Bach Choir. We … Continue reading "Episode 171: The Culture of Choral Musicianship with David Hill" by Choralosophy

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Episode 170: Controversial Truths About Music Ed with Angela Ammerman: This week, I connect with yet another instrumental music educator! Don’t worry, I will be fine… It was a great pleasure to speak with Dr. Angela Ammerman about many music education topics including some “controversial truths” that I found on her Instagram account, “The Music Teachers Guide.” We discussed the idea that the best music … Continue reading "Episode 170: Controversial Truths About Music Ed with Angela Ammerman" by Choralosophy

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Episode 169: Have You Ever Met a Biracial Choir Unicorn? with Kelsey Burkett: Well, now I have! And so can you. In this conversation, I welcome Kelsey Burkett to discuss the magical, mystical world in which she teaches choir. I was floored to hear about the way her district structures their choral program! We also discuss personal identity, and our thoughts about the ways we can move our … Continue reading "Episode 169: Have You Ever Met a Biracial Choir Unicorn? with Kelsey Burkett" by Choralosophy

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Episode 168: I Need This Choir with Nathan Connell and the Glacier High School Concert Choir: I am excited to bring back the “Student Perspectives” category on the Podcast this week with the Glacier High School Concert Choir. Beth and I traveled from KC almost to literal Canada to Kalispell, MT to visit Nathan Connell and his Concert Choir for their Fall Retreat. How can teachers make their space safe for … Continue reading "Episode 168: I Need This Choir with Nathan Connell and the Glacier High School Concert Choir" by Choralosophy

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Episode 167: Compose Like a Girl with Jocelyn Hagen: Often times, the most confident and assertive person you will ever meet is an 8 or 9 year old girl. Then, somewhere along the way society teaches her that “like a girl” is not a compliment. For a discussion about this in the world of composition, I am joined this week by prolific composer, publisher … Continue reading "Episode 167: Compose Like a Girl with Jocelyn Hagen" by Choralosophy

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Thoughts on What ‘Elitism” Means in Choral Music

Thoughts on What ‘Elitism” Means in Choral Music

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