Month: April 2024

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 district in which a very small percentage of elementary students are presented with a choral music experience. Across the country, we have a vast inequity in access to choral music making opportunities at the Elementary level. Not only disparities in access to high level choral experiences, but also access to basic, school choirs.

When we don’t have choral students, we don’t have choral parents. When we don’t have choral parents, we don’t have administrators that see it as important. This is the danger of not tending the roots. We have developed a top down perspective on what we are concerned with.

We are concerned with equity and issues of representation at the top. “Who makes all state choir?” “Who’s music is being programmed?” These are fine things to ask. But, this like noticing blemishes on a leaf and continuously pruning without bothering to check the tree under the earth.

We also discuss the problem of our professional organizations being run by mostly Collegiate directors. These directors may be very supportive of elementary music, but may be separated from the consequences. You can have an inequitable system, and still have it look just fine at the top.

Tune in, and have your thinking stimulated and challenged. Then, weigh in yourself on Facebook in the Choralosophers group or over on choralosophy.substack.com.

Be Sure to Find Choralosophy on TikTok!

@choralosophypodca

For future rehearsal clips, find me on TikTok, Insta and FB!

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Choralosophy Podcast (@choralosophy) • Instagram photos and videos

Bruce Rockwell is the choir director at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, California. He has taught choir, piano and guitar at College Park for 15 years, instrumental music at the San Francisco Waldorf schools, and theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s pre-college division. Mr. Rockwell received is MM in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and his BA in Music from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

• Car Thoughts
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• Chris Munce
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• Human Diversity
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• Lori Sonnenberg
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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 worded article from the early 1980’s and in what ways he still agrees and disagrees with himself forty years ago. We discuss the thorny issue of balancing the choir’s need for balance and timbre preferences against the vocal needs of the individual singer. One of the claims in Tim’s article was “forcing the female chest voice upwards is dangerous.” In the episode, we discuss this belief and whether or not it is out of date in 2024.

We also discuss the ways gendered language attached to voice parts, and the norms related to these terms has changed since the article was published. Recently, Tim tried to repost this article on the ACDA Facebook page in an attempt to try and discuss some of these changes of perspective, but it was taken down. I personally disagreed with a good number of things in Tim’s article, but I give him credit for being willing to discuss publicly how his views on a variety of these topics has changed over the course of his career. We can only move forward and grow when we can be intellectually flexible.

Tune in, and have your thinking stimulated and challenged. Then, weigh in yourself on Facebook in the Choralosophers group or over on choralosophy.substack.com.

Be Sure to Find Choralosophy on TikTok!

@choralosophypodca

For future rehearsal clips, find me on TikTok, Insta and FB!

View this profile on Instagram

Choralosophy Podcast (@choralosophy) • Instagram photos and videos

Timothy Mount, pianist, singer, and choral conductor, is Professor Emeritus of conducting at Stony Brook University, one of the leading graduate music programs in the country.  He conducted 9 commercial CD’s with professional choirs and orchestras in New York City and Moscow and 2 with the Stony Brook Camerata Singers.  Tim has guest conducted many choirs and for over 10 years was conductor of the professional chorus and orchestra at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival.  In the Spring of 2023, he guest conducted the distinguished Crane Chorus at SUNY Potsdam.

He published 5 articles concerning choral music and a video, Refine Your Conducting Technique, available from Santa Barbara Music. His article, Preparing for the First Rehearsal appeared in The Choral Journal in the summer of 2023. He guest conducted the renowned Crane Chorus in the spring of 2023.

A bass-baritone, Tim sang with virtually every professional choir in New York City.  He is the pianist for the Trillium Chamber Players.

• Car Thoughts
• Choir Director Probs
• Choralosophy Book Club
• Chris Munce
• Community
• Covid Conversations
• Educational Philosophy
• Human Diversity
• Instruction and Assessment
• International
• Lori Sonnenberg
• Oxford Series
• Podcasts
• Politics and Current Events
• Student Perspectives
• Uncategorized