In May of 2023, American Choral Directors dedicated an issue of their “Choral Journal” to Gender Inequity in Choral Music. The Research Report in this issue was penned by Dr. Melissa Baughman from the University of Oklahoma. In the article, she summarizes the current state of research on the topic of Women in Conducting careers. We learned that most of the existing research in this area exists in the instrumental world as well as learning that the choral world has a concentration of Women in the middle and high school levels with major disparities at the collegiate level. In this episode, Melissa and I dissect the issues that come up in the research related to gender stereotypes, gender bias, as well as the “messy problem” of trying to make improvements of access as well as in our understanding of why the disparities exist in the first place. (Hint: it’s never just ONE thing.) Tune in for this nuanced conversation where we go “beyond the memes” and dig in to the heart of an important issue.
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Dr. Melissa Baughman is an Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of Oklahoma where she supervises student teachers and instructs undergraduate and graduate courses in choral methods, conducting, and vocal pedagogy. She is dedicated to promoting student wellness and leads a wellness initiative for the OU School of Music called Breathe OUt. She also serves as a co-facilitator for the Music Teacher Health and Wellness Area for Strategic Planning and Action for the Society of Music Teacher Education (SMTE). Prior to joining the faculty at OU, Dr. Baughman taught at Middle Tennessee State University, Central Methodist University (MO), and was the director of middle and high school vocal music in Montpelier, Ohio.
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As a researcher and advocate for wellness and equity in music, Melissa has presented at state, national, and international conferences sponsored by the International Society for Music Education (ISME), the European Association for Music in Schools (EAS), the National Association for Teachers of Singing (NATS), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the Society for Music Teacher Education (SMTE), the American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA), the Oklahoma Music Educator’s Association (OkMEA), and the Missouri Music Educator’s Association (MMEA). Her research has been published in the Journal of Music Teacher Education, International Journal of Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Journal of Singing, Choral Journal, and Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education. Her essay, “Nevertheless, She Sings: Empowering Women in Choral Music” is published in the book, Relevance in the Choral Art, edited by Tim Sharp.
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Praised as an “illustrious soprano,” Melissa’s performance highlights include singing the soprano solos for Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G Major, Haydn’s Kleine Orgelmesse, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore. She is currently a guest artist with the American chamber choir, Vox Nova, who received The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music–Community Ensemble Division in 2018. As a graduate student, she received first place in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and Missouri Music Teachers Association (MMTA) voice competitions and was named an Emerging Artist at MU. Dr. Baughman earned her PhD in music education with an emphasis on vocal pedagogy and choral conducting and a MM (voice performance) from the University of Missouri. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in music education (magna cum laude) and a master’s degree in education from Bowling Green State University.
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In this special Oxford Series episode, I catch Dr. Zanaida Robles for a conversation about her philosophy as a composer, as well as the way all of her musical and personal identities mingle to create a context for her music making. We discuss the compositional process, including the philosophy she holds related to the “end product” for singers. Namely, the importance of the singers exploring their own communities and connections WHILE also exploring the music. We also bounce ideas back and forth related to composers having to be careful about “over refining” a composition, as well as the music world’s attempt to balance goals of equity with the human need for each composer to be valued based on their OWN music and individual expression. You won’t want to miss this conversation!
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Dr. Zanaida Stewart Robles is an award-winning Black American female composer, vocalist, and teacher. She is a fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion in music education and performance. Authentic interpersonal connection and relationship-building are core principles of her teaching and performance methods. Born, raised, and educated in Southern California on the unceeded lands of the Gabrielino-Tongva people, she is in demand as a composer, vocalist, clinician and adjudicator for competitions, festivals, and conferences related to choral and solo vocal music.
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In this episode, we are honored to have Dr. Matt Zakreski, a clinical psychologist, joining us to discuss neurodiversity, autism, and gifted children in our classrooms. Dr. Zakreski brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our conversation, and we will be delving into various considerations for such kids in education, and in Fine Arts education in particular.
One of the topics we will be exploring is the importance of the arts in helping neurodivergent kids express themselves. As singers and educators, we know firsthand the transformative power of music, and Dr. Zakreski will be sharing his insights on how the arts can provide a safe and nurturing environment for neurodivergent kids to explore their creativity and connect with others.
So, whether you are a music educator, a parent of a neurodivergent child, or simply interested in learning more about the intersection of psychology and the arts, this episode is not to be missed. Let’s dive in!
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Matthew “Dr. Matt” Zakreski, PsyD is a high energy, creative clinical psychologist who utilizes an eclectic approach to meet the specific needs of his neurodivergent clients. He is proud to serve the Gifted community as a consultant, a professor, an author, and a researcher. He has spoken over 200 times all over the world about supporting neurodivergent kids. Dr. Zakreski is a member of Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children (NJAGC), and Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE). Dr. Zakreski graduated from Widener University’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology (IGCP) in 2016. He is the co-founder of The Neurodiversity Collective.
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In this unique episode of Choralosophy, we are taking it into the future that is now with a very special guest. It’s ChatGPT, a cutting-edge artificial intelligence language model that has been trained to understand and communicate with humans. ChatGPT is here to share its insights on topics relevant to choir directors, including innovative ways to use AI to automate music teacher tasks, as well as answer questions about music theory and educational philosophy.
As teachers and music directors, we are constantly looking for new ways to improve our teaching methods and streamline our workflows. With the advancements in artificial intelligence, we now have access to powerful tools that can help us achieve these goals. ChatGPT is at the forefront of this technology and is ready to share its knowledge and expertise with us.
Whether you are excited about new technology, or the type that is typically pretty skeptical, ChatGPT and programs like will be an unavoidable part of the information landscape. So tune in for this primer.
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Will Shakespeare’s Perfect Choir90’s Will Smith’s Perfect Choir
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In this episode, I am thrilled to be joined by guest Jasmine Fripp, a music educator and advocate for cultural sensitivity and anti-racism in music education. Many of us FIRST met Jasmine when she posted a viral letter on Facebook.
We will be discussing the importance of cultural sensitivity within music education, and why it’s crucial for music educators to be aware of the diverse cultural backgrounds of their students AND their colleagues. Jasmine will be sharing her personal experiences and insights on the topic, and will be providing specific examples of how music educators can create a culturally responsive classroom environment.
As music educators, it’s important for us to recognize that music is not a one-size-fits-all experience. Every student brings their own unique cultural background to the classroom, and it’s our job as educators to create an environment that is inclusive and welcoming for all students. So sit back, relax, and join us for this insightful and thought-provoking conversation on “Choralosophy.”
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Jasmine Fripp is a Grammy-nominated music educator and the founder of The Passionate Black Educator, an educational platform that grew out of her passion for empowering educators and providing Black and Brown students with a quality holistic education through music. With seven years of teaching experience in public and charter schools, she has built award-winning choral programs and provided Black and Brown students with various opportunities to excel within and outside the world of music.
As The Passionate Black Educator, Jasmine encourages and empowers music educators of all cultural backgrounds to create student-centered classroom environments that promote anti-racism, culturally responsive pedagogy, and healing-centered teaching. Jasmine’s ability to fuse hip-hop, choral music, student-centered dialogue, and creative teaching strategies have led to her being heavily sought after as a clinician by universities, school districts, and professional organizations Worldwide. Jasmine holds a Bachelor of Music Education with a concentration in Choral Music from Winthrop University and is currently pursuing her master’s degree at Belmont University.
This episode is a pastiche of sorts from several sources. We will start with the introduction from my “Togetherness Activism” live presentation from Colorado in January. In that segment I tell the story of what I have learned about discourse and discussion from starting a show in which I put forward opinions in public for the last four years. Some of those experiences have been gratifying, frustrating, fun and stressful. But in all situations, I have learned SO MUCH, and have actually changed my opinion about many things. One of the things I have learned is how oversimple our understanding of each other can be do to online interactions. During this presentation, I launched a survey to the audience there in person which helped us explore the ways in which we may be diverse BEYOND what is visible. Over the next few weeks, I plugged the survey in choir director groups and got a nice sample of responses. I will discuss those responses here as well. This is a fun and varied discussion that I hope stimulates more discussion!
The problem with “photographic diversity” is that I could give a survey to a group of people who appear to be diverse, but their answers could all be the same. If that’s the case, we lose the studied and time tested value of diversity. When it’s time to have a meeting of the minds, we can’t.
Chris Munce
In some ways, I am thinking of this episode as an important “Where We Are Now” discussion for the beginning of year 5 of Choralosophy Podcasts. So, tune in chew on some ideas!
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This week, welcome BACK to the show Dr. Marques Garrett, who last appeared in episode 17, “Beyond Elijah Rock,” where many of us were introduced to the concept of “non-idiomatic” music of Black composers. In this episode, part of the “Oxford Series,” Marques returns to celebrate his latest contribution to the growing canon of music by Black composers from around the world. Just last week, Oxford Press published his Anthology, “The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers.” Tune in to hear us pick up where that conversation left off by discussing the importance of a term like “non-idiomatic” in teaching people that Black musicians cannot be accurate boxed in to genres like spirituals, jazz and gospel.
In addition to discussing the genesis of this project and its contents, we also have a candid conversation LIVE in my home studio about the state of progress in incorporating music of non-white composers into the expanded canon, the danger of possible overcorrection that comes from our continued struggle with terminology that conflates concepts of race with culture, language and nationality, and the growing and profound legacy in choral music of HBCU alumni and much more. Don’t miss it. Video recommended!
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A Virginia native, Marques L. A. Garrett is an Assistant Professor of Music in Choral Activities at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Glenn Korff School of Music. His responsibilities include conducting the auditioned Chamber Singers and non-auditioned University Chorale (soprano-alto) as well as teaching graduate choral literature. Before earning his PhD in Music Education (Choral Conducting) at Florida State University, he was the Director of Choral Activities at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, he holds an MM from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a BA from Hampton University.
An active conductor, Dr. Garrett is the artistic director of the Omaha Symphonic Chorus and founding conductor of the Nebraska Festival Singers. He serves as a guest conductor or clinician with school, church, community, and festival/honor choirs throughout the country. In addition to his conducting classes at UNL, he leads conducting workshops at other universities and conferences. His formal conducting studies were with Dr. André J. Thomas, Dr. Carole J. Ott, Dr. Carl G. Harris, Jr., and Mr. Royzell Dillard.
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A versatile voice that performs both as a baritone and countertenor, Dr. Garrett has sung with several community, church, and university groups as both a chorister and soloist. He was the baritone soloist for the Germantown Concert Chorus’s performance of Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis. His premiere as a countertenor in Dan Forrest’s Jubilate Deo served as the work’s European premiere in Limerick, Ireland. Additionally, he performed the role of Lil Lud in Bernstein’s White House Cantata with the Tallahassee Community Chorus. Currently, he sings with First-Plymouth Congregational Church, Festival Singers of Florida, and the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers.
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Dr. Garrett is an avid composer of choral and solo-vocal music whose compositions have been performed to acclaim by high school all-state, collegiate, and professional choirs including Seraphic Fire and the Oakwood University Aeolians. His music is available through more than ten publishers. He has been commissioned by organizations such as Harvard University and Westminster Choir College. Among his latest commissions is his largest work to date, Dreamland: Tulsa 1921. This collaborative work with librettist Sandra Seaton for tenor-bass chorus, soloists, and chamber orchestra was commissioned by the Turtle Creek Chorale to tell the story of the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As a researcher, his most advantageous topic is the non-idiomatic choral music of Black composers. His lectures at state and regional conferences of the American Choral Directors Association and at other local and national venues afford him the opportunity to showcase this underrepresented area of music. He serves as co-editor of the “Out from the Shadows” Series with Gentry Publications.
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Dr. Garrett holds membership in the American Choral Directors Association; American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; National Association of Negro Musicians; National Collegiate Choral Organization; and Pi Kappa Lambda. For more information, visit http://www.mlagmusic.com.
Is student teaching a “class?” or a “job?” Does this practice need a revamp in the face of the current teacher shortage? In this episode, I invited Tina Beveridge on to hash out a disagreement. A few months ago, I created a TikTok expressing my opinion that student teachers don’t “deserve” a paycheck. Mostly based on the idea that student teaching is a class, and a crucial final course in the training of teachers. Turning it into a job could potentially create a perverse incentive structure for entering the profession. Dr. Beveridge disagrees and responded with this blog by saying, “First, the internship is not a “class.” Yes, it’s credits they have to register and pay for, and in that respect it’s a “class” but it’s not a class in the respect that we expect them to go in knowing nothing. In fact, we expect them to go in and actually be able to do the full job.”
In keeping with the spirit and ethos of this show, I invited Tina on to discuss because a conversation is MUCH more productive than social media posts. The resulting conversation is proof of that. When the episode is done, please weigh in your thoughts in the comments!
Dr. Beveridge is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at George Mason University. Before entering higher education, Dr. Beveridge spent 17 years teaching music in K-12 public schools and community colleges, and her research on policy, equity and access in music education has been published in Update: Applications of Research in Music Education as well as Arts Education Policy Review.
Enter Choralosophy at Checkout for a 5% discount when you shop for folders, robes and other gear for your choir program! www.mymusicfolders.com and www.mychoirrobes.com
www.sightreadingfactory.com is the best literacy tool on the market today. Enter Choralosophy at checkout to get 10% off memberships for you AND your students!
Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
Resources Cited in the Episode
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Michigan Future Teacher Fund —you will also see they have proposed legislation to pay mentor teachers (through block grants to districts) to host student teachers, and that there are requirements for how interns can use the money (1 semester tuition at a state university in Michigan is about $7000, the stipend can be up to $9600).
The Elpus and Abril 2019 study —this is free to view for anyone who is a NAfME member (you have to log in to NAfME and then click on the link, the full article should pop up. The statistic I referenced (African American students being less likely to enroll in music as achievement goes up) is “Predictive Margins of Race” just above the discussion section.
Dr. Beveridge wants to issue a correction: In Virginia, student teachers need 300 TOTAL hours. 150 need to be independent teaching.
Is it possible that the over-politicization of classroom education could be contributing in some way to the epidemic of mental health problems amongst teens and young adults? Clinical Psychologist, and child of Egyptian immigrants, Christine Sefein thinks we should not ignore this possibility. The modern vogue for activism that kids are learning focuses on the “systemic,” and actually valorizes victimhood. We are framing things for them within a problematic oppressor vs. oppressed framework. To a young person, when confronted with ideas that present a “really big, really bad” world, these problems can seem so big that they are powerless to confront them. This perpetual victim/hero complex could be leading to nihilism and hopelessness in a generation of students. Christine and I share a candid conversation about the basic principals of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that are being ignored or even contradicted in education. We discuss building gratitude cultures, the value of anxiety, and understanding the importance of “exposure therapy” when facing even the horror of performance anxiety!
Christine Sefein, LMFT(Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist), specialises in grief and trauma work and has held positions such as Clinical Director of OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center and Clinical Supervisor of the Interpersonal Violence programs at California Lutheran University. She has worked most extensively with grieving adults and children in a variety of communities and settings including dual-diagnoses residential facilities, intensive outpatient treatment, homeless shelters and in private practice. Christine was a full time Teaching Faculty in the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology program at Antioch University Los Angeles until 2021. She currently works as a diversity training consultant, public speaker, parental rights advocate in K-12 education.
www.sightreadingfactory.com is the best literacy tool on the market today. Enter Choralosophy at checkout to get 10% off memberships for you AND your students!
Enter Choralosophy at Checkout for a 5% discount when you shop for folders, robes and other gear for your choir program! www.mymusicfolders.com and www.mychoirrobes.com
Visit stageright.com for top of the line, affordable staging options like risers, acoustical shells and more!
Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
2022 was an exciting year on this show! The first solid year of weekly episodes, a wide range of topics. (Only ONE Covid episode, thank God.) We saw lots of growth in the audience, exciting LIVE recordings, and so much more. In this episode, I have curated some of my favorite moments from YOUR 10 favorite episodes:
Each episode is linked below so that you can find each in their fullness.
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www.sightreadingfactory.com is the best literacy tool on the market today. Enter Choralosophy at checkout to get 10% off memberships for you AND your students!
Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
Visit stageright.com for top of the line, affordable staging options like risers, acoustical shells and more!
In part two of my conversation with ACDA Executive Director Robyn Hilger, we pick up right where we left off last week in Episode 130. I begin by asking Robyn about the ACDA national conventions session line up. We discuss what is there, and what is missing. We move from there into a deep discussion of ACDA’s Diversity Initiatives and how we would measure success or progress. At what point does the intersectionality of our diverse membership simply become “unique individuals” with unique wants and needs? How does a large membership organization respond to this challenge? For example, a recent region conference had all male conductors on the slate. What no one knows is whether or not we had a diverse pool to choose from. This matters because you have to understand the problems in order to solve them.
We discuss this, and the idea that I call “Trickle Down Social Justice.” Are we focused on composers on the program or who conducts at conventions? Or are we focused on the lack of equity in music training of fourth graders? Could this be bias toward what is visible?
There have been times in our history where the opinion of the Executive has really set the trajectory. My job as the executive is to activate the membership. ACDA is not Robyn Hilger. That would be a mistake.
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Robyn Hilger is beginning her second year as executive director of the American Choral Directors Association. A native Oklahoman, Hilger is a classically trained clarinetist. She graduated with high honors in 1999 from Oklahoma City University with a bachelor’s degree in instrumental music education. She earned her master’s degree in school administration from the University of Central Oklahoma and is currently pursuing her doctorate of education in administration and leadership at Southern Nazarene University. She is a National Board-Certified Teacher in early adolescence/young adult music with specialization in band.
The overarching theme of her work is meeting the identified needs of historically marginalized and under-resourced communities. Robyn began her career as the band and strings teacher at Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School, in Oklahoma’s largest urban school district, where she created the fine arts department. In 2006, she was recognized as Oklahoma’s State Teacher of the Year and she served as Oklahoma’s Ambassador of Teaching, traveling more than 20,000 miles delivering some 200 workshops and speeches focused on teaching, advocacy, and education policy.
In 2007, she joined the staff of the Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools as the chief programs officer. In 2013, she supported the launch of El Sistema Oklahoma as a volunteer. In 2014, she was asked to join the organization as the executive director. El Sistema Oklahoma facilitates the development of empowered youth who use music to make strong positive change in their lives, their communities, and the world. El Sistema Oklahoma operates every day after-school and is completely free for participating families.
Enter Choralosophy at Checkout for a 5% discount when you shop for folders, robes and other gear for your choir program! www.mymusicfolders.com and www.mychoirrobes.com
In 2017, she was named New Fundraiser of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Oklahoma City Chapter. Robyn also serves on the advisory board for the Oklahoma Youth Orchestras and is a board member for Oklahoma Youth Sing! (formerly known as the Norman Children’s Chorus).
Robyn is a connector of people, organizations, and opportunities. She lives in Oklahoma City with her husband Stephen and their three cats.
To get in touch with Robyn, you can add her on Facebook (@robynhilger or @robynhilgeracda) or email her at executivedirector@acda.org.
The American Choral Directors Association is the largest organization of choral musicians in the world. ACDA sets the tone and direction of choral music in the US and has a major impact on the global choral music community as well. The newly appointed Executive Director of the organization, Robyn Hilger seeks to usher in a new era for the organization, hopefully leading to a bright future for Choral Music. It is my belief that the needs of the community of choral musicians have changed since ACDA’s founding. I also believe that ACDA has a bully pulpit in communicating about and advocating for the direction of the profession. This makes their decisions intimately woven into the lives and livelihoods of their members. In this episode AND the next one, you will hear me discuss the past present and future of choral music in America and how ACDA will help to shape it. I drove all the way from KC to OKC to record in person, which I think was very helpful.
In the first part of this two part interview, we discuss the “purpose” or “reason for being of ACDA,” how changes are made, how conventions are planned, and the importance of member engagement and feedback and much more.
Robyn Hilger is beginning her second year as executive director of the American Choral Directors Association. A native Oklahoman, Hilger is a classically trained clarinetist. She graduated with high honors in 1999 from Oklahoma City University with a bachelor’s degree in instrumental music education. She earned her master’s degree in school administration from the University of Central Oklahoma and is currently pursuing her doctorate of education in administration and leadership at Southern Nazarene University. She is a National Board-Certified Teacher in early adolescence/young adult music with specialization in band.
The overarching theme of her work is meeting the identified needs of historically marginalized and under-resourced communities. Robyn began her career as the band and strings teacher at Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School, in Oklahoma’s largest urban school district, where she created the fine arts department. In 2006, she was recognized as Oklahoma’s State Teacher of the Year and she served as Oklahoma’s Ambassador of Teaching, traveling more than 20,000 miles delivering some 200 workshops and speeches focused on teaching, advocacy, and education policy.
In 2007, she joined the staff of the Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools as the chief programs officer. In 2013, she supported the launch of El Sistema Oklahoma as a volunteer. In 2014, she was asked to join the organization as the executive director. El Sistema Oklahoma facilitates the development of empowered youth who use music to make strong positive change in their lives, their communities, and the world. El Sistema Oklahoma operates every day after-school and is completely free for participating families.
In 2017, she was named New Fundraiser of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Oklahoma City Chapter. Robyn also serves on the advisory board for the Oklahoma Youth Orchestras and is a board member for Oklahoma Youth Sing! (formerly known as the Norman Children’s Chorus).
Enter Choralosophy at Checkout for a 5% discount when you shop for folders, robes and other gear for your choir program! www.mymusicfolders.com and www.mychoirrobes.com
Receive 10% Discount on your orders at http://www.graphitepublishing.com where you will find the works of Jocelyn Hagen, Eric Barnum, Timothy C. Takach, Paul Rudoi and MANY more.
Robyn is a connector of people, organizations, and opportunities. She lives in Oklahoma City with her husband Stephen and their three cats.
To get in touch with Robyn, you can add her on Facebook (@robynhilger or @robynhilgeracda) or email her at executivedirector@acda.org.
Visit stageright.com for top of the line, affordable staging options like risers, acoustical shells and more!
On this episode you will get to listen in to a portion of an episode I recently recorded for the Contraband Wagon. Contraband is a podcast that hosts exclusively conversations about race and racism. Will Fullwood, the host of the show invited me on to share some the experiences that I have had in conversations with colleagues who may be “missing the point” when they try to connect certain types of music and certain musical practices to a skin color, or the social construct that is “race.” One of those topics of course, is music literacy. Is “centering literacy” akin to “centering whiteness? or “white supremacy.” I say no, but Will and I discuss what those terms mean. We also explore the examples of Opera and its history of exclusion and racism, while ALSO remembering that it is not a “white” art form. Will’s own background as a classical and jazz musician who ALSO spends hours a week discussing race and racism make this an interesting and insightful conversation.
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I try to give people grace in this space because so many people are new to it.
“Contraband”
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*Racism* is the social construction that necessitates our continued & (mostly) blind belief in & upholding of “race” ideology & its correlated languages/practices. We just continue to fool ourselves into thinking that “race” is *just* “skin color,” phenotype, DNA, or culture.
Dr. Sheena Mason
With the rise of anti-racist discourse and initiatives, many people are unintentionally promoting racist ideas and missing opportunities to identify and celebrate functional diversity, or diversity of thought over perceived diversity based largely on phenotype and social constructions. Dr. Sheena Mason earned her PhD from Howard University. She is now at SUNY Oneonta in Oneonta, NY, as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in African American literature. Dr. Mason has been thinking about and working on ways to discuss race and racism in a way that she believes can move us in the right direction as a human race. Sheena and I discuss the ways these ideas could be the next evolution of race deconstruction in education and in culture. We also discuss how this can be accomplished WITHOUT ignoring the injustice that has flown from the belief in race.
While not rooted in biology or science, she explains how the concept of race continues to be naturalized and viewed as something “of nature.” The camouflaging of racism as race remains, in large part, why many people and institutions have failed to partially, entirely, or meaningfully address racism even when actively participating in anti-racist efforts. Once liberated from race(ism), you will feel lighter, uplifted, seen, and valued.
Signs that Some Race Activism May be Misguided (If the shoe fits)
Does it insist that racial categories are real, useful, or impossible to rid ourselves of? (Making it seem as if the way a person looks is the most important part of their contribution.)
Does it seem to shy away from the celebration of progress?
Does it treat the world as if it is a fixed pie through the use of reductionist racial category quotas? (Black, White, Brown, Indigenous) or even worse, a racial binary? (white, non-white.)
Does it confuse or conflate real phenomena such as culture, class, ethnicity, and ancestry with the fiction of race? (Like co-equal humans, or as “avatars” for a racialized group?)
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Theory of Racelessness™ educates organizations & institutions on how racism masquerades as race in society.
Dr. Sheena Mason earned her Ph.D. in English literature “with distinction” in May 2021 from Howard University. She joined the faculty at SUNY Oneonta in Oneonta, NY, in August 2021, as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in African American literature. She has taught at the College of William and Mary, California Lutheran University, and Howard University. Her book titled Theory of Racelessness: A Case for Philosophies of Antirace(ism) is scheduled to be released by Palgrave Macmillan on September 23, 2022. Additionally, she co-authored “Harlem Renaissance: An Interpretation of Racialized Art and Ethics,” a chapter of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Art examining what, if anything, is the proper role of race in the aesthetic productions of or about members of racialized populations.
Dr. Mason works actively to improve and free our language and, therefore, our thoughts. In “No Malcolm X in My History Text” (2018), she examines the iterations of the folklore figure Staggerlee, the figure’s relation to the public sphere, and racism. Ultimately, she concludes that Staggerlee persists in the American imagination and is a simultaneously and paradoxically subversive and stereotypical figure, highlighting the pervasiveness of racism and society’s response to racism. In her scholarship, Dr. Mason consistently and unwaveringly works to promote anti-racism through her publications and teaching.
True diversity is the varied life experiences and cultural upbringings that lead us to our widely disparate moral “palettes.” As we gather together in classrooms, ensembles, businesses and organizations we talk a good diversity game. But rarely do we attempt to measure these things in our diversity matrix. This episode is a “Choralosophy Book Club” discussion about a book that gives us the tools to do just that.
Reena Esmail
Reena Esmail returns to the show to discuss the book “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion” by Psychologist Jonathan Haidt. If you are interested in how YOUR mind brings you to your decisions about right and wrong, about good and evil and much more, then this book and this conversation is for you. Western philosophy has emphasized reason and logic over emotions for thousands of years. This tendency still prevails, but a growing body of research proves that emotions should no longer be regarded as secondary to logic.
Moral judgments arise from our intuitions because humans are fundamentally intuitive, not rational. In addition, the reasoning that follows our intuitions does not work like a judge, guiding us to sober moral wisdom. It works more like a lawyer, justifying our moral judgments to others and ourselves, supporting our reputation and our self-interest.
If you want to persuade others, appeal to their sentiments.
If you want to win a moral argument, never say “you’re wrong.” You can never win someone over to your principles through purely rational arguments. Instead, if you want to persuade the other person, first of all smile and be a good listener. THIS is being an effective ensemble member, teacher and EVEN the path forward for more effective political activism. But it only works if you are genuinely able to hold the possibility that it could have been YOU that was wrong all along. Or, that there was never a “right” answer to be found anyway.
Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces.
Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2020-2023 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and Seattle Symphony’s 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. Previously, she was named a 2019 United States Artist Fellow in Music, and the 2019 Grand Prize Winner of the S & R Foundation’s Washington Award. Esmail was also a 2017-18 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow. She was the 2012 Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (and subsequent publication of a work by C.F. Peters)
Esmail holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM’05) and the Yale School of Music (MM’11, MMA’14, DMA’18). Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis and Martin Bresnick, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazundar, and she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers.
Classrooms have become ground zero for the problem of political polarization. What is being taught, who is teaching it, how it’s being taught, how it is funded, etc. Are we teaching Critical Race Theory, or are we not? Should we be? If the Roe v. Wade case comes up, what is the teacher’s posture? These and many questions have become a toxic political football. The problem of this polarization impacts the classroom in a unique way largely because many people on all sides of political conversations do not want their children caught in the middle. As a result, I believe that teachers are morally bound to model curiosity, radical inclusivity of viewpoints, as well as the respect that most easily comes from “trying on each other’s shoes.”
Sadly though, our politicians, teachers unions and professional organizations don’t model this. We are swimming in almost an entirely politically homogeneous pool within the education profession. The problem is that our students AREN’T. It’s time for us to share the pool. I am joined in this talk by author and journalist, and recent TED Talker Mónica Guzmán to discuss why most of our assumptions about the beliefs of others are probably wrong.
We are so divided, we are blinded. Opening our eyes means being less certain, more courageous, and a LOT more curious about the views we don’t want to see.
A “laboratory for friction” is a term Mónica uses to describe the ideal classroom in which the educator has made the radically inclusive decision to intentionally create a space in which students are able to learn from each other through open dialogue and the safety to be the only dissenting voice.
Mónica Guzmán, author of “I Never Thought of It That Way,” is a bridge builder, journalist, and entrepreneur who lives for great conversations sparked by curious questions. She’s director of digital and storytelling at Braver Angels, the nation’s largest cross-partisan grassroots organization working to depolarize America; host of live interview series at Crosscut; and cofounder of the award-winning Seattle newsletter The Evergrey. She was a 2019 fellow at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, where she studied social and political division, and a 2016 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, where she researched how journalists can rethink their roles to better meet the needs of a participatory public. She was named one of the 50 most influential women in Seattle, served twice as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes, and plays a barbarian named Shadrack in her besties’ Dungeons & Dragons campaign. A Mexican immigrant, Latina, and dual US/Mexico citizen, she lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents.
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Do you think of yourself as a “choir leading business person?” I am going to guess that most of you don’t, and I’m going to suggest that maybe you should. There are aspects of leading any type of choral program that require business acumen in order to excel. This makes many of us bristle as artists because we love to stay wrapped up in the emotional and in the art. But the reality is that we often have to call upon skills that our training programs didn’t prepare us with. They didn’t teach us tax law, or marketing or accounting, but we have to develop these skills or our programs fall apart. So I had a conversation with Alex Gartner about that very thing. Tune in as we discuss the business of doing choir.
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Alex Gartner serves as the Artistic & Executive Director of the Pensacola Children’s Chorus in Pensacola, FL. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to impact nearly 25,000 individuals throughout Northwest Florida, including over 5,000 youth, through innovative programs, performances, and organizational practices. He also serves the American Choral Directors Association as the Children’s and Youth R&R Coordinator for the Southern Region, is an all-state coordinator for the Florida Music Education Association, and previously served on the national arts education council with Americans for the Arts. An active clinician, guest conductor, and composer, his arrangements are available through many reputable publishers. Check out his latest work on social media or at www.AlexGartner.com.
Easily the most frequent request I get from the audience is for more teaching examples, rehearsal videos, samples, demonstrations etc. I have decided to stop dragging my feet about this and start creating more of this type of content. Due to the type of media it requires, I will be posting most of this on…
In this episode I draw on a few sources, including audience comments to present an advocacy conversation. To make the case for Choral Music classrooms, infrastructure support, and educational priorities. You will see or hear a video I made all the way back in 2012 in response to the popular TV show “Glee,” as well…
Stephen Cox has the honor of being the FIRST band director and educator to appear on the show! His perspective on music education brings some different insights to the big picture so to speak. This created a very productive conversation about the pros and cons of our traditional models of music delivery in schools. From…
Many people think they are speaking truth to power, but they are really just preaching to the choir. This episode deals with the role of political discourse in the lives of all citizens, and educators in particular. The future of education is hanging in the balance right now as I see it, based on the highly charged political rhetoric related to public or state school governance, as well how these issues intersect with “the culture wars.” We can’t afford to oversimplify, or “Meme-ify” issues of Educational Equity, and access for students to high quality education. Micah Horton came in person to the studio, which always makes for an easier conversation. Often times, we buy in to the incentives of social media and signal our positions, rather than actually engaging in conversations about solutions. And sadly, the next generation sees our refusal to engage, and may be modeling it.
Micah Horton is the director of choirs at Olathe North High School and serves as the Director of Worship Music at Second Presbyterian Church in Kansas City. Micah holds a Masters of Music Education from the UMKC Conservatory, where his research focused on Demographics & Perceptions of Racial Diversity in Middle & High School Choir Programs. He also holds Bachelor’s degrees in Music Composition and Psychology from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts. As a performer, he has been featured at state & national conventions, and has appeared on numerous recordings as both a vocalist and instrumentalist. He frequently gigs & accompanies on guitar, electric bass, and mandolin. Micah currently sings tenor with Te Deum and with the Tallgrass Chamber Choir. He has served on numerous building, regional, and state-level committees relating to DEI, teacher retention, and choral literature selection/performance practice. From 2017-19, Micah served as the Resource Chair for Multicultural Perspectives for the Missouri Choral Directors Association, and was the 2021 Prelude Award recipient for MCDA. He is a New Jersey native, proud husband & father, and a Philadelphia sports fan.
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This week, I am PUMPED to be joined by renowned Psychologist, researcher, author and host of the Psychology Podcast, Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman. We in the Performing Arts education sphere are in a unique position to have an impact on the whole person in a way that is not accessible to our other teacher colleagues.…
This week, I am PUMPED to be joined by renowned Psychologist, researcher, author and host of the Psychology Podcast, Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman. We in the Performing Arts education sphere are in a unique position to have an impact on the whole person in a way that is not accessible to our other teacher colleagues.…
This episode was a product of a submission on the main page here at Choralosophy.com. The prompt really grabbed me. Guest Joshua Mazur suggested that we need to have a grown up discussion about the way we in Music Education think about and use the word “talent.” I agree. From Joshua: “Our society approaches talent…
Like many topics in education, we have strains of the same philosophical divides in music education as we do in other areas of education. This week, my guest Dr. Anika Prather is the perfect person to address and offer a bridge to one of those divides. She has a background in both Music Education as well as Theater and Literature. In this episode we discuss educational philosophy related to the “Western Canon” in both literature and in music. Trying to make sense of the various approaches that range from “Classical Education” to the “Decolonize the Classroom” movement. The discussion centers around the idea that both extremes when taken as wholly sufficient philosophies miss some very important aspects of history. Maybe a hybrid approach is needed.
“If we are properly decolonizing education, it should change HOW we teach, not WHAT we teach.”
Dr. Anika Prather
No teacher can teach ALL of the repertoire from all of the cultures, and we shouldn’t lose sleep over it. What matters is that we instill curiosity in our students to go out beyond our classrooms and seek more.
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Dr. Anika T. Prather earned her B.A. from Howard University in elementary education. She also has earned several graduate degrees in education from New York University and Howard University. She has a Masters in liberal arts from St. John’s College (Annapolis) and a PhD in English, Theatre and Literacy Education from the University of Maryland (College Park). Her research focus is on building literacy with African American students through engagement in the books of the Canon and self-published her book Living in the Constellation of the Canon: The Lived Experiences of African American Students Reading Great Books Literature recently. She has served as a teacher, supervisor for student teachers, director of education and Head of School. Currently she teaches in the Classics department at Howard University and is the founder of The Living Water School, located in Southern Maryland. The Living Water School is a unique Christian school for independent learners, based on the educational philosophies of Classical Education and the Sudbury Model. She is married to Damon M. Prather an engineer and has an MBA (Wisconsin-Madison). He also serves as the financial manager of the school. She and her husband Damon, have three young children, and they reside in the DC metropolitan area.
Anika is also a performing artist and incorporates, music, drama and storytelling into most of her presentations. She has produced and written the songs for her 2 jazz albums and her music can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/anika_tene .
In the next edition of the Oxford Series, I am excited to bring you a new voice in their catalog, Brittney E. Boykin. I had an open and refreshing conversation with her about her journey through the choral world as a conductor, teacher and then composer. Navigating life in the choral world as a Black Woman, cultural sharing vs. appropriation, the sea-change that was 2020, work-life balance and more. “When I think of diversity within the classical music world, there is diversity within sound, within ensembles, within colors.” – BE Boykin
B.E. (Brittney Elizabeth) Boykin is a native of Alexandria, Virginia and comes from a musical family. At the age of 7, she began piano lessons and continued her studies through high school under the tutelage of Mrs. Alma Sanford. Mrs. Sanford guided her through various competitions, such as the NAACP’s ACT-SO competition where she garnered 1st place for 3 consecutive years in the local competition, as well as being awarded The Washington Post “Music and Dance Award” in the spring of 2007.”
Boykin then pursued her classical piano studies at Spelman College under the leadership of Dr. Rachel Chung. After graduating Spelman College in 2011 with a B.A. in Music, Boykin continued her studies at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. During her time at Westminster, she was awarded the R and R Young Composition Prize just a few months shy of graduating with her M.M. in Sacred Music with a concentration in choral studies in May, 2013.
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Boykin’s choral piece, “We Sing as One,” was commissioned to celebrate Spelman College’s 133rd Anniversary of its founding at the 2014 Founders Day Convocation. She has also been featured as the conductor/composer-in-residence for the 2017 Harry T. Burleigh Commemorative Spiritual Festival at Tennessee State University. Boykin has been commissioned and collaborated with several organizations, including a number of ACDA divisions, the Minnesota Opera and the Kennedy Center. She obtained her PhD from Georgia State University with an emphasis in Music Education and is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Recently, David Simmons Wood made a splash by writing an article for Early Music America called “Toward a Rebirth of Renaissance Choral Repertoire.” In the article, David drew attention to what I see as a troubling gap in our collective repertoire and programming trends. Namely, the near disappearance of Polyphony from our performances, classrooms and…
I am excited to welcome Kenneth Bozeman to the podcast this week to blow your minds! Ken is a voice teacher, author and prominent lecturer presenting all over the world to help teachers of singing understand the importance of the marriage between voice science and the emotive capabilities of the human voice. I have frequently…
Could it be that the new era of “the choral entrepreneur” is what we need to save Choral Music? After the pandemic, we have seen a resurgence of enthusiasm for Choral Music amongst the already initiated. But, program enrollments are down, concert attendance is down, positions have been cut, and conference attendance has not recovered.…
A hybrid episode! We run the risk of oversimplifying educational concepts, packaging them in seminars and professional development sessions for sale, and actually HARMING students. Or at least not helping them. Educational theories often carry precious little evidence, but we as educators frequently feel ill equipped to question them. Often times these oversimplifications are simply Utopian visions of education. One of the buzzwords that gets this treatment in my view is “Belonging.” I have been reading a book called “Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity” by Cobb and Krownapple. In that journey, as well as in my conversations on the show, in real life, and online it has become clear to me that there are many questions still to be ASKED about this topic before we can even begin to have enough hubris to think we can answer it.
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Composer Melissa Dunphy believes that artistic expression is inherently connected to the socio-political landscape of the world. Artists often create work that reflects their personal beliefs, experiences, and values. Even when an artist does not intend for their work to be explicitly political, it is influenced by the social and cultural contexts in which it…
Last week, instead of a typical adult getaway for our anniversary, Beth and I attended the National Conference of Braver Angels. From the Mission Statement: Americans on opposite sides of the political spectrum don’t only disagree on issues — they increasingly dislike one another. This growing partisan animosity is the crisis of our time and…
Last week, instead of a typical adult getaway for our anniversary, Beth and I attended the National Conference of Braver Angels. From the Mission Statement: Americans on opposite sides of the political spectrum don’t only disagree on issues — they increasingly dislike one another. This growing partisan animosity is the crisis of our time and…
We have to think about group identity and immutable characteristics, and how they shape our experience as humans in the world. We can’t ignore those things. But they are not the only things. We need to have a conversation about what we LEAD with in these conversations. Do we lead with the things we can’t choose about ourselves, or do lead with our common humanity. To me, it’s a question of seeing the human across from in our classrooms, our teacher’s lounges, or even on social media as complex and deeper than their appearance. My recent ChoralNet blog goes addresses this as well.
It is not enough to attack injustice. We have to cultivate justice. This STARTS with patience, humility and grace.
On the Choralosophy Podcast I have spent a good deal of time and energy discussing the topic of “identity” in the arts, through a special category called “Choral Music: A Human Art Form” and how differing philosophies impact how the topic is discussed. In my view, there are major problems in the world stemming from philosophical illiteracy. Namely, what seems to be a lack of awareness that there are different ways to discuss societal problems, and how to move competently between them. As leaders of diverse groups, I see this is a non-optional skill for choral directors. We need to recognize that the centering of one’s immutable characteristics as the primary feature of one’s identity, is but one of many philosophies of finding or describing the “self.” Some find identity most strongly with their culture, nationality, religion, profession, school of thought, or even with the rejection of group identity itself. And that’s ok.
Dr. Braeden Ayres is a teacher, conductor and composer with a passion point related to concepts of masculinity in choral music. What stereotypes are we stuck too, what challenges to we face when discussing it, and what are the best ways to engage young adolescent boys in our school choral programs? We discussed some of the findings from his dissertation research on this topic as well as brainstorming ways to recruit and retain boys, without pandering to pre-conceived ideas of masculinity. Join us for this important discussion, and add your own thoughts on the Choralosophers Facebook page.
Dr. Braeden Ayres (“Bray-den Airz”) is a composer, conductor, and music educator who believes that music and singing are for all people. Dr. Ayres currently teaches music at Black Hawk College in Moline, Illinois, and is the choir director at First Christian Church in Macomb, Illinois. As an artist, teacher, and conductor, his mission is to empower people, explore the human experience, and celebrate the human voice as a tool for self-expression. As a composer, his works vary widely in style, with pieces written especially for changing voices, high school choirs, and collegiate, community, and professional ensembles. Dr. Ayres frequently writes original texts for his work as well.
Dr. Ayres’s music has been performed at national and state-level ACDA honor choirs, all-states, and at local choir concerts across the United States. His music is published with MusicSpoke, Carl Fischer, Hal Leonard Music, and Augsburg Fortress. In 2021, he was named the winner of the “Emily Crocker Emerging Composer Competition,” sponsored by the Texas Choral Director’s Association and Hal Leonard Music. Dr. Ayres holds a Ph.D. in Choral Music Education from Florida State University, where his doctoral dissertation studied the history and repertoire of choral compositions for changing male voices. Dr. Ayres also holds a Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Northern Colorado and a Bachelor’s in Music Education from Baylor University.
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Before completing his doctorate, Dr. Ayres served on the vocal faculty at Discovery Canyon Campus in Colorado Springs, Colorado, teaching 6-12 grade students with a team of exceptional educators. In his time at DCC, the campus’s choral program tripled to over 500 students; over 100 singers were accepted into various Middle School All-State, High School All-State, and ACDA National Honor Choirs; and the Performing Arts Department was a finalist for the “Thomas S. Crawford Team of the Year Award.” Dr. Ayres also served as the Assistant Artistic Director of “Out Loud: The Colorado Springs Men’s Chorus” and was an inaugural board member of the Colorado Middle School All-State Choir. Dr. Ayres is proud to bring his passion for education into his work as a composer and choral clinician.
An episode inspired by the Oxford Handbook of Vocal Studies by Dr. Alisha Jones called “Singing High: Black Countertenors and Gendered Sound in Gospel Performance.” The article dropped into my email box and I immediately thought, THIS is a podcast. I was so right. Patrick’s story is not only fascinating, but his experience is emblematic of the intersectional concept. Namely, that Patrick’s race AND sexuality impact the way audiences receive him. The perceptions constantly swaying between “singing high like a woman” to presenting as the “Good Baptist Man.” You also appreciate the in depth discussion of the history of music in the Black Church in America. Join me for this enlightening conversation as Patrick shares his story, and reflects on the article.
The fact of the matter is that you are already gonna present something—even if it is in the classical audience—you are already gonna present something to them that might be foreign to them already. You don’t wanna turn them off at the very beginning.
Patrick Dailey has been described as possessing “a powerful and elegant countertenor voice” (Los Angeles Daily News) and a “VOCAL STANDOUT” (Boston Classical Review). His artistry was identified early through the national NAACP ACT-SO Competition (2005 and 2006), the NFAA ARTS, and Grady-Rayam Prize In Sacred Music of the Negro Spiritual Scholarship Foundation. Dailey made his professional operatic debut with Opera Saratoga as the first countertenor member of the company’s Young Artist program and was the first countertenor invited to Opera New Jersey’s Victoria J. Mastrobuono Emerging Artist program. Operatic repertoire includes Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Belize in Eötvös’ Angels in America. He performs regularly with Harlem Opera Theater, ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra (NC), Soulful Symphony, Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. On January 19, 2009, Mr. Dailey sang a featured duet with Aretha Franklin as the finale for the annual Let Freedom Ring Celebration at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Additionally, he has been a featured artist with Cook, Dixon, and Young (formally Three Mo’ Tenors) since 2012.
Mr. Dailey his west coast operatic debut as Satirino in Cavalli’s La Calisto with Pacific Opera Project of Los Angeles in 2014. The following year, he debuted with Opera Memphis in their historic first production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and won first place in Opera Ebony’s 1st Benjamin Matthews Vocal Competition. Later that year, Mr. Dailey performed the opening invocation for the 2015 Trumpet Awards in Atlanta, GA, the invitation of Trumpet Foundation founder/CEO and Civil Right legend, Xernona Clayton.
YouTube version
In the summers of 2015 and 2016, Mr. Dailey was a young artist with the American Bach Soloists. Soon after he sang the world premiere Frederick Douglas: The Making of an American Prophet composed by Grammy Award winning country songwriter Marcus Hummon and debuted with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Robert Moody. Additionally in 2016, Mr. Dailey made international debuts in the UK and Brazilian premieres of Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra with the Woodhouse Opera Festival and Il Festival de Ópera Barroca de Belo Horizonte and he made his Subculture NYC debut at the invitation of Tony Award winning composer Jason Robert Brown as a part of Brown’s broadway cabaret residency. In the spring of 2017, he debuted with Opera Louisiane as Telemaco in Michael Borowitz’s world premiere jazz-gospel orchestration of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and debuted with the Grand Rapids Symphony singing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms under the baton of Michael Christie. Soon after, Mr. Dailey returned to the U.K. that fall for the international premiere of Soosan Lolavar’s I.D. Please in the Tete a Tete New Opera Festival in London. In the fall of 2018, he sang the role of Mini-B/Boris the Boar in the world premiere of Dan Visconti and Cerise Jacobs’s Permadeath: A Video Game Opera with White Snakes Projects in Boston, MA to great acclaim. Mr. Dailey became the first countertenor to appear with Shreveport Opera singing Kyle in Robert Paterson’s Three Way: Masquerade in 2019. The remainder of his 2018/2019 season included debuts and appearances with the Austin Baroque Orchestra the IRIS Orchestra of Memphis, TN, Music By Women Festival, and Boston Early Music Festival. Since then, Mr. Dailey made debuts with the Chicago Philharmonic and Missouri Symphony, was a featured soloist at the 2020 ACDA Southern Regional Conference, and debuted at the historic Ryman Auditorium.
Mr. Dailey is featured in Fatherhood, a documentary directed by award winning London based director, Ben Gregor, which premiered on FUSE TV in 2019. He is also a featured on recording projects such as the debut album of acclaimed duo and super producers Louis York (Chuck Harmony and Claude Kelly), American Griots (2019), Adrian Dunn’s Redemption Live in Chicago (2020), and the self-titled release from The Aeolians of Oakwood University under the direction of Dr. Jason Max Ferdinand (2020).
Growing in his reputation as a scholar, Mr. Dailey was invited to the Center for Black Music Research’s inaugural Black Vocality Symposium in 2013 giving a performative presentation entitled “The Anatomy of the Black Voice: Peculiarities, Challenges, and Regional Differences”. Since that time, he been Artist-in-Residence, masterclass clinician, and guest lecturer at Southern University, Prairie View A&M University, the University of Arkansas, and Vanderbilt University among others. Mr. Dailey was lead soloist and vocal music curator of the official MLK50 Commemoration at the National Civil Rights Museum in 2018 in Memphis, TN. In the fall of 2019, he presented at the inaugural Harry T. Burleigh Week organized by the Burleigh Legacy Alliance of Burleigh’s hometown of Erie, PA and regularly presents lectures and programs in conjunction with the organization. In June 2020, Mr. Dailey curated and presented a virtual clinic and webinar entitled “A Stirring in My Soul: The Negro Spiritual and Social Justice Movements” presented by the National Museum of African American Music.
Mr. Dailey is a 2012 graduate of Morgan State University and received his master of music from Boston University. He currently serves on the voice faculty of Tennessee State University where he established the Big Blue Opera Initiatives (BBOI) and the annual Harry T. Burleigh Spiritual Festival. Additionally, he is the founding artistic director of the W. Crimm Singers (aka Wakanda Chorale), professional ensemble in residence of BBOI, and is a co-founding member of historically informed progressive, crossover ensemble, Early Music City.
Mr. Dailey serves on the boards of ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, the International Florence Price Festival, Nashville Rep, and the Artistic Planning Committee of the Nashville Symphony. He also serves as community project curator with Intersection Contemporary Music Ensemble and arts and creative arts coordinator of the NAACP-Nashville Branch. A passionate advocate for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, he is a consultant on HBCU initiatives with Opera America, Early Music America, and New Music USA and is an artist ambassador of the Music Inclusion Coalition. He is on the faculty of the Narnia Festival of Narni, Italy leading a program on African American Concert and Sacred Music, and is the program director of the Nashville Opera- Big Blue HBCU Fellowship, an HBCU initiative of the the company in partnership with TSU. Most recently, Dailey was named to the 2020 class of the Nashville Black 40 Under 40 and he was recognized for Outstanding Service from the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts of Washington, DC. Additionally, he is a 2020 recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Mr. Dailey holds membership in the National Association of Negro Musicians, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, inc
The Third Anniversary Episode of the Choralosophy Podcast!
The serendipity of having this episode ready to publish this week, on the third anniversary of the show is incredible. After all, three years ago I was motivated to launch this show because I saw a need stemming from how divided we were becoming as a nation. In the music world, we are more polarized than many due to political alignments and loyalties.
Micah Hendler is the director of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, whose mission is the bringing together of Palestinian and Jewish children together to make music and make connections. He is also a member of the music team at Braver Angels, which is a non-partisan organization that creates events and content designed to bring Republicans and Democrats together. His entire musical identity has been built around the idea that music CAN bring people together that often think they will never reconcile.
Micah Hendler (Forbes 30 Under 30 for Music) is a musical changemaker working to harness the power in each of our voices to make a difference.
Micah is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, an Israeli-Palestinian music and dialogue project featured for its innovative musicianship and integrity of purpose and process from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to the New York Times. Through the co-creation of music and the sharing of stories, the chorus empowers young singers from East and West Jerusalem to speak and sing their truths as they become leaders in their communities and inspire singers and listeners around the world to join them in their work for peace, justice, inclusion, and equality.
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Micah is a Founding Partner of Raise Your Voice Labs, a creative culture transformation company that helps organizations, companies, and communities realign and reengage around a shared vision and build cultures of resilience, adaptability, inclusive leadership, and supportive accountability. In the Lab, any team can unleash their creative and collaborative abilities, as they work together to reimagine what is possible and create a stunningly honest and inspiring video that can serve as a musical north star in their pursuit of that future.
Micah has founded, directed, sung with, or played with dozens of musical ensembles of varying global styles, including the Yale Whiffenpoofs. He has studied Community Singing and CircleSinging with GRAMMY-winning composers Ysaye Barnwell and Roger Treece, and uses these two methodologies and others to open up the concept of what a chorus can do and who should be in it.
Micah has also been involved in dialogue work for more than 15 years and has written and presented in many local and global forums about his work with the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, including sharing the keynote presentation of the East-West Philosophers’ Conference with leading Palestinian intellectual and peacemaker Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, as they explored together how sound can be used as a tool to create shared spaces in Jerusalem.
Micah writes for Forbes.com on music, society, and social change in a global context and serves in volunteer leadership capacities in both the Justice Choir and Braver Angels grassroots movements. He currently lives in Washington, DC.
You need to create music that reflects you. Start with who you are. I tend to tell students not to filter out aspects of their lives from their music. If you start with who you are, then you are the only one who can come up with the best solutions.
Trevor Weston
Trevor Weston
Trevor Weston is a singer, organist, composer and professor of composition and African American Music History at Drew University. We discussed how music, culture and society intersect, as well as the importance of making distinctions between race and culture in the context of music. Often times, our musical experiences, our backgrounds, and our education creates our culture. We share more of that that we realize with more people than we realize. One of Trevor’s learned life lessons involves recognizing the power music has to connect to our common humanity and experiences. Don’t miss this insightful and uplifting episode.
Trevor Weston’s music has been called a “gently syncopated marriage of intellect and feeling.” (Detroit Free Press) Weston’s honors include the George Ladd Prix de Paris from the University of California, Berkeley, the Arts and Letters Award in Music and a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the MacDowell Colony and a residency with Castle of our Skins at the Longy School of Music. Weston co-authored with Olly Wilson, chapter 5 in the Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington, “Duke Ellington as a Cultural Icon” published by Cambridge University Press. Weston’s work, Juba for Strings won the Sonori/New Orleans Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition. Trevor Weston won the first Emerging Black Composers Project sponsored by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony.
YouTube version
A list of ensembles performing Trevor Weston’s compositions include Roomful of Teeth, The Boston Children’s Chorus, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue Choir, The Starling Chamber Orchestra, Mallarme Chamber Players, The Providence Singers, Chicago Sinfonietta, Seraphic Fire, The Tufts Chamber Chorus, Ensemble Pi, The Amernet String Quartet, The UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, The Washington Chorus, Trilogy: An Opera Company, and The Manhattan Choral Ensemble. In addition to his creative work, Weston completed the re-orchestration of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto for the Center for Black Music Research in 2010.
When discussing how music and education intersects with race, gender and culture, I find that we are often pretty quick to apply reductionist labels to the idea or concept. For example, phrases I have come across too often include “That’s a boy’s song,” or “Choral Music is an inherently white art form,” or “sight reading is a European value in Music Education.”
If we label these things based on their past origins, are we sending unintentional signals to students about who is welcome NOW?
Now, it’s possible I spend too much time reading through comment threads in Facebook groups, but it raises the issue of the unintended consequences for students and educators when they see or hear such blatant essentialism, though often well intended. In the latest addition to my Choral Music: A Human Art Form thread, Theron Jenkins and I discuss this issue in hopes of bringing some alternative discourses to light for the purpose of making choral music more accessible and inviting to people from every background. After all, Choral Music does not inherently have a race, nor is group singing European. Music is INHERENTLY human. From all to all.
Literacy has value that transcends culture, and does not replace culture
Removing standards for honor choirs doesn’t help students
A well rounded music education can’t achieve all things for all people. Teachers must pick and choose with finite resources.
John Rutter, JD Frizell, Odell Ziegler, a Newsweek writer and an Epidemiologist walk into a bar…
What do all of these people have in common? They, along with several others, have made the Choralosophy TOP 10 of 2021. The episodes and post that created the most buzz this year are listed, linked and reviewed below!
John Rutter, on the Oxford Series, comfortably nailed down the top episode of the year. Shared hundreds of times as thousands tuned in to the choral legend’s wise words and delightful optimism and wisdom.
The rest of the episodes are listed in no particular order, partly because it was difficult to distinguish them, other than the seemed to drum up more interest than a typical episode. One of the many things I love about the Choralosophy audience, is that the diversity of topics on the list doesn’t surprise me at all. Podcast listeners tend to be voracious consumers of thought provoking and wide ranging conversations.
Top 10 episodes covered music literacy, the educational/choral community’s bungled response to Covid, crafting a conductor’s credo, political polarization, authentic communication in performance, and the nation’s racial divide.
Click the image below to find the episode!
Other highlights from 2021 included the show cracking half a MILLION downloads and streams as well as inching into the top 1.5% of all global podcasts. Thanks for listening, and keep the conversation going!
John Rutter, JD Frizell, Odell Ziegler, a Newsweek writer and an Epidemiologist walk into a bar…
What do all of these people have in common? They, along with several others, have made the Choralosophy TOP 10 of 2021. The episodes and post that created the most buzz this year are listed, linked and reviewed below!
John Rutter, on the Oxford Series, comfortably nailed down the top episode of the year. Shared hundreds of times as thousands tuned in to the choral legend’s wise words and delightful optimism and wisdom.
The rest of the episodes are listed in no particular order, partly because it was difficult to distinguish them, other than the seemed to drum up more interest than a typical episode. One of the many things I love about the Choralosophy audience, is that the diversity of topics on the list doesn’t surprise me at all. Podcast listeners tend to be voracious consumers of thought provoking and wide ranging conversations.
Top 10 episodes covered music literacy, the educational/choral community’s bungled response to Covid, crafting a conductor’s credo, political polarization, authentic communication in performance, and the nation’s racial divide.
Click the image below to find the episode!
Other highlights from 2021 included the show cracking half a MILLION downloads and streams as well as inching into the top 1.5% of all global podcasts. Thanks for listening, and keep the conversation going!
I believe one of the biggest goals is getting the students interested in singing choral music before we start trying to operate out of formality. How do we get students interested in something they are not familiar with?
Recently, I came across a shining light of logic, compassion and advocacy in the form of a ChoralNet article by Odell Zeigler IV. The article was shared far and wide, and it became clear to me right away that these ideas needed to be amplified on the show. I encourage you to read his short article, linked above, and THEN listen to this episode. I believe that this topic is critically important right now as we continue to grapple with what it really means to move the music education world in a more equitable direction. Are we focused on processes and root causes leading to improved outcomes later? Or are we focused on outcomes now while glossing over the processes? I appreciated Odell’s take as I read with excitement because he brings process solutions to the table, which is what we desperately need. Do you have students that aren’t comfortable using solfege, or singing with certain vowel formants? Don’t give up on them, or worse fall into the trap of “this isn’t for them!” They deserve a rich education, and all of its inherent challenges and opportunities for growth.
He has since dedicated his life to inspiring the next generation of young music educators. As a music teacher himself, he understands the impact his words and actions have on a new class of great musicians and hopes to pass along his empathetic approach to education.
Odell wouldn’t be here if he didn’t live and breathe music, but his true passion lies in building leaders for tomorrow. From every live performance to his work in the classroom, Odell works to move others forward so they can one day do the same.
One of the raging debates today in education centers around the ways in which we can expand access to fruits of high quality education to more students. And that is a wonderful debate to have, and an important one. However, a troubling strain of that song is the tendency to take the easy path toward equality: Attempts to include by EXCLUDING things. Headlines abound about school districts removing or lowering testing standards, or gifted programs citing the lack of equitable outcomes. In the music world, we talk of eliminating blind auditions or auditions all together. There are TONS of fair criticisms of standardized tests, or audition and screening practices for example, but those are problems that could be addressed to simply make a better, fairer, but still rigorous test. Where is that conversation? What if our focus was “how do I raise more people to the bar?” rather than implying without actually saying “we need to lower the bar or remove it?”
I say this is “taking the easy way out” because it absolves the institutions, and even worse, the politicians that oversee the budgets, of doing the HARD work of finding and solving the true barriers of access allowing more students to benefit from these programs. Cancelling the program is simply easier, leading to an appearance of equality, and makes no one actually better off.
Angel Eduardo
“We need to devise and develop other paths to prosperity, more robust social safety nets, and better education systems. We need to talk about solutions that will truly uplift those being harmed by our meritocratic obsession. But calling merit racist is not the way to do it. Meritocracy is a kind of tyranny, but merit still matters.”
Angel Eduardo
In this episode, my guest, Angel Eduardo takes the argument a step further and says the easy way out also erases the talents and merits of students of color. Giving voice to the often unexpressed concern of how young people might interpret hearing the implication that “the standards might be too high for you. So we are lowering them.” What types of long term impact may that have on the psyche?
This special episode is something a bit different, in that it is a recap of a shared experience. All the way back on Episode 17, Marques Garrett challenged me to intentionally find an opportunity to be an “only” in the room. I had reflected in that conversation that, as a white guy, I don’t think I’ve ever been the “only one” in a room. “I don’t know what that feels like.” Marques suggested that he thought that might be good for me to experience. I agreed. Then Covid happened and the “live on air” challenge had to be tabled for a bit.
Enter my friend Maria Ellis to the rescue. (Find Maria’s past episode 29 pt. 2) I had seen Maria’s great videos about her church, and thought that as a musician, there was no better way to experience a cultural growth moment than in Maria’s music rich church in St. Louis. So, we set it up! Off to St. Louis I went, and wow did I have a great time. I learned so much! While I can’t know everything there is to know about Maria’s cultural experience in one day, I now have a frame of reference. I real life, shared experience that can put future interactions in a perspective that I did not have before.
In this conversation, Soprano Deborah Stephens and I engage in an open and raw conversation about many aspects of identity and how it effects our concepts of self as well as how this effects our view of the music world. We hit the hot button topics of our own identities and how we see ourselves, tokenism, stereotypes in musical tastes, blind auditions, appropriation, “who is this music for?” and much more. You won’t want to miss a minute of this one!
Deborah Stephens graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Georgia in December 2019 with a Bachelors of Music in Voice Performance. She is currently in a Master of Music in Early Music, Oratorio, & Chamber Ensemble at Yale University. In September 2017, Deborah founded and began to direct VERITAS Vocal Ensemble, a small group of 10 UGA students passionate about choral singing. VERITAS has performed on the UGA Student Spotlight Concert, many faculty and student recitals, and hosted a joint-ensemble benefit concert to support music education. Deborah currently enjoys speaking engagements at universities and on music podcasts, has been featured by Early Music America, and performs with professional choral ensembles such as Kinnara, Coro Vocati, and the Lake Junaluska Singers, and is a sought after freelance soloist.
