Choralosophy

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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 much correspondence about content NOT created by me, than Dr. Marshaun Hymon’s February 2024 Choral Journal Article called “A Skills First Approach to the All-State Choir … Continue reading "Episode 184: Should We Stop Assessing Sight Reading at All State Choir? With Drs. Marshaun Hymon and Chantae Pittman"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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!"

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?"

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"