Inspiring words

Honestly, let’s just review Amanda Gorman‘s poem she delivered at the inauguration this month. To me, she is the embodiment of fire and magic, beauty and Blackness, hope and excellence. I’ve never been so inspired by a poet as I was by her.

Read the full text

Conducting

The American Choral Directors Association is presenting their virtual conference with a focus on “Diversity in Music” from March 17-20. I’m actually really looking forward to this conference for the chance to learn some new things, re-connect with friends, support my colleagues who are presenting, and be inspired by the excellence of our national choral community. Early registration ends January 27.

Register here

Singing

It’s all about guide tracks! Throughout the pandemic, singers In choirs around the world have been recording themselves singing individually at home so that their voices can be mixed into what is affectionately known as a “Virtual Choir.” We’ve been doing this for months, and it is no easy task for our singers who for the most part have very little studio experience and feel uncomfortably exposed and vulnerable while singing and recording alone.

In preparation for upcoming virtual choir projects for school and church, I like to create guide tracks with my vocals, giving choir members someone familiar to sing with when they record themselves. I try to model vocal technique, style, dynamics, diction, and articulation in my guide tracks. This work continues to both challenge and satisfy me.

Composition

Kwanzaa progress

I wasn’t yet able finish all the movements for my Kwanzaa set, but I DID complete a cool new canon for “Ujima” (collective work and responsibility). I taught it by wrote to my family over the Kwanzaa holiday, and we had so much fun singing and harmonizing it together. More to come soon!

For Fun

*Not only did I NOT kill the fresh basil plant I bought last year from Trader Joe’s. I actually got it to bloom!*

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Thanks to my students!

During this blessed week off from school for the Thanksgiving holiday break, I’m planning to try out some stuff my high school choral students have introduced to me through our daily check-in time:

Books by Sarah J. Maas – this author sparked several minutes of excited Zoom chatter in Chamber Singers, which was at once both deafening and delightful.

The Pentatonix Christmas Album – I know, I know. How have I NOT heard any Pentatonix Christmas albums yet!?

The Idiot by Elif Batuman – another one of the hottest books among my Chamber Singers.

According to one my my trusted Wolverine Chorus basses, Trader Joe’s Microwave Mac n Cheese + White Truffle Potato Chips = Truffle Mac n Cheese.

JackTrip Audio Software – might be a somewhat viable solution to the problem of Zoom latency issues. Here’s a link

Harry Styles – “Only Angel” is a favorite song of one of my sopranos. I love all the retro influence in this artist’s music. Might have to pick up his latest album on vinyl.

May you be inspired and blessed as we take time this week to give thanks for the loved ones whose presence we keenly feel, even when we’re apart.

Composition

New scores for Kwanzaa

Newly-revised official scores of “Umoja” and “Kujichagulia” are now available!

Choral directors: consider adding these cool Kwanzaa pieces to your choral music collections. Visit my website to listen to samples and order scores.

Now, to finish composing the rest of the set, hopefully by the end of this year!

Conducting

I am so excited to start seeing the first versions of the numerous video projects I’ve been working on for my choral students at Harvard-Westlake. I must say, I think my conducting practice has paid off: I actually like the way I look!

Singing

One of the most important adaptations I’ve made to my teaching this year is adding an individual voice coaching requirement for every one of my students. Teaching them 1-on-1 via Zoom has been eye-opening in many ways.

In addition to the benefit of getting to know my singers on a deeper level, my own vocal technique improves every time I work with my students. Individual voice coaching is one aspect of my work that I will keep long after the pandemic ends.

For Fun

It was after midnight when I just finished watching the Stray Kids live virtual concert with Felicity. She had asked me weeks ago if she could buy a ticket. I said yes, and asked her if I could watch it with her when it aired at 10pm PST on Saturday 11/21. It was AMAZING!!

Michael Jackson’s influence on the K-Pop genre is massive. Watching those young people sing and dance together with such joy and athleticism was breathtaking. The songs were super fun, the choreography was gorgeous, and the CG effects were astounding. My favorite songs were “Ta” and “Hellevator.” Felicity was so pumped up she couldn’t sleep afterward! I, on the other hand, was so tired that I pretty much passed out!

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Off to Italia!

The Harvard-Westlake Upper School Choirs and I are on tour in Italy from March 22 – April 1. We have 7 performances over 10 days, plus visits to the Accademia in Florence, the Roman Aqueduct in Spoleto, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, and more! Check out our performance schedule:

VENICE

Sunday, March 24 at noon
Church service at Basilica San Marco

Monday, March 25, mid-morning
School Exchange Concert
Mestre High School

TUSCANY

Tuesday, March 26 in the evening
Camigliano
Shared Concert with the Coro Giacomo Puccini

FLORENCE

Wednesday, March 27 at 7pm
Chiesa San Phillipo Neri
Formal Evening Concert

UMBRIA

Thursday, March 28 at 2:30pm
Basilica of San Francesco, Upper Basilica
Informal Concert

SPOLETO

Friday March, 29, late morning
13th Century Duomo
Duomo Portico
Informal Concert

ROME

Sunday, March 31 at 10:30am
St. Paul’s Within the Walls
American Episcopal Church
Service Participation and Concert

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Part of a world

As we have just finished celebrating the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and since Black History Month is right around the corner, here is a quote I shared with my Unitarian Universalist siblings at our recent UU MLK Choir Festival held at Pasadena’s Neighborhood Church. It’s a passage from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates:

“In other words, I was part of a world. And looking out, I had friends who too were part of other worlds – the world of Jews or New Yorkers, the world of Southerners or gay men, of immigrants, of Californians, of Native Americans, or a combination of any of these, worlds stitched into worlds like tapestry. And though I knew I could never, myself, be a native of any of these worlds, I knew that nothing so essentialist as race stood between us. I had read too much by then. And my eyes – my beautiful, precious eyes – were were growing stronger each day. And I saw that what divided me from the world was not anything intrinsic to us but the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named us matters more than anything we could ever actually do. In America, the injury is not in being born with darker skin, with fuller lips, with a broader nose, but in everything that happens after.”

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Finding home

On Saturday, April 28 at 7:30pm, I will direct a spring choral concert with the Harvard-Westlake Choirs entitled “I Will Arise.” Joined by composer, singer-songwriter, and folk music expert Shawn Kirchner, we explore the musical intersections between Scotch-Irish, Appalachian, and Black American cultures as we consider what it means to find home within ourselves when circumstances drive us far away from the physical homes we know and love. We learn what enables us to rise and redefine what the word “home” can mean and where home can exist. And we discover what binds us together in our search for that home, that longed-for place of simple beauty and peace and timelessness that frees us from despair, loss, and pain. We consider the colorful poetry of 19th century Irish poet William Butler Yeats as he describes his desire to go to such a place:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

– “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats

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