Like a parenthetical explanation, this page serves to explain a bit of how this site originated and where it’s possibly going. To date, “Practicing Choral Music: Ten ideas for the singer who doesn’t think they can practice on their own” has been viewed over 60,000 times by people all over the world. It was intended for an ensemble of 70, but I threw it onto a WordPress page one night (with a terrible title) and shared it on Facebook thinking my choral teacher friends might be interested in using it with their students. After the first 10,000 hits, my husband gently encouraged me to make a real site and start a blog.

But, as you well know, when you have a singular success with something, it can be a challenge to follow-up. So, instead of fearing the inevitable weaker second post, I will embrace the opportunity to share my insights and experience with any visitor to the site. All I can do is hope to be of service to my community of musicians, educators, and students by providing thought-provoking posts intended to educate and empower.

My prior writing and advocacy has been focused on teacher evaluations and high-stakes testing. If you’re interested, you can read my open letter to the governor of New York State here. You can hear one of my choirs and one of my children in this piece about the Common Core produced by American Radio Works here. You can see me at my school being interviewed about the Common Core here.

If you would like to make a suggestion about a topic you would like to read about related to either learning and teaching, choral music education, or education policy, please leave a note in the comments.

More posts coming soon!