My goals as a music teacher are to nurture a lifelong love of singing and choral music, to foster confidence in singers, and to build community.

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Everyone has the ability sing, and anyone who wants the opportunity to sing as part of a choir should have it because it benefits all. Studying, performing, and engaging with music deepens human connections and enhances empathy, and that should be denied to none. Too often, I hear someone express an insecurity when it comes to singing, and my instinct is to help them overcome that. I see my role as music teacher as that of someone who hones strengths and guides weaknesses toward becoming strengths. I praise positives and frame negatives as opportunities. I never want anyone who wants to sing feel like they can’t, and I want those who are comfortable singing to feel empowered to sing their best.

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While my goal for a concert is artistic excellence, producing a performance enjoyed by all involved – singers, instrumentalists, conductor, and audience alike – is my guiding principle. Early in my teaching, I tended to focus too much on being technically correct and would neglect the reason most of us are drawn to performing music – for the fun and joy of it. I now keep the enjoyment of making music at the forefront of my mind. I believe that singers enjoy performing when they feel confident about their ability to sing a piece of music. I help singers feel secure by structuring the rehearsal process so that skills are built over time. I like to craft warm-ups that build aural skills and technique, often in direct response to a tricky aspect of repertoire we’re rehearsing. An important factor in building ensemble confidence is repertoire selection, especially as concerns difficulty. If singers feel good about the music they’re producing, their comfort and confidence will grow. “Feeling good” can take a number of paths – whether it’s being able to sight-read on the first read-through, knowing how difficult a piece is and rising to the challenge, or experiencing a beautiful concert performance – I want my singers to feel a sense of accomplishment. It’s with this in mind that I select repertoire that seeks to reinforce, enhance, and stretch my singers’ abilities.

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While I love working with choirs of all types, it is especially important to me to work to raise the profile of treble choirs, especially those that are female-identifying. Female-identifying treble ensembles have long been relegated to the bottom of the choral hierarchy, and it’s my goal to upend the hierarchy in favor of a model that embraces equity among choir types. By choosing and commissioning meaningful repertoire for treble ensembles, seeking out and creating opportunities for treble choirs to perform, and working with the institutions that currently reinforce the hierarchy to move toward a model of equity the perception of treble choirs and the choral hierarchy can be changed.

 

I believe in a collaborative environment for creating music, responsive to the unique needs of an ensemble. Encouraging input from singers and collaborators – whether that be questions during the rehearsal process, repertoire suggestions, concert theme ideas, social activities, etc. – fosters both community within the ensemble and prompts a sense of investment in those that belong to it. A guiding philosophy of mine is to enjoy the people with whom I am making music. It’s important to incorporate socially-geared exercises with ensemble members to get to know them as people. When appropriate, I like to use humor when leading rehearsals; I feel like this allows the ensemble to get to know me better. I try to learn and use names as early as I can so at the very least, ensemble members become accustomed to who is singing with them. Encouraging singers to get to know everyone involved helps an ensemble establish its personality. Gearing performances toward a group’s interests and personality encourages a sense of enjoyment. Audiences are drawn to ensembles that are having fun while performing, which builds a sense of community between ensemble and audience. When singers and audiences are invested, an ensemble can flourish.