I coach a liturgical sports team. Sounds bizarre, right? When we think about it, though, singers really are athletes. Singing (when done...

I joined my first performing ensemble at age 5, and from that point to the present, there's one thing that I hate with the burning...

Note: this is the first in a new series of posts focusing on a single choral-liturgical element, with notes about potential pitfalls and...

Smooth recovery from mistakes — those made by themselves, those made by the choir and those made by the clergy — is where directors earn...

Ever notice that intonation problems occur much more frequently on certain pitches? There's a reason for that, and although it's tricky...

While proper hydration and technique reduce the risk of vocal fatigue during most of the church year, Holy Week and Pascha really test...

It takes a lot of time for singers to learn proper breathing, but not because it's a novel action; we all breathe constantly, but...

Conducting gestures have a substantial impact on how singers breathe, not just when. Effective breath gestures assist the singers in...

A good general principle is this: the softer the dynamic, the smaller the gesture. I also find it effective to lower my hands slightly,...

Conducting is about far more than "keeping the beat"; conductors also use gestures to convey phrase shaping, tempo and dynamics. Choral...

The only way to learn how to do anything, other than by divine revelation, is to practice, practice, practice. Even professional choirs...

So...you need to grab choir pitches from the clergy. Oh Lawd! Talk about terrifying. Normally, directors can sneak in new pitches between...

Giving pitches to the choir is among directors' most important tasks, and like so many other things in Orthodoxy, there are several...

The vocal onset, or beginning of sound, has a huge impact on the rest of the musical phrase. An accurate onset can only happen when the...

In rehearsal, one of my non-negotiables is that singers must mark their own music, and I'd encourage every director to adopt this...

All choirs, especially amateur ensembles singing without instrumental accompaniment, struggle with intonation, and there's no easy fix....