Choir Fam Podcast
The Choir Fam Podcast is a venue for conversations about the current state of choral music. Hosts Dean Luethi and Matthew Myers seek to bring the worldwide choral community closer together through their discussions with a variety of guests who work with choir in its various forms. The goal of the podcast is to provide listeners with interesting tidbits of knowledge they could use in day-to-day choral rehearsals and to bring light to the ways that issues in the choral field are being observed and addressed.
Episodes
112 episodes
Ep. 101 - Developing Listening Skills and Fostering Empathy Through Singing - Ethan Sperry
“When people talk about what skills kids are lacking in America these days, two of the skills that come up a lot are the ability to listen to each other and have some empathy for each other. Some people would say it’s not just kids that are lac...
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Season 5
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48:07
Season 4 Wrap-Up
Thank you for listening to our show this season!!Here are the favorite choral pieces from our guests in the fourth season:St. John Passion, Johann Sebastian BachSt. Matthew Passion, Johann Sebas...
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Season 4
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19:26
Ep. 100 - Strengthening the Bond Between Composers and Choristers - Sarah Quartel
“For me, choral music is all about the people. I write for the choristers. I've gone through that phase in my life where I've written only for myself, where I had a lot of things I needed to express and every note that went on a page was for me...
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Season 4
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46:23
Ep. 99 - Exploring Passion and Expression Through Gospel Music - Trey McLaughlin
“No one cared about my accolades coming in as a freshman. It’s not enough just to be good, because everyone is good. It forced me not to ride on my natural ability and to buckle down to figure out things like theory, music history, and performa...
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Season 4
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49:38
Ep. 98 - Growing the Choral Community Through International Collaboration - Ken Steven
“In Indonesia, choral singing has just been really popular recently, maybe around ten years. It has become a lifestyle. Everyone wants to be part of a choir because choir is very interesting - you can go on tour, you can do concerts... What dri...
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Season 4
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47:23
Ep. 97 - Growing Cross-Cultural Appreciation Through Choral Music - Michael Barrett
“As choral conductors, we're first and foremost educators, and we have to realize that we have to come with compassion in everything that we do when we listen to choirs. All too often we sit there thinking, ‘the intonation wasn't so great, or m...
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Season 4
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45:09
Ep. 96 - Building the Culture of Choral Music in Your Community - David Fryling
Dr. David Fryling is director of choral activities at Hofstra University, where he conducts both the select
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Season 4
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51:37
Ep. 95 - Improvisation and Community from the Folk-Acoustic Tradition - Lissa Scheckenburger
“A lot of what I end up teaching with regards to all of music, but certainly improvisation, has to do with becoming comfortable. You can do all kinds of different technical exercises, improvisation exercises, conceptual brain project exercises,...
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Season 4
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54:24
Ep. 94 - Encouraging Musical Ownership for Middle School Singers - Karla McClain
“That's my job: to take the foundation of what they have – love of singing and basic vocal technique – and then just refine it, to challenge them to start being more musical artists themselves. I personally do a lot of giving the kids choices: ...
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Season 4
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47:13
Ep. 93 - Cultivating Confidence for Elementary Singers - Bethany Main
“My goal is that no child will leave my classroom thinking they can't sing. If I have a coworker say, ‘I can't sing,’ I'm like, ‘no, no. First, give me 15 minutes and a piano and I will show you that you can. Second, you can't say that because ...
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Season 4
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44:51
Ep. 92 - Developing Independent Musicianship in Choral and Instrumental Ensembles - Will Gunn
“I wanted to get kids to work more collaboratively. We say we’re a collaborative group, but the conductor is behind the piano teaching the choir parts rather than saying, ‘here's the part I want you to learn. Go learn it. Here are the expecta...
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Season 4
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50:34
Ep. 91 - Building Artistic Versatility Through Contemporary A Cappella - J.D. Frizzell
“At the end of that first year, I did a pops concert. I developed the formula that I use now, which is to make it sound a lot like the actual songs. You give a lot of soloists opportunities to sing solos, especially in the verses which are hard...
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Season 4
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47:06
Ep. 90 - Reinvigorating Historic Music with Modern Creativity - Robert Hollingworth
“Uniformity is a two-edged sword, isn't it? Within a choir you need uniformity or you're not going to get a good blend, but within that uniformity, I want as much individuality as possible. I do a lot of 16th-Century music, early 17th-Century m...
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Season 4
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52:30
Ep. 89 - Creating Choral Camaraderie on a Global Level - T. J. Harper
“The folks who I think are really doing incredible work around the world, not just for one festival or for one tour, but for decades, are the folks who are trying to literally make the world a better place through choral music. How many opportu...
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Season 4
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50:15
Ep. 88 - Prioritizing Representation in Choral Music - Matthew Chi Lee
“I haven’t moved exclusively to doing multicultural music in our classroom, but I have done a lot of music that has a positive message that they can relate to. If this song has nothing to do with them, no matter how much I love it, no matter ho...
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Season 4
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45:24
Ep. 87 - Sharing Stories to Stir the Soul - Tim Seelig
“From my first ACDA in 1991 to ACDA now: complete reversal. People are not afraid to perform something that moves the soul, and in 1991 nobody did it. Now people are digging in and not being afraid. I applaud all of my fellow choral conductors ...
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Season 4
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58:02
Ep. 86 - Honoring Diversity Through Historical Research - Elizabeth Schauer
“I have fallen deeply in love with looking at a piece, seeing what it is, and realizing that there are no real absolutes in music. There are no rules. You have to look at each piece of music for what it is and consider it in its historical and ...
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Season 4
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48:11
Ep. 85 - Choral Music and Personal Growth - Jonathan Talberg
“I grew up thinking that we should sound like the music we're singing. There was never one right way for me. There are those great choral traditions where they sing everything a certain way. I never wanted to be that way. We can do seven differ...
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Season 4
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58:48
Ep. 84 - Building Choral Skills from the Adjudication Table - Brett Epperson
“I’ve really enjoyed getting into classrooms to affirm my colleagues. I seek whenever I do a visit to say something that is both positive and true. I could just be positive, but if it’s not truthful, students can sense that. I’ve really enjoyed...
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Season 4
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45:46
Ep. 83 - Building Choral Excellence to Serve Communities - Joshua Cheney
"Choral programs don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in a place, and they exist in a place that serves a people. That people group is always bigger than choir. The first thing that you've gotta do is answer the question, 'how are my people, how...
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Season 4
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51:17
Ep. 82 - Inspiring and Motivating Adolescent Tenors and Basses - Vincent Oakes
“Octave displacement is a really big thing with adolescent singers. Make a game out of it - I’ll have them match me, match me up an octave, match me down an octave - versus scolding when you’re in the middle of rep and someone is singing too lo...
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Season 4
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48:55
Ep. 81 - Expanding Access to Choral Participation - Marcela Molina
“I started to see the possibilities of what a youth community choir could be. Seeing that profound impact on a young woman was very transformative for me. After two or three years, everything that I did had more layers. There was a new potentia...
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Season 4
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49:12
Ep. 80 - Bridging Artistry and Scholarship - Jessica Nápoles
“If a student has been unsuccessful at elementary and middle school, by the time they get to high school, it’s really hard to shift and course correct. But if they haven’t been successful at elementary and you get them at the middle school leve...
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Season 4
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50:12
Ep. 79 - Voice Pedagogy Concepts for a Variety of Genres - Ryan Deignan
“Contemporary commercial music is closer to the students’ everyday musical culture. There’s that component of culturally relevant pedagogy that both show choir and vocal jazz meet. They are a bit more naturally motivating to a majority of stude...
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Season 4
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56:10
Ep. 78 - Optimizing Choral Administration with a Booster Club - Cathy Britton
"I didn’t want to do any middle level teaching because of behavior, but I ended up teaching eight years at Patrick Henry Junior High. I loved every moment of it. I learned that if the kids loved and trusted you, they would do anything for you. ...
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Season 4
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49:51