Voice Spring 2021

Voice THE

Return to Revenue Beating Burnout New Rights Challenges

Choruses Look Beyond Covid

Vo l u m e 4 4 N u m b e r 2 S p r i n g 2 0 21

Voice T he

Editor Liza W. Beth

Publisher Catherine Dehoney Managing Editor Don Lee

contents F E A T URES

10 | Trendspotting: Choruses Look

Beyond COVID

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———— President & CEO Catherine Dehoney Vice President of Communications and Membership Liza W. Beth Programs and Membership Associate Karyn Castro Associate Director of Philanthropy André Coleman Operations Coordinator Casey Cook Director of Finance and Operations Anne Grobstich Erps Director of Member Services and Programs Christie McKinney Annual Fund and Corporate Engagement Manager KellyAnn Nelson Associate Director of Communications Mike Rowan

by Holly J. Kellar

24 | Navigating New Rights Challenges with Online Concerts

33

Insights

by Catherine Dehoney

An Interview with Conductor Amelia Nagoski

D E P A R T ME N T S

C h o r u s A m e r i ca

columns 3

From the President & CEO

Re-Emerging into a Different World 4

Chorus Connections Member News, Events, & Announcements

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Insights

Reimagining Relevance: The Key to Returning to Revenue

by Matt Lehrman

This publication is supported with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

by Don Lee

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Beating Burnout and the Stress Cycle

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On the Cover: Conspirare explores the urgency of breathing and singing together in the March 17 premiere of “Holding Our Breath” by composer Carlos Cordero and poet Julie Flanders.

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Nothing can silence the spirit and passion of the worldwide choral community.

Berkshire Choral International creates inspiring experiences for choral singers.

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from the president & ceo

Re-Emerging into a Different World Let’s leverage what we learned during the pandemic for more impact and relevance in the future.

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f ever there were a spring to embrace well-worn metaphors of hope, renewal, rebirth, this is the one. After a year of isolation and disruption, the vaccine rollout brings the promise of a bright new day when we can be together again, safely and in person, with family, friends, and choruses.

I’ve also been drawn to a more surprising, but equally apt, metaphor: the coming of the Brood X cicadas. Scientists and the media are positively giddy about the once-every-17-years arrival of billions of cicadas this May, particularly here in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. They emerge boisterously into a world that is quite different from what it was when they went underground in 2004 and make the most of the time they have, singing all the while.

I realize that the cicada invasion makes some people cringe, but I can’t help but see a comparison to how choruses will emerge to resume in-person operations into a world that is quite different from what it was last spring. As choruses plan their re-emergence, my hope is that the field leverages the lessons learned in this historic time for even greater community impact and relevance in the future.

One obvious lesson: The COVID-19 shutdowns propelled us into a digital-first society, with far more reliance on virtual engagement.

We’ve seen beautifully produced performances that meld choral performance with other mediums to amplify the message and impact.

Along with becoming a potential revenue source, live-streamed and recorded content can drive audience engagement and loyalty.

While I am willing to bet that there are zero choral singers who prefer virtual singing to singing in person with others, online platforms and tools can help build individual vocal skills and foster deeper connection among chorus members.

More broadly, choruses have an opportunity to be part of addressing some of the past year’s most serious outcomes: the effects of social isolation and increasing social divides in our communities.

I believe choruses have a responsibility to help their communities come back stronger.

The pandemic and its economic impact, racially motivated violence, and the increased societal conversation around social justice shine a very bright light on division and inequity.

We know from talking to chorus leaders and from the positive response to the launch of our ADEI Learning Lab that many choruses have taken this time when regular operations are paused to think more deeply about these issues.

Because choruses represent an art form that is entirely built around bringing people together, I believe they have a responsibility to help their communities come back stronger.

Recently, Metris Arts Consulting, PolicyLink, and University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine released a research report, We-Making: How Arts & Culture Unite People to Work Toward Community Well-Being. It describes how the arts can foster community social cohesion with an equity focus. The conceptual framework starts with a shared community understanding of oppression and problems—something that I believe we may be closer to now than a year ago. The report then lays out a theory of change that is illustrated by carefully documented case studies.

I was struck by how the conclusions are well supported by Chorus America’s own 2019 Chorus Impact Study research. It starts with strategies that arts and culture activity particularly advance, such as these: • Connecting people across difference • Including all types of community members • Having a consistent presence in the community • Aligning with community change goals to reinforce desired impacts These strategies then influence change in these areas: • People’s mindset in understanding each other’s experiences • Engagement in civic life • Enhancement of social capital The findings in the 2019 Chorus Impact Study that detail choral singers’ characteristics of tolerance for differences and civic engagement are perfectly aligned with advancing this theory of change— just replace the words “arts and culture” in the report title with “choruses”! The authors of the “We-Making” report even go so far as to use the analogy of singing in harmony: From here, we build and nurture social cohesion. Like a barbershop quartet or R&B group, harmonizing together, we understand social cohesion as a group of dimensions: relationships, sense of belonging, orientation toward the common good, and willingness to participate. Each one a singer in the quartet, held together by trust.

As we all look forward to a return to being together safely, my hope is that we come out boldly, loudly, and positively, seizing the moment as best we can and filling our communities with beauty, inspiration, and actions that bring a brighter future for all.

Catherine Dehoney President & CEO, Chorus America www.chorusamerica.org

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The Voice, Spring 2021

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n December 21, the Bay Area’s WomenSing and Vancouver-based Elektra Women’s Choir presented an original animated full-length concert, The Light of Hope Returning. The 70-minute American folk oratorio, inspired by sacred and secular midwinter traditions, was commissioned from composer Shawn Kirchner

by WomenSing and premiered in concert in December 2019.

During the pandemic, the two ensembles teamed up in a crossborder collaboration to record the piece and engaged Syrian-American visual artist Kevork Mourad to create animations for the entire work. The Light of Hope Returning was made available on YouTube until January 6 and will return this holiday season.

The 2021 American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Conference saw the premieres of the two winning entries of the ACDA Genesis Prize, a collaborative composition competition organized to provide an outlet

for connection and artmaking in the midst of the pandemic. The video premiere performances of Kyle Pederson’s “Call Across”—with text by Chorus America board chair Brian Newhouse— and Carlos Cordero’s “Holding Our Breath”—with text by October Project’s Julie Flanders—were given by Austin-based ensemble Conspirare, which co-hosted the March 17 RE:Genesis virtual premiere event, which included conversation with all of the participating artists.

On May 21, the Washington Master Chorale will present the world premiere of Out of the Ashes of the Holocaust, commissioned from composer Joshua Fishbein. The cantata recounts the story of Fishbein’s grandmother and her family’s struggle to survive during the Holocaust, when they were hidden by a Christian family in the mountains of Nazi-occupied Greece.

On January 27, the New York City ensemble Voices of Ascension presented the premiere of Astronautica: Voices of Women in Space, a new commission featuring nine women composers

Choral Leaders Launch New Radio Programs

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he airwaves of local radio stations are welcoming a couple new programs hosted by entrepreneurs in the choral community.

These projects cover topics beyond choral music, highlighting connections between genres of music and examining critical questions.

Maria Ellis, community engagement manager of the St. Louis Children’s Choirs, originated Bach & Beyoncé, a weekly program that explores different corners of the music world, from choral to opera to Cardi B. Ellis also features themed episodes on topics like Black artists, women in music, and St. Louis history and culture. Bach & Beyoncé is hosted on Classic 107.3, a unique community-owned station that serves as a home for the St. Louis fine arts and performing arts scene.

and a libretto drawn from the words of 16 women astronauts who have traveled in outer space, performed by a trio of women singers.

Astronautica is the first work as part of a new initiative for vocal chamber ensembles dedicated to exploring new horizons, ideas, and diverse culturally responsive connections.

C Anthony Trecek-King, resident conductor of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, hosts The Silent Canon, celebrating the important, but long-ignored, contributions of Black composers, conductors, and musicians to the canon of classical music. While mainly highlighting instrumental works, Trecek-King aims to feature singing on every show. The Silent Canon is produced by KVNO Classical 90.7, a public station at the University of NebraskaOmaha—Trecek-King’s alma mater—in partnership with the Omaha Symphony.

On February 24, the Providence Singers presented the first recorded performance of Ola Gjeilo’s “Upon Westminster Bridge.” The chorus previously commissioned the work and gave its premiere concert performance in May 2017 with Gjeilo at the piano. n

Awards

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he 2021 Grammy Music Educator Award was given to choral director Jeffrey Allen Murdock (pictured).

Murdock serves as assistant professor of music and associate director of choral activities at the University of Arkansas.

Other 2021 Grammy winners in the choral community include the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and UCLA Chamber Singers, who won Best Choral Performance for their recording of Richard Danielpour’s oratorio The Passion

Resources for the AAPI C ommunit y

of Yeshua. Chorus America board member Dashon Burton and frequent professional choral singer Sarah Brailey received the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album award for Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers (pictured) won the first Grammy Award in their 150-year history, taking home the award for Best Roots Gospel Album for Celebrating Fisk! (The 150th Anniversary Album).

New York City-based MasterVoices was nominated for a 2021 Drama League Award in the category of Outstanding Digital Concert u

horus America stands with the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in response to the recent rise in antiAsian violence and in acknowledging the longstanding, structural nature of anti-Asian racism. With generous help from members of our AAPI community who shared their recommendations with us, we have compiled a list of resources for further learning and support: • 18 Million Rising—An organization promoting AAPI civic engagement, influence, and movement via the power of technology and social media • A nti-Asian Violence Resources—A comprehensive collection of resources gathered to help individuals educate others, take action, donate, and more • A sian Musical Voices of America—An organization that builds community among selfidentified Asian Americans working and creating in classical music and engages in activism to lift up BIPOC musical voices working and creating within the field • A sian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)—An organization fighting for civil rights and empowering Asian Americans to create a more just America for all • How to take action against anti-Asian racism at work and in your personal life— CNBC.com article sourcing advice from AAPI advocates about what you can do to help stop anti-Asian racism and support the Asian community right now • Hollaback! Bystander Intervention Training—Free bystander intervention training to stop anti-Asian and xenophobic harassment This collection of resources with links can be found on our High Notes blog at chorusamerica.org/publications/high-notes. We welcome your additional recommendations, which you can send to us at membership@ chorusamerica.org.

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Virtual Programs Mark One-Year Anniversary of COVID-19 Pandemic

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arch 11 marked one full year since the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic.

The choral community, still not able to welcome audiences back to concert halls for performances just yet, recognized this somber milestone with several virtual programs.

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City (pictured) collaborated with Lincoln Center to film a performance of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s signature songs, in tribute to those lost to the pandemic. The video, filmed outdoors on Lincoln Center’s campus, was released on March 14 to coincide with the official day of remembrance for COVID-19 victims in New

chorus connections Production for their presentation of Myths and Hymns, a multi-genre theatrical song cycle conceived by artistic director Ted Sperling with music and lyrics from composer Adam Guettel. Award winners will be announced on May 21.

Atlanta Music Project and co-founder/ chief executive officer Dantes Rameau received a $50,000 Infusion Award, given to “leaders and programs creating new musical platforms and pathways in their com-

York City and the one-year anniversary of the city’s first reported virus-related death.

On March 14, the Twin Cities-based National Lutheran Choir presented Hope Lives!, a program of hymns, poetry, and songs of praise to welcome a new season of hope and possibility, featuring guest artists from Chicago, the Keith Hampton Singers. The production included a mix of performances by small groups of masked, socially distanced singers and virtual choir-style videos from individuals singing from home.

The Pittsburgh Concert Chorale (PCC) offered a virtual memorial concert on March 26, performing Mozart’s Requiem in memory of all lives lost to COVID-19. Five area high school choruses joined PCC for the tribute.

munities,” from the Lewis Prize for Music.

New England Conservatory received a Catalyzing Creative Aging seed grant from the National Guild for Community Arts Education and Lifetime Arts, which will be used to fund a new virtual choir for seniors.

Former Chorus America board member Joyce Garrett and Washington Performing Arts Men and Women of the Gospel artistic director Theodore Thorpe III were honored at the 6th DMV (District-MarylandVirginia) Musicians and Singers Fellowship Banquet on January 25. n

Appointments and Retirements

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nthony Trecek-King (pictured) has recently been appointed to two positions— as a resident conductor of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and associate professor of choral music and director of choral activities at the Hartt School, University of Hartford.

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The Voice, Spring 2021

Trecek-King previously served as artistic director of the Boston Children’s Chorus for 13 years and is currently a Chorus America board member.

Tori Cook stepped down from Chorus Connection after four years as the organization’s director of sales and marketing.

Cook continues as a board member of the Greater Boston Choral Consortium and a singer with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

The Phoenix Chorale named Mary Deissler (pictured) as interim executive director. A former Handel and Haydn Society CEO and Chorus America board chair, Deissler brings years of leadership experience in classical performing arts organizations. She steps in for former CEO Jen Rogers (pictured), who departed in January after nearly 15 years with the organization.

Denver-based Kantorei has appointed M. Roger Holland II (pictured) for a three-year engagement as the ensemble’s artist-inresidence, beginning with the 2021–22 season. Holland is a teaching assistant professor in music and religion and director of the Spirituals Project at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver, and previously served as artist-in-residence and director of the Union Gospel Choir.

The Orpheus Chamber Singers (Dallas) announced the appointment of J.D. Burnett (pictured) as their next artistic director. Burnett, also the founding artistic director of the Atlanta-based professional chorus Kinnara and associate director of choral activities at the University of Georgia, will assume his role with Orpheus u

Choruses Make History in Inauguration Ceremonies

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he 2021 United States presidential and vicepresidential inauguration ceremonies were like none ever seen before. As many traditional festivities were moved to a virtual-only format to avoid the gathering of crowds, several choruses took part in this historic moment.

The Washington Chorus and the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles were part of “Parade Across America,” performing with the iconic band Earth, Wind, and Fire. The Trans Chorus of LA’s performance was also the first all-trans chorus appearance at a presidential inauguration. Alumni, family, and friends of Commonwealth Youthchoirs were featured in “Celebrating America,” a nationally televised evening concert on January 20. Singers recorded backing vocals and filmed themselves at various landmarks around the country as part of singer Demi Lovato’s performance of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.”

I n M emoriam Alan Dworsky, founder of Popplestone Foundation, a significant funder of Chorus America for the past 20 years, died January 19 at the age of 90. Choral singing was a passionate interest for Dworsky, who was also an avid supporter of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. In 2011, Chorus America honored Popplestone Foundation with the Michael Korn Founders Award for Philanthropic Contribution to the Arts. President and CEO Catherine Dehoney shares the following reflection on Dworsky and the impact of his philanthropy on Chorus America: In December 2001, Chorus America’s former president Ann Meier Baker received an unexpected phone call from a gentleman named Alan Dworsky, offering a major gift through his foundation, Popplestone Foundation. That wonderful surprise call began a special relationship with Alan and his wife, Suzanne, which we have treasured for more than 20 years and which continues with the foundation today. Alan was an enthusiastic, consistent, generous investor in our core programs; simply put, we would not be where we are today without Alan Dworsky.

Alan was brilliant, shrewd, kind, and didn’t suffer fools. I always looked forward to my annual meeting with him and Suzanne over lunch in Boston, when we reviewed highlights of Chorus America’s year. Alan focused on the budget and asked good questions. I always left feeling so proud that Chorus America had earned his support and trust and that we were able to help the Dworskys extend their commitment to choral music.

Alan was especially fascinated in how choral singing promoted the academic and social growth of children and youth, and how singing brings people together in spite of their differences.

He often suggested to me, only half-joking, that Chorus America start a “mixed” chorus for Republicans and Democrats working in the Capitol. This quote from his obituary in the Boston Globe captures his philosophy: “He believed the voice is the original instrument and a chorus is an example of democracy in action with people of all backgrounds coming together.”

May it always be so.

John Hoyt Stookey, who in 1982 founded Berkshire Choral International, died January 31, two days after his 91st birthday, from complications of COVID-19.

Stookey’s vision guided Berkshire Choral in

becoming a vibrant community for committed amateur singers to rehearse and perform under the batons of the world’s leading conductors in immersive choral experiences around the world. In addition to serving on Chorus America’s board of directors, Stookey was honored with the 2012 Chorus America Distinguished Service Award. Berkshire Choral president Steven F. Smith offers this remembrance of Stookey and his contribution to the field: John Stookey possessed an uncommon blend of corporate business acumen, nonprofit innovative spirit, and pure love of the choral tradition.

In founding Berkshire Choral, he had a vision of creating world-class musical experiences that inspired more than 9,000 avid amateur singers over the past four decades. Sharp as a tack at 90, John welcomed me to BCI last year over a three-hour lunch armed with spreadsheets, bold opinions, and tremendous warmth. He was a paragon of the values of civic engagement and artistic commitment that everyone in our field tries to meet.

Jerold Ottley, who directed the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square for over 25 years and formerly served on the Chorus America board, died February 21 at the age of 86 from complications of COVID-19.

Ottley was instrumental in expanding and refining many aspects of the famed Tabernacle Choir during his tenure, including repertoire, touring, and recording and broadcasting, and stayed on after his retirement with his wife, JoAnn, as the inaugural directors of the Tabernacle Choir Training School under the direction of his successor, current Chorus America board member Craig Jessop. Jessop shares a few words reflecting on Ottley’s legacy: Dr. Jerold Ottley was a man of immense musical talent, great humility, and humanity, possessing a love of people and an understanding of the power of music and the human voice. He was a builder of institutions and people. He brought the Tabernacle Choir into the 21st century, and upon his retirement in 1999, he had improved every aspect of the mission and work of the Choir. A former board member of Chorus America, he will long be remembered and revered as one of the great conductors of one of America’s oldest choral traditions. For me, he was teacher, mentor, and friend—and one to whom I will always be grateful.

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N ew and Noteworth y at C horus America ADEI Learning Lab Launches This spring, Chorus America introduced the ADEI Learning Lab, a four-week experiential online learning program teaching foundational knowledge in access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI). The Learning Lab is specifically designed for white choral leaders seeking to address structural racism in their organizations and become better allies to their BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) colleagues.

The inaugural cohort—which meets May 3– June 2—sold out quickly, prompting a waitlist for the program’s next available offering. For more information and waitlist sign-up, visit chorusamerica.org/adei-learning-lab.

The Learning Lab is the first in a series of new ADEI programs to more specifically serve the needs of distinct cultural affinity groups; future programs include a leadership development program tailored to self-identifying BIPOC leaders.

Hundreds Attend First-Ever Winter Conference In response to the choral field’s need for more frequent convenings to keep up with the changing landscape brought on by COVID-19, Chorus America hosted its first-ever Winter Conference, February 11–12. Winter Conference brought together over 500 participants for two days of plenary and breakout sessions, networking, and interactive events celebrating the choral community. The 2021 Summer Conference will be held June 16–18, the time of year that Chorus America has traditionally held its Conference annually. For more information and registration, visit chorusamerica.org/conf2021.

Announcing Music Education Collaboration Grants Program Chorus America is thrilled to announce the new Chorus America Music Education Collaboration Grants program, supporting collaborations between community choruses and schools and providing greater access to choral music education for young people.

The $2 million program includes $900,000 in subgrants to choruses, along with workshops, peer learning, music education access mapping, and other initiatives. Chorus America will subgrant two-year grants ranging from $15,000–$50,000 to 24 choruses. More information about the program and application process will be available in late Spring 2021.

The Chorus America Music Education Collaboration Grants program is made possible

by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

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The Voice, Spring 2021

chorus connections effective January 1, 2022, following the retirement of founder Donald Krehbiel (pictured).

The Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, Oakland, California, appointed Keri Butkevich (pictured) as its new executive director.

Butkevich brings over 30 years of experience as a choral and

Releases

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he Dallas-based Verdigris Ensemble has created the first “programmable” piece of music to be sold using blockchain, the same technology that powers Bitcoin.

With blockchain, coding can be inserted into a digital artwork to prove who created it and who owns it, opening up a new potential revenue stream for artists who can sell their work to buyers interested in owning verifiable unique digital artworks, called “crypto art.” Nicholas Reeves’ composition Betty’s Notebook, premiered by Verdigris in 2019, uses historical accounts of Betty Klenck Brown, who, at the age of 15, recorded what she believes were Amelia Earhart’s distress calls over her shortwave radio.

Verdigris’ recording of Betty’s Notebook utilizes technology that enables a digital work of art or music to be composed of various “layers,” each of which can be adjusted to

music educator, most recently serving as executive director and CEO of the Oakland Youth Chorus.

The Mystic (Connecticut) River Chorale named Frank R. Zilinyi (pictured) as its new artistic director. Zilinyi, who previously served as the Chorale’s associate artistic director and accompanist, succeeds Frank Martignetti (pictured), who stepped down in January 2021 after 13 seasons. n

alter the resulting composite “master” work. In Betty’s Notebook, these programmable layers include the sonic quality of the chorus, narration fragments taken from an interview with Betty, and sounds that mimic interference while turning a radio knob. Changes in the layers are also reflected in the work’s visual album art. The master work and each layer can be sold to separate owners using a nonfungible token (known as NFTs) which is tracked on the blockchain. While all parties can still experience the work as a whole, each layer can only be manipulated by the owner.

The Santa Fe Desert Chorale released a new recording of Rachmaninoff ’s iconic a cappella choral work All-Night Vigil, Op. 37, widely known as the “Vespers.”

With the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh released a new recording of Beethoven’s

Chorus America Announces Development Staffing Updates

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ith great excitement, Chorus America announces two updates to its Development team, as existing staff members take on new roles to support the organization’s growing programmatic and fundraising activities.

André Coleman takes on the position of associate director of philanthropy, continuing to provide leadership in working towards the organization’s fundraising goals, with an increased emphasis on relationships with foundation and government funders. André will play a key role working with Chorus America’s new Music Education Collaboration Grants program, which will support collaborations between community choruses and schools over a two-year period.

KellyAnn Nelson moves from part-time to full-time and takes on the new position of annual fund and corporate engagement manager.

In this new role, KellyAnn will continue working closely with Chorus America’s corporate partners to identify alignment opportunities, with new responsibilities managing the organization’s individual giving program.

These Development staffing updates will help to strengthen Chorus America’s ability to offer transformative programs and services to choruses and leaders in the choral field, and to deepen relationships with the many valued philanthropic partners that provide essential support to this work.

Symphony No. 9, helping to celebrate the Symphony’s 125th anniversary year.

Cappella Romana, based in Portland, Oregon, released Hymns of Kassianí, featuring 9th-century music from the world’s earliestknown female composer, including material that was recorded for the first time.

The Crossing (Philadelphia) released three recordings: Rising, containing selections from the ensemble’s archive of live concert recordings, in December; The Tower and the Garden, featuring three works written for and premiered by the ensemble, in February; and A Native Hill, a concertlength commissioned work from composer Gavin Bryars, in April.

In lieu of a Trans Voices Festival that had to be shelved, six member choruses of GALA Choruses came together to produce a virtual performance in observation of National Trans Day of Resilience.

The production, entitled ROSES: The Past, Present, and Future of Trans Resilience, aired on YouTube on November 21 with ASL interpretation and closed captions in English and Spanish. n

Chen Yi, Zanaida Robles, and chair Stacy Garrop. In addition, all composers who submit an entry will be invited to take part in a conversation with Garrop about the business side of composing and navigating a career as a female composer.

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wo recently launched composer competitions with creative models seek to expand their impact beyond a typical prize and premiere for the winning entry.

MELISSA DUNPHY

MARQUES L. A. GARRETT ERIC NELSON

Chicago a cappella and the Kansas City Chorale have jointly organized HerVoice, a competition for emerging women composers. One selected winner will receive personal mentorship and feedback on her submitted piece via virtual one-on-ones with the selection committee, comprising Chicago a cappella artistic director John William Trotter, Kansas City Chorale artistic director Charles Bruffy, and composers

JOSHUA FISHBEIN

KEVIN SIEGFRIED

Visit our website to see new works by…

Composer Competitions Explore Opportunities for Deeper Impact

The Dallas Street Choir established the Home Is… Composition Contest for Emerging Composers, encouraging the creation of original songs and choral works that raise awareness about homelessness and bring art to those affected by homelessness. The competition has two categories: entries for any standard choral voicing and unison entries. The winning piece in the latter category will receive a performance by the Choir. Applicants may be housed or unhoused, of any age, and submissions in all genres are accepted.

VOYAGES

NEW by Robert Convery Based on a cycle of poems by Hart Crane. Commissioned and performed by Grammy winning conductor Donald Nally and The Crossing Choir.

• interviews • scrolling scores • composer bios

BRANDON A. BOYD

DAVID CONTE

FRANK FERKO

• sample pdfs

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Trendspotting:

Choruses Look Beyond COVID

During the pandemic, Kellie Walsh, artistic director of the Shallaway Youth Choir of Newfoundland and Labrador, has learned having a Plan B is no longer enough; you need Plan A, B, C, and D.

Across North America and around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the choral landscape.

A year later, hope is on the horizon, with vaccinations happening and tentative first steps to slowly reopen entertainment venues. But choral leaders know that the reverberations of the pandemic will be felt for years to come. We asked six choral leaders to give us their thoughts on what the future will bring, and the lessons of the past year.

BY HOLLY J. KELL AR

10 The Voice, Spring 2021

The digital concert hall: Many are saying it’s here to stay. What will be its role once in-person concerts are possible again?

What new advances do you expect?

Chris Verdugo, executive director, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus: I do believe that it is here to stay. It’s incumbent upon us to create additional content that speaks to whatever we’re presenting. We did an hour-long virtual musical event which included a tribute video to the Artists Portal at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park, and we would never have been able to provide that content in the theater. People weren’t going to sit and watch a 10-minute mini-documentary.

Connecting to singers: No one considers virtual choirs and Zoom rehearsals a substitute for singing in person, but what’s worth continuing? How much difference will technological advances make? How are you thinking about rebuilding membership?

Walsh: Many choral conductors have said they’ve seen a singer who, at an in-person rehearsal, has been shy or not talking or sharing. But on this virtual platform, you open up that chat and all of a sudden you see a different personality.

I work with a choir in the Indigenous communities of Nunatsiavut in Labrador, the northernmost part of our province. The communities are very remote and we’ve usually been able to all rehearse together only once or twice a year. Never before did I think about coming together on Zoom.

Now we can meet more regularly.

Aisha Moody, chief program officer, Atlanta Music Project (AMP): I don’t think rebuilding membership will be a problem. I think people will be so excited to commune with others again that they’ll probably u

O u r pa n e l Tenor Jacob Christopher joined professional men’s ensemble Cantus in 2016. He was a founding member of Manhattan Chorale and previously sang with Music of the Baroque, Wicker Park Choral Singers, and as a chorister with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. During the pandemic, Jacob bought a stationary bike that now serves as “a beautiful decoration” in his bedroom.

Tori Cook is a board member at large with the Greater Boston Choral Consortium and sings with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Previously, she served as the director of sales and marketing at Chorus Connection, music director of the Harborlight Show Chorus, and president of Chorus pro Musica. While sheltering in place, she pledged to finally live up to her last name and learn how to cook.

Aisha Moody is co-founder and chief program officer of the Atlanta Music Project (AMP), which provides intensive music education to underserved youth. She is an alumna of the Sistema Fellows Program, which is a collaboration between New England Conservatory and TED, and a former awardwinning public school music educator. She thrived while working from home and enjoyed making her home her sanctuary.

© Starlic Williams

Adding context with film or video will make our performances richer.

Tori Cook, board member at large, Greater Boston Choral Consortium: I think that choruses will primarily be using it as a marketing tool and also an accessibility tool.

A lot of people don’t necessarily have access to a concert hall. Choruses want to be able to provide access to anyone, anywhere.

Kellie Walsh, artistic director, Lady Cove Women’s Choir, Shallaway Youth Choir, and Youth Choir Ullûgiagatsuk of Newfoundland and Labrador: I’ve had so many emails from parents saying, “I never before got to sit with my child and watch as they see themselves on stage.” My women’s choir never, ever got a chance to be in community and watch their performance together. It’s really exciting for the performers to see themselves.

Damien Sneed, artistic director, Chorale Le Chateau, New York: I think people still want to be able to sit wherever they are— driving, riding on a plane, on Amtrak, the subway—listening and watching and seeing something new. But I think the price point for tickets will need to go up, because people value the arts, music, and live performances. There’s a lot of content that’s already out there for free but people will want new content. The only way they’ll get that is if each person on the artistic team gets paid—the musicians as well as the writers, publishers, composers, and lyricists.

Multi-genre recording artist, conductor, composer, and arranger Damien Sneed is artistic director and founder of professional ensemble Chorale Le Chateau and is currently a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music and artist-in-residence at Michigan State University. Damien got his pandemic puppy named Dante on September 1.

Chris Verdugo is the executive director of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and the country’s first LGBTQ Center for the Arts. He previously served as executive director and chief executive officer of the Gay Men’s Chorus of LA and has also sung with the South Florida and Miami Beach Gay Men’s Choruses. During the pandemic, when not remodeling his house, Chris spent his time hiking while listening to audio books.

Kellie Walsh is the founder and artistic director of the Lady Cove Women’s Choir, artistic director of the Shallaway Youth Choir of Newfoundland and Labrador, cofounder and now artistic director emeritus of Newman Sound Men’s Choir, the past president of Canada’s national choral organization, Choral Canada, and most recently co-founder of the Youth Choir Ullûgiagatsuk from Nunatsiavut, Labrador. In the past year she started working on her PhD, exploring how COVID-19 will eventually change choral music.

www.chorusamerica.org

11

Aisha Moody’s Atlanta Music Project Choir learns about expectations for the semester in a virtual group meeting.

Choruses Look Beyond COVID flock at the opportunity to come back. It has been daunting for a lot of people who thrive off of the energy of others and just don’t know how to get that online, so unfortunately they decided, “I’ll just sit this one out.” But when they’re able to go back in person and connect to people, they’re going to do it. This is also a chance for choruses to reinvent themselves and bring in people that may not have been part of a choir before.

Cook: There’s a certain social element of coming together for weekly rehearsals.

We’ve done a lot of fun and creative things to help build our community—anything from online trivia to board games to book clubs to recipe exchanges. During summers when we’re off, or not meeting every week for rehearsals, choruses may try to do some of this virtual programming to keep their singers connected or retain them for 12 The Voice, Spring 2021

the next season. I can see virtual options playing a purpose in recruiting and retention needs.

Verdugo: We’ve lost members who have lost their jobs, couldn’t afford rent, and moved out of San Francisco, but that doesn’t mean they’ve left the chorus. They will still show up on Mondays or to different events

I think now people are even more interested and anxious to emerge in a different part of the world—different climate, different culture.

It’s like a world Renaissance.

–Damien Sneed

like movie and game nights. I think it’ll be incumbent upon us to figure out how we keep them connected to their choral family. We believe that there will be a pent-up demand, not just for art, but for community and being with one another.

We have all been robbed of meeting new people. That’s one of the things that keeps us alive as human beings and nurses our souls: new relationships.

Rethinking mission: What insights has the absence of in-person music-making given you about the value of choral music or about what a choral music organization has to offer besides music?

Sneed: I think everyone is starting to shift and become more global in their thinking.

The pandemic shut everything down and forced us to feel pain as a global community.

There’s more empathy for what’s going on around the world. And because travel internationally has been completely u

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3/2/21 12:01 PM

CINCINNATI

FESTIVAL 2021

MAY 21–30 at Music Hall

Elliot Madore

Davóne Tines

Joélle Harvey

Opening Weekend

Voice and Verse

Hearts and Voices Soar

baritone

baritone

soprano

MAY 21-22 | Music Hall

MAY 28 | Music Hall

MAY 29-30 | Music Hall

FREE Digital Premiere SAT MAY 22 • 7:30 pm at mayfestival.com/digital

Robert Porco conductor Davóne Tines baritone Sasha Cooke mezzo-soprano Sophia Burgos soprano Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

FREE Digital Premiere SUN MAY 30 • 2:30 pm at mayfestival.com/digital

Juanjo Mena Principal Conductor Sara Couden contralto Elliot Madore baritone Tenors & Basses, May Festival Chorus Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Julia PERRY Stabat Mater

Maria SCHNEIDER Winter Morning Walks

Juanjo Mena Principal Conductor Joélle Harvey soprano Paul Appleby tenor Sopranos & Altos, May Festival Chorus Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

John ADAMS The Wound-Dresser

Benjamin BRITTEN Les Illuminations

Aaron COPLAND Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson

Gustav MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer

Franz SCHUBERT Selected Lieder

Gustav HOLST Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda

Gustav HOLST Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda Reena ESMAIL I Rise: Women in Song

513.381.3300 | mayfestival.com Don’t miss the May Festival Youth Chorus in singing/everything, their innovative commission from composer Robert Busiakiewicz and digital designer Stacey Fox. This immersive digital work, based on texts of Gertrude Stein, allows the listener to explore and alter the piece in real time—experience it online starting May 20 at mayfestival.com/digital

Choruses Look Beyond COVID obliterated, I think now people are even more interested and anxious to emerge in a different part of the world—different climate, different culture. It’s like a world Renaissance.

Christopher: It’s our mission to give voice to shared human experience, and so we’re trying to reach all these people and tell all these stories, but we previously hadn’t been reaching as many people as we could.

Now we’ve connected with so many new people that just didn’t have access to our concerts. They’ve been able to watch videos that we’ve shared with them. What’s more shared experience than we’ve all been stuck at home? We know what you’re going through and we’re trying to help get through it.

Walsh: One of the foundational tenets of our youth choir is helping young people live a more rich, fruitful, fulfilling life. We’ve spent a lot of time helping them navigate this time and unpack their feelings through music. We have already started a campaign using our virtual choir videos, saying, “When this is all done, your kid is going to want to be joyful and challenged and will need something to help them rebuild their identity as singers, community members, and joyful people in this world. There’s no better way than to sing about it and to be in a choir.”

Advancing ADEI: How have the events of the past year changed how choruses see their role in advancing ADEI (access, diversity, equity, inclusion) and racial justice initiatives?

Cook: Before the pandemic, if you asked choruses whether they viewed their organization as a social justice organization or their mission was social justice-oriented, I think many choruses would say no. Now, I think more would say it’s a priority even if it’s not their main focus. We’re still at a loss of what exactly it means and what we should do, and because it’s a systemic issue,

Jacob Christopher takes a break from editing Cantus’s February American Idol-style fundraiser, My Cantus Valentine.

it can be very overwhelming. Do we get a consultant? What does this look like for changing our board structure? What does this look like for changing our recruitment and retention initiatives? I think that people don’t necessarily know the right way forward, so we’re kind of in an experimenting and research-gathering mode.

Moody: The past year is not just the pandemic but it’s pandemic and social unrest. You can’t really separate the two, because both of them affected each other so deeply. It caused people—including people who run arts organizations—to ask questions: “Am I doing it the right way? Am I doing people a disservice? Am I honoring the people who sit in front of me or the people who come to our shows?”

So I think everyone has to wrestle with those questions, and I think that will continue and goes beyond Blackout Tuesday statements of solidarity.

We have a lot of talk now about decolonization—decolonizing education, the music room, kindergarten, decolonizing everything. Lots of arts organizations tend to have their standard rep or catalog, and

Before the pandemic, if you asked choruses whether they viewed their organization as a social justice organization or their mission was social justice-oriented, I think many choruses would say no.

Now, I think more would say it’s a priority….

–Tori Cook

now people have had to take a take a step back and say, “Hmm, why is this my catalog, and why do I choose these to be the standards? Who chose these to be the standards? Why do you feel it’s important that people learn these pieces and hear the same pieces over and over?”

Verdugo: The last year was a catalyst for us to move faster than we were. We are making a significant investment with a consultant to work with our board, staff, members, and stakeholders for the next 18 months as we create our own practices around DEI. We believe DEI is not a lens, it’s a practice, and our intention is to be able to use the practice in every aspect of the chorus, whether it be our hiring, board members, choices of music, composers and arrangers that we work with, everything.

Walsh: My kids, in small-town Newfoundland, were so affected by the Black Lives Matter movement, but they didn’t know what to do. So, I thought, I can help them think about this and feel like they’re being empowered through music. We had an incredible young conductor and composer from Toronto come in and talk to them, work with them, write a piece of music with them, and teach them about diversity.

There’s a saying, “when you know better, you do better.” I think now that we know better, it feels like these floodgates are opening, and people are trying to figure out, “Okay, so now that we know better, how do we do better?”

Christopher: This year we started an initiative called Championing Black Voices where we’ve been interviewing artists of color and premiering some of their works on our platform. We know that our white, male voices are not the shared diversity that you expect to see and hear, so we’re making sure that we are bringing in the stories and giving other people a platform that we don’t physically offer.

Sneed: What about women? What about women conductors and composers, why are they not championed? What about Asian Americans and Native Americans?

Because when you start to do for one, you should do for all. I’m Black, but we have to be champions for all people, all groups and cultures. That’s not the makeup of some choruses, and it’s okay. It’s not that everybody has to see everybody in their chorus, but what are they doing in making things better to bring us together in unity? u

www.chorusamerica.org 15

© alessandra mello

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performs in pre-COVID days.

Choruses Look Beyond COVID Preparedness: How should a chorus prepare for future disruptive change?

Cook: Risk assessment is a new learned skill. There’s always been risk, but now we’re really carefully looking at risk analysis, data, and research, including sending out surveys to singers and getting other perspectives.

Try to break down barriers that are making it difficult to quickly change and adapt, whatever that is. If something in your bylaws requires a very formal approval process, take down those barriers. Really take a look at all of the arbitrary rules and structures and question whether they make sense moving forward, knowing that disruptive change could happen at any time.

Walsh: I think funding flexibility is going to be the biggest difficulty. How are we going to be able to continue that funding model where we have a grantor or people who are paying for a concert ticket or a season and we’re going to have two rehearsals this month but six next month and one the next month, or we’ll have one concert online?

Will grantors and audiences allow that? Will musicians and boards? We used to have plan A and B, and now we have plan A, B, C, D.

16 The Voice, Spring 2021

Verdugo: You have to have a deep sense of trust between the membership, board, staff, and leaders of the organization, because this has been a united effort. While we don’t know what the next thing will be, we know there will be a next thing. If we’re trying to solve a problem together, you can’t sit in a space of blame about what is right; you have to find a way to trust one another.

Moody: When whole seasons started to get canceled, a lot of artists said, “I’m gonna figure out how to survive this.” And so they developed brands to really keep themselves eating, connected, and developed a network of like-minded people so they could propel each other through this pandemic.

Sneed: Not having a stage or platform, not performing, has been particularly difficult for singers. When we’ve gone through things in the past, we’ve had music

This is … a chance for choruses to reinvent themselves and bring in people that may not have been part of a choir before.

–Aisha Moody

as a way to ameliorate the pain. But to silence and mute someone who spent their life expressing themselves with the voice in a community with others is quite a travesty.

A lot of trauma has taken place, and we will be the physicians of healing for the world. We also need to be healed ourselves, so it’s like, “Physician, heal thyself.” We have to mentally prepare for that.

New Normal: How different will the new normal be from the old normal? Are choral leaders preparing to leave behind any tried and true—or even beloved—practices from the Before Times?

Walsh: I’ve found that now I want to say “singing groups” instead of “choir.” Choir has a very certain connotation and we have so many different forms of group singing.

I’m starting to think of group singing as different, because a choir is different than a chorus is different than a group of people who are singing for health reasons, or singing for ceremony, or singing for cultural events or cultural traditions. Personally, I don’t think choir is the name for the future.

Sneed: I think the new normal will require that singers come to rehearsal knowing their music more solidly. Technological innovation and virtual choral performances put more responsibility on the individual u

Which of the following is played?

Choruses Look Beyond COVID singer to make sure they learned their part. They had to really spend a lot of time listening—to cut-offs, how people begin words, vowel sounds, shaping of words— to learn as a section instead of sticking out as one individual voice.

Cook: I think that choirs should adopt more lenient policies around member attendance. We have created a somewhat toxic work culture in America of always working, not taking sick days, and putting your mental health on the back burner. I think that’s starting to change for companies and I think it’s also going to change for choirs. Choir is not the most important thing in the world for everyone every second of every day, and it’s okay to take breaks. I hope that culturally, choirs can adapt to that mentality, and hopefully it’ll make us better moving forward.

Christopher: In the past, after a concert we would always greet and interact with our audience. Now we really have to take a different approach. We can’t necessarily be shaking hands and hugging everybody, at

If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t get too attached to anything that was. I think we’ve learned nothing is that sacred anymore.

–Chris Verdugo

least for a while —people aren’t going to be comfortable and we might not be comfortable in that situation. So we’re talking about Q&A sessions where people can stay in their seats, and we can just have a chit-chat and still interact with them, but keeping the distance and space between us. We want to have that moment with them but make sure everybody feels safe.

Moody: Student leadership is really big at AMP now. With the current situation, students have grown up and matured, because when they’re at home online for school all day, you need to give them a reason to want to log on after school and

find a way to make it engaging for them.

Putting them in the driver’s seat has really allowed them to thrive. Now we can’t go back to the way it was. We have to be collaborative, because they’re in a leadership position now, and we can’t take that power away from them.

Verdugo: If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t get too attached to anything that was. I think we’ve learned nothing is that sacred anymore.

The success of our organization over the past year—and I use that word sparingly because it’s hard to say “success” during what has transpired—is that we have been willing to take a step back and assess and then try something new.

I work and live in this field, but having it taken away makes you truly understand how precious it is that we get to collectively come together and create art in a transformative way. I don’t think that any of us will ever take it for granted again. n Holly J. Kellar works in marketing and consulting. She is a lifelong singer and was previously chief marketing officer of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

GRADUATE CONDUCTING PROGRAM Bard Conservatory of Music

All students receive ample podium time working with community, collegiate, and professional ensembles including: Bard Conservatory Orchestra Bard College Community Orchestra Bard Chamber Singers

information

Bard Conductor’s Chorale Bard Symphonic Chorus Conductor’s Ensemble

845-752-2409 bard.edu/conservatory conservatoryadmission@bard.edu

18 The Voice, Spring 2021

co-directors

James Bagwell and Leon Botstein

JUL Y 4-

14,

202

2

WCG2022.COM

Best Choral Performance 63 rd ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS

The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, under the musical direction of Adam Luebke, is pleased to announce its first-ever Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance at this year’s 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

The chorus, along with director Adam Luebke, received the award for their recording of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua. The recording features the BPC, prepared by Adam Luebke; the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Grammy Award winner JoAnn Falletta; and the UCLA Chamber singers, prepared by James K. Bass.

THE BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC CHORUS bpchorus.org | Photos by Enid Bloch

insights

Reimagining Relevance: The Key to Returning to Revenue As optimism for the return to live gatherings cautiously dawns, it’s time to commence the work of rebuilding your choral organization’s capabilities and re-engaging its audiences. Building on “Asking Thru Adversity,” his breakout presentation at the Chorus America Winter Conference, leadership and community engagement consultant Matt Lehrman offers this guide to focusing your efforts.

B y M a t t L e h rma N

T

here’s no textbook methodology for restarting your operational engine after such a prolonged disruption.

It’s unlikely that you’ll simply flip a door sign from “closed” to “open” and pick up where you left off.

It’s okay to be making up your strategy on the fly— so long as your board of directors and your team are mindful, purposeful, and united in their efforts.

Right now, you possess a rare and precious opportunity to reimagine the possibilities of your organization. Here are three priorities to guide your efforts: 1) declare a strategic intention, 2) renew your spirit of purposefulness, and 3) animate your customer and supporter experience.

Strategic Intention

A failure to begin by explicitly setting a strategic intention runs the risk of misaligning the expectations and frustrating the efforts of the stakeholders, donors, audiences, team members, volunteers, partners, and other constituencies whom your organization serves and upon whom it depends.

When you consider all your organization has experienced and everything our society has witnessed this past year, it’s apparent that the world isn’t turning back the clock.

So, is resetting back to January 2020 truly your organization’s safest or smartest option?

The question is: “How shall we approach the future?” What’s your decision?

• Reassemble? Do we aim to put our pieces back to their pre-pandemic positions? or, • Reimagine? Will we consider reconfiguring our pieces in more creative and compelling ways?

Start your board and team discussion by asking, “Is a return to our organization’s prior way of operating truly in our best interest?”

There’s an understandable craving for the security of what’s familiar and a return to stability, especially for those whose lives and livelihoods have been affected. Emerging from stress and crisis, it’s tough to fault logic that says, “Let’s first get back on our feet before we consider other options.”

Still, your organization’s thorough consideration should include these questions: • If we were starting from scratch today, is what we did before still the way we’d choose to operate today?

• Whom should we have involved or served better before—and what is our present commitment to do something about that?

• What have we learned or accomplished in the past difficult year that we don’t wish to give up? What silver linings can we take from the cloud from which we’re emerging?

• What threats or challenges were we facing prior to COVID? Are those concerns resolved, or are they still lurking?

When you consider all your organization has experienced and everything our society has witnessed this past year (i.e., a global health crisis, economic stress, political division, reckoning with systemic racism, and more), it’s apparent that the world isn’t turning back the clock. So, is resetting back to January 2020 truly your organization’s safest or smartest option?

A courageous board is one that’s willing to ask, “What might we achieve if we are willing to reconfigure our resources and embolden our expectations?”

Nurture such innovative thinking by your board and team by posing these questions: • What would be absolutely amazing for us to achieve within the next three to five years?

• What is something we were doing previously that we can now stop (especially if that decision frees up capacity to accomplish something absolutely amazing)?

• How might our organization change, and our community benefit, if we were to transition our commitment to being “inclusive” to being “anti-racist”?

• What opportunities (technology, resources, knowledge, etc.) are familiar or available to us (and to our audiences) today that are different from before? u

www.chorusamerica.org 21

The Key to Returning to Revenue Strategic intentions are the potent building blocks of every nonprofit organization.

When all your constituencies are unified in their expectations, your chorus’s possibilities for the future are exciting and unlimited.

Renew Purposefulness in Fundraising

You’ve been fundraising your heart out for well over a year. You’ve powered through your own stresses, made difficult organizational choices, and overcome donor exhaustion.

So, what’s your fundraising encore?

It’s a serious question. After such intense fundraising efforts, how anti-climactic will it be to revert to soliciting year-end contributions and holiday performance sponsorships? In the aftermath of everything that’s happened, look at the vast philanthropic need that now exists in your community and think really hard about how important your routine operating support “ask” will appear in comparison.

Sure, your most devoted audiences and supporters may be quick to return (though there’s no guarantee), but few nonprofits make their full contributed revenue goals without inspiring support of a much wider range of supporters.

Don’t back off! This is a time to elevate your sense of purposefulness—to make your organization even more relevant to your donors and your community.

Invigorate your organization’s fundraising capacity in three ways: Restore the primacy of donor stewardship. Successful fundraising is less about frequent mailings and pretty graphics and more about cultivating an actual caring relationship. After a year of lockdown, it’s necessary to restore in-person connection as soon as it’s safe to do so.

Remember, donors don’t just support a cause; they support people, they support an organization’s momentum and accomplishments, and they support compelling visions of what’s possible. What aspirations excite your donors? There’s never been a more important time to ask!

1

Energize your points of connection.

Use this checklist to knock the rust off of your organization’s fundraising mechanics: • Convenience—If someone wants to support your organization, how easy and

2

22 The Voice, Spring 2021

To assert relevance in this moment, your organization should position itself as more than a mere beneficiary of your community’s generosity.

This is an opportunity to translate your artistic vision into bold community leadership. obvious is the process? Did you offer a reason to make a recurring gift? If 10-15 percent of your online users disappear with every click, how can you improve navigation to stop their contributions from falling out of your process?

• Directness—Are you speaking with donors on a personal basis and in ways that are authentic? Are you making introductions and asking for referrals? Are your discussions personally meaningful?

Are you disciplined in your approach?

• Significance—What stories of impact are your team and your board capturing and sharing? What rituals in your board and management meetings invite people to share their personally observed experiences so as to cultivate stories of significance, confidence, and trustworthiness?

• Distinctiveness—How do your donors come to know that they are part of something special? A thank-you note isn’t enough. Recognition in your playbill, newsletter or website doesn’t count. What experience can you offer that delivers a clear sense of connection to something extraordinary?

• Connection—After a year of isolation, what is your opportunity to connect supporters not just to your chorus—but to each other? What donor-to-donor connections will get people excited to see and be with each other again?

Reinterpret your organization’s relevance. It’s not unusual—but in this unique moment, it’s not nearly sufficient— for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations to define relevance solely by their performance programs, educational activities, outreach initiatives, and capital plans.

Arts and cultural organizations should be well disabused of the Field of Dreams fantasy that “If you build it, they will come.”

There’s simply no promise that “If you rebuild it, they will come back.”

3

To re-activate your supporters, they need to know more than you’re getting back to business. To kickstart their attention, interest, and passion, you need to present more than a limited, inward-focused approach to relevance.

To assert relevance in this moment, your organization should position itself as more than a mere beneficiary of your community’s generosity. This is an opportunity to translate your artistic vision into bold community leadership. Now is the time for your organization to contribute its unique talents, perspective, and capabilities to the recovery, health, and collaborative spirit of your entire community.

Animate the Experience

If necessity is the mother of invention, then your return to live gatherings should spark a renaissance in the ways your organization connects with its audiences and supporters.

My newest webinar, Return to Revenue, is entirely about sparking that reimagination.

It features open-ended access to a freewheeling database of creative ideas for generating revenue from ticket sales, admissions, class and activity fees, memberships, special events, and virtual programs.

From the practical to the far-fetched, each thought allows people to add comments, share links, and develop options. The discussion is as far from best practices as it gets. It’s a dizzying free-for-all of possibilities meant to spark creativity and inspire action.

Among the questions and ideas being discussed: • Making the journey as fun as the destination—When someone buys a show ticket, let’s not wait to engage them in the experience. If a show is four months away, a ticket buyer can have access (via Zoom) to a schedule of fun and relevant content such as meeting the artist, witnessing rehearsals, or participating in group discussions with other audience members.

• Free returns—If people are still reluctant to buy tickets, might organizations offer a policy of free and easy ticket returns—or make that a benefit of purchasing a membership, or perhaps sell a higher-priced “class” of ticket that supplies that benefit, as airlines do?

• Voting for what you want— Conventionally, we sell tickets only after an organization announces a program and schedules a performance date and time.

Even with restrictions being relaxed, it’s not clear precisely when choral organizations

and other performing arts will reopen, so how about offering a selection of (unscheduled) program options and invite audience members to buy tickets (think of them as votes, or like a Kickstarter campaign) for the concert that they most want to attend?

• Friend of a friend with benefits— Expecting that audiences are looking forward to connecting with family and friends once again, can we extend an offer that enables devoted audience members to most easily invite others to join them?

• Eager Returners Club—What very special benefits (added value? merchandise?) might reward people willing to buy now and be among the first to return?

• Something like a bus transfer—With what other arts or cultural organization(s) might we partner so that people who purchase admission for one might receive no-cost admission to the other? How might such connections help restore confidence to people needing some extra incentive to return to public outings?

• Selling Anticipation—What might we learn from Disney? Their advertisements focus on the joyous, anticipatory

feeling of “I’m going to Disney World!” to sell admissions, even when the parks are closed to the public.

The Future Is Malleable

Despite the best hopes and plans, the pathway out of the pandemic isn’t totally clear. Resist the temptation to declare that you’ve found your “new normal.” Nobody’s there yet, so stay alert and nimble. Get used to making adjustments on the fly.

Your return to revenue depends on keeping people throughout your organization mindful, purposeful, and united in their efforts.

Your return to revenue also depends on your revitalization of relevance. n Matt Lehrman, co-founder of Social Prosperity Partners, has taught 70+ webinars for nonprofits nationwide since the onset of COVID, including How to Sustain Donors in Turbulent Times, How to Ask for $ in Tough Times, Asking Thru Adversity—and his newest, Return to Revenue. He is expert at helping arts and cultural organizations with strategic planning, business model innovation, and audience development. www.Social Prosperity.us

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Navigating New Rights Challenges with Online Concerts Under the pandemic, the only way for choruses to share concert experiences with their audiences has been online. Learning the ins and outs of video production posed an obvious challenge, but another, less apparent, obstacle has proven to be almost as imposing: licensing the music. The process is complicated even for a single piece featured in a virtual choir production, but clearing rights for five or ten pieces to create a concert video can be exponentially more difficult.

And the challenge won’t be short-lived because many choruses plan to make a mix of online and in-person programming a long-term strategy. We spoke with a cross-section of choral leaders, publishers, and music licensing specialists to create this primer.

BY DON LEE

T

he surge in sync licensing requests that has accompanied the pandemic has left music publishers “slammed.” That’s what Jaime Leighton has observed in her recent contacts with rightsholders as part of her role as production administrator and webmaster for Conspirare in Austin, Texas. Sync licensing has been “a big topic” for at least 10 years, notes a specialist in the field, Aaron Green of 24 The Voice, Spring 2021

Minneapolis-based Easy Song Licensing.

“But now,” he says, “you have more people coming out of the woodwork asking questions about YouTube or e-tickets or uploading videos to their website or doing live streaming. It’s been insane.” In its work with choruses these days, ECS Publishing Group of St. Louis is spending more time answering questions about sync licensing than anything else, according to president Mark Lawson. Most of the inquiries boil down to

this, he says: “‘I want to do this program, but I don’t know how to go about getting all the licenses I need. What do I need to do?’”

If you want to distribute a streamed concert, a virtual choir performance, or any video that includes copyrighted music, you will need a synchronization, or sync, license—so-called because, in addition to concert videos, it applies to video or film productions that use music as a soundtrack, such as movies, TV shows, and commercials.

Choruses accustomed to the relatively straightforward experience of mechanical licensing, which grants rights to distribute CDs and downloadable audio, soon learn that sync licensing is a different story. It follows no standardized process. The situation has Belinda Burnworth, an ensemble director for the St. Louis Children’s Choirs, feeling as though she’s “flying in the dark, just kind of navigating on my own.” A former lawyer, Burnworth has assumed a leading role in the choirs’ sync licensing efforts. It feels a bit like teaching music, she muses, in that “you’re sometimes the only person in the building that’s doing what you’re doing.”

Her legal background prepared her to “dig and research,” and that’s the biggest part of the job, she says. On top of that is the worry that some of the hard work will be in vain. Of all the challenges choruses face in the COVID-imposed new normal, music licensing is “the absolute hardest one” says Conspirare managing director Ann McNair, “because so much of the process is out of our control. We are at the mercy of the rights holders, and some of them do not want to give permission.”

Denean Dyson, a guest soloist in the Pacific Chorale’s 2020 virtual holiday concert, sings an arrangement of “Winter Wonderland.”

Filing Your Applications: The Key Questions The reason there is no straightforward way to approach sync licensing is that each rights-holder has different criteria for granting licenses and determining fees. Many publishers provide online forms that specify what they are looking for.

“Sometimes they want to know how much you’re charging for tickets, and how many tickets you’re likely to sell,” says Dan Mayo, managing director of artistic administration for the St. Louis Children’s Choirs. “Some want everything ironclad; some don’t care at all.” No matter what their process is, the best preparation is “knowing how you’re planning to use the content, having a very clear picture of what you’re asking for,” says Mayo.

To start, be ready with answers to the questions rights-holders are most likely to ask (and a few that you ought to be asking yourself). And be aware of how your answers may affect your rights application.

Here’s a list:

What music do we want to license?

The question may seem obvious, but consider the possibility that some of your sync licensing requests will be turned down. Certain popular tunes, such as John Lennon’s “Imagine,” are notoriously difficult to license, Green says, because the rightsholders have very particular standards. He recently worked with a Chicago chorus that managed to get “Imagine” cleared for use in a benefit performance, but he’s seen clients like them denied for the same type of use.

You might be quoted a fee that exceeds your budget, or other issues might arise. In the process of planning video distribution of the Pacific Chorale’s 2020 holiday concert, president and CEO Andrew Brown realized “we probably weren’t going to be able to get ahold of a [recent, unpublished] arrangement or maybe get the access to the sync rights” for some of the group’s initial choices. In cases like that, you might decide to go after rights for another, easierto-get, piece—as Brown did—or stick with your first choice, but either way it’s wise to have a back-up plan ready.

1

Have we cleared all the other necessary rights?

You may need more than sync licenses to produce the program you’ve planned. If, for example, you are working with union instrumentalists or stage crews, says Brown, they may have a stake in the distribution of your video. Depending on the distribution platform you choose (see Question 4 below), you may have to get public performance licenses for each piece, as a concert venue would most often do for an in-person performance. If you’re creating a new arrangement, you’ll need a print license.

“The sync rate becomes one piece of it, but all those other pieces have to sort of be checked and aligned before you even get to that,” says Brown. [Editor’s note: For a list of the copyright issues choruses most commonly face, see the FAQ in this Voice article: https:// www.chorusamerica.org/conducting-performing/copyright-and-community-chorus.]

2

Who are the rights-holders we need to contact?

For Brown, one of the bigger surprises of the rights-clearing process is the amount u

3

www.chorusamerica.org 25

A scene from the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir’s 2020 virtual holiday concert, live-streamed on Facebook December 5 and later posted on YouTube.

Navigating New Rights Challenges with Online Concerts of research this step can take—the digging that Burnworth was talking about. While it is a simple thing to locate a publisher’s name and contact information on a choral octavo, things “got a little muddy” researching ownership of some the pop pieces on the Pacific Chorale’s holiday program. Brown started with the online ASCAP/BMI database, which identifies ownership for what the companies claim is “the vast majority of music licensed in the United States.” He and others agree it is an invaluable resource, but it does not always provide definitive answers.

“Where we thought the rights for an arrangement were held by one company,” Brown says, “it turns out it was held by another one—or not at all.” If you want to secure the rights to those pieces, you have to approach each publisher individually.

In some cases, that may suggest a change of plans, as it has done for the Boston Children’s Chorus and director of artistic planning Robbie Jacobs in their video production during the pandemic. “When 26 The Voice, Spring 2021

we saw that there were certain songs that had eight or nine writers or eight or nine publishers involved, we chose not to perform those because suddenly, one song is nine times the amount of work.”

What distribution platform do we plan to use?

YouTube is a common choice for video distribution because, as McNair notes, “it’s free and you don’t have to have an account.”

Another factor for Conspirare is the ability to embed the YouTube link in content management systems such as Constant Contact and WordPress. Lawson points out another advantage: “ASCAP and BMI both have licenses with YouTube, and they collect the performing rights.” They also have agreements with Facebook and Instagram.

But these platforms’ systems for monitoring rights compliance can have unintended consequences. YouTube’s digital fingerprinting system, designed to detect and block unauthorized use of copyrighted material, sometimes makes mistakes. In the past year, YouTube has flagged performances by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir “that we have properly licensed,” according to interim executive director Maren Amdal.

4

The blocking is automated, so “there’s often not a way to argue,” she says. “There’s not a way to say, ‘But we own the license!’”

Brown and the Pacific Chorale didn’t want to risk a shutdown with their holiday program, an important fundraiser, so they went with Vimeo as their platform (and included the music uses in their annual reports to the performing rights organizations). But be aware that “there are certain websites that some publishers will not allow,” says Green.

Universal Music, which holds rights to some of the world’s most popular music, will not allow Vimeo. “It’s just one of their policies.”

So much of the process is out of our control. We are at the mercy of the rights holders, and some of them do not want to give permission.

–Ann McNair

Whatever you choose, be aware, too, of the likelihood you’ll want to repurpose the video you’re producing, distributing it via a different platform. It may be worth getting the additional rights up front, as the St. Louis Children’s Choirs did in order to re-use performances to create classroom educational content. “It’s easier to make the initial ask and have everything in it than to go back and forth with them later,” says Mayo, “because they have every right to charge you more. You might as well get a lump sum deal at the beginning.”

How much are we going to charge viewers?

Whether you charge admission to your virtual concert hall is a decision likely to be driven by your chorus’s mission and overall revenue strategy. But it has implications for the video production budget line. Publishers like Lawson “have to figure out what to charge [choruses] for the sync license based upon how much money they’re going to make.” When composer Andrea Ramsey gets a call requesting sync rights for a piece to be used in a ticketed online event, she tends to ask, “What do you feel comfortable sending my way as a nod to my music

5

helping to generate those things? Some composers are charging substantial amounts, which is well within their right, and some composers aren’t charging at all—so I just tried to strike a middle ground.” Choruses that offer free audience access tend to find that licensing becomes free too. The Boston Children’s Chorus hasn’t charged for any of its virtual concerts, Jacobs says, “and I think that that probably has made quite a significant difference to rights-holders.” On the other hand, the St. Louis Children’s Choirs scheduled two ticketed online performances this season, and Mayo reports some publishers waived their fees, nonetheless.

What kind of look and branding will we give our virtual performance?

As Conspirare’s webmaster, Leighton has become well attuned to this question.

Rights-holders “want to have a clear picture of what the artistic product will look like,” she says. “Will it have live scenes? Or will it be animations or handdrawn illustrations? Where will our logos be shown?” They ask because, she says, “this is a way for them to make sure that the project is going to align with their

6

values.” It’s also a way to gauge the revenue the project may bring you. “Of course you’re going to mention your website,” Green says, “but how are you doing it? Are you telling people to buy merchandise or your album or your latest tour?”

How long will the video be available?

The longer it stays up, the more it’s going to cost. As one publisher told Mayo, “‘One month free, don’t worry about it. If, however, you want it longer, let us know.’”

7

Closing the Deal: Submit Your Applications, Follow Up, and Negotiate Once you’ve answered all of the rightsholders’ questions and sent in your licensing application, be prepared to wait. Burnworth says it may feel as though the paperwork has gone into “a black hole,” so she’s used to making follow-up phone calls. “When you talk to a real person, you get a variety of responses,” she has found. “Some organizations wanted $300 or more for half of a song, and others would say, ‘Oh, you u

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Craig Hella Johnson conducts Conspirare in the final section of the ensemble’s 2020 virtual Christmas concert. Singers were recorded at home, all around the country, and provided with virtual backdrops.

Navigating New Rights Challenges with Online Concerts

©A Priori Photography

know, how’s $25?’” In their defense, it’s not easy to figure out what’s fair. One way at it, says Lawson, is to look back at what the chorus has paid for a public performance license of the same piece and charge the same amount for a sync license. Because, as Lawson observes, “more and more of our income is going to have to be from the digital sources,” publishers may be less and less likely to waive fees, especially for ticketed video productions. Ramsey notes that sheet music sales have “dropped considerably, so as these requests come in, composers like myself are really grateful for that added income.”

In his dealings with choruses that have no previous experience in music licensing, Green says sticker shock is their “number one” reaction at this stage. Mayo has learned to expect fee quotes that are extremely high when asking a large corporation for rights to a movie tune, for example. But he and Burnworth “have found that you can go back and negotiate a little bit and say,

‘You know, we’re under such a tight budget, a really small company. Is there any wiggle room?’ And they have often brought the price down significantly.” If they won’t do that, Leighton recommends you look for other concessions, like lengthening the term: “Maybe they’ll say, ‘I can’t come down on the fee, but I can go for a year instead of six months.’”

One of the stickier budgeting challenges you may contend with as you settle your licensing agreement is something called the “most-favored nations” (MFN) clause.

Let’s say Publisher A grants you a sync license for $100. Later on, you agree to pay Publisher B $200 for rights to another piece you want to use in the same program. If

there’s an MFN clause in your agreement with Publisher A, you owe that publisher another $100. Choruses “start negotiating their contracts and then realize, ‘Oh, this is getting really expensive,’” says Lawson, and then they remove the costliest pieces from their program repertoire. For its virtual concerts this season, VocalEssence took a unique approach to the problem. Aiming to make licensing costs predictable and, at the same time, compensate composers equitably for their work, the Minneapolis chorus decided to create its own sync licensing agreement, proposing the same terms to each of the rights-holders it approached. The fee language in the agreement promises that VocalEssence will u

When we saw that there were certain songs that had eight or nine writers or eight or nine publishers involved, we chose not to perform those because suddenly, one song is nine times the amount of work.

–Robbie Jacobs

www.chorusamerica.org 29

© E T H A N J O H N SO N

Members of the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers in a recording session for their March virtual concert, Call of the North.

Navigating New Rights Challenges with Online Concerts pay each rights-holder a percentage of its ticket revenue. “Publishers have been amenable to that,” according to production manager Ethan Johnson, although a few have wanted to use their own forms, and others have asked to change a clause or two. The standardized terms have helped him make initial approaches efficiently, although Johnson notes that the fee calculation has been staff-intensive.

well, both publishing houses and individual composers, Johnson says “we knew we could rely on our network” as they did the upfront research and crafted their agreements. For St. Louis, Burnworth simply likes the idea of managing the process in-house, getting questions answered and deals negotiated first-hand.

The Boston Children’s Chorus made direct approaches to “composers who are our friends” as well as some publishing

companies, says Jacobs, but the more challenging work was outsourced “to somebody who really knew how to do it properly,” a lawyer specializing in sync licensing. “She was great. She had a 100 percent hit rate.”

But she was also expensive. In the end, says Jacobs, “it wasn’t sustainable for us.”

Conspirare and the Pacific Chorale followed a similar path, but their decisions to hire out some of the work led them both to Green’s company, Easy Song Licensing (ESL).

“Easy Song Licensing has been a huge resource for us,” says Leighton. “Their industry connections make it easier for them to be in contact with these larger publishers who may look at us as small potatoes, honestly.”

ESL grew out of an audio production house that included mechanical licensing in its portfolio of services. Green, who is ESL’s vice president and director of sales, says it became a separate side business in about 2008, positioned as “a competitor to the Harry Fox Agency.” Unlike Harry Fox, ESL works with all U.S. publishers, Green says. It has “lots of Canadian clients,” he adds, and notes that the company has expanded its services to manage rights clearances of many kinds, including sync licensing.

“It’s 100 percent worth every penny,” says Leighton. Brown especially appreciated ESL’s help with the often-tricky task of tracking down rights to pop arrangements. “It was so worth it to just have them take over the whole process and run with it,” he says.

Having a sense of the knowledge and effort required to clear sync rights for a digital music production, you are in a position to tell whether your staff can manage the task.

The decision boils down to two questions: Can you easily identify rights-holders? Do you have relationships with them? If the answer to both questions is yes, you may want to keep the work in-house. If not, you may want to outsource it—if you can afford to do that. If both answers are “yes and no,” you can do it both ways. In our sample of six choruses, two managed the process themselves, three did it both ways, and one took an altogether different approach.

Because VocalEssence draws so much of its repertoire from sources it knows very 30 The Voice, Spring 2021

©Hallie Jones

Tailoring Your Approach: Do It Yourself or Hire it Out?

Students in the St. Louis Children’s Choirs’ 5th–8th grade Chorale ensemble sing in their video recording session for the organization’s 2020 holiday concert, available online for a limited time in December.

Now you have more people coming out of the woodwork asking questions about YouTube or e-tickets or uploading videos to their website or doing live streaming. It’s been insane.

–Aaron Green

The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir chose a different way to manage the cost of sync licensing. It has simply avoided using music that needs to be licensed. For its online performances, “our artistic director, Terrance Kelly, has simply limited his choices,” Amdal says. “So we’ve recycled music that we already had licenses for, we do things with explicit artist permissions, and he’s written new music. Necessity is the mother of invention, right?” She says one of Kelly’s pieces, “I Won’t Stop Singing My

Praise,” grew out of a conversation early in the pandemic that was centered on the question, “How do we start doing compelling music when we know we don’t have all the licenses and permissions?”

For choir members, says Amdal, “seeing their artistic director inspired rather than deflated by COVID kept them engaged in ways that they weren’t necessarily otherwise going to be.”

For choruses not having the advantage of a composer-in-residence, a lesson here might be this: Take a fresh look at your commissioning agreements. When the BCC has commissioned new pieces, says Jacobs, “we’ve agreed with the composers and arrangers in advance that the performance was going to be videoed, and that inclusive in the commission fee was a release to be able to make a video of the piece.” For Conspirare that’s been a standing practice, says McNair, but under the pandemic removing “this extra layer of unpredictability” has taken on greater importance. Because some of his video production planning was stymied by existing contracts, Brown feels moved to revisit the Pacific Chorale’s agreements with musicians

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unions and venues. To make new use of old recordings easier to manage, he envisions language that stipulates up front that “we have the right to a future release of this recording, or at the very least we have the right to come back and negotiate.”

Choruses’ increased attention to music rights will remain important beyond the pandemic because it has become clear that the digital footprint they have established thus far is only the beginning. Navigating rights is not easy or glamorous, but it’s worth it, says McNair, because it enables the new “expansiveness of our reach.” And so today choruses must be asking, “How are we engaging in negotiations for these rights, for these opportunities, in a way that makes it easier and keeps it affordable so that we can continue to create a cycle?

I feel like we all have to be advocates for those things, even if it’s something as basic as licensing.” n Don Lee is the managing editor of the Voice, as well as a radio/podcast producer, editor, writer, and amateur choral singer who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. At NPR in Washington DC, he was the executive producer of Performance Today.

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Beating Burnout and the Stress Cycle: An Interview with Conductor Amelia Nagoski Sisters Emily and Amelia Nagoski are the authors of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, a book that explores how we experience stress physically, mentally, and emotionally, and what strategies we can use to process it, both inside and out. In exploring this topic, the sisters bring to bear their own perspectives, Emily as a researcher with a PhD in health behavior and Amelia as a choral conductor.

A

fter the Nagoskis’ plenary presentation during Chorus America’s Winter Conference, Amelia Nagoski spoke with Chorus America president and CEO Catherine Dehoney. They discussed Amelia’s own journey with stress during her musical training, what it means to express yourself as a conductor and a singer, and how choruses can be part of the ultimate cure for burnout.

Can you tell us the origin story of Burnout? I know that you and Emily came to write this book in part because of your experience and training as a musician.

In the eighth grade, I would stand in my dad’s record room AN: staying in front of a mirror waving my arms to—I’m embarrassed to admit this—Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, over and over. Something about that action called to me, and I decided I was going to be a conductor. Fast forward 25-ish years and I have followed my plan, but in the meantime I have encountered the sexism, discrimination, and even misogyny that can be part of the conducting world. I’ve seen how top-heavy it is with men and how women can get trapped at a lower level of prestige.

CD:

What happens when you create is you’re taking a part of yourself and emptying it out of yourself into the world. That is stress management.

It’s one of the reasons singing is physically good for you and mentally good for you.

During my doctorate of conducting program, it really came to a head. My interaction with sexism in classical music and my being a woman and wanting to embrace that as a strength clashed and turned into physical disease in my body. And I ended up in the hospital.

Lucky for me, I have an identical twin sister with a PhD in public health. She brought me a big stack of books and peer-reviewed journal articles that explained how stress affects your body. It was really scary, because I hadn’t known that until then, and there were a lot – Amelia Nagoski of emotions in my body that I had been ignoring.

At the same time that this was happening to me, Emily was doing author events for her first book, Come as You Are, about the science of women’s sexuality. After the talks, women would come up to her and want to talk about the short half-a-chapter in the book about stress and feelings. She was surprised, but when she told me about it, I reminded her that research she shared with me had saved my life and kept me from being hospitalized. And she said we should write a book about that.

In your plenary, you and Emily walked us through the typical stress response cycle (see sidebar). Where in this cycle do we typically get stuck, and why? Are we still running from the lion, even if the lion isn’t there?

It’s actually before that. When a stressor comes, our body AN: responds, and then step three is supposed to be running.

Unfortunately, in the present day, most of our stressors cannot be resolved through fight or flight or the things that our body is programmed to do. So we still have the physiological response, but the way we eliminate our stressors now is by doing things like standing in line, filling out forms, and paying our taxes. We are not doing anything to address the stress that happens in our body or to tell our body that it has reached a safe space, so that we can get to the end of the cycle and feel calm.

Most of us are taught that how you handle stress is by getting rid of the things that cause your stress. We’re told that the way to manage your stress is time management and making lists and organization. We’re told that if we manage the things that cause our stress that we won’t have stress anymore, and that is a lie. It is not based on science.

What actually happens is our body receives stress and it only has access to a very limited range of responses. The stress response is made of chemicals and electricity and that’s all going to go somewhere. If we don’t give it a place to go, it’s going to get trapped in our muscles and in our joints and cause inflammation and illness. u CD:

www.chorusamerica.org 33

Beating Burnout and the Stress Cycle

T h e S t r ess Res p o n se C yc l e

You and Emily shared a number of things that we can do to complete the stress response cycle: physical activity, sleep, affection, crying, laughing, and more. Out of these many strategies, do you have any favorites?

Probably my top, number-one favorite AN: is imagination. I learned from all this research that if your hands are shaking and your palms are sweating because you’re going on a first date—or for no reason at all, just some kind of existential dread— that is your imagination initiating a stress response cycle. That’s good news because if your imagination can initiate a stress response cycle, it means your imagination can complete that cycle. When you’re reading a book, when you’re watching a movie, if you’re participating emotionally in anything that’s not happening in real life, that’s your imagination leading you through a stress response cycle.

Running through rehearsals and getting to know and analyze scores and pieces of music is an emotional journey for me. I am led by a composer through struggle and conflict and dissonance and resolution.

That is so satisfying, and it feels so good to get to the end of the full piece of music.

Even more gratifying, of course, is making it happen—being engaged with other people who work as a team to create that experience. That’s a blend of imagination and also creative self-expression, but they’re very closely associated.

CD:

During a plenary at Chorus America’s Winter Conference, Emily Nagoski summarized the stress response cycle.

S

tress is a physiological process with a beginning, a middle, and an end, just like all of our physiological processes.

If you do not get all the way to the end, some not-so-good things can happen. Our goal is to move all the way through the process and not get stuck in the middle.

The stress response cycle begins with your brain noticing a potential threat in the environment. In the environment where humans evolved, this could be a lion or a hippo coming at you. If you’re being chased by hippos coming right for you, what do you do? You run! You perceive the threat and within less than a second, your adrenaline level increases, your cortisol level increases,

As a conductor, you help lead other people to your vision of the piece but also, hopefully, a collective vision of the piece. You’ve said that that didn’t always come naturally to you. How did you make that connection?

By the time I had taught for maybe AN: three or four years—conducting choirs every day during that time—I knew there was still something missing.

So I went back to grad school at Westminster Choir College. That place, of CD:

your heart rate increases, your respiration rate increases, your digestion changes, your immune system changes, your reproductive hormones change—every system in your body is affected to prepare you to do the running. And so you run.

Let’s imagine a world where you manage to run all the way back to your village.

The hippo gets tired, and it gives up and wanders away, and you watch it wander away. Everyone around you has come out, and you realize that you’re safe. You celebrate, and you feel glad to be alive, and you love your friends and family, and the sun seems to shine brighter. That is the complete stress response cycle.

course, is quite special in the attitude it has towards personal exploration as a means of reaching higher-quality performance. In that context, I had 16 months of being held in a bubble where professors prioritized connecting with my emotions and learning who I am in order to make me a better performer. I learned how to be a person on the podium long before I learned to do it in real life.

What it means for my conducting is that I feel so natural and easy on the podium.

You can’t just 100 percent be yourself on the podium—you have to carve out a little piece of yourself to put up there—but now I feel like that piece of me is a core instead of a slice. It’s a representation of every part of me. The next step was me coming to understand that I could present that whole self to the world and use that in order to connect to other people’s humanity. I learned that in choir.

Now as a professor, how do you share that with your singers and your conducting students?

I tell them that when you are conAN: ducting and when you are singing, this is an act of expressing a part of yourself. Singing is your attitude and your subconscious pouring out into something physical, and that’s what conducting is too.

You may be doing a Bach cantata that has been performed a bazillion times, but it CD:

Sisters Emily and Amelia Nagoski are the authors of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle.

34 The Voice, Spring 2021

really matters that you connect to what feels true for you. You’re combining a piece of yourself with a piece of Bach and putting it out into the world. When people see it, it will feel as good to them as it does to you.

I tell them that when you sing, you are not just following the rules and doing what’s on the page. “Typing” is what I call it when you are just doing the physical task of making noise with your voice without thinking about the overall product. Be sure that you are not just typing but that you are actually creating.

What happens when you create is you’re taking a part of yourself and emptying it out of yourself into the world. That is stress management. It’s one of the reasons singing is physically good for you and mentally good for you. It’s why, when you come to rehearsal, you don’t want to be there because you really have a lot to do, but an hour and a half later, you walk out so refreshed and ready to do whatever is next.

That is just so true. One thing I’ve realized is that my stress goes right to my vocal cords. When I’m stressed, they shut down in a way that even vocal fatigue doesn’t make them do. I can’t sing through it!

True. My secret is that the reason I AN: focus on stress is that it’s good for my students, but I also do it because it makes the performance better. More educated, more nuanced, more raw, more true. It’s my secret weapon.

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CD:

Well, that brings me to another question. We are all deprived of our secret weapon against stress at the moment—we can’t sing right now, at least not in the way that we’re used to. What do you suggest to singers who are struggling with that?

The first thing to do is to acknowledge AN: that it is a loss and to grieve. We need to recognize that we’re all wounded and hurting and allow that to heal.

And then the next thing is to keep singing anyway. This is an opportunity for growth, actually. Most challenges are—which I hate to say because it sounds so trite—but it’s literally true, and there’s research that says so.

Use this as an opportunity to reclaim our biological evolutionary birthright that is singing. At the same time that humans were learning to cook and hunt, the very origins of human society were built around singing and dancing together.

As human beings, we deserve to sing, no matter what our voice sounds like, no matter what the circumstances are. So maybe u CD:

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Chorus America Officers Chair Brian Newhouse Minnesota Orchestra (MN) Treasurer John Earls Prospect House (OH) Secretary Marie Bucoy-Calavan University of Akron (OH)

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Anton Armstrong St. Olaf College (MN) Jeffrey Barnett Dorsal Capital Management LLC (CA) Charles Berardesco Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington (DC) Dashon Burton Professional Singer (NY) Iris Derke Distinguished Concerts International, New York (NY) Rollo Dilworth Temple University (PA) Mary Doughty Mauch Conductor and Community Organizer (IL) Morna Edmundson Elektra Women’s Choir (BC) Todd Estabrook Handel and Haydn Society (MA) Miguel Ángel Felipe University of Arizona (AZ) Corty B. Fengler Cappella SF (CA) David Hayes Mannes School of Music (NY) Elfrieda Heinrichs The Heinrichs Foundation (ON) Robert Istad Pacific Chorale; California State University Fullerton (CA) Craig Jessop Utah State University (UT) Anne Keiser Choral Arts Society of Washington (DC) Robyn Reeves Lana Cincinnati Youth Choir (OH) Mark Lawson ECS Publishing Group (MO) Alysia Lee Maryland State Department of Education; Sister Cities Girlchoir (MD) Marcela Molina Tucson Girls Chorus (AZ) David Morrow Morehouse College (GA) Linda Moxley Sarasota Concert Association (FL) Steven Neiffer Los Angeles Master Chorale (CA) John Nuechterlein Community Leader (MN) Elizabeth Núñez Young People’s Chorus of New York City (NY) Dianne Peterson The Washington Chorus (DC) Molly Buzick Pontin Pacific Chorale (CA) Andrea Ramsey Composer, Conductor, and Music Educator (MO) Eugene Rogers University of Michigan (MI); The Washington Chorus (DC) Diana Sáez Towson University (MD) Pearl Shangkuan Calvin University; Grand Rapids Symphony (MI) Karen P. Thomas Seattle Pro Musica (WA) Anthony Trecek-King Handel and Haydn Society (MA); University of Hartford (CT) Duain Wolfe Chicago Symphony Chorus (IL); Colorado Symphony Chorus (CO)

36 The Voice, Spring 2021

Beating Burnout and the Stress Cycle during this time, when you can’t have the experience of singing together because it’s not safe yet, you could make this other kind of progress. You could really start to get comfortable with the idea that singing is more than just going to rehearsal and following the rules and fitting in with the other people. Instead it’s about connecting with something really ancient about your humanity.

And then be patient and recognize that when things are hard, they are worth it.

You and Emily made a point in your session that I really loved: that the cure for burnout is not self-care, but all of us taking care of each other. How are choruses already part of this solution? And how could they do more in terms of creating that community both within the chorus and externally?

We have already created these AN: communities of tightly knit, loving, intertwined individuals who feel passionately about their choir family. In a largescale systemic way, people who are unlike the people in power get disenfranchised, but when we sing in a choir, we learn that no matter our race or religion or gender, all that matters is that we bond. It’s an opportunity to for us to learn that a wider variety of people than we had thought are actually members of our tribe.

So we’ve expanded who we think is in our tribe because we’ve sung with people who are different from us. And then we go out in the world, and we’re capable of loving and seeing and caring for people CD:

We’re told that if we manage the things that cause our stress that we won’t have stress anymore, and that is a lie.

It is not based on science.

– Amelia Nagoski

who are different from us. That gives us a chance to help support calls for change.

We see that someone who is deserving of love and care is not getting it from the government, or from certain employers, and we want to take action.

On a more specific individual level, when you sing and are part of a choir, you’re getting in touch with your inner experience. And that gives you the opportunity to be more comfortable and to feel more safe. That helps you get into a psychological and emotional space, where, when you learn about something you did wrong, something you did that might have been racist or misogynistic or ableist, that you’re in a place where you’re going to be able to absorb that and apologize, as appropriate, and learn and grow, rather than feeling like you have to lash out or defend yourself.

Making music together is not just about the music. It’s about the fact that we make it with these people, and they become some of the most important people we’ve ever known. And I would say that we have a responsibility to make sure that our rehearsals give our singers that chance to feel connected, no matter what. n

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