February 9, 2011

Being an Effective Arts Advocate
by Brian Mitchell , Repertoire and Standards Chair for High School Music

In these difficult times of budget cuts and financial woes, it can be pretty easy to feel like an island.  I think we as choral directors often make ourselves islands anyway.  But now, maybe more than ever, we need to reach out to others in the arts and continue, if not begin, to advocate for the arts.  And not just for our own programs, but for arts all across America in every form. 

There have been a few obstacles (or excuses) that have been in my path towards being a strong active advocate.   The biggest issue for me in regards to advocacy has been no focus or direction.  I know I needed to do it, but how.  I had no advocacy training during my undergrad years, and as I learned in a discussion last week, most colleges and universities do not have advocacy as a portion of their teacher prep programs. 

Many smaller communities like mine do not have organizations in place to join up with.  The only things I have done are to talk to students about the benefits of music education, mention it at a concert, and sent an email or had a conversation with an administrator.  Not too impressive. 

Last week I attended an Arts Washington Advocacy meeting and came away with some other ideas.

Be ready to speak up and speak up now.  Before the preverbial fan gets hit.  Can you defend the merits of a K-12 music program that includes orchestra, band, general music, and choir?  Can you defend the merits of all of the arts in school? 

Being an island will serve no one and may just leave you without an audience of any kind.

September 1, 2010

It's not being the best, it's being our best!

by Brian Mitchell, R & S Chair for High School Choirs

Over the years I find that my thoughts about music and competition have changed. I have spent quite some time in my career discussing the merits of competition.    

Where I was once motivated to make the best music I could so that I could earn a superior rating at a contest or festival, now I refine music and make it the best it can be as a piece of art. 

During an intense conversation about this topic with a former college roommate last week, I was introduced to the book Galloway’s Book on Running, ©2002 by Jeff Galloway. Shelter Publications, Inc., Bolinas, Calif. Distributed in bookstores by Publishers Group West.  In his book, Galloway talks about the five stages of being a runner.  His ideas about running clearly paralleled my journey as a choral director and thoughts about competition.

Galloway’s five stages are: the beginner, the jogger, the competitor, the athlete and finally the runner.

Stages one and two are like the beginning teacher, maybe the first three or four years.  The goal is survival and then establishing a groove, a routine. 

But it was Galloway‘s stage three and four that really rang true for me.  “The competitor, stage three is when competition is the main driving force.”    Galloway goes on to say :

“There is a competitive streak, sometimes hidden, in all of us. As we continue to run, it will most likely surface. If kept under control, the competitive urge can be a great motivator, stimulating you to train well and to push yourself further than you might have otherwise. But with many runners, competition, rather than the many other benefits of running, becomes the goal.”

“You become a competitor when you start to plan your running around racing goals. It all starts innocently enough. After a few races you begin to wonder how fast you might run if you really trained. Before you know it you’re caught in a compulsive drive to run faster at the expense of running enjoyment.”

”… If you do find yourself becoming obsessed with competition, however, here are some things you might expect: Initially the competitive spirit is exciting and rewarding. You’re running faster because of increased training. You read everything you can on training, stretching, nutrition, etc., and become somewhat of an expert on each…”

“But as the competitive drive grows, you start feeling insecure. You no longer value your daily runs for their own worth, but think only of how well they prepare you for races and better times. Missing a run seems to spell racing doom…”

Then Galloway goes on to describe stage four, the athlete, being the best you can be. 

“As an athlete, you find more meaning in the drive to fulfill your potential than in compulsively collecting times and trophies…. Being an athlete is a state of mind which is not bound by age, performance or place in the running pack.”

For the athlete, victory lies in the quality of effort. When you run close to your potential on a given day, it’s a victory. You internalize competition and transcend it, knowing your limits and capabilities. You understand what’s important and what you must do to accomplish it. As you compete, you breathe in the race, vaporize it, absorb what you need and exhale the rest. Running becomes your own work of art…

I believe that as American choral directors we can get caught up in the American competitive spirit. We can lose sight of the art. 

Art is the real reason we make music, why composers write, why we sing.   We are continually bombarded with this concept of competition.  The entire school system is now geared towards competition, beating last year’s test scores, or being better than the other ten schools in our comparison group.  We must tread carefully.

For my choirs, one of the most important and memorable experiences of the year is our performance at the Festival of Lights at the Grotto in Portland every December.  We get a chance to perform for a packed audience in an acoustically wonderful space for 45 minutes.  We do some of our best work during that evening. 

The Festival of Lights was the venue for two of the most significant “mountain top experiences” in my career.  The first was during warm-ups several years ago before performing.  A young senior in the choir was standing there quiet, eyes filled with tears.  I asked if she was nervous or thinking about the end of her high school career.  She simply said “no, I am just concerned that we won’t reach our potential and honor this wonderful music in this incredible space.  We have such a tremendous responsibility.”  Wow,  she nailed it on the head. 

The other happened this year, when after talking to a few friends after the performance for a minute, I noticed that the choir had disappeared.  When I eventually found them outside of the warm-up room downstairs, fifteen minutes later, they were all standing around hugging and crying.  They had just experienced something that was so beautiful, so wonderful, and so intense; they did not know how to process it.  It overwhelmed them. 

My choirs often are the most expressive, attentive, “intentive,” and artistic during the Grotto performances.  That is what making music should be about, not scoring high ratings at contest or beating another school at contest.  It is not about being the best, it is about being our best. 

April 30, 2010

WA-ACDA's Brian Mitchell, R&S Chair for High School Choirs

Music that works...
For high school choirs with orchestra

When I accepted my current job, 15 years ago, as director of a small high school choir program in a relatively rural, blue collar town in SW Washington, I never dreamed that I might need to be prepared to suggest pieces for my choir to perform with an orchestra.  But as it turns out, almost every year one of my choirs has performed with an orchestra of some kind, be it with the local youth orchestra during the holidays, our school orchestra on a spring concert, or with our local civic orchestra, the Southwest Washington Symphony. 

I am always being asked for suggestions for musical selections for the pairings. Sometimes we need about ten minutes worth of music, other times, we might be featured with the group for half of a concert.  Many times, we combine with other local high school choirs.  I asked many of my colleagues around the state to suggest pieces that have worked well for high school choir and orchestra.  Here is the list we came up with.  If you know of other pieces that have worked well, email me and we will try and add them to the list.

WA-ACDA's Brian Mitchell, R&S Chair for High School Choirs

January 30, 2010
Great books to have on your desk, the bookshelf in your office, or even on the nightstand

Once in a while, I feel like I need a “reboot”.  I just need to refocus my purpose, remember why I do what I do, and make sure I am still on course.  Pick my head up and make sure I look to the future.  They say if you want to plow straight rows, you have to look to the horizon, not down at the ground or back at what you have done.

One of the ways I find inspiration and motivation is through the words of other people, authors and composers with a new point of view or a new way to look at what we do every day.  These books have all played a role in my life over the years and if you don’t know of them, you should consider checking them out. 

Vocal Wisdom by Giovanni Battista Lamperti is full of insightful little quips and images that help to teach good singing.  Amazing words and phrases that really illustrate ideas about singing.

Another technique book, one for the choral conductor is Conducting Choral Music by Robert L. Garretson.  It has many useful chapters and is a wonderful reference book.    The book covers ideas on how to teach proper tone, how and why to place your choir in formation, and it has a very useful concise section onmusic history and how it applies to choral music.

The Robert Shaw Reader edited by Robert Blocker, is a superb insight into the letters by one of the most influential choral conductors in American history.  I found it very reassuring to read that even Robert Shaw had to be bothered by people not attending every rehearsal and not being prepared when they did attend.  One of my favorite letters was the one shaped like a dagger that he sent out to his choir after a particularly bad rehearsal.

Choral Charisma: Singing with Expression by Tom Carter has put into words something I have felt for a long time.  He makes tangible an element of performance that I have had a hard time wrapping my brain around.  He describes how to make the music come alive.  That elusive element of musicality and expression is discussed and you are left with some very specific approaches to making it happen with your choir

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin and Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain were both very fascinating books.  Although both are very technical at times they grabbed my imagination and thoughts about music and taught me a great deal about how our minds work and how and why music is so wonderful.

The Musician’s Soul by James Jordan is a study into the heart and soul of the conductor and talks about how to connect with your choir and the music. 

The final book that I routinely reference for inspiration and reboot is “Speaker’s Sourcebook II: Quotes, Stories, and Anecdotes for Every Occasion” by Glenn Van Ekeren.  For when I need to have a talk to the choir about growth, goals, purpose, success, work, or achievement, I turn to this book for words of wisdom, stories that inspire, and ideas to ponder. 

Robert Fulghum  wrote a book called Words I Wish I Wrote: A Collection of Writing That Inspired My Ideas.  If I were write my version of the Words I Wish I Wrote, most of the sources would come from the books I listed above. 

Let's put the lessons of summer into use on a daily basis
by Brian Mitchell, R&S Chair for High School Choirs

August, 2009

I am looking forward to having the opportunity to give back to ACDA as the new high school R&S chair. Going into my 15th year teaching choir at Mark Morris High school, and coming from a small town in Southwest Washington, I hope to be able to bring a fresh and unique perspective to the board. 

In my time in Longview, I have conducted high school boy’s choirs, treble choirs, beginning SAB choirs, 75 member junior/senior mixed ensembles, jazz choirs, and chamber choirs.  I have also directed the local Community College choir, a church choir, and am currently the co-director of a community choir.  As an adjudicator I have had the chance to see what is happening in other regions around Washington State.

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to have many wonderful ACDA directors mentor me along my journey. I am so thankful for the time and knowledge they have been willing to share with me.  I hope to be able to help others by passing on the lessons I have learned from the incredible people who have come before me.

I hope you had a chance to recharge your batteries a bit over the summer.   For me, one of the best things about summer is the chance to just sit and rest.  I cherish the deep peace that comes with being able to have the time to sit on the porch, the beach, or alongside my favorite fishing stream and just let my thoughts wander.  

Taking time to ponder life’s mysteries is great for the soul.  I am reminded of a concept that James Jordan talked about in his book The Musicians Soul.   In order for the conductor to really be able to communicate the emotions and the music effectively, the conductor must be able to deal with the issues in his/her own life first.  For me, summer is the time that I really get to delve in, to relook at life and to take a fresh perspective. 

Fall is coming and I am both excited and apprehensive.  I just never know what is going to walk into my classroom the first day of school.  Just this week, the dreams/nightmares have started again.  Waking up in the middle of the night after playing out a scenario of showing up to contest on the wrong day, or the bus not showing up to take us on tour, or that class that  just can’t seem to be controlled.   I didn’t have these dreams in July; I think mostly because I have the opportunity to let my mind rest and ponder other things, my soul seems to breathe easier.

I think we can all take the lessons of summer and put them into our daily lives.  The words of the poet/author Maya Angelou come to mind. "Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. We need hours of aimless wandering or spaces of time sitting on park benches, observing the mysterious world of ants and the canopy of treetops."

I know I need to keep these kinds of thoughts in mind throughout the year.  At the beginning of every year I tend to get overwhelmed with the logistics of the entire upcoming school year, every concert, every form that needs to be filled out, buses requested, and fundraisers organized.   I forget sometimes to take it one day at a time. 

Before school starts again and the hectic day-to-day activities kick in, I am going to take my calendar and schedule time to relax, reflect, and sprinkle a little bit of summer into the entire year. 

I hope you have a great start to the year and remember to take it one day at a time.  Breathe. Let the space and peace of summer infuse the music and interactions of the school year.

Brian Mitchell - bmitchell@longview.k12.wa.us