Recruiting

Recruiting is the life-blood of any choral organization. One either has a natural affinity for the activity or not, and I thoroughly enjoy this part of my job. Through visits, clinics, and adjudication for local high schools, churches, and community choirs, I have a track record for gathering people to sing. In my various conducting positions, I have had much success with music majors, but even more so with the non-majors. I have found that non-majors come to choir because they simply "have to sing." Whether they are engineers (I have a former singer who works for NASA), physicists (one became a music minor because of choir), cadaver-dog trainers, or teachers, I like to bring out the inner singer in all of my ensemble members.

**From the Waco Tribune-Herald, January 27, 2017

Recruiting also happens through my students. In several of my positions, I was able to utilized the talents of student leadership to enhance the student experience. I believe that students are more likely to join a choir because they have met a singer than because they have met the conductor, although both are crucial. Students speak the same language to each other, and while everyone wants to sing for a conductor they like and respect, students also enjoy making those social connections in and out of rehearsals. One should remember that the flip side of recruiting is retention; students bonding with each other, and being part of a long history and tradition of an organization or institution is a significant component of singing in a choir.

While I am passionate about the repertoire, I also feel strongly that connections made between singers and conductor in the process of rehearsing and performing the music truly makes the experience rewarding and life-changing for us and our audiences.

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/higher_education/mcc-rolls-out-school-song-for-th-anniversary/article_eccafd70-2b52-54da-9f7b-4c937710e619.html