for me I think that some of the most gratifying moments personally and
professionally is when all of those different facets of my musical
personality and existence come together when I have the opportunity to stand
before a group and teach while at the same time I am sharing knowledge with
them particularly about an arrangement or composition that I'm working on or
that I have worked on then I think my my passion perhaps goes to a different
level it's really exciting for me to to integrate all the things that I think I
do musically into one particular experience because for me
one facet of my career such as composing really feeds the other part of my career
as a conductor and my work as a conductor feeds what I do as a clinician
so I really find that all of those experiences work together in many ways I
would have to say one of the most gratifying experiences that I have had
was a number of years ago I had an opportunity to travel with
Henry lek the founder and artistic director of the
children's choir to China and Henry had an opportunity to work with the Beijing
children's choir there and he wanted to expose them to my music and so he handed
out a copy of one of my pieces called shine on me to about 70 children who
were probably middle-school aged for the most part and not only did the students
on the first read sight read every note perfectly but they sight read every note
in English perfectly and it just goes to show you that music is music all around
the world and to have the opportunity to share the music beyond the borders of
the United States was very gratifying to me once you began to understand through
your own work that music really is universal I know that sounds cliche but
it really is and no matter where you go children in particular from different
communities from different cultures whether they speak the same language
when they all get into the same room or not it really doesn't matter once they
start making music together no one seems to care about the cultural barriers that
may may make us different or that separate us
it's that musical language in that musical connection that helps us to
understand that we really are all the same at the core I have really wanted to
champion the cause of diversity in choral repertoire in particular and to
help singers and help teachers of singers and coursers to understand that
there are so many different perspectives when it comes to choral singing and
choral music making and I think in the year 2016 we have gotten so much better
in terms of making music from all different cultures accessible certainly
through publications and certainly JW pepper has played a huge role in the
distribution of music that has been arranged or composed by
people from from places far and near it's so important in these days I think
of globalization and of technological advancements that we help our seniors to
understand the world around them and the world around them is not just limited to
the Western classical Canon choral music transcends culture and I think for our
singers to be limited to singing in one particular style or one particular genre
is limiting their ability to fully understand the world around them
unless there's a choir that is very mission driven to specialize in one
particular type of music and there are choirs that do that they're choirs that
are solely dedicated to Baroque music for example to early music in particular
but as an educator I have a responsibility to expose my choristers
to the gamut everything from chant to 21st century Broadway musical theater
folk jazz gospel pop rock and the contemporary classical choral singing as
well so that is my responsibility and I hope to champion that cause for as long
as I remain an educator