A community chorus is held together by its singers’ commitment to each other and to the group. But what happens when a volunteer singer becomes disruptive to that community spirit—and won’t comply with repeated requests to change their ways? Does your chorus have a carefully spelled-out dismissal procedure, or do you handle things on a case-by-case basis? Or are you sitting there crossing your fingers and hoping it won’t happen, because there is no precedent in recent memory?

Whether your chorus has 10 singers or 110, what those singers wear matters. The overall look should complement, not distract from, the music and communicate a certain level of seriousness, or as one choral conductor quipped, “not like you just walked in off the street.” 

As a graduate conducting student at Temple University in the 1980s, Diana V. Saez recalls being frustrated that there was no mention of Latin American composers—except for the famous composers Villalobos from Brazil and Ginastera from Argentina. When she moved to Washington DC, in 1990, she found a bustling choral music scene, with a wide variety of choruses. But Latin American music was not part of the standard repertoire.

Hiring your chorus’s first employee is an important step. Here’s how to make sure you get it right.

Has bad weather caused you to scramble at the last minute to cancel or salvage a performance? If you have never been forced to react to this type of scenario before, it is a good idea to have a plan in place should it ever occur. These choruses shared their first-hand experiences of dealing with major complications brought on by Mother Nature.

Being the only person managing the day-to-day operations of a chorus is not for the faint of heart, but the pay-off can be sweet. Here’s how a number of solo administrators pull it off.