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The Voice

Chorus America's award-winning quarterly magazine, The Voice, highlights chorus news, artistic initiatives in the choral world, and advice and commentary on the business of running a successful chorus. The Voice is distributed to nearly 2,000 choral leaders throughout North America. It is published in Spring, Summer, and Fall/Winter; ISSN 1074-0805. Browse articles and past issues in the tabs below. Editor, Liza W. Beth

The Importance of Collecting Data on Chorus Operations

How You Can Use the Chorus Operations Survey Report

As chorus leaders you make important decisions annually, monthly, even daily, that affect the future of your organization. In doing so, be sure to consider context, both internal and external, as you make your choices. What are other choruses doing? What are others in the broader nonprofit community doing? What have we ourselves been doing and how might we do it better? We discuss how others have used the Chorus America Chorus Operations Survey Report to inform their decisionmaking.

New Voices on Composing and Commissioning

Are more composers increasingly looking to the choral genre as a means for expression? We explore the issue in this roundtable discussion featuring Heather Hitchens of Meet The Composer, John Nuechterlein of the American Composers Forum, and Joanne Hubbard Cossa of the American Music Center.

Bridging Cultural Divides: Can Choruses Lead the Way?

Many types of organizations are tackling issues of diversity. Patricia Moore Harbour, who has facilitated a number of these discussions in a process that she describes as the Transformative Learning Experience, believes arts organizations, especially choruses, may start out ahead of the game.

Working with the Music Director

Artistic leadership of a chorus is both an individual balancing act and a highly collaborative endeavor.

Choral Music: Worth Listening To

When choruses take the time to really sing the text—be it biblical or poetic, somber or silly—we demonstrate the moral consequence of lives that are animated by beauty, passion, and love.

Ubuntu: Connecting Through Choral Music

The concept of ubuntu: "A person is a person through other people." Throughout black South African history—from ancient times when societies were migratory to the more recent struggle against apartheid—the people have relied on each other for their very survival. One conductor brought the lessons of ubuntu back home to his chorus.

We Sing and We're Proud!

Erasing Our Choral Inferiority Complex

It's time we check our choral inferiority complex at the door and assert choral music's rightful place as the noblest of the performing arts.

Learning for Life: A Conducting Masterclass

Cellists hang out with the other cellists, singers hang out with other singers, but conductors—who do they hang out with? Stephen Czarkowski and 31 other conductors hung out together for four days in May 2006 to share with each other, explore some of the great works in the choral-orchestral repertoire, and learn from some of the nation's finest choral conductors.

Is Your Chorus Ready To Tour?

Choruses and Tour Companies Share Their Wisdom

Every summer, countless choruses hit the road, offering up their musical gifts in venues across the globe and conferring many benefits to the chorus and its singers. Here are questions to ask before planning your first—or next—tour.

Vance George: My Life in Choral Music So Far

Vance George, former director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, reflects on a lifetime of musicmaking.

How Meditation Can Enhance Your Singing

Meditation and choral singing hold many commonalities.  Find out how choruses can use the practice of "being quiet" to enhance rehearsals, singing and even performances.

Fundraising On the Day After

The past decade seems to have had more than its fair share of natural disasters and tragedies. In the aftermath of a major event, how should your chorus approach its fundraising activities? What do you say to those who challenge the idea of funding the arts at a time of great social need? 

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