Page 64 - CJJuneJuly25

An Interview with the 2019 National Legacy Directors Chorus Conductors

stretching back many centuries in our programming.
(Band conductors would love to have our repertoire What, if anything, would you change about your
base!) professional life?
In the hundreds of performances I’ve attended in
the past ten years, the number of pre-1900 works per- I was gratified to be chosen to teach at the under-
formed seems to me to be far fewer than in the past graduate and graduate levels as early as I did, but I
(this is an impression and certainly not the result of any regret not furthering my graduate study. And, I did not
“hard” research). So I guess that I’m encouraging our fully appreciate and study the music of women com-
professional responsibility, in this new age of musical posers whose works I believe are more deserving of
accessibility, to explore and promote ways of ensuring attention, such as Ethyl Smyth, Thea Musgrave, Amy
the continued exploration in performance that contin- Beach, Judith Weir, and Carol E. Barnett.
ues to celebrate this wonderful repertoire legacy. At the
very least, we should be constantly mindful and careful
in our programming decisions to encourage perfor- What do you miss most about your job(s) after
mances that are inclusive and representative of that retirement?
legacy.
Since retiring from full-time university teaching, I
have served as a guest professor at different campuses
William Hatcher resides in Rancho and have directed church music programs for a num-
Bernardo, California, having retired af- ber of years. I truly miss the singers, the curious ones,
ter forty-three years of conducting and the smiles on their faces after performing, the thrill of
teaching choral music. He was the na- getting a phrase just right, the deep power of a won-
tional president of ACDA from 1991 to derful anthem, and the absolute change we all would
1993 and served as chair of the ACDA feel in making good music. I would love to do the Bach
Endowment Trust. He was the recipient of the How- B Minor Mass and the Britten War Requiem one more
ard Swan Award for lifetime achievement by the Cal- time!
ifornia ACDA and received the Weston Noble Award
for Lifetime Achievement by North Central ACDA.
Ann Howard Jones is professor emeri-
ta of music at Boston University. From
What do you think are the most striking changes 1981 to 1996, Jones was the assistant to
(positive or negative) in choral music today? the late conductor Robert Shaw with
the Atlanta Symphony Choruses and
The greater attention to and study of multicultural the Robert Shaw Institute. She received
music is a very positive contribution to choral litera- the Robert Shaw Choral Award from ACDA (2011),
ture, but I am concerned that our traditional western the Distinguished Service to the Profession Award
literature might be slighted. I especially grieve the di- from Chorus America (2014), and the Metcalf Teach-
minishing of music training in our public and private ing Award from Boston University (2003).
schools. We have, in a sense, lost generations of people
who were once given the fundamentals of musicianship What, if anything, would you change about your
and a love of singing.
professional life?

When I stop to think about my professional life,
there are so many things that have happened that
I would neither have predicted nor planned for my-

62 CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2025 Volume 65 Number 9