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for K-12, collegiate, community, and professional cho- all others?
ruses (http://chorosynthesis.org/esvdatabase). You can Some of us direct choirs that are connected to a par-
find music by selecting the issues you want to address ticular ethnicity, culture, religious practice, or gender
in your community. We are also creating a resource on identity. We are especially sensitive to discrimination and
how to facilitate conversations on socially conscious to the fact that our communities and our cultures are
topics with your ensemble and community. often unrepresented or misrepresented or reviled. We
sense that we’ve been left out. Marginalized. Tokenized.
Could ethnic pride erase humanism in our Patronized.
choirs? Can ethnic pride AND humanism co- Have we become so traumatized by others vilifying
exist in our choral communities? us that we raise the drawbridge, fearing any external in-
fluences? Is identity a zero sum game? Has ethnic pride
Jacobson: Many of us are working to get “white- erased humanism?
bread” choirs to embrace greater ethnic diversity but I’m a proponent of choro-diversity but I’m preaching
when does our own ethnic pride cause us to ignore or from my pulpit as artistic director of the Zamir Cho-
deny that of the other? When does nationalism be- rale of Boston, specializing in Jewish musical traditions.
come jingoism and bellicose antagonism? Have we be- Will I practice what I preach? Is there room for diversity
come so defensive of our own position that we resent within a specialized choir?

Creating Choral Community: Coming Together in Song
Part three of this series presented the following pieces from the choirs represented on this panel. They are
recommended as entry points to explore, engage, and perform music of various choral communities. We en-
courage you to research the tradition, consider the following resources, and contact the recommender for more
information.

Recommender Musical Community Title Composer Publisher

Nick Page American Folk Bring Me Little Lead Belly Public Domain
Water, Sylvie

Michael Bussewitz-Quarm Queer Scars Michael Bussewitz-Quarm MB Arts / MBQ Studio

Rollo Dilworth African American The Storm Is Charles Tindley/ Boosey & Hawkes
Spiritual Passing Over arr. Barbara W. Baker

Wendy Moy LGBTQIA+ Safe Places of Robert S. Cohen Leapfrog Productions
the Heart

Diana V. Saéz Latinx Yemaya arr. Diana V. Saéz Boosey & Hawkes

Julia Zavadsky Jewish Hebrew Part Songs Stephen Richards Transcontinental Music
and Rounds

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2023 Volume 64 Number 3 61