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Everday Advocacy for Your Choral Program

Part of the problem is that we know we should ad- • Why does singing matter to your choristers?
vocate for choral music, but we aren’t sure how to do
it. What do we say? To whom do we say it? We have These are not easy questions, but the answers will
our hands full selecting repertoire, writing lesson plans, help you shape your everyday advocacy stories.
studying scores, teaching and conducting, and meeting
the individual needs of our singers. We are busy! Isn’t a It’s All in the Marketing
beautiful concert advocacy enough? If your program has a mission statement and/
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Simon Sinek’s 2009 TED talk and subsequent or strategic plan, or if you have a clear sense of your
book, Start With Why, took the business and leadership “why,” be sure you have refined your message for your
worlds by storm. His thesis was that people are not as stakeholders. This will ensure that people understand
interested in a product as they are interested in why a and care about what you have to say. In essence, it’s
business exists in the first place. The core belief, cause, marketing—you are selling your advocacy story in a
or reason a business exists can be a compelling story. way that will be compelling to your supporters and to
If a company sells its story, consumers are more likely those who have never experienced choral music. How
to purchase its product, he claimed. He encourages we convey our message is important.
CEOs to build a culture within their companies that Sinek does not discuss how to frame your “why” in
is mission-driven and to hire people aligned with the his TED talk, although he certainly doesn’t ignore this
company’s core beliefs rather than those who are just crucial aspect of storytelling. Rather, he demonstrates
excellent salespeople. Identifying and prioritizing why how to do so through the cadence of his spoken deliv-
a company exists, he argued, is foundational for suc- ery, by using specific (and sometimes visual) examples,
cess. and by repeating key phrases as he delivers his mes-
Although Sinek was speaking to business leaders, it sage. We are not necessarily aware of how he uses his
is easy to see how his ideas are relevant to teaching and presentation to sell us on his idea, and it works. In fact,
to advocacy. When we identify our core beliefs and val- if you have watched other TED videos that left you
ues, we become better teachers, leaders, and storytell- feeling inspired, you will see that they are all carefully
ers. We can explain why it’s important for a student to crafted and practiced stories. Great storytelling is pow-
schedule choir amid Advanced Placement (AP) classes, erful, and humans have shared important information
a foundation to award our program a grant, or an adult this way throughout time and across cultures. You have
to attend a weekly Tuesday night rehearsal across town. probably noticed that some of the best teachers are
While we may have spent time creating our own mis- those who know how to engage a group of students
sion statements as undergraduates, for most of us it has through story. Great storytelling is great marketing,
been a very long time since we checked in with our own and advertising is built on powerful images, ideas, or
“why.” vignettes.
Consider: Honing an idea so that it becomes more impactful
is a great marketing skill and one we can all develop.
• Why do you teach and conduct choirs? In their 2007 book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive
and Others Die, Chip and Dan Heath analyze Malcolm
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• Why do your singers choose (and continue) to par- Gladwell’s concept of “stickiness” to determine the
ticipate? principles that make an idea memorable. They came
up with the acronym “SUCCES” as they identified
• Why did you enter the profession? these principles: simple, unexpected, concrete, cred-
ible, emotional, stories. 3
• Why do you stay in the profession? While choral musicians don’t necessarily need to
consider each attribute when honing a story for advo-
• Why does singing matter to you? cacy purposes, there are a few that rise to the top. Re-
member that everyday advocacy is about working to

30 CHORAL JOURNAL October 2024 Volume 65 Number 3