Page 33 - CJOct24

balance national data or statistics that can feel broad tional aspects to your answers? Is there anything there
and a bit nebulous. We learn from NAfME: that might resonate with your community?
Consider engaging your singers in this process too.
Studies in the compendium show that the arts There is likely a significant emotional component to
help to create the kind of learning environment their experience in your choir. Diving into the emotion-
that is conducive to teacher and student success al power of choral music is a way to help an audience
by fostering teacher innovation, a positive member or decision maker care about your “why.” And
professional culture, community engagement, when someone cares, they are more likely to advocate
increased student attendance and retention, on your program’s behalf; you have created additional
effective instructional practice, and school supporters who can, and want to, tell your story.
identity. 4 Thinking carefully about how we share our “why”
is an important part of advocacy. Nobody wants to be
This is important information, but it’s easy for someone guilted into participation or funding (in fact, this doesn’t
outside the profession to see this as a statement full of work), and abstract or analytical statements will get us
buzzwords. Parents, students, administrators, and com- only so far. If we wish to engage in everyday advocacy,
munity members may have a difficult time understand- we need to tell a compelling story about why choral
ing what this might mean to a student in their local music is important and impactful, keeping our message
high school, so we must help explain it. What we need heartfelt, specific, and easy to understand. What if we
here is an everyday advocacy statement—a concrete made this a key component of every performance?
example to accompany the data results, a specific story
from our own community. Tell Your Story: Tools for Everyday Advocacy
If we take the statement above and consider specific Although our rehearsal schedules, personnel, and
instances where we can see “increased student atten- repertoire vary widely, we all share our choir’s music
dance and retention” as a result of our choral program, with other people. While we know that a heartfelt per-
we create deeper meaning. For instance, consider a let- formance is a type of advocacy, it helps to be inten-
ter my colleague received from R., who said that the tional about your advocacy choices as you put together
reason he graduated from high school was because of a concert. Whether formal or informal, your perfor-
choir. It was the only class in which he felt cared for mance is outward-facing and an opportunity to help
and valued as part of a community. He wanted to feel audiences understand why the music matters. Explore
that way every day, so he didn’t drop out of school. the following suggestions and consider trying one or
This is a simple, concrete, credible, emotional example two; think about what might be the easiest to imple-
of “increased student attendance and retention.” It is a ment. Consider, too, what can be done by volunteers—
story we can tell funders, administrators, and parents. board members, parents, teaching colleagues, or sing-
It is concrete evidence that someone who has never ex- ers themselves—with the messages you want them to
perienced being part of a choral community can un- use. If you begin to weave choral advocacy into your
derstand. everyday tasks, you will notice that it becomes easier. It
As advocates for choral music, emotion is also im- will be just one more lens you use when you make deci-
portant because it can factor heavily into the decision- sions that affect your program or your singers.
making processes. It’s likely the reason GoFundMe or
Kickstarter fundraising efforts work: we read a compel- Concert Themes and Program Notes
ling story of a person and their specific need, and we The idea of concert themes is one that many teach-
feel an emotional response. This translates into a small er-conductors use to pull repertoire together for a con-
donation we might not otherwise make. The Heaths cert. Themes are helpful because they can help to push
remind us that “when people think analytically, they’re us into a different mode of creativity as we work to
5
less likely to think emotionally.” Now return to the connect pieces, create an arc of performance, and look
“why” questions in the first section. Are there any emo- for common threads. But themes can be far too limit-

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2024 Volume 65 Number 3 31