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EXAMINING SHIFTS IN REPERTOIRE PROGRAMMING PRACTICES: PRE- AND POST-PANDEMIC

formed to 2.4%. While twenty-first-century music was the highest sin-
While the overall level of performance of historical gle category for all but one school (School I), this mu-
music saw no significant change between 2017–2019 sic made up as little as 20% of all music performed at
and 2021–2023, significant differences can be seen School I to as much as 65% of all music performed at
among the various schools included in the study. Fig- School E. Similar stark contrasts exist for other style
ure 5 displays the median composition age (in years) periods, albeit with lower overall levels of performance.
at each school in each time period and indicates which Notably, School G performed not a single work from
schools did and did not experience a change in their either the Medieval or Renaissance periods during any
choral faculty between 2019 and 2021. of the four academic years studied; the earliest per-
This chart reveals stark contrasts when comparing formed work at that school dates to 1731.
one school to another. Whereas at School E the median While median composition age at most schools
work was 11 years old in both time periods examined, remained relatively stable, a few schools saw major
the median work at School I was over 100 years old in shifts in median composition age: at School H, the
both time periods studied. Within this extreme range, median composition was more than four times older
a wide variety of median composition ages can be seen in 2021–2023 (108.5) than it was in 2017–2019 (25),
at other schools, though the distribution skews toward while Schools K and M saw major shifts in the opposite
the low end. The prevalence of particular historical direction, with the median composition age in 2021–
periods also varies widely among the schools studied. 2023 (41 and 25.5, respectively) being less than half

Figure 5. Median Composition Age (in Years) by School

120

100

80
2017–2019

60 2021–2023

40

20

0
A B C D E F G I J L O P H K M N

Schools with the same Director of Choral Activities (DCA) Schools with a
both pre- and post pandemic DCA change between
2019 and 2021

18 CHORAL JOURNAL September 2025 Volume 66 Number 2