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Jost: I don’t know if there is an ideal balance. In the re- very far. That isn’t to say that individuals aren’t important. In
hearsal, I feel like I’m really working on the music and not fact, they’re so much more important in that context—where
thinking necessarily about the singers except in the sense that their individual strengths are given to each other. The con-
I think there are some givens in terms of respect that need to ductor does the same thing. He gives himself to the ensem-
be part of it. I’m not thinking, “Oh, this tenor probably had ble. The individual is absolutely vital, but the submission of
a rough day today” or that sort of thing. I think we need to individuals to one another makes for an amazing experience.
let go of those things and just go to work.
Jost: It is going to be a much richer experience if I can call
Hopper: I think the repertoire you choose for your singers upon their experience and not just feel that everything has to
is really key in caring for them. One thing I think about a lot be coming from me. Over the years I’ve come to realize that
is the texts that we’re giving them. We’re giving them texts there are ways to use the experience of the group. What you
that are going to encourage them, to feed their souls, to do want to do is increase the ownership of the group over the
something, convey a message because that’s something they music and the music-making process, and you can’t do that
take with them for the rest of their lives sometimes. There’s a by constantly being the only source of wisdom and knowl-
great story I use often about a woman who sang in the wom- edge and truth yourself.
en’s choir here before my time as the conductor. She was
kidnapped when she was a missionary in Africa in the ’60s. Grant: The experiences I had within my groups taught me
She wrote a book about it. She writes in the book that, for that these two things can go hand-in-hand. I think if you’re
that amount of time she was held hostage, it was the songs a conductor at the professional level and the primary em-
she sang in the women’s choir at Wheaton College that were phasis is on the performance alone, then you can really dial
in her mind that came back to her and gave her encourage- it toward that, just taking care of the music. If you’re in a
ment during the time of captivity, especially a Kodaly piece school situation, a college situation, it seems to me that that
called Cease Your Bitter Weeping that she quotes. And so that has balance has to come more to neutral—that is, at least an
always struck me how important it is what we’re putting in equal emphasis on student growth and musical performance.
the minds of our students. But you have to be intentional. I don’t think it can happen
by circumstance.
Wis: I would start by saying that caring for the singers and
caring for the music are not mutually exclusive. Is it process Hurty: When I started, I think I was probably more rigid
or product? Of course, we can’t have one without the other. in my approach to people because I was more concerned
To function at our best and for the singers to reap the most about me rather than about them. And the more experience
benefits, we need to have process and product in front of us I’ve gotten, the more I realize that it truly is about the music
at all times, working toward our immediate goal of a great itself—what the music or the composer or the poet has to
performance as well as our long-term goal of wonderful cre- say. Learning to get me out of the way and make the music
ative work and the development of people as musicians and be more important has been the best developing experience
collaborators. that I’ve had.

Holmes: In some ways, a choir is the last bastion of you- This article continues with 3 questions:
ness, not me-ness, in artistic expression. It’s a lot about the
‘you’ and a lot less about the ‘me.’ It’s about a ‘we’ com- • How do you establish and maintain the ideal balance in rehearsal,
ing together. If it is all about the conductor, then the sense especially in the face of mounting rehearsal pressures?
of other-ness is lost. The concept of otherness is crucial to
the whole thing that I’m trying to build. In that sense, it is • How do you regain the balance in rehearsal if it has been lost?
always about building up the individual through the commu-
nity endeavor. Otherness is so key. In the Millikin University • How do you enhance your ability as a conductor to care for the sing-
Choir, or ‘U Choir’ as we call it, one of our ongoing mottos ers?
is, “Not Me Choir—U. Choir!” And I think that takes us

ChorTeach Volume 15 • Issue 2 33 Winter 2023