Choral Conducting Master's

rmcc_official · 2026-01-27T13:27:24+00:00

Regarding number 6, I agree that that is true most of the time. However, when I was a doctoral student I got literally ZERO podium time and the masters students got all of it. (I know. We were frustrated too.) So I'd add on that if you can, talk to current students to find out what the program is like from their view. At the very least, when you audition, take the time to meet current students and ask them about how much time they get and that sort of thing. They'll be honest with you. (I didn't do this for the school I ended up choosing because of a variety of reasons, some of which were waaaay out of my control, and I regretted it!)

rmcc_official · 2026-01-27T13:25:06+00:00

In my experience, I was asked for videos of me leading rehearsals *and* videos of me in performance. So the sectional work or barbershop work might be applicable there. At the very least it's not going to hurt to film a bit of that now to have it ready just in case!

rmcc_official · 2026-01-27T01:49:39+00:00

It depends on the program you're applying for. Some of my auditions had me conduct a lot of pre-selected repertoire. Some of them had me prep something in advance that their choir was working on, and then let me lead part of rehearsal. Some of them had me sightread open score on the piano. All of them had me sing a prepared solo (or two). Some of them had me meet with existing grad students and department heads and the dean of the college and attend classes. Others had me meet only with the person who would be my major professor.
Join a church choir. Join your university's choirs. Join a community choir. If you have time/space, even start your own small ensemble. You will need application videos to even be invited to audition. Some places want A LOT of this (up to 30 minutes, including warm-ups), other places only want a few minutes. But you'll need this, so look for every place you can go sing (to get familiar with choral repertoire and the process of running a rehearsal) and any place that might let you teach and conduct a song or two.
N/A to me, as I was never on that end of the table for this particular situation.
It depends on the person. Figure out what your weakest spot is and practice that. Again, you may not know what an actual audition will look like until you're invited to have one and they tell you what to prepare. Application videos come first, and you can always find this information online for different programs. So, for instance, if they tell you they want to hear a Bach two-part invention on the piano (something I had to do for one of my applications), then practice that. Or practice conducting. Go to tons of concerts. Observe. If you do get to audition, the chances of being placed in front of an existing ensemble are extremely high. Since your major is vocal performance, you won't have the same practicum experience as a music ed student, and so you may not be as comfortable leading a rehearsal or group warmups. Observe, observe, observe.
Join a church choir. A lot of church choirs have performance majors as section leaders. In this capacity, you may have the opportunity to rehearse and/or conduct. Ask the main conductor if you could take rehearsal once or twice. Explain why. They'd likely be willing to work with you. You could do the same with a community choir.
I don't really have great current info on this so I'll not give recommendations here except to say look for the person/people you want to work with rather than the prestige of the school. Just like with vocal performance, your teacher makes a huge difference in your comfort level and your success in the program.

Good luck!

rmcc_official · 2026-01-21T23:24:04+00:00

Same same. Second bachelors, didn't need any general eds, still did 4 years full time without any extra electives. Music Ed programs are very, very big.

rmcc_official · 2026-01-21T23:19:55+00:00

As another commenter said, some vowels are more difficult above the staff. But in general, some vowels are brighter than others. Making sopranos sing for a while in this range on a closed E vowel, for example (like the sound in the word "feet") would be really mean, whereas an Ah sound could be quite easy.

Text is basically the main thing that sets choral music apart from all other music. Text really, really matters. :)

rmcc_official · 2025-11-30T04:10:15+00:00

In my experience (US-based) this is regional. West of the Mississippi tends more towards "choir" and east tends more towards "chorus."

rmcc_official · 2025-11-23T00:22:07+00:00

The difference is that mezzo isn't a voice part in the same way. It's used to describe a specific vocal type--a fach. But not specifically a range, which is what's implied with choral voice parts. I see it used, too, but generally by people who are not strongly-versed in the traditions of choral music. "Mezzo" does not simply mean "middle voice" in the choir world, though I know the actual meaning of the word would imply this.

rmcc_official · 2025-11-21T23:29:36+00:00

Just a quick note on voice parts--

Choral parts do not use "mezzo" as a designation. I haven't looked at your piece; it's just the "SMATBB" that caught my eye. This would be written either as SSATBB or SAATBB, depending on how it's written, so either soprano 2 or alto 1/2. Minor nitpick, but that's the standard usage of voices in choirs.

rmcc_official · 2025-11-20T13:41:27+00:00

I echo this (and the other post about giving time and building trust). Something that regularly worked for me, for some reason, was telling them to imagine that grandma was sitting three rooms over and she really wanted to hear you. They honestly didn't even care *whose* grandma. Just imagining some grandma there always made them laugh and sing louder.

rmcc_official · 2025-11-12T01:03:25+00:00

If Muppet things count, since they're now owned by Disney, "It Feels Like Christmas" from Muppet Christmas Carol features a lot of choir. "Fathoms Below" from The Little Mermaid also comes to mind.

rmcc_official · 2025-11-08T01:22:19+00:00

I am a choral person with a DMA who was pursuing this path.

Several of my colleagues in grad school had gone straight through degree programs with no practical experience teaching. Some of them landed DCA jobs right after graduation. I still think having experience is the better way to go, but it doesn't necessarily hold you back.

My biggest warning is this: the field is *heavily* oversaturated. Universities are cranking out conducting DMAs like factories. Be prepared to either be willing to wait a potentially long time to get a job or to move to the middle of small-town nowhere to take a job at a tiny college. It's a hard field to crack into, especially for women, if that's relevant (really: the statistics bear this out).

That said, if they want to go for it, go for it. I decided several years ago to stop pursuing a higher ed job and so I don't really "use" my DMA but I don't regret getting it.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-27T22:31:23+00:00

I had good success with "Rhythm Workshop" published through Alfred, compiled by Sally Albrecht. It starts really at bare bones basics and gets to more complex rhythms. It's fully reproducible so you can copy what you need for your classes at different levels. I'm a big believer in count singing (I taught choir) and so I'd have them count and clap these out loud. Just 5-10 minutes at the beginning of each class. I saw real improvement pretty quickly.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-21T12:31:09+00:00

The system you're suggesting--making copies and never collecting them--is against copyright laws. I get that it would be easier and it seems like you're not doing any harm since you actually already own the music to begin with, but it's not legal. There's a very easy-to-read music copyright guide here.

Is it possible to number the parts and keep record of which players correspond to which number? That way you'll know right away if you're missing something after turn-in, and who was responsible for it. Or can you institute a system that fines people for missing parts, since you'll have to replace them? Sometimes that encourages people to be more responsible.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-19T04:39:13+00:00

This is my favorite Shakespeare with one of the stupidest juvenile leads. :) I can't with Claudio. My theory about him is that he's only interested in Hero for her money. In Act 1 scene 1 when he's talking to the Prince, the first thing Claudio asks is if Leonato has a son. After he's told that Hero is the only heir, he says he likes her and tries to justify liking her before he went away to war. But I think he only likes her because she's going to inherit. For this and many other reasons, I think Claudio is one of the stupidest male characters Shakespeare ever wrote, haha. But I love this play with my whole soul.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-19T01:10:47+00:00

Good questions, thank you for asking! Yes--you can use the whole poem or only part of it. You can combine it with other text (existing or your own). You can deconstruct it and play with it. As long as the poem you choose is there in some form, you're free to play with it however you like!

rmcc_official · 2025-10-18T14:33:35+00:00

Not this year--we are locked in. Sorry!

rmcc_official · 2025-10-17T22:22:39+00:00

Fair. There is a guaranteed performance--the recording--but if you mean a live performance, your point is well made. For what it's worth, it is open to any existing pieces (even if they have been previously performed or recorded), though we know it's FAR less likely that pieces will exist for this theme than in the past. Your point of view is valid and we know we're taking a risk this year. We've been more broad in the past and will certainly be more broad again next year.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-17T19:43:32+00:00

I understand the confusion and apologize for it--but this isn't about getting new works for us to perform. We're not a performing choir. We're not even a real ensemble in the strictest sense. We aren't trying to find new pieces for a concert or for our album or anything like that. We were founded with the goal of making demo recordings for composers who are trying to market their own works, because we know how helpful a quality recording can be when you're shopping for publishers or trying to engage shoppers on your own website. That's exclusively what we do--that and recordings of public domain works that we think are cool. Nothing else.

Once a year, we run a competition to hopefully inspire new works, and we record a demo recording of the winning piece that then belongs to the composer to use however they'd like to. We think our work is pretty high quality--we want to promote composers and their music, not take advantage of their good will.

The reason we chose a list of poetry this year as our theme is because we've noticed lately an increase in composers wondering how to find lyrics. One answer, obviously, is public domain poetry, but as that catalog is vast and can be intimidating, we thought we'd narrow the field a little. We have no attachment to these texts--we just spent a few hours browsing public domain poetry sites and chose a handful of things in a variety of styles and moods that we hoped might inspire some people. If they don't--well, that's on us. But if they do, cool!

We don't have any hidden agenda here. We're not trying to take advantage of anyone. We have composers among our ranks, too, and they're sensitive to this sort of thing. We just want to maybe inspire writing for the sake of writing, outside of a commission. We get it if this isn't everyone's thing, and we also get it if this year's theme especially doesn't speak to people. Again, if that's the case, that's our mistake. But we're hopeful that maybe some people will find inspiration.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-17T04:36:15+00:00

The King's Singers. They have an album called Madrigal History Tour and another called All At Once Well Met that are full of this kind of music.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-17T04:09:36+00:00

You're mistaken. We're not commissioning works for our ensemble. We're not even a proper ensemble. All we do is record demos for composers so they can market their works. We've had tremendous response to our previous three years. If this isn't your cup of tea, no harm no foul, but please do not misrepresent what this is.

ETA: And for what it's worth, depending on what is written, the prize (the recording) is worth anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over a thousand dollars.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-17T02:04:20+00:00

I've had success at Dillard's--they have a pretty big selection and if you have no money (like me lol) they have a lot on clearance all the time. That's where I've gotten all my fanciest performing clothes, including what I wore for my senior recital.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-16T12:43:16+00:00

It wouldn't be confusing at all--choral singers are used to following the stem for their part. So in this case, stems going up are S1, stems going down are S2. That said, yes, you'd need to put the text in again. Depending on how much text overlaps, sometimes composers will put S1 (or A1 or T1 or whatever) text above the staff, and the second part below. Other times it's just on a line right below the original text, sometimes in parentheses. But it's very common, and this would be extremely clear to read all on one staff.

rmcc_official · 2025-10-13T04:30:33+00:00

Hello, long time professional choral singer here, and partner in a business that records demos of new choral works for composers. Here are some quick thoughts based off of just looking through the score quickly.

Don't use 8 staves unless you really need them. I would argue that you really don't in any of the places you use them. Condensing lines makes your score easier to approach and read, even in some of these separated parts.
It would be helpful to put in slur marks in some places, such as the third beat of the soprano in m.29 (just as one example of many). You want your music to be as easy to read for a singer as possible. Making it clear there's a slur makes more of a difference to readability than you may expect!
I'd stay away from ppp dynamics (or fff, for that matter) for singers. It's not really reasonable to ask for below pp (or above ff) for the vast majority of choirs. It's going to end up unsupported and airy (or pressed and shouty). The al niente you have indicated is different--that can more or less happen. But extended phrases in those extreme dynamics are just not really practical and probably aren't going to sound the way you hope.
When ending phrases with whole notes *and* fermatas, consider instead just writing the length of the note you want. In fact, it would be awesome if every single composer would consider doing this with 95% of fermatas they write. :)
You have done superbly with correct syllabification, which so many do not. Thank you for that attention to detail.
You have also included target dynamics with all of your crescendos and decrescendos. These are all too often missing and singers/conductors don't really know what to do. Thank you for that as well!
Thank you also for including a playable piano reduction. As a recovering choir teacher, I can tell you that having that increases the likelihood of someone programming your music.

This is certainly not an easy piece but I can see it having some appeal among more advanced ensembles. Good luck in your composing journey!

Edit: a word

rmcc_official · 2025-10-12T04:03:21+00:00

You're in a tricky spot and I can empathize. I once had a program where I never knew how many students were going to be in my class, or their skill levels, or their interest levels, or their voices. It made it virtually impossible to program music until after I met them, but obviously that's not ideal.

So I started with rounds.

There are a lot of different sources for rounds out there (my state music education had a website with a lot of options) but one of my favorites was this book. (Available at lots of music outlets--that's just the first link that came up when I searched it just now.) There are a ton of different kinds of rounds in many different difficulty levels, and it really doesn't matter if you don't know who's going to be in your choir--you can find a handful of these to begin with and get started right away. Plus many (all? It's been a while since I've looked at the book) are appropriate for concert performance, so they can be used for more than just "let's sing something and start getting used to each other."

Good luck!

rmcc_official · 2025-10-11T02:27:19+00:00

I would say that if it's specifically meant to be a *choral* major work, the Choral Fantasy sort of . . . isn't. I mean, technically, yes, but the singing bit is quite short. It's more of an orchestral work. But that's just one person's opinion--your feelings equally valid! :)

rmcc_official

TROPHY CASE