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An interview with Donald Nally, conductor of the chamber choir The Crossing based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is presented. Nally describes his process as a choral conductor when working with new music. He discusses the importance of building enough lead time when working with composers in order to achieve goals as the artistic director and conductor and to help them realize their artistic vision. He offers advice to people who might be interested in developing a choral organization.

LGBTQIA+ choruses in the United States play an important role in the development of queer movement culture by providing safe spaces other than bars and clubs, by emotionally supporting queer people through extended political struggles and the AIDS crisis, and by presenting public counternarratives to anti-gay propaganda. Jon Sims, a music teacher from Kansas, inspired to action by queer activists like Harvey Milk and the anti-gay countermovement of Anita Bryant, founded the world’s first publicly identifying gay music ensembles in San Francisco in the late 1970s. By the 1990s, hundreds of queer music ensembles had organized across five continents. At the start of the 21st century, LGBTQIA+ choruses in the United States are beginning to dismantle the structural and social inequities inherited from mid-20th century queer organizing, in an attempt to better reflect the diverse intersectional identities that comprise the queer community and to collaborate more effectively with activists from other historically marginalized groups. The historical development of the LGBTQIA+ choral movement in the United States demonstrates how processes of cultural institutionalization reproduce social inequalities enacted by systemic prejudices like racism, sexism, ablism, and transphobia, even in marginalized communities. A critical musicological analysis of this community’s history may help music educators recognize and interrogate discrepancies between the benevolent intent and the complicated, sometimes inverted, impacts that music institutions have on participants, communities, and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on Community choruses. Topics discussed include information on work of author Peter Dykema on the importance of adult group music making; information on choral music which creates rich opportunities for teaching and learning music working together with others toward a common goal and sharing common values; and mental and psychosocial benefits of Music learning.

The article discusses the history of conducting in pedagogy and practice. Conducting history is reportedly as old as recorded history, however conductors only became popular in the 19th century. Topics include the pedagogical value of history for conducting students, literature on existing instructional materials related to conducting history, and the development of kinesthetic musical practices.