The Sing Portland! Blog

Is your heart talking to you? Mine spoke to me when I was a teenager; it told me music was my thing, what I was made for. It told me to pursue a career as a musician. My parents told me otherwise. And I listened, at least for a while. I ignored my heart, suppressed my...

In case you haven’t noticed, we do things a little differently here at Sing Portland! (What can we say, we are in the capitol of “doing things a little differently”.) So if you’re thinking of switching choirs but you’re not quite sure what to expect, you should know…...

“Too late to start this now.” That’s what I heard over and over again when, at 31, I picked up a cello for the first time and decided to learn how to play. I started teaching a year later, and have now taught for 20 years. “Oh, that’s certainly too late.” That’s what...

“Mama, can you tell me a story?”   My son says this to me at least three times a day. He’s at the age where he doesn’t really care what I tell him, he can’t tell the difference between Little Red Riding Hood (i.e. a published story) or something else that I make up on...

When I saw the announcement for a workshop pop up in my email, I gasped. An opportunity to attend a choral conductor workshop in Cuba, placed perfectly in between two choir terms.   And then my brain immediately chimed in. “Who are you to go to this workshop? The kids...

If you were to take a guess, what would you say the most important element of singing is? If you’ve had some singing training, you might think that it’s studying the music beforehand, or practicing. If you’re new to singing, you might think it’s talent, or training....

From the outside, the Harvest Festival concert must have looked like the carefree family event was intended to be.   But if you had looked backstage just before the musical performance was supposed to start, you would have seen me and my musical therapy classmates...

Chances are if you’ve spent more than five minutes with me you’ve heard me talk about my hero of heroes, Bobby McFerrin. He’s the father of Circle Singing and an absolutely amazing human being all around, and this past summer I finally had a chance to sing with him as...