Concert Programming Tips
Bob Mensel — Artistic Director, Portland Gay Men’s Chorus
I have often found inspiration for making music from some of the greatest minds in alliedarts. In regard to programming, perhaps my most important inspiration came whenreading the forward to a cookbook by Paul Bocuse, a famous French chef. In responseto a question about how he plans his menus, he responded (and I’m paraphrasing), “Inever plan a menu until I’ve gone to the market and seen what ingredients areavailable. Then, my dinner is made using the finest and freshest ingredients on handthat day.” Or in the words of my early college-choir director Ralph Woodward (BrighamYoungUniversity), “Conduct the choir you have, not the one you want to have.”Understanding and managing your performing resources is probably the most importantlesson every successful conductor needs to learn. Here are some things to keep inmind when programming for your chorus:
1) Program music that works for the size, range, and musical proficiency of your choir.The biggest mistake here is selecting repertoire that doesn’t match your skill set, orputting your singers into a range that won’t allow them to sound good. Transpositionsare your friends.
2) Always consider the amount and complexity of your music within the context ofwhether or not it will be performed off-book. Choirs of almost any proficiency canmemorize an evening of harmonized show tunes, but I can’t think of any choir thatwould take on a memorized performance of Bach’s B-Minor Mass. (And aren’t we alllooking to program the B-Minor at some point in our careers?) There is a very specificequation for how much rehearsal time it takes to accomplish any specific amount ofrepertoire. Learning yours is paramount to your success.
3) Never, never, never, program a piece that depends upon a solo for which you don’thave a dynamite singer to deliver it. If you don’t have the soloist and it’s the tunethat’s important, have the piece rearranged without the solo. If it’s the soloperformance that makes the piece, wait until you have that singer before yourprogram that piece. Patience is a virtue.
4) Select music that is congruent with your mission and the expectations of youraudience. What works in Seattle may well not work in Dallas nor in your city, just aswhat works beautifully in Iowa City or Hampton Roads may not find resonance in SanFrancisco, Denver, or New York City. I’ve enjoyed numerous pieces performed byLGBT choruses from other communities that I’ve never programmed because I didn’tthink they would work with my audience. We don’t have to all look and sound thesame for each of us to be successful. Excellence will come in many hues.
5) While artistic originality is important, don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to. Useyour fellow conductors (inside and outside of GALA) for inspiration. But a word ofcaution here. When building your own program, it’s easy to develop “choral envy”when hearing and seeing an accomplished chorus and over- or mis-program yourown in hopes that “borrowing” what you’ve seen elsewhere will bring you the samesuccess. But “borrowing” rarely leads to artistic excellence. “Stealing” however, does.The difference is that when you steal something, you disguise the theft by making itappear to be your own in the first place.
All that said, despite our best planning, sometimes a song (or a piece of staging orchoreography) doesn’t work out as we envisioned. Be flexible! This might includerearranging your program order or even dropping a number. And sometimes the workwe do one year on a song doesn’t find fruition for another season or two. That’s OK.But the cardinal rule of artistic direction is: Never, never, never let your chorus go tostage looking or sounding unprepared. And if your programming reflects the bestpossibilities inherent in yourself and your performers, you will find success.