The summer is a great time for reflection in so many ways. Besides the obvious benefit of having many weeks off, I am also reminded, as I watch people around me in other professions, what a privilege it is to be a choral director. A few other reflective thoughts include:
The opportunity to work with students every day keeps my life interesting and challenging, and certainly never boring!
- Working on choral music on a daily basis fills my life with beauty in a way no other subject can.
- Watching people create a work of art together is truly rejuvenating.
- Observing the growth of students/singers is gratifying in a way that is hard to quantify.
- Music teachers must be the hardest working, yet happiest (in a crazy way), teachers in the school!
With the passing this summer of Dr. Gene Brooks and Mr. Clarence “Clancy” Miller of Rowan University (formerly Glassboro), I also reflect on how many people have been great mentors, role models and contributors to the choral world. Both of these men
devoted their entire lives to their students, colleagues, and the profession in general. Their influence on choral music was extraordinary.
We must remember to honor and thank all those mentors who have made an influence on us. We all have them -- numerous heroes in our lives who gave us confidence, tools to work with, and musical skills.
Let us be mentors for each other in this organization - “people resources” who can count on each other for everything from mundane questions, to support and advice, to being a sounding board for each other.
Please welcome to the NJ Board four new members who have volunteered to be such “people resources”:
Barbara Retzko………Senior High Choirs
Jessica Harrison………Ethnic & Multicultural Perspectives
Susan Kirkland…………Jazz Choirs
Ken Elpus……………………Advocacy Chair
Feel free to contact me or any of the other Board members with questions/concerns that are on your mind.
It is an honor to serve as your President, and I’m looking forward to the next two years.
Lori Lynch
Fall 2007
Welcome back to another year in our schools, churches, and community choirs in which we have the wonderful opportunity to make choral music.
