A choral conductor's mulligan shot

The editor of the California State journal for the American Choral Directors’ Association asked all committee chairs to write a “mulligan.” He defined that as the chance to take the shot over, or “what would you do differently if you had a second chance. Here’s what I wrote July 2010.

This is an invitation to be confessional, it seems to me.

If I had my life to live over, I would have studied music assiduously as a child. I would have insisted on piano lessons even when my parents couldn’t afford it. I would have used my babysitting money to pay for them. I would have had the courage to be a music major the first time around at Occidental College under Dr. Howard Swan. Instead, I sang in the Glee Club, took voice lessons and lurked around the music quad wishing I were part of the community. I allowed myself to be scared by the music majors’ tales of “horrible theory.”

If I could do it over, I might have recognized that I was a better “group musician” than soloist and not wasted so much time on private voice lessons and rigid practice two hours a day.

When I finally went back to school to Cal State Northridge and studied with Daniel Kessner and John Alexander, I discovered that music theory was not the big bugaboo I had expected. In fact, it was fun! I wish I had started harmonic dictation earlier, though. I remember being told, “All of you in this class want to be musicians, but I guarantee that most of you will not make it.” I assumed that I would be one of those to not “make it.” But I kept going. Once in a conducting class, Lawrence Christiansen gave us some little melodic bits to sing and I nailed them. He said (referring to me), “There’s someone in the class with an ear.” I was jublilant.

If I could do it over, I would have had more confidence. Everytime my choir grew, I was surprised that people wanted to sing with me. Every time I got a superior rating, I was amazed that our work was good enough. But I kept going. In the early years in LA, I had 6 jobs and drove all over the county to keep body and soul together.

Now that I have my wonderful Ragazzi chorus, I am grateful for the gift of music and for the joy of working with boys, where our team changes lives through the power of music and community.

Joyce Keil
Artistic Director
Ragazzi Boys Chorus
California State ACDA Boychoir Chair