Over the last few weeks I have noticed a storm after the calm in choral music circles. We saw a boil over in Texas when a clinician withdrew from a conference based on a letter from two members that made her feel unwelcome, and a downstream fallout stemming from how the organization handled the issue. We saw a terribly offensive presentation given at a conference in New York that referred to some schools as “Hood” schools and the justified outrage at this affront. Not too long ago, there were arguments about cancelling Jingle Bells, and I am not even mentioning all of the controversies.

As many may know, the mission here at Choralosophy is to HAVE the conversation when others just want to lob social media bombs back and forth. In this episode I do a deep dive on some of the ideas at the root of these disagreements. I do this by telling a story of an online discussion I had about “Colonization and Classical Music.” Because here is the thing: Political footballs have been made of terms like “Critical Race Theory,” and “Intersectionality,” and “Decolonization.” Many, and I would say most, do not use these terms correctly whether they are “for” or “against” the ideas.

It kind of reminds me also of some conversations we had back in 2020 about an infamous essay on Choral Cancel Culture…

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