In March of 2017, I sat on the second row of the closing concert of the OAKE National Conference in Philadelphia with my friend and mentor Lamar Robertson. The American Boychoir, under director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, closed the program with Stars and Stripes Forever, sung entirely on solfege, piccolo line and all. In this episode I reflect on what that moment revealed about music literacy, the Kodály approach, and what it looks like when solfege stops being an exercise and becomes a language. I will put a link to the OAKE Facebook video in the show notes. You can spot my red hair and Lamar's gray hair on the second row.

The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s the video on Facebook. You can see Lamar and me on the second row: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1199884020109840

Here’s the professional, non-solfege recording on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/q1I8BSwmgTA

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com