Show Choir Sessions

Marty & Mark Lindvahl, retired music educators and clinicians extraordinaire, are my guest this week along with their son-in-law Aaron Smiley to share about their new invention: Judge's Assistant. Judge's Assistant uses AI to transcribe, categorize, and summarize judges' recorded comments to make it easier for directors and clinicians to provide timely feedback to performing ensembles. It's a really neat tool and I'm excited to see it put to use this competition season!

Now entering their 10th year, HOA's 2025 season will include competitions in Nashville, Orlando, and Los Angeles. Register for an event at hoachoir.com!

With me today is Sherman Charles, the founder of Carmen Scoring, the system used by more that 60 show choir competitions throughout the US, as well as many other instrumental, acapella, and even international events. Sherman tells the story of how Carmen came to be and shares a lot of great insight into the many decisions that need to be made by competition hosts as well as things participating directors ought to know about these scores.

A podcast-sized reading session of three new works by Garrett Breeze featured in the 2024 JW Pepper Editor's Choice Catalog.

⁠⁠Aloha⁠⁠

⁠⁠Call of a Warrior⁠⁠

⁠⁠Tiny Voice⁠

My guest today is Julianne Merrill, who works on Broadway as a music director, pianist, and electronic music designer. Both of us are alumni of North Central High School in Indianapolis and we have worked together for the past several seasons on the show choir creative team. We’ve also collaborated in making the Breeze Tunes Mainstage Library, which was designed to cover the most commonly requested types of sounds needed by keyboards in show choir and is a good middle ground for groups getting started with MainStage.

*This episode was recorded before the announcement that MakeMusic's Finale was being discontinued.*

Dan Baker is the Executive Producer for Heart of America, one of the most prestigious and well respected organizations in the world of show choir. As the person responsible for pulling off each of HOA's large national competitions every season, he has a lot of great advice to share with directors hosting their own competitions, and gives a fascinating look into what is required to pull off such a mammoth event.

Now entering their 10th year, HOA's 2025 season will include competitions in Nashville, Orland and Los Angeles. Register for an event at hoachoir.com!