Hi! I’m Colleen
I’m a choir teacher and lifelong learner helping you engage deeply with choral music
Every piece of choral music is rooted in its context: the people who helped create it, the influences of the time and location, the story it tells. I believe the more a singer knows about the music they engage with in choir, the more ownership they can take over their performance.
Empowering Choral Musicians
I come from a family of musicians. One of my most favorite things is when we all get together and take turns playing the piano or singing or playing the guitar or ukulele. At large family gatherings, we keep each other entertained for hours – sight reading music from the stacks of “best of” books we’ve accumulated over the years or pulling up charts on our phones and improvising our way through popular music.
These moments of independent musicianship – of discovery and improvisation and decision-making – bring me such joy. I desperately want my choral students to be able to have moments like these, but I know that these are not always the skills that are traditionally emphasized in choral music education. This is why you’ll see so many suggestions for student ownership and independence throughout all my posts and materials!
Presentations For You!
I try to have so many free resources here for you on the website – but some things are shared best in person! Below is a list of just some of my presentations I have shared recently:
Presentations for Educators:
Presentations for Students:
Interested in having me present for your class, school, district, or conference? Please contact me here or send an email to hello@inspiredchoir.com
I Really Like Learning!
The moment a student understands a new concept or is able to apply something we learned in class to something outside of choir – that’s what really gets me going!
Likely, this connects to my love of learning. I loved my time as an undergraduate at Augustana College in Illinois. So much so that just a few months after graduating, I applied to begin my Masters Degree at the University of Illinois (I-L-L!), working through their summer program. After five years of teaching middle school and high school choir, general music, ukulele, music theory, and class piano, I decided to take on the challenge of a PhD in Music Education with a Choral Cognate at Michigan State (Go Green!) . (Can you believe I don’t have a pic of myself alone in my MSU regalia? So now I guess you get to know I have a husband and like him too.)
For the past three years, I have taught choir and music education courses and supervised student teachers at Arkansas State University (Wolves Up!) and continued learning in the classroom with my wonderful students. I just moved to the Detroit area in the spring of 2024 and will be figuring out this summer how to continue my work with choral lovers. I’m looking forward to joining the music scene in this great area and am taking suggestions for any choirs to join in the area!
The Genesis of Inspired Choir
Why A Blog? You might ask – I’ve got a few reasons!
During so much of my time in grad school, you could hear me practically shouting on a nearly daily basis “Why didn’t I know this sooner!?!?” I received an excellent education from quality educators, and yet there is so much I wish I had known in my early years of teaching. There is just so much for a choir teacher to know to be an efficient, effective, and responsive educator.
Thus, the genesis of Inspired Choir.
Inspired Choir is a blog for choral educators, musicians, and enthusiasts. It is a place to dig deep on teaching and singing methods, repertoire appreciation, and the messages we share via our musical presentations. Here, we can connect with other like-minded individuals and appreciate the work that so many composers, conductors, choirs, and educators do on a daily basis.
Do you have a topic or piece of repertoire you’d like to see featured on the blog? Let me know at hello@inspiredchoir.com
