No choir can be all things to all singers

You can’t please all your singers all the time (see Keeping a choir happy – you can’t please everyone). There will inevitably be times when some singers want one thing while others want something very different. How do you keep everybody happy? The first thing to acknowledge is that most people join a choir because they broadly share the choir leader’s vision: the repertoire, the teaching style, the general ‘vibe’ of the choir. The exception, of course, is when your choir is the only one in town and singers are simply making the best of what’s available! So in most established choirs there won’t be huge disagreements very often. Singers tend to self-select the kind of choir that suits them. But tensions do arise. I touched on this recently in Some want to sit. Some want to stand. Now what? Some singers wanted chairs available throughout the workshop, while others felt the atmosphere and energy worked better when everybody stood. There’s no single right answer. And this kind of tension…