“I will sing with the mind and also the spirit.” (I Cor. 14:15) Music engages both emotion and intellect, so directors should clearly enable their singers to sing with intelligence, expression and faith.

Complex and overly challenging music could stand in the way of achieving this aim, yet a return to exclusively simple and familiar selections will certainly inhibit musical growth. Balance must be achieved, with care to insure the integrity of craft, theology, creativity and communication.

The excellent sacred musician is an oxymoron? Hardly. The sacred musician, director, and chorister are called to a personal commitment to excellence in artistry, theology, service, scholarship, communication, community, and (with God as an audience) performance.

from “The Excellent Sacred Musician: an Oxymoron” in Choral Journal, 2002