Welcome And Who This Serves

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Hello and welcome to the Climber Director Podcast, the essential resource for commer directors, conductors, and vocal leaders who want to build stronger comers, run better rehearsals, and create outstanding musical experiences. I'm Russell Skullt, and whether you're leading a community ensemble, school group, musical theatre commercial, choral society, gospel commer, or you've simply found yourself in charge because somebody else needed to step up, this show is for you. Let me start with a question. Have you ever walked into a rehearsal with the best intentions and then halfway through you realise you're reacting to problems rather than leading with a plan? Well, I have several times, I'm sure many others have as well. And if you're ever left in a rehearsal thinking, we worked so hard, but did we actually move forward? You're not alone. I'm Russell Scott. I've been working in the music industry for over 45 years as a producer, musical director, singer, vocal coach, and mentor. I've been a vocal coach now for just over 25 years and involved with choirs and musically directing for over 15. And across that time I've been lucky enough to do work at a really high level. I've sold over a hundred thousand records for my solo albums. I've performed at venues, including the Royal Albert Hall, the London Palladium, the Royal Festival Hall in London, and across the world, in the US, in Canada, and most recently at the Berlin Philharmonic. And I've also worked on some major film soundtracks as well and conducted many commercial recordings. Now I'm not telling you all this to impress you. I'm telling you because what I've learned from all these environments, the studios, the stages, the big projects, is that the best results almost always come from the same things clarity, good process, and calm, passionate, confident leadership. Because great music doesn't happen by accident, and it definitely doesn't happen when the person leading it is stressed, rushed, and doing everything on willpower alone. Well, I suppose that all plays a part too, but I wanted to create a podcast that really is here to help. And choir leaders are time poor. And no, I don't mean poor at time, poor at managing time, but time poor. We're always in a hurry, we've never got enough time to do everything we want to. And even professional directors often have too many plates spinning, whether it's rehearsals, concerts, rep, admin, people management, and all the unglamorous behind-the-scenes work that nobody sees. And rehearsals, rehearsals can start to feel pretty chaotic. You spend ages repeating the same bars, you fix one thing, and then sort of three things start falling apart. You're trying to keep up energy and while also trying to correct the tuning, the rhythm, the diction, the blend. And there's another layer to it. There's just more and more and more, continued adding more and more and more layers. And a lot of choir leaders, even talented musicians, have never had formal training in things like conducting technique, vocal teaching, or even rehearsal planning. That's aside from running commercial choirs or managing departments, organizing tours, projects, recordings, or even the smaller projects, the local town projects that we do. So they're improvising and they're often done brilliantly well, but at a cost, and it takes an enormous, enormous energy to do it that way. The hardest part, I as like many others, it's about it's feeling isolated. It's it can really feel very isolating because it's very easy to assume that everyone else has it all sorted and you're the only one struggling, the only one who sometimes think, is it meant to feel this hard? And let me say that if you've ever felt overwhelmed, underqualified, or frustrated that your rehearsals don't consistently produce the results you want, you're not alone. And the good news is that small changes in how you plan and how you run rehearsals can make a massive difference, often immediately. Now this podcast is aimed at all choir directors, whether professional or amateur, whether running adult or youth choirs, whether privately or for schools or organizations. So this is the mission of the choir director podcast. The podcast exists to give you practical, actionable strategies you can use in your very next rehearsal. Not in six months, not after you've read 12 books, not after you've attended a course you you don't really have time for, but your next rehearsal. Because choir leaders don't need more information to feel guilty about. They need tools, they need structure, they need options in the room, what to say, what to listen for, what to prioritize, and what to ignore for now. So here's what you can expect. Now most episodes are gonna be fairly short and focused, usually around sort of anything between 20 to 40 minutes. You'll get practical rehearsal techniques, you'll get simple frameworks to help you plan your time. You're always gonna get ways to teach better, to teach harmony, to teach blend, to teach rhythm, and to help you in all your planning. You're gonna get approaches that work even when your choir is mixed ability, mixed confidence, and not everybody shows up every week. And there'll also be interviews with some experienced choir leaders and vocal coaches, people who've done the work, learned the lessons, and found solutions that actually hold up in real rehearsal rooms. And we're gonna cover topics like warmups that sort of genuinely improve singing, not just making noises, vocal health and sustainable sound, repertoire planning that sort of sets your choir up to succeed, take out the guesswork, teaching tricky passages and how to work with sort of getting everybody together and not grinding everyone into the floor, dealing with singers who are nervous, loud, disengaged, or maybe overcritical. There's a lot of self-conscious stuff goes on as well. People sort of start feeling really tense and sort of hold back because they're very self-conscious of what they do. Building community without losing musical standards and handling difficult conversations kindly and clearly. We're going to help you with ideas for marketing and promotion, setting up larger scale projects or tours, and of course the technology behind running a choir, the automation, the commercial strategies and financial challenges, recruitment and growth. And I want the tone of this show to be very clear too. This isn't about being perfect. It's about being better than you were last week. It's about growing together, because every good choir leader I know is still learning, even me. And we never ever stop learning. So let me tell you a little bit about what's coming up over the next few weeks and months ahead. We've got some brilliant episodes line up, genuinely brilliant. And here's just a taste. In the next episode, we have an interview with the amazing Jonas Rasmussen. Now, Jonas is a Danish choral conductor, educator, and arranger. I'm sure you've heard about him on social media. He leads multiple ensembles and teaches classical choral conducting at the Royal Academy. And in this conversation, we get properly practical about rehearsal craft, what he listens for, how he decides what to fix in a moment, and the small rehearsal habits that make choirs sound clearer and freer fast. In episode three, we meet Jen Bonner from Rock Choir. Jen brings a brilliant mix of musical depth and people-first leadership. She's performed in everything from classical settings to major live events, and she knows exactly how to build a rehearsal room that feels welcoming while still creating really great musical magic. We talk about what it feels like to be in a choir like Rock Choir, a huge, huge choir. What with the biggest rehearsal challenges that they experience, and how choir leaders can manage the behind-the-scenes workload without burning out. In episode four, we meet Abby Gilchrist. Now, Abby was founder of UK Soul Choirs, and she started with just four singers in Greenwich in Southeast London and has grown into a huge organization with branches all across London and Kent, all built around an inclusive, no audition approach that still delivers high-quality results. And we talk about the rehearsal non-negotiables that make that possible, how to teach harmony to non-readers without it becoming slow or confusing, and what it takes to build a choir culture that genuinely changes people's lives. And beyond those, we'll dig into bigger themes too, building a positive choir culture and handling difficult challenges ahead, how to grow your choir sustainably, and balancing the musical standards with joy as well, because joy is what brings us all together in all of this. People who sing in choirs do it because they love to do it, and also because choir leading isn't just musical, it's about leadership. So I was thinking about the reasons why people should listen, should share, and should subscribe to this podcast. And I thought I just I just sort of made some notes thinking about the things that are really useful about it. And I suppose the first is that you're gonna save time and you're gonna save stress. When your rehearsal planning is clear and your priorities are sharp, you stop wasting energy and rehearsals become calmer and more productive. Secondly, it will build you confidence, it will help you build confidence as a leader. And not because you're suddenly gonna know everything, but because you'll have a toolkit, you'll have options, you'll know what to try next, things that you've tried before, things that you fancy trying, things that you definitely don't want to do again, and you're gonna learn from people who've been where you are and are continuing to grow. And this show is about real choirs with real people, not fantasy rehearsals where everyone sight reads perfectly and no one brings any baggage through the door. Fourthly, you're gonna build a library of techniques that actually work, the kind you can come back to when the rehearsal is messy, you're perhaps short on time, or you just need a quick win. And the reason to share this is because somewhere out there is another choir leader who's also feeling isolated, overwhelmed, or feel like they're perhaps failing or they're not doing as much justice as they could. They feel that they're not making the progress that they really are passionate about making. And the truth is, the more we share knowledge, the stronger we all become. And better rehearsals don't just create better music, they create better communities. And we really, really want everyone to get on board with this, and we really want everyone to subscribe because new episodes are going to come out every week, hoping they'll come out at the same time every week on a Wednesday. And subscribing means you won't miss any of the practical tips and inspiring interviews. It also helps the podcast grow, which means it will reach more choir leaders, and this in turn will help more people do the work with confidence and joy. So if this sounds like something you need in your life, hit subscribe right now, and if you know another choir leader who'd benefit, please send them the link. Let's build a community of leaders who support each other and are passionate about making great choral music. And before I wrap up, I just want to say this. I am genuinely excited about this journey. I've learned so much from working across the music industry, from studios to stages and large-scale projects. I've also seen what happens when choir leaders have the right support and the right tools, and that's the other part of my work. Alongside performing and producing, I've spent years coaching and mentoring, from aspiring performers to seasoned professionals and choir leaders who want to refine their craft, hit their goals, and inspire others. I care deeply about vocal health and about technique that serves the music rather than just gets in the way of it, especially drawing on both my musical theatre and classical approaches. And as some of you may know, I'm also the founder of the World Voices Festival, formerly known as the UK Choir Festival, an event designed to bring singers and directors together for workshops and performances that genuinely inspire and raise the bar. And I've been musical director of Next Stage Choir, based here in the UK, since it was formed in 2010, always aiming to create incredible and unique opportunities for its members. And again, I'm not saying this to give you my CV details. I'm saying it because everything I've learned from these experiences comes back to one thing. Great performance is built in rehearsal, and when rehearsal works, everything gets easier. The choir improves, confidence grows, people enjoy it more, and the music becomes something you can genuinely be proud of. I also want this podcast to be a two-way conversation. So if you'd like to connect, you can find me at the choir director podcast.com, or you can email me at the studio, studio at the choir director podcast.com, and I would love to hear from you. So send me your questions, send some topic ideas, send the thing you've currently been struggling with and you'd like some help answering, you know, how how to deal with these situations. And don't be shy. Just send the moment that makes you think, surely there's a better way to do this. Because if you're dealing with it, I promise you someone else is dealing with it too. And I'll leave you with this final thought. Great choir leading isn't about perfection, it's about connection, growth, and making music together. And that starts with you. Thanks for listening to the Choir Director Podcast. I'm Russell Scott, and I'll see you in the next episode.