News & Views Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Back to School: Fall 2015 Band Update 31 August, 2015

by Ken Tilger, Band Education Specialist –

Now that school is back in session and marching band season has begun to hit a groove, I’d like to catch you up on band related news, features, and upcoming events for 2015-16. While everyone takes a bit of a break in June & July (yes, we take some vacation, too!), we are hard at work previewing all the new concert band titles, updating our website & Listening Library, picking promotions, and brainstorming ways to make your work a little easier. Here’s a rundown of new features and things to look forward to this school year:

What’s New
– If you haven’t already, you can check out all the NEW concert band titles on stantons.com. Head over to the concert band page and click on New for 2015-16!, and you can browse the new titles by difficulty or publisher.
– We have announced our Stanton’s Staff Selections for the new school year. Of the 550+ new band titles we previewed, these are the 80-90 best as chosen by our band staff. Preview them by clicking on Stanton’s Staff Selections on the concert band page, then choose 2015-2016 Young Band or 2015-2016 High School Band or visit our Current Promotions page.
– Watch your mailbox for our 2015-2016 Concert Band promotions featuring this year’s Staff Selections. The Young Band promotion was mailed this month; our High School promotion will arrive in mid-October.
– The 2016 OMEA Required Music Lists were released in late June and are available for preview on our concert band page.
– Middle School band directors in need of a quality repertoire guide should check out the recently released Teaching Music Through Performance in Middle School Band volume.
– If you have a jazz band, be sure to read my post from last week What (Music) Should I Do with My Jazz Band?

Tyler S. Grant

Features
– If you aren’t already subscribed (why not?), click here to receive periodic emails from us featuring uniquely themed Staff Selections, Composer Spotlights (3 coming this year!), the latest music, method, and textbook releases, and more!
– Check our concert band page often – the Featured Tabs along the bottom will change to highlight the best new pieces for concert band!
– We are excited to add Tyler S. Grant to the Featured Composers and Arrangers on our Listening Library! This young composer is consistently writing some of the best new music for young bands – you really should check him out!
– If you’re curious to know what my favorite new titles are, visit the Ken’s Top 10 – 2015 tab on our concert band page.
– Want to know more about the people you speak with on the phone and that handle your orders? Our Meet the Stanton’s Team series of staff profiles let’s you know who we are, what we specialize in, and what we geek out on!

Upcoming Events
– Our 14th Wind Band Invitational & New Music Reading Clinic – November 20-21, 2015 – Capital University
– Visit our booth at The Midwest Clinic – McCormick Place, Chicago, IL – December 16-18, 2015
– Visit us at the Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference – Louisville, KY – January 6-9, 2016

That’s all for now! I hope you find these items helpful and fun, and that your school year is off to a smooth start.

About the Author:
Ken is a former band director, and has been with Stanton’s since 2004. Besides music, he geeks out on comic books, amusement parks, the Muppets, and all things Pittsburgh. He also plays saxophone with Swing’s the Thing Big Band. You should check out their album Walk On Out the Door available on iTunes and Amazon.


Cool Prizes and Rewards! 28 August, 2015

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Stanton’s
has all kinds of small gift items for prizes and rewards.  We have music-themed wooden pencils for 40 cents each, non-sharpening pencils for 95 cents each, music suckers of various flavors for 25 cents each,  treble clef pins  for $2.50 each, small plastic note pins for 40 cents, wedge erasers for $1.15, small refrigerator magnets for $1.50, music-theme sticky notes,  small 7844899notepads for $2.50, paperclip for $1.99, guitar pick charms ($4.99), keychains (4.99), and necklaces ($11.99) ,and much more. Check out our gift items on our website.  If you need a large quantity of an item, order from us ahead of time so we can get your items from our suppliers in a timely fashion.  Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!


What (Music) Should I Do with My Jazz Band? 26 August, 2015

by Ken Tilger, Band Education Specialist –

Do you have a jazz band that you enjoy directing, but just aren’t sure what music you should be teaching and programming? Are you falling back on arrangements of pop & rock tunes because they’re familiar and your kids know some of them? (It’s o.k., we won’t tell!) Whether you’re a new or experienced band director with limited jazz experience because jazz wasn’t a part of your studies or because you don’t play a “jazz instrument,” no worries – we’ve got you covered!

The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire is a wonderful resource by Ted Gioia who has authored over a half-dozen other books on jazz and blues, most notably The History of Jazz. This work is perfectly summed up in the testimonial by Gerald Early (Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, Washington University in St. Louis; Editor of Miles Davis and American Culture), “What a useful and informative book The Jazz Standards is! Explaining the jazz repertory in a way that is accessible for the jazz beginner yet stimulating for the aficionado…”

The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire contains:
– a treasure trove of jazz standards commonly performed by individual artists, small groups, and big bands.
– a tune by tune exploration including songwriting credits and a brief historical and musical synopsis of each title.
– a listing of recommended recorded versions for each tune – a jazz history/aural listening course in and of itself! This is perfect for hipping your students (and yourself!) to a full breadth of jazz artists on all instruments, all jazz styles, and various approaches taken to each specific tune.
– a wonderful approach to learning jazz (and a chunk of American music) history – through the music itself! By taking this approach, you wind up exploring all periods of the music and are introduced to artists beyond the jazz legends commonly encountered, discovering the secondary and tertiary players only familiar to those who have studied the music as musicians, educators, or fans.

Don’t worry if the above listing sounds somewhat academic – the writing is not! In his introduction Mr. Gioia mentions that in comparison to his other books, this one has a much more personal tone thanks to his love of the material and the approach taken. Also, while the content is valuable, each synopsis is short! Begin your exploration of the titles in this book. When you find some you like, search for arrangements of them at stantons.com. Most of them are readily available ranging from transcriptions of the originals to accessible versions for young jazz bands.

We highly recommend pairing this book with the Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz volume as references for a quality performance curriculum, and Jazz Pedagogy for the nuts and bolts of the jazz ensemble. With these resources all band directors can begin to lay the foundation for a successful jazz education component to their band program. Don’t worry, you can still program pop & rock arrangements for fun and to keep your students happy with the knowledge that they are also getting musical nourishment and balance from playing the essential repertoire, too!

About the Author:
Ken is a former band director, and has been with Stanton’s since 2004. Besides music, he geeks out on comic books, amusement parks, the Muppets, and all things Pittsburgh. He also plays saxophone with Swing’s the Thing Big Band. You should check out their album Walk On Out the Door available on iTunes and Amazon.


Happy Birthday, Leonard Bernstein! 24 August, 2015

48023178August the 25th is Leonard Bernstein‘s birthday.  We lost this talented and prolific composer on October 14, 1990.  He gave us the music for “West Side Story“, and Stephen Sondheim gave us the lyrics.  The song “One Hand, One Heart” is sung at weddings, and “Tonight” is an audition favorite.  High schools still perform “West Side Story” for the spring musical.  In short, “West Side Story” is  a classic.  Leonard Bernstein wrote music in a variety of genres, but we found this collection of piano music particularly intriguing.  It is called “Complete Anniversaries.”   This is a compilation of 4 sets of “Anniversaries” which he composed at various times.  Each of the pieces was written for a friend.  In “Four Anniversaries,” #3 is “for David Diamond” another famous composer and musician.  In “Five Anniversaries”, Bernstein wrote #3 for a friend, Elizabeth B. Ehrman.  Each piece is a reflection of each friend’s personality.  What a gift it must have been to have a special piece written just for you!  For more information about Leonard Bernstein‘s music, call us at 1-800-42-MUSIC, email us at keyboard@stantons.com, or visit our website.  Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!


Instruments A to Z 21 August, 2015

This is the fourth month for our Instruments A-Z series, so we are choosing instruments that start with the letter “D”.  Australia’s Aborigine people use a didgeridoo in religious ceremonies and it can be played for native dancing.  It is classified as a natural trumpet.  The didgeridoo is made traditionally of a hollow tree or tree limb.  Non-traditional didgeridoos may be made from PVC pipe of different lengths. Five didgeridoos are shown in the picture. The top three are native-made instruments, the bottom two are not.

An example of an American-Appalachian instrument is the mountain dulcimer.strum3  It’s a member of the zither family.   The dulcimer is a popular folk instrument that can be played as a solo instrument if picked, or as an accompaniment for singing if strummed.  Stanton’s has books of music for dulcimer, both to learn how to play it, and books of pieces to play and sing.  Give us a call, 1-800-42-MUSIC, or visit our website.  Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!


Meet the Stanton’s Team – Ben H. 19 August, 2015

We’ve written before on the Stanton’s blog about our knowledgeable staff. Now, we’d like to give you a chance to get to know our staff on a more personal level.  Over the next several months, we will be having members of the Stanton’s team take our “30 Questions in 60 Seconds” questionnaire. We hope you will get to know the “real” us, and learn how we might better be of service to you!

Ben HuntoonBen Huntoon is the Jazz Education Consultant at Stanton’s Sheet Music. He received bachelors and masters degrees in music from Capital University and The Ohio State University respectively. As a professional trumpeter, Ben is accomplished in a wide variety of genres and has performed throughout the Midwest on many stages over the past 30 years. He also teaches trumpet, coaches brass ensembles and serves on the jazz faculty at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.

  1. What department do you work in at Stanton’s? – I work in the instrumental department.  You know, the guys in the white hats.
  1. What do you consider your specialties here? – All things jazz.
  1. How long have you been working at Stanton’s? – Twenty-three years
  1. What is your favorite task at Stanton’s? – Working with customers face to face and preaching the gospel of jazz
  1. What is your hometown? – Galesburg, Illinois… Home of poet Carl Sanburg and the location of the great Lincoln-Douglas debates.
  1. Where did you go to college? – Capital University, Bachelor of Music Education; The Ohio State University, Master of Arts
  1. What is your major instrument? – Trumpet
  1. Where or with whom do you currently perform/teach? – Adjunct faculty at Otterbein University. Active freelance musician in Central Ohio and throughout the Midwest.
  1. What do you like to do in your spare time? – Cook, garden, read and practice trumpet.
  1. What days of the week can you be reached at Stanton’s? – Monday-Wednesday & Friday-Saturday.
  1. What is the last song/piece you listened to? – Beehive from “Lee Morgan, Live at the Lighthouse”
  1. What is the last song/piece you played/sang? – I Love You by Cole Porter
  2. If you had a chance to perform with three musicians, living or dead, who would it be? – Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Horace Silver
  3. What is your most memorable musical moment? – Many moments, but one that comes to mind is improvising Amazing Grace on solo trumpet for a cathedral full of congregants in Dresden, Germany
  4. If you could be instantly proficient on an additional instrument, what would you choose? – Piano
  5. What is the most unusual performance you have ever been a part of? – Dressed in a floor length cape, wearing a cavalier’s hat with a feather and playing trumpet fanfares with a friend for the opening of a department store in a mall.
  6.  What musical sound or noise do you love? – My daughter, a professional USAF musician, playing oboe.
  7. What musical sound or noise do you hate? – In the Mood makes me break out in hives!
  8. If you had your choice watching a great concert tonight or performing in a great concert tonight which would you choose and why? – Performing in a magical musical moment is like the ultimate drug.
  9. If heaven exists, when you arrive at the Pearly Gates, what heavenly ensemble would you like to be assigned to? – Playing with the angel Gabriel, of course! Isn’t that where all of the trumpet players hang out?
  10. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? – National Park ranger
  11. What profession would you not like to do? – Sanitation worker. Those people have my ultimate respect.
  12. On a scale of 1-10, how funny do you think you are? – Funny “ha-ha” or funny strange???
  13. Who was your first crush? – My 8th grade science teacher, Miss Fox. Need I say more?
  14. Is there anything you wish would come back into fashion?Elephant bells and platform shoes. I was stylin’ in the 70s.
  15. Do you love or hate roller coasters? – Love
  16. If you were a super hero, what powers would you have? – Split solid matter using the sound waves from a triple high C.
  17. How many pairs of shoes do you own? – Too many for a guy
  18. Would you rather win the lottery or work at the perfect job? – Winning the lottery would buy me time.
  19. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? – Legumes

Read and Sing Folksongs 17 August, 2015

Read & Sing Folksongs

by Emily Crocker

Recommended by Rachel Steele, School Music Specialist

read and sing folk songsPlay-party games, folk dances, sea chanties;  this new collection has got it all!  Composer and educator Emily Crocker has put together 12 arrangements for use in the elementary classroom, with options for use in performance or informance.  The book includes multi-day lesson plans for each selection, with objectives based on the new National Standards.  Activities are focused on both melodic and rhythmic literacy as well as performing on classroom instruments and movement activities.   In addition, students are given age-appropriate opportunities for singing in harmony.  Suggestions for extension activities and assessment are also included.

The reproducible collection comes with an Enhanced Performance/Accompaniment CD that includes PDF’s of the singer pages.  These can be projected via a classroom computer or photocopied to hand out to students.  Folksongs include: Alabama Gal, The Boatman, Cape Cod Girls, Charlie Over the Ocean, The Colorado Trail, Icka Backa Soda Cracker, May Day Carol, Rise Up Shepherd and Follow, Sailing On the Ocean, Shake Them ‘Simmons Down, Skin and Bones, and Sourwood Mountain.  This resource is recommended for grades 3-6.

For other recommendations regarding elementary music materials, please give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC or visit our website.

Rachel Steele has been working in the choral department at Stanton’s since 2013.  She previously taught middle school and high school band and choir for 13 years, and holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music education from The Ohio State University.  Currently a member of the Heisey Wind Ensemble and a musician at Epiphany Lutheran Church (Pickerington, OH,) Rachel also enjoys reading, sewing, baking and the Pittsburgh Steelers!


8 Steps to Harmonization 14 August, 2015

8 Steps to Harmonization

by Catherine DeLanoy

Recommended by Rachel Steele, School Choral Specialist

8 steps to harmonizationThe glorious sound of a 4 or 8 part high school choir doesn’t happen by accident.  The foundations of good singing (and good music education in general,) start at a very young age.  Early elementary singers, whether in a choir or general music class, usually focus on tone production, pitch matching, and unison singing of songs in a limited range.  As students progress into middle and upper elementary, singing in parts becomes a common goal.  8 Steps to Harmonization is a new resource that helps teachers take a step-by-step approach to this skill.

While less experienced teachers sometimes make the mistake of thinking that singing 2 or more parts with a unison rhythm would be easiest, author Catherine DeLanoy recognizes that homophonic singing is actually the MOST difficult for young students, and works up to the skill with exercises and pieces in each of the following forms: Unison, Ostinato, Echo Songs, Descants, Partner Songs, Rounds, and Polyphonic Songs.

Each chapter of the book is devoted to one of the “steps,” and contains 4 or 5 pieces of music that can be used for warm-ups, class instruction, or even performance.  The author also provides lesson planning ideas and teaching tips for the concept in general as well as each individual song.  Songs are often used more than once.  For example, the first time students study “When the Saints Go Marching In,” it is in the unison chapter.  It returns in Step 4 (descants) allowing students to add to prior knowledge.  Every song in the book is reproducible, and it comes with a CD-ROM that features the piano accompaniments as well as printable MP3 files of all the songs and exercises.  Thought has also been given to making arrangements accessible to unchanged and changing voices for your male singers.

You might find “8 Steps to Harmonization” a useful resource for:

-Upper elementary classroom musicians or elementary choristers that are learning to sing in parts

-Middle School or High School choirs who could use a review or for groups with limited experience

– An “informance” where you show your students’ parents the skills and steps you have worked on to reach a certain point

-Teachers who have little experience with vocal pedagogy or teaching choral classes

Rachel Steele has been at Stanton’s since 2013. She previously taught middle school and high school band and choir for 13 years, and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music education from The Ohio State University. Currently a member of the Heisey Wind Ensemble and a musician at Epiphany Lutheran Church (Pickerington OH), Rachel also enjoys reading, sewing, baking and the Pittsburgh Steelers!


How We Pick Choral Promotions – the 2015 Update! 12 August, 2015

By Rachel Steele, School Choral Specialist (This post has been updated to include new 2015-2016 information, but was first posted on Dec. 1st, 2014)

A femusic listening 2w months ago, my colleague in the instrumental department, Ken Tilger, wrote a post about how that department picks the items for their promotions.  Not to be outdone, I’d like to take the opportunity to let you know how I and my partner in crime, Jen Sper, pick the items for our school choral promotions.

In late winter or early spring, publishers begin to send us their new releases for fall.  We get stacks of music (with demo CDs) to review from Hal Leonard (includig Shawnee, Walton, Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer, Pavane, Fred Bock etc.), Alfred (including Lawson-Gould), Lorenz (including Santa Barbara and Heritage), Carl Fischer (including BriLee), Hinshaw, Alliance, Chorister’s Guild and a few other smaller publishers.  If you are thinking “Wow, that is quite a bit of music,” you’d be correct.  In fact, if you assign each piece an average listening/evaluation time of 3.5 minutes, we spend about 2,200 minutes, or 48 hours, or 6 full working  days (no lunch or potty breaks!) listening to more than 800 new releases.  For more data on our listening, scroll to the bottom.

When we listen, we’re not only keeping an ear out for our in-house promotions, but also for selections for our clinics (such as Stanton’s Super Session and Excellence in Choral Literature), OMEA Large Group Select Suggestions, and even music for Christmas, graduation and other special occasions.

music listening 3Round 1

Jen and I sit with the octavo in front of us and listen to every single selection from beginning to end.  We write our impressions, usually just a few choice words or phrases, into a massive spreadsheet that we keep for review purposes.  After this, a piece goes into either the “no” or the “maybe” pile.  Our “no” pile is quite a bit larger than our “maybe” pile.  We consider it a good release if 25-30% of a publisher’s titles end up in the “maybe” category.

Round 2

Now that we’ve combed through the riff-raff, it’s time to consider the balance of our selections for our in-house promotions.  We sort our “maybe” pile by voicing, and then by genre.    Just like good concert programing, we are looking for a variety of styles – current pop, classic pop, Broadway, folk songs, original compositions, spirituals, world/multi-cultural, holiday music and various foreign languages.

Round 3

Now it’s time to play through selections at the piano.  We grab a genre and play through, looking for things like:

1.  Is it well written/voiced in all parts?

2.  What can teachers teach or students learn from working on this piece?

3.  Is it enjoyable to sing/play/teach?

4.  Is it appropriate for school?

5.  Will it appeal to a wide variety of customers?

6.  If the song is available in multiple voicings, is one better than the other?  Why?

The answers to these questions will usually make our choices pretty clear, and then it’s time to make our lists, contact our clinicians, and design the actual promotional materials that you receive in your mailbox!

choral promotions by the numbers 2015-2016By the Numbers – This table shows the number of pieces that we promoted this year by publisher, and the percentage of their total offerings that we promoted.  You’ll see that even those publishers with the highest percentage of promoted items rarely break the 30% mark.

Other Points of Interest

  • Jen and I only look at promotions for school choral.  We have two other people who work specifically on pieces for church choirs, and they have even more selections to listen to than we do!
  • While it might sound like a cushy job to sit and listen to music for 8 hours a day, it can be mentally exhausting after a while.
  • No, we don’t always agree, but you’d be amazed at how often 2 very opinionated people say the EXACT same thing about a particular piece.
  • If there is something that one of us truly believes is worth fighting for, the other one will generally give in.
  • The best part about the process is discovering a new piece that is just amazing!  This year, our greatest discovery was the promotion from Chorister’s Guild.  Traditionally a sacred music publisher, 2015 marked their first school release, entitled “Sing!” from editor Mary Lynn Lightfoot.  As you can see from our percentages above, we LOVED IT!!!

We believe that devoting quite a bit of time and effort to this process is very important.   The 75 or so selections that make the cut are things that we recommend to you, our valued customers, for the entire school year. If you have questions about this process (or would like some recommendations), please feel free to give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC, ext. 1.

Rachel Steele has been working in the choral department at Stanton’s since 2013.  She previously taught middle school and high school band and choir for 13 years, and holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music education from The Ohio State University.  Currently a member of the Heisey Wind Ensemble and a musician at Epiphany Lutheran Church (Pickerington, OH,) Rachel also enjoys reading, sewing, baking and the Pittsburgh Steelers!


Stanton’s Spotlight on Elementary General Resources 10 August, 2015

Each year, the knowledgeable staff at Stanton’s chooses select titles to promote to you, our valued customers.  We listen to thousands of new issues from scores of publishers and composers to present you with the very best in new music for your ensembles.  In our new Stanton’s Spotlight feature, we will put a special focus on one piece or resource that we particularly enjoy, and tell you how it can serve you and your students.

first we sing book 2The First We Sing! Series

by Susan Brumfield

Recommended by Rachel Steele, School Music Specialist

The music education philosophy of Zoltan Kodaly is well known to most elementary music teachers.  His ideas about basing the music education of all children on singing,  music literacy, folk music (their “mother tongue”) and quality composed music are the basis of many music curricula.  In her “First We Sing!” Series, Dr. Susan Brumfield brings a fresh, modern take to the Kodaly approach.

first we sing teaching guideThe First We Sing! Teaching Guide outlines the Kodaly approach, addresses how to teach a song,  and gives a suggested scope and sequence, song lists, yearly plans and recommended reading and listening lists.

first we sing resource pack primaryThe First We Sing Teaching Strategies book (available for Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5,) is a step by step guide for teaching each element or concept.  Rhythmic and melodic concepts are broken down into sequential lessons, and there is a wonderful section on what to teach if your students are not ready for a visual representation of these ideas.  We especially love the sensitivity to how teachers work on a daily basis – the book is conveniently hole punched for placement in a 3-ring binder.

first we sing songbook onefirst we sing book 2Perhaps the most universally applicable element of the First We Sing! Series are the Songbooks, Volumes One and Two.  The 20 songs in each book are meant to be used in different ways at a variety of levels.  For example, you might use the same song for reading or sight-singing with an upper grade level, while using the included listening CD for movement activities with your youngest students.

The First We Sing Series might be for you if:

  • You want to align your elementary program to the Kodaly philosophy.
  • You are looking for a comprehensive curriculum all in one place.
  • You are a teacher who wants to include Kodaly elements in an existing music curriculum.
  • You and your students enjoy singing and moving to folksongs from a variety of cultures.

For more great suggestions, please contact our choral department by phone at 1-800-42-MUSIC or email us at choral@stantons.com.

Rachel Steele has been working in the choral department at Stanton’s since 2013.  She previously taught middle school and high school band and choir for 13 years, and holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music education from The Ohio State University.  Currently a member of the Heisey Wind Ensemble and a musician at Epiphany Lutheran Church (Pickerington, OH,) Rachel also enjoys reading, sewing, baking and the Pittsburgh Steelers!


Piano Teacher Resources 07 August, 2015

00420259It won’t be long before teachers’ studios get busy again!  As the beginning of the school year gets closer, some minds turn to starting back to piano lessons after a long, busy summer.  Stanton’s has a wide selection of piano methods.  We have the older, more familiar methods  such as Thompson, Schaum, and Aaron, or the more recent piano methods like Piano Adventures by the Fabers, Alfred’s Basic Piano Library, Alfred’s Premier piano course, and Bastien Piano Basics.  Check out the piano methods section of our website for even more suggestions.    We also have stickers and small items for prizes in our Gift Items category. Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs.


THIS SATURDAY – Stanton’s Welcomes Joel Raney! 05 August, 2015

Stanton’s is pleased to welcome Joel Raney for the first time as our clinician for the August Church Choral Music reading session! Joel started playing the piano sometime between learning to walk and learning to read. His taste for gospel music began in a rural Baptist church in Alabama, an influence that shows strongly in his work to this day. After completing his degree in choral conducting at the University of North Alabama, he went on to sharpen his keyboard skills, earning a masters degree in piano performance at The Juilliard School.

jrpic2Since 1999 he has taken the church music scene by storm, with over 200 titles in print, primarily with Hope Publishing where he serves as Editor. His innovative style and inspired arranger’s instincts put his numerous choral anthems, musicals and cantatas, handbell compositions, piano solos, and instrumental works at the top of sales charts year after year.

Joel’s interest in  music of all kinds has led to employment opportunities in everything from classical and jazz performance to pop vocal arranging. He has conducted national tours of Broadway productions, and has been honored for outstanding musical direction of theater in both Chicago and Los Angeles. Since 1988 he has worked as a composer and producer of commercial music in Chicago and has written soundtracks for more than 2000 television and radio commercials, plus numerous scores for short films. For more than a decade, Joel was Artist-in-Residence at the First Presbyterian Church of River Forest, IL, and currently serves as Minister of Music at the First Baptist Church of Oak Park, IL. He makes his home in River Forest with wife Susie and their three sons, Charlie, Sawyer and Jesse.

Your registration for the clinic includes a packet of over 35 new choral anthems that are hand-picked from the hundreds published each year. We look forward to seeing you on August 9th for a wonderful morning of singing with one of the nation’s most sought after church music experts.

Sacred Choral Reading Session
Saturday 8/8/2015, 9:00 am-12:30 pm
Battelle Fine Arts Center, Otterbein University
195 West Park St., Westerville OH 43081
Cost: $20.00 (There is no pre-registration; you may register the day of the clinic beginning at 8:30.)
email our choral department for more details

Sacred Piano Reading Session
also featuring Joel Raney
Saturday 8/8/2015, 2:00 pm-4:30 pm
Stanton’s Sheet Music
330 South 4th St., Columbus OH 43215
Cost: Free!
email our keyboard department for more details

Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!


Meet the Stanton’s Team – Barb M. 03 August, 2015

We’ve written before on the Stanton’s blog about our knowledgeable staff. Now, we’d like to give you a chance to get to know our staff on a more personal level.  Over the next several months, we will be having members of the Stanton’s team take our “30 Questions in 60 Seconds” questionnaire. We hope you will get to know the “real” us, and learn how we might better be of service to you!

barb profile pictureBarb has worked in the Keyboard Department at Stanton’s since 1981.  An active folk musician in the Columbus area, Barb also works with ensembles at her church and plays in the Columbus State Concert Band.  In her spare time, Barb loves working with animals and computer games.

  1. What department do you work in at Stanton’s?  – Keyboard and popular music
  2.  How long have you been working at Stanton’s? – Thirty-four years
  3. What is your favorite task at Stanton’s? – Looking at new issue music.
  4. What is your hometown? – Columbus, OH
  5. Where did you go to college? – The Ohio State University
  6. What is your major instrument? – Five stringed fiddle.
  7. Where or with whom do you currently perform/teach? – I play and conduct handbells and sing in the choir at church.  We also have a bluegrass gospel string band at church. I sing and play fiddle, autoharp, mandolin, buttonbox, recorder, and a few other things in string band. I also play in the 3rd clarinet section in the Columbus State Community College concert band.  Sometimes, they let me play percussion.  I got to play the gong in “O Fortuna” awhile back.
  8. What do you like to do in your spare time? – I hang out with friends, play computer games, and play music.
  9. What days of the week can you be reached at Stanton’s? – Monday & Wednesday-Saturday
  10. What is the last song/piece you listened to? – Something classical on WOSU.
  11. What is the last song/piece you played/sang? – The hymns yesterday in church.
  12. If you had a chance to perform with three musicians, living or dead, who would it be? – I would want to play viola with Mozart’s orchestra, clarinet in Sousa’s band, and fiddle with the Charlie Daniels Band.
  13. What is your most memorable musical moment? – I played viola in “Psalmis Hungarius” by Zoltan Kodaly in the Ohio State Orchestra when I was a sophomore.  It was awesome.
  14. If you could be instantly proficient on an additional instrument, what would you choose? – Piano.  You can never run out of piano music, and there is so much to explore.  I’d like to play more than the easy stuff.
  15. What is the most unusual performance you have ever been a part of? – I played fiddle for “Robber Bridegroom” some time ago. I have played a lot of musicals, but this one has a quartet onstage.  The upright bass and banjo were in the rear corner on one side on a raised platform, the pianist and I were in the opposite corner.  It’s the only time I  had to pay attention to what I was doing when I played a musical.  I wasn’t hidden in the pit.
  16. What musical sound or noise do you love? – Violin or viola
  17. What musical sound or noise do you hate? – A raucous electric guitar.
  18. If you had your choice watching a great concert tonight or performing in a great concert tonight which would you choose and why?  – I’d play, I love to be in the middle of that sound.
  19. If heaven exists, when you arrive at the Pearly Gates, what heavenly ensemble would you like to be assigned to? – Rotate me around, God.  I want it all!
  20. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? – Something to do with biology.
  21. What profession would you not like to do? – I wouldn’t like to do any job that involved traveling away from home very much.
  22. On a scale of 1-10, how funny do you think you are? – It depends on my mood.  On average, about an 8.
  23. Who was your first crush? – I’m over 60.  I don’t remember anymore. ;-)
  24. Is there anything you wish would come back into fashion? – Not really.
  25. Do you love or hate roller coasters? – I liked them fine when I could ride them.
  26. If you were a super hero, what powers would you have? – I would like to fly and be really strong.
  27. How many pairs of shoes do you own? – Three
  28. Would you rather win the lottery or work at the perfect job? – I’d rather win the lottery big time, and then go to jam sessions, go bird watching, go to movies and art galleries.
  29. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? – Variety is the spice of life.  Don’t do that to me!