Insights and information
about music, brain health, aging, and much more.
Great Questions
Can you guess which animal was overjoyed when zoos opened back up after the pandemic?Ferrets, meerkats, or monkeys? Before I share the correct answer, let me explain why it’s a great question. Options. If I just asked for the name of the animal that was delighted when...
Song Spotlight: “From A Far-Off Land” (“De Tierra Lejana Venimos”)
In Spain and Latin America, Christmas is not nearly as important as Epiphany, or Los Tres Reyes, the holiday of Three Kings Day. Los Tres Reyes falls on January 6 and is the big day of gifts for children in Hispanic cultures. If you count the twelve days of Christmas,...
Guess Who’s Singing Beside You? Margaret Huyck
As a senior at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa, Margaret Huyck (formerly Hellie) pondered her college choices and decided that “I would go somewhere no one else went.” She’s been forging new pathways ever since, most notably through her scholarship and...
Song Spotlight: I Heard It Through the Grapevine
If you’ve ever wanted to sing this song, now’s your chance. We’re singing a version for choir this summer based on the No. 1 hit by Marvin Gaye. His cover version topped the charts starting on December 14, 1968. Mark Brymer, one of the top arrangers of pop working...
Song Spotlight: Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
It's always interesting to hear a rather different version of a song that you feel like you know inside out... well, make that many different versions! Let me take you on a musical tour of many decades, with this hit song as our vehicle, “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home,”...
Guess Who’s Singing Beside You? Tom Wolff
If the Sounds Good Choir were a baseball team, Tom Wolff would be a utility infielder—the guy who shifts between shortstop and second base and plays both positions well. In choral parlance, Tom might be called a utility vocalist. That’s because he can come into the...