The Choir Director Podcast
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The Choir Director Podcast

ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗

The Choir Director Podcast is the essential resource for choir directors, conductors and vocal leaders who want to build stronger choirs, run better rehearsals and create outstanding musical experiences.


Hosted by international conductor and festival producer Russell Scott, each episode shares practical strategies for rehearsal technique, vocal training, repertoire choices, choir recruitment, leadership, performance preparation and managing real-world community and amateur choirs.


Whether you lead a school choir, church choir, community choir or professional ensemble, this podcast gives you actionable ideas you can apply immediately — from improving blend and tuning to motivating singers and growing your choir.


Featuring expert interviews with leading conductors, vocal specialists, composers and choir educators, alongside solo coaching episodes packed with real solutions for real choir challenges.


If you’re a choir director who wants practical tools, musical insight and leadership strategies to help your singers thrive, this is the podcast for you.

Music
Arts
Education
Hosts:
Update frequency:
weekly
Average audio length:
43 minutes
Guest interviews
English
United Kingdom
35 episodes
since March 4, 2026
episodic
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IN THIS PODCAST 🔗

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LATEST EPISODE 🔗

Ep#35: How Simon Halsey Rehearses For Sound And Meaning

Ep#35: How Simon Halsey Rehearses For Sound And Meaning

· transcript
You can hear it in the first ten minutes with a great choir: the sound is alive, the tuning locks, and the words mean something. That level of responsiveness is not luck, and Simon Halsey CBE has spent a lifetime proving why.We’re joined by one of Britain’s leading choral conductors to get practica…
00:56:00
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PREVIOUS EPISODES

Ep #34: Zimfira Poloz: Healthy Young Voices Grow When Choir Becomes Community

Ep #34: Zimfira Poloz: Healthy Young Voices Grow When Choir Becomes Community

· transcript
A children’s choir can sound polished and still not be truly free. The turning point is trust, and that’s where this conversation with Zimfira Poloz, Artistic Director of the Toronto Children’s Chorus and a University of Toronto educator in vocal pedagogy, gets practical fast.We talk about what it …
00:41:26
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Ep #33: Manvinder Rattan: You Get Better Faster When You Conduct The Choir You Actually Have

Ep #33: Manvinder Rattan: You Get Better Faster When You Conduct The Choir You Actually Have

· transcript
Most conductors don’t struggle because they lack passion. They struggle because the job asks for two hard skills at once: musical clarity and human leadership. I’m joined by Manvinder Rattan, choral and orchestral conductor and one of the UK’s most experienced conductor trainers, to talk about what…
00:37:38
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Ep #32: Francis Cathlina: When Story-First Choir Direction Changes Everything

Ep #32: Francis Cathlina: When Story-First Choir Direction Changes Everything

· transcript
Your choir can sing the right notes and still leave the audience cold. The difference is often not talent, but story and culture and how deliberately we build both.We sit down with Dr Francis Cathlina, Vietnamese American conductor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Memphis, to …
00:44:38
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Ep #31: Mark Hayes: How A World-Class Arranger Writes For Real Choirs

Ep #31: Mark Hayes: How A World-Class Arranger Writes For Real Choirs

· transcript
The fastest way to level up your choir is not another trick, it’s understanding how great choral music is actually built and how to bring it to life with real singers. I’m joined by Mark Hayes, internationally recognised composer, arranger, conductor, and concert pianist, whose work is sung in chur…
00:41:50
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Ep #30: Jack Blume: The Impact of ‘a cappella’ Singing on Modern Day Communities

Ep #30: Jack Blume: The Impact of ‘a cappella’ Singing on Modern Day Communities

· transcript
A choir can sound like a full band, but only if the arranging, vocal style, and rehearsal priorities are crystal clear. We’re joined by Jack Blume, UK-based composer and producer, and the arranger, orchestrator, and musical supervisor behind the Olivier-nominated West End show The Choir of Man, to …
00:50:40
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Ep #29: Choir Directors Need Rest Too.... Burnout and the Effect

Ep #29: Choir Directors Need Rest Too.... Burnout and the Effect

· transcript
Burnout in choir leadership rarely announces itself. It shows up as the rehearsal you used to love feeling heavy, the email you cannot bring yourself to write, the constant sense that you must hold the whole room together. I’m Russell Scott, and I’m speaking candidly about the quiet, cumulative str…
00:45:23
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Ep #28: Eimear Crehan: Choirs Help Us Deal with Life — Music, Connection and Belonging

Ep #28: Eimear Crehan: Choirs Help Us Deal with Life — Music, Connection and Belonging

· transcript
Choirs do not just teach harmony, they teach people how to belong. Russell Scott sits down with Irish singer-songwriter and vocal and creativity coach Eimear Crehan to unpack what happens when you treat creativity as a practice, not a talent, and when you design rehearsals to help singers feel safe…
00:51:09
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Ep #27: Christopher Munce: Stop Chasing The Perfect Choir And Start Singing

Ep #27: Christopher Munce: Stop Chasing The Perfect Choir And Start Singing

· transcript
The fastest way to improve your choir might not be a new warm-up or a clever rehearsal plan. It might be dropping the “presenter voice” and leading with genuine curiosity. Russell Scott shares a cross-over conversation with Christopher Munce (Choralosophy) about why authenticity matters in choral c…
01:06:31
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Ep #26: Herbert Washington: How the Phoenix Boys Choir Went from Car Park Rehearsals to Grammy Gold

Ep #26: Herbert Washington: How the Phoenix Boys Choir Went from Car Park Rehearsals to Grammy Gold

· transcript
A boys’ choir that can rehearse in a car park, tour for weeks, premiere brand new works, and still feel like a safe place to belong does not happen by accident. We sit down with Herbert Washington, Artistic Director of the Phoenix Boys Choir, alumnus, clinician, and leader of a Grammy-winning chora…
00:52:54
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Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Russell Scott, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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