ABSTRACT
Educational institutions parallel the church as a cradle of choral music, because choral programs are present in many elementary and secondary schools in several countries. Even in countries not colonized and Christianized, choral programs thrive in all levels of education. Contemporary music forms a strategic and necessary part of the repertoire of college choruses, extending sometimes to commissioning. One of the distinctive commissioning projects was initiated by Scott Tucker, former director of the Cornell University Chorus. Katherine Strand, who took over the leadership of the ensemble from Goetze, did not change the essential process of repertoire creation. Strand directed this ensemble and the Descant Choir of the Indiana University’s Children’s Choir. While world music has been accessible and available since the late 1990s, and publishers, in varying degrees, have been at pains to produce authentic materials, issues to do with pronunciation, vocal color, inflection, and appropriateness continue to plague the choral composer and choral director.
