Male Singing Leaders
From Tuesday 23rd - Wednesday 24th February, SingUp are running a national conference for male singing leaders in Truro. See programme.
In my address I will first draw on the substantial literature that has examined the impact of male teachers in the classroom.Contrary to a popular “common sense” view, the research does not support the view that boys perform better with male teachers – indeed, it raises the disturbing possibility that the opposite may be true.
I will then use two films from the recently completed Boys Keep Singing project to illustrate my key point. You do not have to be a man, but you do have to be an excellent teacher, conductor or leader.Using the voices of boys who have appeared in the films, and in my most recent book (How High Should Boys Sing?I will spell out exactly what this means.
What then is the role of the male leader? Obviously, if you are first an excellent teacher and second a man, that’s going to be a good thing. Nobody’s saying men are unwanted! But I will reveal that male leaders do have one further, really important role that nobody else can fulfill. And it’s not easy!It’s the most challenging thing facing boys’ singing.
You can now listen to a podcast of the round table on boys' singing with Professor Graham Welch at the Sydney de Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
