​Five points to keep in mind when choosing repertoire for both community and educationally based ensembles.

The choosing of educationally and artistically appropriate repertoire for our ensembles can, at times seem a difficult and daunting task.  I offer for your consideration the following points when selecting your repertoire.  Work toward choosing works that will:
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1. Provide ample opportunities for the nurturing of musical creativity, expression and inspiration and lie within the technical capabilities of your ensemble.  
2. Provide for the necessary connections that allow for the transferal of both technical facility and musical concepts introduced and developed in the warm-up and training portion of your rehearsals.  
3. Provide for the ‘all-important’ motivation, which should lead our ensembles toward the perfecting of manual dexterity, rhythmic vocabulary, articulations and expressive interpretation.  
4. Provide possibilities for exploring the wide range of human emotion through the exposure to and engagement with significant art music. 
5. Provide opportunities for your ensemble to experience a balanced range of works that includes: original, serious 20th & 21st century compositions; faithful transcriptions, or arrangements of significant works and composers that retain the composer's original intent, and finally include well-crafted works drawn from the popular/contemporary genre.

 
And for further thought:
 
All of our repertoire choices generally pass through the following filters:

• Our personal aesthetic criterion
• Our personal tastes
• Our musical & extra-musical values, including our overall music education philosophy

 
Therefore, it is important to regularly examine our own understanding of what constitutes quality, significant music, and to commit ourselves to maintaining our listening through consistent exposure to significant musical performances.