WARNING - this post has nothing to do with feminism.
Anyway. Yesterday on my way to the Kantorei concert in New York, I ran into Dr. Oliver. The topic of the Chaper concert came up and both Scott and I gave our vaguely mumbled positive comments. When I said that I was pretty happy with how everything turned out, Dr. Oliver shrugged in a non-committal sort of way and said "I think it left a few things to be desired, but overall I guess it was OK."
*takes a deep breath* .... This made me really, really mad.
As far as I can tell, there is no point whatsoever in criticizing an event that you can no longer do anything to fix. This was our first ever concert together, and everyone was learning a lot. Granted I don't think people worked nearly as hard as they could/should have, but it was our first concert, we've all learned from it (ideally, I know realistically this isn't the case but roll with me), and we'll be better next time. I'm all for constructive criticism, but not point-blank unhappiness. Maybe if Ronnie had said "well, we need to pay a lot more attention to diction for next time" then that at least would've been something constructive that we can use to our advantage for the next concert. But just telling us that we suck is not ok if there's no opportunity for us to make it better for the next time. To be perfectly honest, I don't care whether or not his comment was accurate - that is not something you say to anyone who has just finished a performance. It's just not nice! Forget the fact that he is one of our choir directors - in theory, one of the most influential professors that we'll have. That's not a nice thing for ANYONE to say, let alone someone we're supposed to look up to and take advice from.
There's a difference between being honest and being mean. Given my last post, I'm sure you all know that I'm perfectly ok with a little meanness now and then, and a kick in the ass to get you going in the morning, but this is the wrong sort of mean, and I'm more than a little offended that Dr. Oliver would say that to us.
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8 comments:
People are afraid of the truth, because its ugly. Just in general. Sure my parents loved the concert, but they're tone deaf. It was terrible. Of course I have very high standards...that's why I went to choir college. If you're not willing to bluntly judge then you cannot learn from past mistakes, as you suggest we should.
If I had been hired for a great oppurtunity like teaching at WCC at my first concert was "OK" I wouldn't be pleased about it. Given he takes a fair share of the responsibilty for said mediocrity. I'm not sure I would have waited so long to respond.
Being nice is way overrated.
I thought the concert was awesome. There are times I think when we performed from feeling rather than technicalities, and I think that's a lot better than a robotic choir. And not only that, we have people who aren't voice primaries in this choir, i'm not saying that they are worse then voice primaries, i'm just saying they don't focus as much on the voice as we do. I've never been in a choir before, but both my parents have high standards for music and they thought it was amazing. I think that just because it wasn't all technically there, the feeling was there. And I think that Dr. Oliver is being a little picky with the concert, but he told us in men's choir that he thought it was a great performance and a great start for our choir, which it is.
Wait until you're in a great choir. Once that happens you never want to go back.
Tom - I agree that the concert was not exactly up to snuff, but that's not the point for me. Whether or not the concert was bad, just saying "well, that was awful" to a performer is never acceptable in my mind. If Dr. Oliver had offered constructive criticism, fine, but there's no point in telling someone they were bad after they no longer have any opportunity to fix it.
I think this was a "context is everything moment."
I think that maybe you could look at the comment another way: We are college students now, adults - responsible for ourselves. Maybe his honestly about the way he felt about the concert was less a lapse in educational tact and more an indication that Dr. Oliver views us more as ...colleagues and learning as a partnership, and less of a "you! do what i say! because i say so !" thing. Someone....(was it you?) commented before on how we have very little say in our choir experience here. Maybe Dr. Oliver doesn't really view it as a dictatorship after all?
Just a thought. I understand that it was upsetting but I like the glass to be half full when possible.
I'm gonna side with Deidre on this one. Thats more of what I was shooting for. Though I don't believe the non-dictatorial stance. Watching Dr. Oliver rehearsals this week it really just looks like he's run out of ideas.
My band director said once "When I was in sales, I was sometimes the biggest earner of the week and got the bonus. But on Monday I was UNEMPLOYED"
STOP THINKING ABOUT THE PAST AND LIVE FOR THE FUTURE CONCERTS AND DO YOUR BEST TO NOT RELIVE FAMILY WEEKEND!
Squiggy
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