“What most people want to get out of choir is to feel a progression, that they slowly master the craft of choral music. For every warm-up, I boil it down to make it simple but also find the sweet spot where I can challenge the singers to get out of their comfort zone or dare to fail. The bravery to fail is crucial to the music making we’ll be doing after the warm-up. Exercises that are on the brink of what is doable will have them on the edge of their seat in a playful spirit. It’s always with a smile, always fun. If you make a mistake, no one will judge you. We can’t grow if we don’t make mistakes.”

Jonas Rasmussen (b. 1992) is a Danish conductor, composer, content creator and educator who has quickly established himself as one of the most distinctive choral voices of his generation. Known for his ability to combine artistic ambition with playfulness and accessibility, he is the Artistic Director of Ensemble Novum, Academic Choir Aarhus and Youth Choir Aarhus U, and teaches classical choral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus.

Jonas’ ensembles have won some of the most prestigious international choral prizes, including the World Choral Championship in Tokyo (2019), the Grand Prix at the Rimini International Choral Competition (2018), the European Broadcasting Union’s competition Let the Peoples Sing in Barcelona (2019), and the World Choral Cup in Barcelona (2022). In 2023 and again in 2025, he brought home multiple gold medals at the European Choir Games, Europe’s biggest choral competition. Both his ensembles choirs are now ranked in the top 10 on INTERKULTUR’s official top 1000 list of choirs from all around the world – with Youth Choir Aarhus U as #2 and Academic Choir Aarhus as #8.

Education and mentorship are central to Jonas’ work. In 2025, he started to post content online for a wider international audience and the response has been remarkable. In the first 10 months, Jonas has achieved just short of 350.000 followers across platforms and that number is quickly growing. He is frequently invited as a workshop leader for choral organizations in Denmark and abroad where his engaging style and ability to connect with singers of all levels are widely appreciated.

Jonas’ vision is to position choral music as a living, evolving art form – not a museum piece, but something that constantly redefines itself through collaboration, innovation, and community. Whether on the concert stage, in a classroom, or online, his work is driven by the belief that choir singing is one of the most powerful ways to create meaning and connection between people.

To get in touch with Jonas, you can find him on Instagram (@choirconductor).

Email choirfampodcast@gmail.com to contact our hosts.

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“In many choirs, the tenors and basses were a minority. The tenors and basses at the middle level are disparate; they’re not like each other in any way. Sometimes there’s a common range of only about a minor third. I made it my goal to see if I could write music for that type of choir. Rule #1: the tenors and basses will have separate parts, and it will be in their range. I thought, ‘why not put altos and basses on the same part, just in octave unison, and do it for the entire song with no exceptions?’ We called it SAB with optional tenor. Now I’ve got 11 songs out with that voicing.”

Dan Davison was the Choir Director at Ballou Junior High in Puyallup, Washington, from 1979 to 2019. In addition to having taught the four ensembles at the school, he had numerous teaching and mentoring responsibilities.

Currently, he sings professionally with Male Ensemble Northwest.

Dan was born in 1956 in Sacramento, California, but he has lived in the greater Seattle area since 1965. Since 1979, he has lived in Puyallup, Washington, with his wife, Cathy, who was also a public school teacher. He attended public schools in the Bellevue School District and then attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, where he received his Bachelor's degree, studying under Maurice Skones. He continued his education and received a Master's In Music from Western Washington University, studying with Bruce Pullan.

Dan's tenure as Choir Director at Ballou Junior High School acquainted him well with the complexities of the adolescent voice. His experience ranges from working with treble choirs to tenor-bass choirs to mixed choir, He also worked with vocal jazz ensembles and his Jazz Choir performed at the ACDA Northwest Convention in Seattle in 2010. Dan is an experienced church choir director and has directed choirs at Western Washington University and Pacific Lutheran University. Dan also directed the Northwest ACDA Youth Choir (grades 7-9) for the 2014 ACDA Northwest Convention.

Dan is a published composer, with numerous works available from Walton Music, BriLee Music, Pavane Publishing, and Anchor Music. Mr. Davison received numerous awards for his role in music education, including the 1996 State Of Washington Christa McAuliffe Educator Of The Year, The Educator Citizen Of The Year in 2010 for Communities In Schools In Puyallup, Washington, and also the "Outstanding Choral Director Award" for 2010 from the Washington chapter of The American Choral Directors Association.

To get in touch with Dan, you can email him at dandavison@comcast.net.

Email choirfampodcast@gmail.com to contact our hosts.

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“There were a whole bunch of these women who were publishing music during their liftetime in 17th-century Italy. I find it's important that young women know that they were composers other than Hildegard and Fanny Hensel who were writing. These women's voices were buried for so many years, and yet they were writing in the same styles as their male contemporaries. We can learn about our times now by looking to the past and to think critically about who we're lifting up and whose voices we are amplifying now based on how things have progressed over history.”

Dr. Meredith Bowen is an Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Michigan State University where she teaches graduate choral literature, conducting at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and conducts the auditioned treble ensemble, Mosaic. Bowen works to expand the choral canon and amplify marginalized voices by editing, restoring, and publishing editions of historical music by women. She is an active guest conductor, presenter, and clinician and is founding singer and Artistic Administrator for mirabai, a professional women’s ensemble dedicated to amplifying women’s voices through commissioning, performing, and recording. Her editions of music by 17th-century composers are published by Boosey & Hawkes and MusicSpoke. Prior to joining MSU, Bowen was the Director of Choral Studies at Radford University in Radford, VA, taught public school in Lansing, MI, and led a variety of community choirs throughout MI. She earned her B.S. in Music Education from West Chester University, and both an M.M., and a D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University.

To get in touch with Meredith, you can email her at bowenmer@msu.edu or find her on Facebook (@mybowen), Instagram (@emwhybee), or TikTok (@m.y.bowen).

Email choirfampodcast@gmail.com to contact our hosts.

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Photo in episode artwork by Trace Hudson