Get to know your BCCF Chorfest 2018 Clinicians!

We’re excited; you’re excited; they’re excited. But do any of us really know each other yet? Not particularly. That’s why the BCCF Communications team came up with five fun questions to break the ice and help you get acquainted with the people at the podium, May 11-13 in Richmond!

Paul Cummings

Educator, conductor, brains behind the Townsite Jazz Festival, and our Chorfest 2018 Non-Auditioned Young Adult Choir Choir clinician.

Q: When was the moment you knew you wanted to be a conductor?

A: In 1986, as a young aspiring trombone player watching great professional musicians starve, I decided to become a conductor. My friend said “Why would you want to stand in front of out-of-tune singers all day long?” And I thought, “Hey! I sang in an amazing high school choir and the tuning was great!”

Q: What is your favourite post-concert meal?

A: Definitely a few slices of mediterranean pizza.

Q: What is your ‘bucket list’ piece to conduct, and with which ensemble?

A: Conducting “Beginning to See the Light” with the Count Basie Orchestra… featuring myself in place of Joe Williams.

Q: If you could sing under any conductor, who would it be?

A: It would have to be Leonard Bernstein.

Q: What is your musical guilty pleasure outside of the choral genre?

A: I hated Sting until 1988 and then I saw him live in Munich. Haven’t been able to get enough of him since!