Abstract
This study reviewed research on choral conducting that has been published since 1996. The review was done partly as a full scan of key journals in the period 1996–2024 and partly as a keyword search in Google Scholar and Scopus. A total of 406 potential records were identified. We applied a series of exclusion criteria to reduce the number of articles for further scrutiny. We chose to focus solely on empirical research, leaving conceptual and tutorial writing out of scope. Only research that specifically addressed the choral conductor role was included, albeit with a wide look at the behaviours and competences involved. Doctoral and master theses were not included. Several adjacent research domains were also left out, such as biographies, choir sociology, singing and health, and band/orchestra conducting. Applying these criteria, we were left with 94 records. These were organised into six categories: (1) conductor gestures and communicative means, (2) choral repertoire and choir culture, (3) rehearsing process and methodology, (4) staging of choir and spacing of singers, (5) guiding and motivating singers, and (6) conductor education, development, and identity. The largest and most coherent body of research was found in the sub-field of gestures and communicative means. But even here, there was a challenge with contextualisation and compatibility, calling for unifying concepts and replication of experiments. The scholarly quality of research surveyed in our study seemed to have improved from previous reviews. However, the research field overall remains fragmented, and there are still only a few clusters of experienced researchers who publish regularly.
Introduction
Choral singing is a widespread and popular activity practised by people of all ages and backgrounds across the world. Central to the success of any choir is the role of the choral leader, who guides the ensemble through musical interpretation, technical refinement, and cohesion. To support the work of choral conductors, numerous practice-based handbooks have been published over more than a century (Davison, 1964; Garretson, 1987; Thomas, 1935). In recent decades, however, a growing body of scholarly research has emerged that explores various aspects of choral conducting, including pedagogy, leadership, and the social dynamics of choir communities (Geisler, 2010).
Despite the increasing availability of such research, it does not always find its way into the hands of practitioners, choral educators, or even researchers. The variety of the choral research field makes it difficult to bridge the gap between research insights and their application in real-world choral settings. Comprehensive overviews of the existing literature are therefore useful for this end. Previous efforts to compile such overviews (Gonzo, 1973; Grant & Norris, 1998; Hylton, 1981) have laid important groundwork in this area. These review studies have covered half a century of emerging choral research, but none have been published since the new millennium. This prompted us to undertake a scoping review that would both extend the review tradition and take into account two key observations from previous reviews: (1) that the research field was found to be fragmented and (2) that research quality suffered from the prominence of doctoral dissertations. Grant and Norris (1998) found that some progress had been made since Hylton’s (1983) review, but nonetheless concluded:
The most persistent problem remaining is that relatively few choral music educators continue any form of research beyond their doctoral dissertation. Thus, ongoing patterns of research employing any level of sophistication of method are extremely scarce. (p. 48)
To mitigate the fragmentation problem, we chose to focus our review on the slightly narrower field of choral leadership rather than choral research at large. This raised, however, another challenge—the prominence of practice-based rather than research-based writing, for which there is a long tradition. Notwithstanding the usefulness of practice-based knowledge, a research review demands that the distinction is upheld. We therefore chose to limit our review to empirically based research, disregarding practice-based tutorial writing as well as purely conceptual or philosophical work. To mitigate the quality issue, we chose to exclude doctoral dissertations, which Grant and Norris (1998) described as “doctoral students making their first attempt at research” (p. 48). This was considered appropriate given that it is not uncommon that dissertations of sufficient quality are often reworked and published as journal articles, many of which were included in our review. Given these priorities and limitations, our research questions were as follows:
What sub-fields of choral leadership have been researched and what methodologies have been used?
What characterises the body of knowledge of the various sub-fields in terms of coverage and key themes?
Choral research is a subset of the wider field of music research, but previous reviews have predominantly viewed choral research as a subset of music education research—as opposed to artistic and performative research. A problem when seeking the appropriate scope for our review was that many music and education research topics may have relevance for diverse musical practices (such as aural skills and harmony) but not for conducting specifically. Other research topics address choirs, but are not necessarily within the realm of the conductor role (such as the role of choirs in society). A third grey zone is that within conducting research, there are studies that cover other ensemble types (bands and orchestras). The insights from these may be of value for choral conductors, but the research does not qualify as choral leadership research. Bearing in mind these issues, the guiding principle for scoping the present review was to focus on topics that matter for choral leaders in their varied choral practices, based on research oriented specifically towards choral situations.
Previous reviews
The first research review in the realm of choral conducting that we have been able to identify was published by Gonzo (1973). The scope of the review was choral music education with wide selection criteria, including doctoral dissertations. A similar study was undertaken 10 years later by Hylton (1981), also with wide selection criteria. Both Gonzo and Hylton observed that the research field was fragmented and of variable quality. The prevalence of doctoral theses meant that much of the research had been done as one-off projects, where few researchers developed into experienced long-term contributors to the field. The study by Grant and Norris (1998), which covered the period 1983–1995, connected directly to the two preceding studies. Doctoral dissertations continued to prevail, and although the review recognised some improvements, it also observed that “ongoing of patterns of research employing any level of sophistication of methods are extremely scarce” (p. 48).
These reviews do not explicitly state the total number of references included or the effects of various inclusion and exclusion criteria. Nonetheless, they provide an interesting picture of research on choral music education over 30 years. Unsurprisingly, the dominant setting of the reviewed research was high schools and colleges in the United States, given the volume and strength of choral education in this system, and “[w]ith few exceptions, it takes a ‘reductionist’ view, isolating some particular angle, which is investigated by a quantitative approach” (Jansson, 2019, p. 866). Because the choral field has a different structure in other regions, at least in Europe, research emphasis also varies. Here, institutions other than schools are typically the home of choirs—such as churches, choral societies, workplaces, and independent organisations—and professional choirs may be state funded. Social learning, identity, meaning-making, leadership, and artistic perspectives may therefore take priority over educational perspectives.
Research on choral conducting is undoubtedly a key component of choral education studies, but the boundaries between choral research and choral education research are not clearly defined. While music education encompasses more than just choral education, choral research extends beyond the scope of choral education. For example, while Geisler’s (2010) international bibliography of choral research in its widest sense comprises around 5000 references, in contrast, Ternström (2003) published a review specifically of choir acoustics.
Given the globality of choral activities, the variety of choir types, and the multitude of settings they operate in, a key challenge when doing research is contextualisation. This is not so much a problem in descriptive studies that attempt to understand what goes on in choirs and the inherent structure of choral practices. But it is a major problem when endeavouring to make normative propositions: recommendations on what works well and how to lead choirs. Consequently, it is difficult to consistently build and enhance an accumulated body of research, unless researchers are conscious about the validity of the insights generated within and beyond their own context.
The studies that were reviewed by Grant and Norris (1998) were grouped into six categories: (1) singing and vocal pedagogy, (2) curriculum and materials, (3) teacher/conductor behaviour, (4) teaching methods and rehearsal techniques, (5) teacher education, and (6) miscellaneous studies. The categories clearly indicated an educational orientation to choral conducting; however, we wanted both to be attentive to this angle and to broaden the view on conducting beyond the educational domain. At the same time, we wanted to sharpen the focus on the choral conductor role with its inherent demands, capabilities, and behaviours, leaving other aspects of choral singing and musical training out of scope.
We therefore used the competence model proposed by Jansson et al. (2021a) as a point of departure for structuring this review. The model distinguishes between three main types of conductor competencies: musical-technical mastery, situational-relational mastery, and existential foundation. The model uses 17 sub-elements, and while these cover a wide set of skills and knowledge pertinent to choral conducting, they do not correspond to distinct research domains. Moreover, some of the sub-elements, such as aural skills, vocal technique, and score proficiency, are not uniquely associated with choral conducting. To the extent that they involve choir-specific features, these would therefore likely appear in the context of putting them into practice in front of the choir as part of situational-relational mastery. Reviewing the various sub-elements, we chose to structure the studies in six categories that were sufficiently broad as well as distinct to potentially give room for a wider body of research: (1) conducting gestures and communicative means, (2) choral repertoire and choir culture, (3) rehearsing process and methodology, (4) staging of choir and spacing of singers, (5) guiding and motivating singers, and (6) conductor education, development, and identity.
Method
The initial search scanned four central journals from 1996 onwards by identifying potential articles covering the six themes outlined in the previous section: Music Education Research, Research Studies in Music Education, Journal of Research in Music Education, and International Journal of Music Education. We then made a global search for relevant records using the key words “choral AND conductor” and “choir AND conducting AND; gesture OR community OR voice OR conductor OR identity” on Google Scholar. This phase yielded 307 candidate records. As expected, the search not only yielded many duplicates from the initial journal scan but also produced additional records from other journals. Based on these preliminary observations, we carried out a full scan of these additional journals: Philosophy of Music Education Review, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music and Performing Arts, Music Educators Journal, International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, Journal of Music Teacher Education, and Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. To complement the Google search, an identical search in Scopus produced 32 additional candidate items. The search process was finalised on September 11, 2025, ending with a total 406 candidate records. This longlist was created by Author 3 and the elimination of duplicates was reviewed by all three authors.
Criteria for inclusion and exclusion
The first step to limit the record set was to include only journals that had stringent practices for anonymous peer review. Only empirical studies were included, thereby omitting purely methodological or conceptual writing as well as review articles. Doctoral theses were excluded, although some of these works later appeared as published articles and as such therefore became candidates for inclusion. Furthermore, books and book chapters were candidates for inclusion provided they explicitly presented new empirical studies, which left out (largely research-based) books such as Garnett (2009), Durrant (2018), and Jansson (2018). The vast plethora of biographies, tutorial writing, and teaching material was out of scope.
Many of the candidate records that contained topics relevant to the competence and practice of the choir conductor were nevertheless excluded because they addressed issues not specifically pertaining to choirs and choral situations. One of the excluded adjacent fields was choir sociology. Vocal health and choral singing and health more generally are important considerations for the conductor, but as a research field would have deserved a more dedicated review than our study could provide. Research on conducting in non-choral ensembles was excluded, as well as studies pertaining to the specifics of leading choirs during the COVID pandemic. Applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria was done by all three authors, where disagreements were reconciled in plenary discussions.
After removing duplicates and records not fitting our criteria for inclusion, we were left with 94 records which were examined in more detail. These are shown in Supplemental Appendices 1 to 6. Our inclusion and exclusion criteria led to a slightly narrower scope of review compared with the three reviews carried out prior to the year 2000. Nevertheless, we identified a small but constant stream of publications between 1996 and 2024, and from 2010 onwards there was a slight increase in the number of publications.
After the creation of the longlist and initial categorisation by Author 3, inclusion and exclusion was done as plenary teamwork by all three authors. In cases of doubt, a more in-depth assessment was done by one author who reported back to the team for a decision to be made. The analysis of each of the thematic categories was done by Authors 1 and 2 and then verified by the others. The search protocol is summarised in Supplemental Appendix 7.
Data extraction and analysis
We extracted the following data from the article set: study type, research question, sample size, choral setting, data collection method, and main findings, which we compiled in a large spreadsheet. Most of the research involved adults and young adults, some concerned children and adolescents, and very little related to older adults. An overview of the journals where the selected articles were published is shown in Table 1. Type of study is also indicated.
Journal Overview With Number of Reviewed Articles.
The types of studies represented were cohort studies, case studies, controlled intervention studies, and other miscellaneous studies. The records were quite evenly distributed between the study types, the majority being controlled interventions and fewer being case studies. The majority used quantitative methods, including all controlled intervention studies. A sorting of the selected articles by theme category is shown in Table 2, where we observe that the largest category related to gestures and the conductor’s communicative means.
Number of Articles Sorted by Research Theme and Methodology.
Article review by theme category
Conductor gestures and communicative means
This category included 29 articles. One subset dealt specifically with hand gestures and the other subset with the composite set of communicative means, including but not limited to hand gestures. All studies of hand gestures were quantitative and, even among the other studies, qualitative methods were the rare exception. The empirical settings were predominantly educational institutions in the United States. This meant that conductor/choristers were unequivocally talked about as teacher/students. Another implication was that research questions were oriented towards assessment and adjudication.
Hand gestures
Most studies focused on single aspects of gestures, whereas a few looked at the overall impact of gestures. Gumm (2012, 2018), through several studies, developed a holistic concept for the functions of conducting gestures. The concept comprised six functions in two main categories. One category was control-oriented and included mechanical precision, motivation, and physical technique. The other category was release-oriented and included the expressive, psychosocial, and unrestrained tone functions. Another cut of these functions considered mechanical precision and expressivity as music-oriented, whereas all the others were musician-oriented. This body of research was one of the most systematic in the field.
Kim (2004) investigated which gestures mattered most to singers. For right-hand movements, setting the right tempo and giving release/cut-off signals were found to be most important. For left-hand movements, showing crescendo was found to be most important. A majority of controlled experiments involved prompts where audio and video were disconnected. While this opened some future research opportunities, it also made it difficult to draw implications. In fact, Nápoles et al. (2022) found that non-major music students could not consistently separate what they were seeing from what they were hearing. This means that assessing conductor gesture based on how observers visually perceive it may not give the same results as assessing gesture based on the sounding result.
In terms of overall impact, Madsen (2009) found that poor conducting may influence performance rating more than good conducting. Fuelberth (2003, 2004) investigated the impact of left-hand gestures on inappropriate singer tension. More tension was found with fisted and stabbing movements, and hands with palms down. Phrase-shaping and sideways movement gave less tension. On a related note, Nápoles (2013) found that expressive gestures were rated higher than strict gestures, in the context of a choral music summer camp.
When it comes to the impact of specific aspects or functions of gesture, several studies have been carried out, and they build on each other to some degree. Manternach (2012) investigated the impact of the conductor’s preparatory gestures and found that both hand, shoulder, and head movements mattered, because singers mirrored what the conductor did. In two related studies, Platte, Lauber, et al. (2024) and Platte, Gollhofer, et al. (2024) investigated the effects of the conductor’s preparatory gestures. They found that an outward movement created deeper breathing and more sound. The key question of baton use was investigated by Nápoles and colleagues in several studies (Nápoles et al., 2014; Nápoles & Silvey, 2017). They found that performances were clearer when conductors used the medium that they were most used to—choral conductors without a baton and band conductors with a baton. But choral conductors were perceived as more expressive with a baton and band conductors more expressive without (Nápoles & Silvey, 2017). They also found that ratings of musicality did not differ between using a baton or not; however, a baton was found to be effective for setting and keeping tempo (Nápoles et al., 2014).
One research theme pursued by several scholars has been the physical level or plane of movements. Brunkan (2013) observed that a lower centre of movement positively influenced intonation and sound. Similarly, Silvey and Fisher (2015) highlighted the importance of the conducting plane for expressivity, noting that conducting at the medium plane appeared more expressive for choirs than for bands. For high and low conducting, the effect was the opposite. Grady and Gilliam (2020b) investigated the conducting plane (height) at various tempi and found that it had no effect on the sound or tempo, but that the ensemble clearly preferred mid-level gestures for clarity and comfort. Grady’s (2014) previous study was an initial exploration of the effect of different styles of beat patterns.
Composite set of communicative means
Jansson et al. (2022) looked at the significance of gestures in the overall conducting role. Previous studies (Jansson et al., 2019) had found that conductors rated the importance of gestural skills rather low compared with other competencies; at the same time, gestures were acknowledged as making a difference. This impasse may be explained by the prevalence of situations where gestures are in the background: (1) when singers are not (yet) very receptive to gestures, instead being focused on the score; (2) when other rehearsing aids such as a piano are present; (3) when the conductor’s gestural proficiency is lacking; and (4) when the music is simple and does not require much signalling. In short, there are often alternatives to hand gestures; however, these remain highly situational.
Although Poggi (2011) presented an essentially conceptual work, it is mentioned here because it is applied to a simple case. She found that the conductor’s most prominent action was to enact emotions, followed by signalling intensity and rhythm. Skadsem (1997) compared various communicative means and found that verbal instructions were more effective than dynamic markings and gestures. The study was carried out in high school and college settings, and the experience level of the conductor seemed to be an important determinant. Nápoles (2014) also compared the effect of verbal versus gestural signals. She found that experienced teachers perceived more staccato articulation and word stress when the choir responded to verbal instructions than hand gestures. They also heard more staccato and word stress when verbal instructions and gestures were congruent than when they were incongruent. Nápoles et al. (2021) furthermore compared hand gestures and facial expression and found no difference in impact. This may demonstrate that there are several means to the same end. Similarly, Mathers (2009) explored the conductor’s use of hands and arms, face, eyes, and body, and suggested the utilisation of three gestural modes: declamatory, corrective, and narrative. On a related note, VanWeelden (2002) found that body type and gender did not affect evaluation of conductors; however, posture and facial expression did matter. Durrant (2009) explored the aesthetic and expressive dimension of choral conducting and identified the conductor’s reflexivity to be a key factor, which also included the ability to apply the appropriate communicative means.
Daugherty and Brunkan (2013) investigated singers’ mirroring of the conductor’s lip movements, specifically the rounding of two vowels. They observed that singers significantly changed, both visually and acoustically, when the conductor rounded his lips. Daley et al. (2022) studied the mimicking of German phonemes in their study based on hand gestures and found that this improved articulatory accuracy and vocal technique. By attending to the choir’s movement rather than the conductor’s, Langley (2023) found some impact—albeit somewhat inconsistent—on listeners’ perceptions.
Overall, the category of gestures and communicative means was more solid and consistent than other sub-fields. Several conceptual frameworks have been adopted; however, these are not unified to a degree that would allow researchers to build more systematically on each other’s work.
Choral repertoire and choir culture
Thirteen articles were identified in this category. A variety of research methods were used. One theme category was conductors’ repertoire selection practices—in community children’s choirs (Hedden & Allen, 2019; Hedden & Daugherty, 2009) and in high schools (Forbes, 2001; Reames, 2001). In Hedden’s studies, voicing, melody, text, as well as the conductor’s preferences, were the prime considerations, including the fit with the choir. Conductors often relied on their own collections when selecting repertoire. In Reames’ (2001) study, few similarities in choosing repertoire for beginner high school choirs were found. Forbes (2001) observed unstructured selection processes and a lack of systematic criteria. He also observed that “outstanding” conductors favoured classical repertoire more than their non-nominated counterparts. Cash (2019) surveyed middle and high school conductors’ programming of world music and found that music from Africa and Latin America was most frequently used. The performance of religious music by atheist conductors was studied by Clark (2022). Phenomenological analysis showed that these conductors experienced contradictory concerns and stepped into a role in religious rituals, but that they programmed religious music as presentation rather than evangelization. While this study could be seen as an issue of choral repertoire, it is equally pertinent to the theme category of conductors’ identity and development.
Stohllman (2024) investigated the gender of conductors of college male choirs and reported that female conductors were few and far between, attributing this to the “brotherhood” origins of many of these choirs. VanWeelden (2004) and VanWeelden and McGee (2007) looked at various factors that affected rating of ensembles. They found that stereotypes were confirmed, with black conductors receiving higher ratings than white conductors for the same recordings of spiritual music. This indicates that identity is a key facet of choral culture. Major (2017) examined identity development in mid-level collegiate choirs and found that, rather than serving as a stepping-stone to higher-level groups, these choirs had a distinct role within the choral programme. On a related note, Freer (2011) explored the paradox between artistic quality and educational goals in choirs, proposing conductor self-reflexivity as a solution to balance pedagogical and musical practices. One further research theme centred around the inclusiveness of choirs, covering groups such as the disabled (Haywood, 2006) and LGBTQ students (Palkki & Caldwell, 2017). Baughman (2021) looked at the successes and challenges for female conductors in college choirs.
A common observation in research on choral identity, culture, and inclusion was around its highly contextual nature, where both the problems addressed and the related empirical material are only valid in specific geographies and traditions. While each study may offer important insights, it is difficult to establish a more aggregate and coherent body of knowledge.
Rehearsing process and methodology
Eighteen studies were identified in this category, all of which in some way aimed for better approaches to effective rehearsals. While some studies were descriptive, others were normative and compared the effectiveness of different methods. Eleven studies used qualitative methods and four employed quantitative designs. Research covered mostly adult and youth or student choirs, with fewer studies addressing children or older adults.
Several studies from the early period covered in the present review investigated the time usage and teaching approaches of student conductors (Davis, 1998; Dunn, 1997; Watkins, 1996). These studies had limited sample sizes, and it is difficult to generalise the findings beyond the context where they took place. The most robust finding seemed to be that a high rating of conductors was associated with less off-task behaviour, more eye contact, positive reinforcement, and activity changes. Ganschow (2014) surveyed secondary school choral conductors on rehearsal priorities, finding that intonation and tone quality were most emphasised. The study also revealed that experienced conductors favoured a macro-to-micro approach (from whole to detail), while less experienced ones used a micro-to-macro strategy. Broomhead (2006) identified seven techniques for teaching expressive performance: student-initiated input, teacher inquiry, extra-musical reference, demonstration, teacher feedback, detailing, and conducting. The study also noted the challenge of distinguishing between verbal and non-verbal techniques, as most rehearsal approaches involved both. Durrant (2000) examined the skills and strategies for successful choral rehearsals and performances across five countries, analysing conductor approaches to enhance rehearsal practices.
More studies on teaching methods have highlighted the impacts of different approaches. Researchers have identified conductor profiles ranging from traditional, score-dependent strategies to those emphasising multi-modal learning and metacognition (Corbalán et al., 2019). Effective modelling and communication (Grimland, 2005) and score study (Montemayor et al., 2023) has been shown to enhance rehearsal outcomes. For example, score study enhanced singers’ error detection during rehearsals, and Montemayor and colleagues (2023) therefore advocated for less focus on conducting during early rehearsals. Self-guided rehearsals were found to foster collaboration, music application, and personal achievement—despite challenges (Haning, 2021). Regarding instructional techniques, scaffolding language (Freer, 2008) and somatic approaches (Paparo, 2016) improved student experiences and effectively integrated mind–body awareness.
Some studies addressed special populations and adaptations. Jansson et al. (2024) argued for a blended pedagogy in all-inclusive choirs with no entry limitations, showing that inexperienced singers aspired to musical growth, similar to elite choristers. Yinger (2013) discussed adaptations for older adults, emphasising the importance of understanding sensory, perceptual, and cognitive changes to adjust rehearsal practices effectively. Shaw (2012, 2015, 2016) emphasised the importance of contextual knowledge in choral pedagogy in ethnically diverse settings, focusing on repertoire, rehearsal design, and curricula that would empower singers and respect cultural diversity.
This thematic review therefore highlighted a wide range of methods, adaptations, and innovations in choral rehearsal practices; however, this also suggested that existing studies are fragmented in their approaches. It is difficult to identify patterns or conceptual clarity as most of the studies are standalone. Overall, conductors can likely find useful practical tips from extant investigations, but from a research perspective, few studies consistently engage with theoretical perspectives.
Staging of choir and spacing of singers
The eight studies in this category explored how physical arrangement, spacing, and movement affected choral performance acoustically and experientially. This research aimed to optimise choral practices, focusing on singer comfort, vocal production, and sound quality. Quantitative methods dominated, supplemented by some qualitative elements. A common feature across several of the studies was the use of acoustic measurement methods and questionnaires to gather perceptual evaluations from both singers and listeners. Some studies also included experimental designs with varying spacing and formation conditions.
Ternström (2003) investigated choir singers’ preferred self-to-other ratio—how much of their own voice they wanted to hear compared with the rest of the choir. He found that individual preference bands were quite narrow but varied greatly between singers. The study was a controlled experiment and confirmed previous results from real situations. Aspaas et al. (2004) studied how choir arrangements (block sectional, mixed, and sectional in columns) affected sound and singer preferences across homophonic and polyphonic music. Acoustic analyses showed no differences, but music type influenced results. Singer preferences revealed significant gender differences, particularly for the sectional in columns formation.
Across several studies, Daugherty with various colleagues investigated how choir spacing, formation, and riser height influenced both the acoustic and perceptual qualities of choral sound (Daugherty, 1999, 2003; Daugherty et al., 2013; Daugherty et al., 2019). Consistently, spread spacing was preferred by singers and listeners alike, associated with reduced vocal tension, greater comfort, improved ensemble awareness, and enhanced overall sound quality. The later studies further demonstrated that increased riser height modestly strengthened high-frequency resonance and sound diffusion. Ekholm (2000) compared “soloistic singing,” where singers focus on their own voice, with “blended choral singing,” which emphasises a homogeneous ensemble sound. Conductors preferred the blended style, while voice teachers and non-singing musicians showed no strong preference. Ekholm also found that seating singers based on acoustic matching improved the choir’s sound, comfort, and blend.
Grady and Gilliam (2020a) examined the effects of three choral performance movement conditions on sound: no movement, slight swaying, and full-body swaying. Slight swaying minimised pitch deviation, while full-body swaying was preferred by singers for comfort. Expert listeners, however, favoured slight swaying for better acoustic results, indicating that movement can affect both singer and audience perceptions.
These studies collectively emphasised that staging and spacing significantly influenced both acoustic and perceptual aspects of choral sound. Their findings provide helpful guidance for conductors to enhance ensemble performance through thoughtful staging and spacing.
Guiding and motivating singers
The 10 articles in this category explored various aspects of choral directing and singer development, vocal health, anxiety, motivation, and mentoring practices. The studies employed a variety of research methods, including surveys, focus groups, and experimental designs. Quantitative methods were used to measure perceptions, vocal ranges, and the effectiveness of teaching strategies. Qualitative methods, such as interviews, video journals, and interpretative phenomenological analysis, explored participants’ lived experiences, confidence, and mentoring processes.
One study (Jansson, 2019) examined singers’ perceptions of choral leadership. When fulfilling the various functions of the conductor role, features such as presence, devotion, sincerity, and artistic will were top priorities for singers. Musical-technical skills were described as less important for great musical leadership. Bonshor (2017) explored the effects of conductor feedback on amateur singers and found that the nature of verbal feedback—criticism versus positive reinforcement—significantly affected singers’ confidence. Another study (Taylor, 1997) showed that while choir students distinguished between performance-based and instructional praise, their interpretations were influenced by familiarity with the teacher and rehearsal context. Stamer’s (1999, 2009) studies on high school choral students highlighted effective motivational strategies such as fostering a supportive environment, providing feedback, offering engaging repertoire, and setting achievable challenges, while also noting ineffective practices. His later work (Stamer, 2009) further emphasised feedback, director attention, and task engagement and revealed differences by gender and grade level, underscoring the need for varied approaches.
Broomhead (2009) tested a problem-solving approach to teaching keyword emphasis and phrase shaping and found that such methods effectively enhanced students’ interpretive skills. Major and Dakon (2016) studied mid-level collegiate choristers, finding that dedication was influenced by minimal conflict, supportive faculty, quality repertoire, and friendship. Re-enrolment, however, depended on personal reasons or the prestige of top-tier ensembles. Cates (2022) found that most choral directors used gender-inclusive practices with moderate confidence. But while confident in gender-inclusive language, they felt less so about addressing voice changes from medical or non-medical interventions. Directors with formal training showed greater confidence in teaching transgender singers. Conductors’ vocal health has also been investigated. Schwartz (2009) found that middle and high school choral directors had limited vocal ranges and intensities, which increased the risk of vocal issues, and recommended preservice vocal health training. Finally, Ryan and Andrews (2009) examined performance anxiety among semi-professional choral singers, highlighting the role of conductors and experience as key factors in managing anxiety.
Seen together, these studies collectively underscored the importance of tailored strategies, inclusive practices, and mentorship in supporting singers at various levels of experience. This research category at times overlapped with the conductor development category, given the centrality of choral pedagogy in the overall conductor profile.
Conductor education, development, and identity
Sixteen articles were identified in this category, where a mix of methods have been used. These covered two interrelated topics—conductor education and professional development, where the identity issue was more or less explicitly handled. Two early articles addressed the acquisition of specific skills for beginner conductors such as score study and diagnostics skills (Crowe, 1996; Scott, 1996). Durrant (2009) found that for undergraduate students of conducting, technical skills came more naturally than expressive skills. They also practised technical skills more often than expressive skills. Two articles investigated how undergraduate students of choral conducting reflected on their own learning (Regier et al., 2020, 2022). Among the findings were that students found it most challenging to develop hand independence and that expressive skills were more difficult to develop than technical skills.
Some research has drawn attention to skill acquisition beyond the traditional master–apprentice model. Varvarigou (2014) found in a case study that collaborative learning was effective in fostering conductors’ interpersonal skills. In another case study, Kenny (2018) found that community outreach could be an effective way to build leadership capacity. Rather unsurprisingly, Baughman (2020) found that the experience from internships with a children’s chorus increased preservice music teachers’ confidence. Wafula (2020) described the informal training of choral conductors in Kenya, based on an ethnographic approach, and McBride (2016) looked at the gender issues and identity work engaging LGBTQ choral directors.
Five articles studied conductors’ learning trajectories, one within formal education (Butke, 2006) and three with a lifelong perspective. Nápoles et al. (2023) found that burnout tendencies among conductors (teachers) varied across institutions and that years of experience, personal accomplishment, and teacher agency mattered. Jansson and Balsnes (2021) studied the development of 20 conductors in Norway. They found that early exposure and lifelong practice shaped their identity and development more than formal education. In a related case study, formal education was found to have a rather ambiguous function—for some productive, but for some disruptive (Jansson & Balsnes, 2022).
Jansson et al. (2019) surveyed 685 choral conductors across three countries regarding the comprehensive set of skills associated with the choral conductor role, finding relational skills and existential factors like devotion and presence more valued than gestural skills. Experience and choir level influenced self-perceived competence most, while formal education was key for aural skills. Conductors adapted their careers and identities based on their varied skill sets (Jansson et al., 2021b).
In addition to the included records, some further articles discussed leadership aspects of the choral conductor role (Armstrong & Armstrong, 1996; Gustems et al., 2015; Wis, 2002). However, these were conceptual and did not present empirical findings. Given the globality of the choral conductor role and the multitude of choral settings, education programmes, and professional trajectories, this research category remains rather thin and calls for more empirical work in the future.
Concluding remarks
To date, research on choral conducting has produced a constant but moderate stream of publications. Given the complexity and richness of the choral conductor role, it is no surprise that the research field is rather fragmented and suffers from a lack of coherent, agreed-upon frameworks and traditions. The sub-field that is closest to establishing any accumulated body of research, where newer studies build on previous research, is gestures and communicative means. Much of this research is performed by experienced scholars and is of high quality. But even here, there are challenges with contextualisation and compatibility, underlining the need for unifying concepts, replication of experiments, and eventually meta-studies. This point is reinforced by the fact that the use of quantitative methods often leaves less room for qualitative rumination, questioning of underlying assumptions, or the deliberate positioning of studies within a more aggregate framework.
Research on staging of choirs and spacing of singers also provides a reasonably coherent body of research, produced by seasoned scholars. It is the sub-field where new research most clearly builds on previous research, but the body of research is nonetheless rather limited in its number of publications.
The most notable weakness of the overall research field is how limited the body of research is when it comes to choral pedagogy and the guiding and motivation of singers. We realise that it is a large field, but at the same time it is a subset of other rather well-researched areas, and we would hope for more research work connected specifically to the choral field in the future. In the meantime, choral pedagogy remains an essentially practice-based knowledge domain, where tutorial writing prevails. Research on the overall choral conductor role and professional practice is also rather limited. One reason is possibly the dominance of the North American choral field, where many conductors are teachers and therefore do not necessarily perceive the role as a distinct profession.
Although the choral field is global and shares many common features across cultures, context matters for the choral conductor and contextualisation is a key issue within research. In the pursuit of a cumulative body of research with a certain level of general applicability, descriptive studies seem to provide the widest insights. The results from qualitative studies are by default less normative and prescriptive. Conversely, quantitative studies can potentially give specific recommendations; however, they are much more sensitive to the context where the insights apply. Maybe both approaches could be more attentive to this conundrum: descriptive studies could be somewhat more courageous in suggesting prescriptive implications, and quantitative studies could discuss more explicitly the validity of the insights beyond their empirical context. The quantitative tradition seems to draw more on the ideals of the natural sciences, where the premises are well established and largely taken for granted. However, the social sciences call for more elaborate reasoning on validity and generality when applying quantitative methods. We would also encourage more conceptual work in order to define and structure the overall research field, to which end this review article is a modest contribution.
Supplemental Material
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Supplemental material, sj-docx-7-rsm-10.1177_1321103X261428698 for Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review by Dag Jansson, Anne Haugland Balsnes and Oda Marita Netteland Norevik in Research Studies in Music Education
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Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-rsm-10.1177_1321103X261428698 for Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review by Dag Jansson, Anne Haugland Balsnes and Oda Marita Netteland Norevik in Research Studies in Music Education
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Supplemental material, sj-pdf-2-rsm-10.1177_1321103X261428698 for Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review by Dag Jansson, Anne Haugland Balsnes and Oda Marita Netteland Norevik in Research Studies in Music Education
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Supplemental material, sj-pdf-3-rsm-10.1177_1321103X261428698 for Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review by Dag Jansson, Anne Haugland Balsnes and Oda Marita Netteland Norevik in Research Studies in Music Education
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Supplemental material, sj-pdf-4-rsm-10.1177_1321103X261428698 for Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review by Dag Jansson, Anne Haugland Balsnes and Oda Marita Netteland Norevik in Research Studies in Music Education
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Supplemental material, sj-pdf-5-rsm-10.1177_1321103X261428698 for Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review by Dag Jansson, Anne Haugland Balsnes and Oda Marita Netteland Norevik in Research Studies in Music Education
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sj-pdf-6-rsm-10.1177_1321103X261428698 – Supplemental material for Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review
Supplemental material, sj-pdf-6-rsm-10.1177_1321103X261428698 for Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review by Dag Jansson, Anne Haugland Balsnes and Oda Marita Netteland Norevik in Research Studies in Music Education
Footnotes
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Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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