Orchestras are powerful, spontaneous, glittering sound machines. They produce extraordinary performance with relatively little preparation. In fact, many top professional orchestras rehearse on average for four rehearsals before a concert, in some situations as little as one rehearsal, and often they find themselves reading music on sight and producing excellence in the moment.

I conduct these orchestras, and time is big money for those who hire us. Every moment counts. A film orchestra records music at top form and top efficiency to make it within budget. …

Leadership is about being the fuel and the fire — creating a spark and lighting your team into motion. It’s about infusing and communicating purpose — so that it is what compels your team’s greatest passions and interests and brings them together in a common quest. And I learned as a conductor, that sometimes it’s about letting them play and standing back to enjoy the performance.

True leadership is a unique combination of actively leading and inspiring direction while, at other times, being a conduit for your organization’s own will to shine through.

As an orchestra conductor, if I get…

As an orchestra conductor, I can attest to how music has empowered my brain and changed my life.

I started out as a simple kid growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan and through music I learned the potential that I didn’t know I had.

Music is invaluable to children in many ways — brain development and growth is a major one, but there are so many other empowering ways that music will change your child’s life now and for the future.

Whether your child is a budding scientist, contractor, teacher, doctor, entrepreneur, or professional hockey player, they will have…

Some days, writing is like climbing a sand dune. We work and rework, but we can’t gain traction and frustratingly our words and ideas seep away from under us.

Sometimes, though, when we sit down to write, our ideas flow out of a higher state that combines our thought, reading and imagination into one flowing moment. We transcend our normal day-today struggle and connect to a flurry of inspiration that surprises and amazes us. This is a performance.

I’m an orchestra conductor. I’ve conducted concerts that transform and take us “beyond”, and also, as a writer, I’ve experienced the fleeting…

Intention is the starting point to anything.

When we intend to start a business, for instance, we might start thinking about it. We imagine possibilities. Then suddenly, wham, some strange coincidence happens — a guy shows up at a party who has the perfect connection to help us.

Sometimes we think of such things happening in our life as “circumstance” or good luck. Many of us can look back over our lives and see a moment or two where we had the big break that seemed to change our course.

But, we govern these circumstances more than we might think…

When I started my career as a conductor, I thought the only way to achieve success was to do 10,000 things all at once. I was newly married, starting a new job with lots of conducting, administration and pressure. Soon after, I started a family. Travelling every other week, it didn’t seem possible to manage everything. I prided myself on multi-tasking and working long into the night.

Fast forward a few years, and I realize now that whatever I was overachieving in action took away from what I could have achieved mentally and creatively.

When we are committed — there…

When children perform music they interact with the complex language of music — breaking down rhythms, reading notes and making a myriad of physical actions and mental decisions in flowing, unstopping time.

Music’s complexity connects children’s brains in an extraordinary simultaneous interconnection process. And this is exactly what optimizes their young brain’s potential as they develop! The human brain is capable of processing many different experiences and kinds of information all at once. …

Christmas is not going to be the same. But there is something you can do to make it meaningful and joyful, even if it’s quiet.

You can be grateful. And this will bring you happiness.

Our attitude is one of the few things this Christmas that is ours to control. You can be grateful for what you do have, even amidst all that you are missing. You can choose to see the beauty and kindness around you.

One unique, but beautiful thing about this Christmas is that it will be quiet. There will be time, and space — and stillness…