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Culture Consult: Find Your Voice


Welcome to the online home of Dr. Paul Guise. From introductory courses to advanced training and research; when it comes to culture, I'll help you Find Your Voice!

Over 800 000 Canadians make a living in the cultural sector, but we all take part by sharing stories, making music, dancing, painting, cooking...  In Living Culture is a podcast that shares the lives of people who just couldn't live without culture.

Circlesongs is a program designed to help build voices (and communities) through the sharing of songs. Find your voice, Raise your voice, and Share your voice!

Whether in print, as a podcast, or as a complete a/v presentation, I can Record Your Culture and provide insight into what makes you unique. Negotiating the Arts will help you develop a career path in arts and culture, while Keys to Negotiation helps unlock your negotiating potential.

As a developer of post-secondary and professional training materials, I can help you dream big via consulting and research projects. Whatever your needs, just ask.

In Living Culture

The podcast about people, culture, and Canada

Circlesongs

Singing isn't just for listening: it's something everyone can do! Songs help us define ourselves and our cultures. Circlesongs is a program designed to help build voices (and communities) through the sharing of songs.

Find Your Voice            

Raise Your Voice

            Share Your Voice

From the I-Can't-Sing-er to the trained soloist, we all have room to grow and songs to share. Discover the music that surrounds you in Canada, the most multicultural place on Earth. Join a community of people who don't just sing music... they live it!

Ask how you can bring Circlesongs to your community.

CONTACT ME TO GET STARTED

“Paul is a valuable source of game-changing knowledge. His experience and down-to-earth, practical smarts are real assets to artists in an increasingly complex field...what a bonus that's he's such a pleasure to work with as well!”

Services

Record Your Culture

Every cultural group is unique. By approaching your group the way a gardener approaches the garden, I can help your identity blossom while pruning back the non-essentials (and weeding out the problems).

Professional organizations can identify their best practices (and other practices) to aid with succession planning and organizational renewal.

Community groups can pinpoint and celebrate their cultural identity, to the benefit of audiences and funding agencies alike.

Whether in print, as a podcast, or as a complete a/v presentation, I can document your group's culture and provide insight into what makes you unique.

Individuals or groups of all sizes.

Negotiating the Arts

Designed for actors, artists, dancers, musicians, writers, and anyone else looking to make a living in the cultural sector; this course helps you build a business plan that you can literally take to the bank.

Contents include:

Career options & lifestyle implications
The economics of culture
Hard skills (Finance, Budgeting, Accounting, Taxes)
Soft skills (Contracts, Copyright/IP, Marketing, Negotiation)
Long-term planning (Market Research, Strategic Planning)

(half-day to 5 days)

Groups of all sizes or one-on-one.

Keys to Negotiation

Negotiation is a skill that we all use on a daily basis – why not learn to do it well? Unlock the principles and language of negotiation and explore how it applies in your life. Prepare for contract discussions, written funding applications, organizational development, or day-to-day management. Build your organization through sustainable governance, improved work culture, and visionary succession planning.

Contents include:

Negotiation - an Introduction
The Language of Negotiation
Non-verbal Aspects of Negotiation
Negotiating the Job Market
Negotiating Change
Negotiating Family

(60 minutes to full-day)

Small groups or one-on-one.

"I would strongly recommend this course to anyone looking at making a career out of music (performing, teaching, retail... it doesn't matter - Dr. Guise has been able to incorporate it all)!”

"...the single most important course for my future career."”

About

Paul Guise, BMus, MMus, MBA, PhD

Paul is a cultural consultant, curriculum developer, and music educator based in Toronto, Canada. Since 2004 he has provided business analytics, curricula, workshops, and research tools to help artists thrive.

His research interests include cultural enterprise education, arts education policy development, and the group dynamics of musical ensembles, particularly small choirs.

Dr. Guise has presented dozens of invited papers and workshops in Canada, Iceland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He has published dozens of reviews in Canadian Folk Music [CFM] / CFM Bulletin, has written monthly columns for the True North Brass and in the ODXA radio magazine Listening In, and has recorded and edited compact discs for numerous clients.

As a musician, Paul has sung in concert for HRH Prince Charles, performed a solo Christmas gig on a 737 (yes, it was in the air), owned/operated a recording business, and written numerous compositions (vocal, instrumental, and electronic).

Paul is also a poet, visual artist, award winning photographer, and avid (obsessive?) cyclist/runner/nordic skier. And he roasts a great cup of coffee!

COURSES TAUGHT:


Bibliography & Research Methods

Choral Conducting

Choral Methods

Contemporary Aural Skills

Fundamentals of Music Education

History of Baroque and Early Classical Music

History of Late Classical and Romantic Music

Human Musical Learning and Development

Music as Business: Principles and Practices

Music of the Twentieth Century I/II

Performance Media: Voice

Rudiments of Music

Research Methods

Rudiments of Music Theory and Aural Skills

Sociology of Music



ENSEMBLES CONDUCTED:


Chinook's Edge School Association Honour Choir (Red Deer, AB)

Chorale La Rose des Vents (St. John’s, NL)

Karlakorinn Hreimur (Húsavík, Iceland)

Red Deer College [RDC] Concert Choir

RDC Keyboard/Chamber Music ensembles

RDC Studio Choir

Shawnee Choral Society (Topeka, KS)

[UAlberta] Chorale St. Jean

UAlberta Concert Choir

UAlberta Graduate Recital Choir

University of Kansas [KU] Concert Choir

KU Men's Glee Club


MAJOR WORKS:


(2012-2017). Almanac of Arts and Culture Programs in Canada / Annuaire des Programmes Arts et Culture au Canada. Six annual publications.


(2013). Music Business Education in Canada: Implications for collection development. Fontes Artis Musicae 60/3 (pp. 194-198).


Guise, P., and Faulkner, R. (2005). The Icemen Cometh: A choral travel saga with implications for the acquisition of business skills. In K. Adams (Ed.), Sharing the Voices: The Phenomenon of Singing V (pp. 104-114).


(2004). Music Business Education in Canada: A census and developmental template. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas, 2004). Dissertation Abstracts International 65/10, 3735.


(2003). The Relationship Between Voice Part and Self-Selected Pitch. In Sharing the Voices: The Phenomenon of Singing IV (pp. 94-99).


(2001). Director or Leader? How to Gain Control of the Choir (and how to give it away). In A. Rose & K. Adams (Eds.), Sharing the Voices: The Phenomenon of Singing III (pp. 132-137).


(1999). Group Dynamics and the Small Choir. In B. A. Roberts & A. Rose (Eds.), Sharing the Voices: The Phenomenon of Singing II (pp. 108-115).


(1999). Six Piano Miniatures. On Glossa [CD]. Edmonton, AB, Canada: Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society (CLEF 99003-2).


(1999). Glossa. Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society Compact Disc - (CLEF 99003-2). All recording, engineering, editing/mixing, mastering. Released 1999/03.


(1994). Embers [Electroacoustic composition on CD]. Kingston, ON, Canada: Queen’s University Arts and Science Undergraduate Review.


(1994). Fearful Symmetry. Original acoustic and electroacoustic music for the feature length dramatic work, commissioned by Threshold Theatre, Kingston, ON, Canada. Debuted Spring 1994.