Choral leadership research 1996–2024: A scoping review

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.