Mark Jennings

When I began taking University Chorus with Jennings, I was pretty optimistic. He has a good attitude and is entertaining as a director. However, as the semester progressed, I realized that he wasn't that great of a director. In my opinion, no choir director should ever let their group embarrass themselves, and Jennings didn't really seem to care how we performed. He went over certain parts of the music over and over from the beginning, leaving some parts of pieces unrehearsed until concert time was nearly nigh. His choices in music also left something to be desired. Out of the eight pieces we performed, five of them were from the same composer. Oh, and they all sucked. I don't know if Jennings was just trying to impress this guy or what, but give me a break. He seems to have his own interests at heart and seems to not really care about the group. I have loved singing all my life, and this is the first chorus class I have taken in which I find myself constantly looking at my watch. Take it if you want, but prepare for disappointment.

I think Jennings is a great director. He has great discernment and is very animated. He is very funny and keeps the class interested. Most importantly, I think he is awesome at what he does.

Dr. Jennings is a very excitable person, and although this may seem to be a good thing in front of 200 or so people, let me assure you it is not. He is very inexperienced at conducting and it shows. He focuses on parts of the music that don't matter as much in the overall aestetics of the piece, but the mistakes that are blaringly obvious he leaves untouched and then wonders why it sounds horrendous. Also, he almost never takes valid suggestions from the students that would make the piece sound better. It's almost as if he feels he is in a one-sided power struggle and wouldn't dare take a suggestion for fear that he would lose the initiative. He only fixes the things that he feels need to be fixed when he decides it is time to fix it and not a moment before. He also has a tendency to make the most bizarre faces when trying to evoke emotion from the choir, but these faces only succeed in making the entire choir want to laugh at him for looking like a muppet. Overall, he's a good guy but a bad conductor in that he does not adapt to his choir's abilities or suggestions.