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Paul Simon
Bridge Over Troubled Water

Bridge Over Troubled Water

by Paul Simon · arr. Kirby Shaw

3

Schools

3

Performances

—

Voicing

Moderate

Difficulty

About This Piece

Paul Simon's 1970 gospel-influenced ballad arranged for SATB choir by Kirby Shaw. The piece builds from a quiet, intimate opening to a sweeping, emotionally powerful climax, with a text about comfort and friendship.

Summary generated with AI.

chromatic
concert
emotional
gospel-influenced
pop
secular

Performances by School Year

School year
Performances
2025–26 3

Often Programmed With

Pieces that appear on the same concert programs.

About this data

Rankings come from concert programs uploaded by choral directors. To protect privacy, a piece, composer or arranger is listed only after at least 3 different schools have performed it, and no schools, directors or students are ever named.

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Why I Built ChoirTrends

ChoirTrends is my gift to the choral community.

My wife, Barbara, is a highly respected choral director—NJ All-State Chorus, CJMEA Region II, All-Eastern co-Director, and conductor of multiple international choirs. When we married in 1988, I became “choir-adjacent” in nearly every aspect of life. Over time, that led me to create TheDirectorsRoom.com to support Barbara’s audition registration work for NJMEA and CJMEA, and eventually to assist other regional nonprofit choral organizations with similar needs.

Along the way—through long car rides listening to countless JW Pepper CDs and over many dinners with choral directors—I gained a deep appreciation for a persistent challenge: finding high-quality choral music that can realistically and successfully be brought into the classroom.

For most directors, attending concerts outside their own district simply isn’t feasible. Time, energy, and budget all work against you. Yet seeing and hearing repertoire performed live is one of the most reliable ways to discover what truly works.

ChoirTrends is designed to help bridge that gap. It provides a central, easy-to-use website where directors can share their concert programs and repertoire experiences—creating a practical, community-driven resource for discovering music that has already proven successful in real classrooms and on real stages.

My hope is that ChoirTrends becomes a valuable tool in your repertoire search—and that you’ll contribute your own concert details to help others in return.

Best,
Rick Retzko
rick@mfrholdings.com

P.S. Why is this free? Because the choral community has given my family enormous value and support over the years. And honestly—don’t you already pay more than your share?