In 1999, Darlene DiFrances (BME, MAEd.) took over a middle school and high school choral program that had fallen victim to steady decline for over a decade. By the time she was hired, the high school choir had dwindled to 24 members, and the middle school choirs were virtually non-existent. To add insult to injury, five days into the school year, 7 high school students dropped her class.

Zero to Sixty in Record Time chronicles how she transformed this small, rural school choir from a struggling group of 17 shy singers into a vibrant, thriving chorus of confident performers. As of fall 2006, there are 102 voices in her high school choir - 45% of the student body.

Written in a funny, informal, and sometimes cynical manner, Darlene shares the strategies that took her to where she is now, and encourages all who read her book to find the passionate, successful choral director within themselves to take them to that next level as well.

Darlene says, "I originally titled the book Thirty Girls and Three Boys, but Martin, my editor (who is obviously not a music educator), said it sounded like a description of an Amish family. So I began searching for a title that would suggest a starting point and a goal, although zero is not usually where anyone would start with a choir, and sixty definitely should not be a ceiling. Then Marty came up with the stopwatch idea - like timing a car that goes '0-60 in so many seconds.' I liked the action and forward motion of it, so I went with it.

Editors. Don't they just know everything."