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The Chronicle of Higher Education Recognizes National Women's R&S Chair, Iris Levine

 
For Advocate of Women's Choirs, Fostering Student Engagement Is a Song

By Eric Kelderman – Reprinted from The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 18, 2010

When Iris S. Levine was an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire at Durham, women's choirs like the one she belonged to were not premier ensembles and got little attention from administrators or composers.

Women's choirs have come a long way since then. They are now well recognized as a means to not only broaden students' musical experience but to help keep them enrolled.

Ms. Levine, chairwoman of the music department at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, intends to help that trend continue in her new role, as the national repertoire and standards chair for women's choruses for the American Choral Directors Association. She plans to be a strong advocate for women's choirs, encouraging conductors to form such groups at their schools and colleges. She will also recommend new repertoire and commission new compositions that meet the choirs' musical and emotional needs.

"When you're working with a women's chorus, you're dealing with, sometime along the way, these women have not been treated at the same level. That's a given," she said.

 


ACDA Congratulates Joseph Huszti and Men In Blaque On Their Win At The World Choir Games

The first part of the World Choir Games concluded Sunday night with the Champions Concert that included one American choir. The World Choir Games boasted twelve competitive categories this past week.  Choirs performed their programs for judges over the course of the week, and they were judged on that performance.  On Monday morning, prizes were awarded.  Men in Blaque, conducted by former Western Division President, Joseph Huszti, scored 80.13 points, taking a gold medal as they were named the World Choir Champion of the Male Chamber Choir Category. 


World Choir Games Begin this Week

The World Choir Games begin this week in Shaoxing, China, with choral participation from around the world. Choral directors, choirs, and other leaders from the American Choral Directors Association will be significantly represented at this year's international event. The World Choir Games were created to inspire people to witness the beauty and strength of cultural interaction through the choral art.


BBC's "The Choir" Premieres in the U.S.

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The television series The Choir premieres on American television through BBC America July 7. Choirmaster Gareth Malone creates choirs in Britain in the most unlikely settings. In the two-time BAFTA award-winning series, The Choir, Gareth sets his sights first on the Northolt High School--a school with no music program, then on Lancaster School--an all boys school where sports dominates the landscape, and lastly on South Oxhey--a blue collar community.

One of the initiatives of the American Choral Directors Association is to provide the opportunities that would allow every child in the United States to be able to sing in a choir.


ACDA Women's Commissioning Consortium Announces Compositions

Debra Spurgeon, Chair of the ACDA Women's Commissioning Consortium Chair has announced the compositions from the chosen composers, Elizabeth Alexander of Minneapolis and Ola Gjeilo of New York City.


New Communication Tool Unveiled for American Choral Directors Association

On June 29, ChoralNet Communities will be unveiled in Chicago at the Leadership Conference of the American Choral Directors Association. A "Community" will combine the many features of various online communication and networking activities that are currently in use. Want a blog? It is there. A forum? It is also there. A website? It is there, too, complete with multi-level page creation. Want an online library for file sharing? It will be there. Even better, as part of ACDA ChoralNet, any community will be tied into the vast archives of past discussions and links to resources that reside in ChoralNet and ACDA's website, and any of these resources can be accessed and linked at will.


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