American Choral Directors Association
The mission of ACDA is to inspire excellence and nurture lifelong involvement in choral music for everyone through education, performance, composition and advocacy.
Singing is one of the earliest developing and most fundamental musical skills, but we don’t know as much as we should about how accurate singing develops and why it never develops for some children. Recently, a number of researchers from music education, psychology, and neuroscience have begun to explore systematically the prevalence of accurate singing […]
Seattle WA.This session will answer common questions about how to commission new choral works, including, “How do I approach a composer to initiate a commission?” and “How do we justify spending money on a commission?” Topics will include engaging and collaborating with composers, commissioning costs, funding models and sources, contracts, non-commission collaboration options, and composer residencies. […]
Seattle WA.Since Harriet Simon’s survey in the Choral Journal revealed that over 75 percent of the conductors surveyed experienced a wide assortment of debilitation or physical limitations, it has been well known that a career in conducting can induce a wide variety of short-and long-term impingements, especially in the back, neck, and shoulders of the conductor. […]
Seattle WA.Gospel, spirituals, music of Africa and Latin America: choirs and audiences cannot seem to get enough of music with rhythmic roots. How can we best help our choirs connect to their natural sense of rhythm? This session gives participants an experience of the many facets of rhythm, including movement, clapping, and singing a variety of […]
Seattle WA.Kinesthetic connections activate the spirit, mind, and body, enhancing both technical and expressive pathways. This session will present movement principles partnered with art music in the context of traditional choral performance. The models explored in this session seek to augment the meaning and potency of the repertoire performed. Topics include the connection of body and […]
Seattle WA.Failure is a part of life and part of being a choir director. Failure can either be instructive or destructive—and many good things we accomplish have come from making mistakes, learning from them, and ensuring they never happened again. This session deals with the actions we take that undermine our ability to be effective, musical, […]
Seattle WA.
