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.

You are here: Home / Archives for Musical Advocacy

Musical Advocacy

Establishing Excellence in the Urban Choral Classroom: The Milwaukee High School of the Arts Story

Is there are correlation between a child’s zip code and the quality of their education? Should there be? This session will focus on how to mitigate the effect of poverty on the quality of a child’s music education experience. Specific focus will center on tried and true vocal pedagogy, establishing the highest expectations of your […]

Sioux Falls SD.
Raymond Roberts





Choral Music: Healing People, Saving Lives, Making a Difference

Choral musicians claim its immense power to transform individual lives, but the impact of choral music on the lives of the dispossessed has generally been unexplored. It is this population and the power of transformation for people in prisons, in conflict situations, and in poverty that will be explored in this presentation. André de Quadros […]

Boston MA.
André de Quadros



The VOCES8 Method: A Musical Wake-Up for Voice, Body, and Mind

The VOCES8 Method is an innovative and energizing start to the school day designed to engage large groups or whole schools in musical activities that stimulate the brain and prepare students with a particular focus on numeracy, literacy, and linguistics. The book is based on research by the Institute of Education in London. In this […]

Salt Lake City UT.
VOCES8



Service-Learning, Ubuntu, and Choral Music: Transformative Music Education

The African word Ubuntu conveys the interdependency of humans on one another. It is at the heart of what we understand to be “community.” Choral music, because of the humanness of the voice and the nature of singing together, is an embodiment of this principle. This session draws upon the shared strengths of choral singing, […]

Salt lake City UT.
Alicia W. Walker, James M. Meaders



SSA Relevance in an “SATB World”

This session will briefly discuss the history of women’s choral singing before delving into ways in which we can encourage a heightened level of significance and relevance of women’s choir in our schools and communities.

Little Rock AR.
Jill Burleson Burgett