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.

Interest Session

Releasing the Song Inside: Composing in Choral Classrooms

In this panel discussion, editors and contributing authors for the book Musicianship: Composing in Choir (2016) will lay the groundwork for engaging choral ensemble members in composing in choral classrooms. Acknowledging performance as the principal musical behavior in which choral ensembles engage, panelists will offer compelling arguments for including composition as a constituent of any […]

Minneapolis MN.
Jody L. Kerchner, Katy Strand, Julia Shaw, Philip Silvey



Lives of Song: Canadian and American Choral Music by Women Composers

The first day of this conference marks the 2017 celebration of International Women’s Day. Despite the significant contributions of women composers and conductors to the choral scene across Canada and the United States, programming continues to fall short with respect to female representation. This session seeks to inspire participants to more intentionally consider the rich […]

Minneapolis MN.
Michael Murphy, Rachel Rensink-Hoff



Composition Master Class

This session is an open forum with new compositions by runners-up of ACDA’s Brock Student Competition under the mentorship of Steven Sametz and Libby Larsen, exploring compositional choices and how to develop the young compositional voice.

Minneapolis MN.
Sean Hickey, Susan LaBarr, Mark W. Lawson



Composers in the Cloud

How do composers get their music in the hands of performers in a cloud-based world? A discussion of how traditional and new models address publication and marketing in a time of Spotify, YouTube, and the Next Big Thing you’ve never heard of before.

Minneapolis MN.
Susan LaBarr, Mark W. Lawson, Sean Hickey,





The Choral Music of J.A.C. Redford and His Commissioned Work, “Homing,” for the 2017 National Convention

J.A.C. Redford is a television and film composer who has composed music for over three dozen film and hundreds of television episodes including seasons of St. Elsewhere and Coach. He has orchestrated movie scores, working closely with James Horner and others, and orchestrated the last two Bond films. He has arranged for Grammy Award artists […]

Minneapolis MN.
Larry Wyatt