An ACDA student chapter is an incredible opportunity to enhance a learning environment. Students are empowered to create events and programs for both university and local communities, offer advocacy for choral music, and engage with their professional organization. This session covers the process of starting a chapter from scratch, discusses how to tailor the chapter’s […]
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Boys to Men: Building an Intergenerational Male Choir
Very few choirs performing at a superb level of choral excellence succeed at bringing together singers of different age ranges, much less a cross several generations. This session will demonstrate how an internationally acclaimed men’s choir is creating “A Life of Song” within its own ranks. This interactive session will combine a demonstration by Great […]
Big Voice: Creating Symbiosis between Warm-ups and Repertoire Question-and-Answer Session
Have you ever wondered how other high school choir director shave found success? Big Voice is an eighty-three-minute documentary that chronicles a challenging year in the life of a determined public high school choir director. Jeffe Huls pushes his students to achieve a high level of artistry and become “one big voice,” despite many obstacles. […]
Beyond Words and Music: A Conversation with Composer Eric Whitacre and Lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri
Frequent collaborators Eric Whitacre and Charles Silvestri discuss their long years of friendship and fruitful creative partnership. Touching on their creative and collaborative processes, this dynamic duo will discuss their catalogue of collaborations (Lux Aurumque, Sleep, Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Nox Aurumque, Her Sacred Spirit Soars, The Chelsea Carol, Sainte-Chapelle) and introduce their […]
Beyond “Getting Ready to Sing”: Creating Symbiosis between Warm-ups and Repertoire
Singers learn more effectively and perform more musically when choral warm-ups relate to the music being rehearsed. When conductors identify the important musical problems in the repertoire, they are able to design musical solutions to teach in the form of warm-ups—before their singers ever encounter them in the score. The clinicians will use choruses from […]
Appalachian Folk Songs: High-Lonesome Mountain Voice
We all love Appalachian folk songs as an integral part of our American music history, but how do we translate that high-lonesome mountain voice tradition to our ensembles? This session will cover many popular Appalachian tunes, identifying stylistic changes that can be made to existing choral arrangements to perform them within the Appalachian tradition. Dialect, […]
