Sessions

Kendra Kay Friar
Pacific Youth Choir

The children who first experienced choral singing on Zoom five years ago fill the ranks of children’s choirs today. Kendra Kay Friar, Associate Conductor of Pacific Youth Choir and Oregon’s 2021 Outstanding Elementary Music Educator (OMEA), leads this interactive and celebratory session highlighting the educational needs of today’s youngest choristers. Children’s inability to access live […]

Edward Maclary
University of Maryland

The vital connection between the skills of singing Renaissance polyphony and the successful performance of contemporary choral music serves as the basis of this interest session. The Renaissance repertoire is the wellspring of our choral art. It provides all choral musicians, from beginners to professionals, the opportunity to develop, hone, and maintain the necessary skills […]

Alyssa Cossey
Coastal Carolina University

Utilizing trauma-informed and equity-centered approaches, this session addresses common DEI programming practices and pitfalls. Attendees will gain strategies for reframing or replacing potentially triggering or trauma-centered music through an examination of common choral practices that may be unintentionally traumatizing for singers. Additionally, we will explore current challenges and common shortcomings of DEI work in choral […]

Kurtis Heinrich
Pattonville Heights Middle School

Working with singers during the voice change is one of the most daunting challenges of teaching adolescent-aged ensembles. The most important foundations of successfully guiding singers through this time lie in two categories which will be explored in this session: common vocal challenges and their physiological roots, and voicing and grouping ensembles for healthy pedagogical […]

Melody Gamblin-Bullock
Dallas College-Brookhaven

Jammieca D. Mott
Prairie View A&M University

Demetrius Robinson
Prairie View A&M University

There are comparable performance practices that exists in the singing of choral and solo art song spirituals that stylistically contextualize these timeless American songs of resistance. Approaches to performance pedagogy will be considered within the categories of the spiritual and discussions about: (1) text-dialect coupled with International Phonetic Alphabet; (2) ornamentation and embellishments; and (3) […]

Chantae Pittman
Campbell High School

“At Any Level” is designed for directors across all settings within the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in mind. This initiative is rooted in the belief that enhancing music literacy is fundamental to the success of any chorus or choir program. The session is crafted to arm directors with an arsenal of practical tools and […]

Mariana Romero Serra
Michigan State University

Recent efforts toward the expansion of the choral canon have led to an increase in the programming of musics outside of the Western European classical tradition. Despite their vocal nature, some of these musics did not emerge as choral forms, but have had modern choral adaptations throughout their historical transformations. As strides are made in […]

Stephen Rew
Raymore-Peculiar High School

Active – Engaging – Celebrating the Joy of Music Making This session will explore the benefits of being “brain-smart” in rehearsals and how we can use activity and novelty to bring out the very best in our rehearsals, our singers and ourselves. Directors will walk away with an INCREDIBLE resource including a toolbox of activities […]

Philip Doucette
Philip A. Doucette, LLC

Voice changes due to fatigue, overuse, aging, illness, and injury can be both physically and psychologically debilitating. A growing body of research suggests that individuals throughout the choral music profession will inevitably face moments where they must reckon with “a voice problem” which impacts themselves or someone they work with. Multiple studies have shown the […]

Aaron Peisner
University of North Carolina Wilmington

Stephanie Tubiolo
Rutgers University

Programming concerts for beginning mixed-voice collegiate choirs can be a daunting task, especially with small ensembles, uneven voice part distributions, and a varied spectrum of familiarity with choral musicianship. How do we create an artistically meaningful and intellectually fulfilling experience for our young adult singers while also building foundational skills and vocal technique? Moreover, how […]