The ACDA-PA summer conference was fun, full and enriching!
This year’s conference included two fabulous honor choirs masterfully led by Anthony Trecek-King and Andrea Ramsey, twelve interest sessions, four keynotes from our headliners, and two concerts featuring our honor choirs, the Gettysburg Children’s Choir, Parkside Harmony and a fantastic quartet of opera singers. We also honored Bob Drafall with the Elaine Brown Award, sang through portions of the new Singing City Songbook, learned new rep at reading sessions, and celebrated and bonded at ACDA AfterHours. If you weren’t there – we missed you! If you came, thanks for sharing your time and talents, and invite a colleague to join you next summer, August 4-6th, 2024 at West Chester University. If you see an ACDA-PA board member, thank them (with coffee) for planning and implementing this conference – a summer sacrifice they gave graciously for all of our benefit!
NJACDA’s 2023 Summer Conference was one to remember! 130 choir enthusiasts converged on Rutgers University on August 23 and 24, 2023. Our headliner, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz ran four incredible sessions on music literacy, the warm-up, and the changing voice. Our final session was an amazing rehearsal with all of the conference attendees.
Our presenters were phenomenal, and included the likes of Gabriel Crouch, Vinroy Brown, Hannah Carr, Erasmia Voukelatos, Preston Wilson, Lori Lynch, Laurie Lausi, Patrick Hachey, and John Wilson. Our reading sessions were equally fabulous. We’ve got the following people to thank for organizing and running them: Chris Thomas, Kahlil Gunther, Adam Good, Brandon Williams, Matthew Lee, John Wilson, François Suhr, Lynnel Joy Jenkins, Madelyn Curtin, Sarah A Michal, and Anne Matlack.
A highlight of the conference was our Collegiate Consortium. Facilitated by Stephanie Tubiolo, this session brought together our collegiate attendees in the spirit of community and sharing. Students from universities throughout the state chose a song and a conductor to lead the assembled singers in a short rehearsal. It was magical! The conference was free for collegiate students, whether they were ACDA members or not!
June: Beer Choir! We had about 20-25 people come for our Beer Choir gathering in Manchester, NH
July: We awarded Ellie Samuelson with free scores for winning our diverse repertoire initiative.
August: Vacation, planning, and grass roots advocacy for elementary music in our state
September will bring our All-State Prep Zoom session – we have a new aria by Amy Beach, so we’re anticipating a good turnout. Also in September, our Collegiate Conference, co-sponsored by the Massachusetts ACDA.
We have reached out to colleges and universities across New England, welcoming them to bring their chapters or students. It will feature a short presentation by the Keene State University chapter on chapter engagement on and off campus, and a meet and greet for collegiate members, as well as the clinicians.
October brings our state NHMEA October Music Fest PD day, and NHACDA is sponsoring a reading session by past president Will Gunn, centered on Building a Stronger Classroom Community.
NY-ACDA held a four day conference in Albany, New York in August which involved three honors choirs, a director’s chorus, four fabulous guest conductors (Alissa Rowe, Marques Garrett, Maria Ellis, and Joy Hirokawa), 200 singers from across the state, three days of interest sessions with dynamic teacher-leaders (Austin Kiley, Evan Montemayor, Eric Williamson, Bill Culverhous, Doreen Fryling, and Morgan Jolley), and a full membership meeting and planning session.
In addition, NY-ACDA is running its second annual Fall Collegiate Conference at Ithaca College (October 27-28) with presenters Jason Thompson, Jameelah Taylor, Jenna Stufkosky, T. J. Barnes, Gina Costanza, Adam Shatraw, and Deepak Marwah. Three masterclasses will allow students to practice with the support of master teachers in the areas of gesture, teaching, and rehearsing with Khyle Wooten, Eric Rubinstein, Megan Field, Ernest Backus, Evan Powers, Kristin Zaryski, Baruch Whitehead, and Liz Geisewite.
Check out our website www.nyacda.org or follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more information.
Click HERE to register!
