Envisioning Every Voice: Inclusive Vocal Pedgagogy
Frances Fonza and Brittany Chanell Johnson
In today’s diverse choral landscapes, conductors are not just musical leaders but also vocal pedagogues and champions of inclusivity. This session explores the conductor’s role in fostering healthy vocal technique while embracing the unique identities of each singer. Participants will gain practical tools to integrate vocal pedagogy into rehearsals, address common vocal challenges, and create an environment where every voice feels valued. Emphasis will be placed on strategies that honor cultural, gender, and stylistic diversity, ensuring that choral singing remains an accessible and affirming experience for all.
The Superpower of the Introvert Conductor
Chris Maunu
In a choral world that often celebrates extroverted leadership, introverted conductors offer powerful, transformative gifts: deep listening, intentional artistry, and authentic connection. This session shines a spotlight on the leadership superpowers of introverts and how these strengths can actively shape the future of our choral community.
Participants will discover how to harness introverted traits—such as empathetic communication, reflective decision-making, and collaborative empowerment—to build spaces where ALL voices are seen, heard, and valued. Together, we will explore how introverted leadership can dismantle traditional models of gatekeeping and drive choral communities forward with greater inclusivity and belonging. Grounded in DEIAB principles, this session invites the nearly 57% of our population that identifies as at least partially introverted to lead authentically, nurture innovation, and create choral cultures that thrive on diverse strengths.
Through interactive reflection, practical strategies, and real-world examples, attendees will leave equipped to embrace their true leadership style and envision bold new pathways for their ensembles. Conductors of all personality types are encouraged to reimagine leadership through a lens of compassion, equity, and transformative impact—celebrating the quiet power that helps unite and elevate every voice.
Envisioning Success & Inclusion for Changing Voice Ensembles
Kurtis Heinrich
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 growth, success and inclusion. The session will begin with attendees playing the role of pedagogue or diagnostician as they listen to audio samples of many common vocal challenges that changing voice singers face. With the presenter, attendees will assess the technical issues the singers experience and determine their connections to the physiology of the voice change based on the research of leading changing voice pedagogues, Lynn Gackel, Bridgett Sweet, John Cooksey, and Joanne Rutkowski. After identifying the physiological roots of these vocal challenges, participants will learn vocal exercises designed to help singers overcome each of them. Young singers who experience these challenges will often self select themselves out of our ensembles believing they “can’t sing.” In worse cases, directors who are not well informed on these challenges will remove these singers from their ensembles, becoming gatekeepers of the Choral Artform and removing access that should be available to all. Though it is true a conductor cannot eliminate the challenges of the voice change, these exercises will allow participants to ensure their singers develop strong, healthy vocal technique in spite of the challenges and become fully included in their choral program. After addressing the individual aspect of the changing voice, the presenter will widen the lens and explore the challenge of voicing and grouping these singe
From Tones to Tunes: Performance Practice of Cantonese Choral Music
Jeffrey Chan
Cantonese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, yet choral music in this language remains significantly underperformed and underrepresented. The scarcity of Cantonese choral repertoire and educational resources has long hindered musicians from composing, performing, and engaging with the language, resulting in limited visibility on the global choral stage.
This session invites participants to explore the richness of Cantonese choral music through a practical and culturally sensitive lens. It provides tools for conductors and singers to confidently approach this unfamiliar language. Participants will gain insight into Cantonese phonetics and tonal structure while developing clear strategies for teaching and singing in the language. Key diction challenges—such as stop consonants, diphthongs, and vowel clarity—will be explained and demonstrated. The session also introduces a curated catalogue of contemporary Cantonese choral compositions, offering accessible entry points for ensembles interested in expanding their linguistic and cultural range.
The session culminates in a guided read-through of a short Cantonese choral piece, allowing attendees to apply techniques in an immersive, low-pressure setting. No prior knowledge of Cantonese is required. Through this experience, participants will engage deeply with the sound and structure of a tonal language—envisioning a future where every voice and every language is fully heard.
Reclaiming Repertoire: Programming with Power, Passion, and Purpose!
Edryn Coleman, Ocie Banks, Gyasi J. Blanton, and Khyle Wooten
In a world where choral singing must reflect all of us, repertoire selection is a profound act of leadership and humanity. Far beyond choosing pieces for performance, it is the primary way choral directors shape culture, transmit values, and ensure every voice feels seen and heard. This panel invites conductors from school, church, and community settings to explore how thoughtful programming can dismantle barriers, foster inclusion, and cultivate musical excellence. Grounded in the belief that repertoire is the curriculum, panelists will unpack its philosophical, pedagogical, and practical dimensions. Music is not just the content—it is the method through which students build skill, engage emotionally, and connect with others. Participants will explore how to choose music that reflects diverse identities, challenges artistic norms, and sparks genuine discovery for both singers and audiences. Panelists will emphasize the importance of moving beyond nostalgia or convenience and instead selecting music rooted in love, relevance, and equity. Strategies will include curating programs that represent a breadth of cultures, composers, and styles, especially those historically marginalized in the choral canon. Additional topics include narrative concert planning, ensemble identity, and practical considerations such as stamina, memorization, and context. This session models collaborative, reflective leadership and aligns with the 2026 conference vision of choral music as an inclusive cultural force. Directors will leave with tools, inspiration, and a deeper conviction that the repertoire we choose can unite communities, elevate underrepresented voices, and affirm choral singing as a daily act of shared humanity.
Everyday Social Change: The Importance of Daily Action
Cara Bernard and Kelly Bylica
The current ACDA Vision Statement positions choral musicians as having the potential to “create powerful artistic experiences” and become “advocates for cultural and educational change” with the hope that such practices “might transform people’s lives.” In light of this vision, ACDA has developed numerous ways in which the organization and its members can respond to growing calls to pursue equity, accessibility, diversity, and inclusion through choral music.
Large-scale, structural change that impacts society as a whole, however, is an ongoing process, and measured acts can provide sustainable actions that build the foundation for more impactful, long-term transformation. One way to approach such measured acts is through the lens of everyday social change. We define everyday social change as small steps that happen daily in classrooms, rehearsal spaces, performances, and community collaborations. While some have suggested the potential of arts organizations to actually participate in social change, guidance about how, exactly, to participate in social change have been limited.
In this session, we offer practical starting points for thinking and acting through everyday social change. We explore three key topics: reflexive practice, developing community within the chorus, working with/for the broader community. In particular, we ask: (1) What could reflective and reflexive practice look like in choral music and choral music education?, (2) What could community look like in choral spaces?, and (3) What could working with/for the broader community look like?
Voice & the Vagus Nerve: The Key to Unlocking Vocal Freedom
Natasha Valdes
This highly experiential session explores the nervous system’s impact on vocal freedom and how the vagus nerve may be the missing link in helping singers release tension, reduce anxiety, and reconnect with their voices.
With trauma-informed pedagogy and applied vocal science, choral directors will learn how nervous system dysregulation shows up in the voice, and how to safely support students through it. We’ll explore the stress/threat bucket model, identify how the body expresses overwhelm, and learn practical tools to “drain” that stress through vagus nerve activation and movement-based voicework.
You’ll be guided through mobility assessments and neurosomatic exercises that improve vagal tone and reveal how small changes in the body can lead to significant vocal shifts. We’ll connect this to the four systems of the voice, respiration, phonation, resonance, and articulation, and discuss how each is influenced by nervous system state.
The session concludes with a crowd-favorite: vocal toning using a Shruti box, where participants experience the liberating effects of accessible, inclusive sound-making.
This session equips choral leaders to hold space for healing and inclusion in their rehearsals. It’s not just about vocal ease, it’s about changing the culture of choral singing so that every voice, every body, and every story feels welcome.
Easy Korean Diction: Inclusive Access to Korean Choral Works
Sinheang Lee
Misleading romanizations and unfamiliar phonetics often keep choirs from performing Korean music. This interactive interest session equips conductors and singers with a streamlined pronunciation method that converts Hangul’s vowels and consonants into choir-friendly sounds without sacrificing linguistic integrity. Participants will learn a five-step “listen-map-sing” process, practice real score excerpts, and receive a concise take-home guide. By removing the language barrier, you can confidently program Korean works, amplify your diverse repertoires choice. Learning outcomes: (1) diagnose why standard romanizations impede accurate singing; (2) apply a simplified sound map for all basic Korean vowels and consonants; (3) rehearse short phrases to demonstrate immediate improvement; (4) outline rehearsal strategies for introducing a new Korean piece.
All Mixed Up: Musical Theatre Pedagogy for the Choral Director
Jared Trudeau and Joey Harrell
Between music directing spring musicals, conducting Broadway medleys in choir, and guiding students through solo Musical Theatre repertoire, choral educators are expected to support a wide range of vocal sounds—but most choral training offers little guidance on how to develop the specific vocal colors heard on cast albums, Broadway stages, and commercial recordings. This session offers a practical, accessible framework to help choral directors:
- Identify and produce the correct laryngeal mode (Mode 1/chest or Mode 2/head) for the desired vocal color
- Understand and apply acoustic registration options (Open, Closed, Loft)
- Connect natural speech to singing in multiple styles
- Use structured group warm-ups to support individual growth and artistic expression
Attendees will engage in critical listening, vocal exploration, and applied exercises using BroadwayVox’s signature vocal framework: Head, Chest, Open, Closed, Loft. Together, we will listen to elite examples, practice the sounds, and apply them to warm-ups that can be used in any classroom.
The session begins by introducing the three core concepts for Musical Theatre singing: the balance of vocal flexibility and stability, the integration of speech into singing, and a clear understanding of both laryngeal and acoustic register choices.
From there, we use a Describe–Listen–Sing model to explore each sound quality, helping educators distinguish and produce them confidently.
We’ll close with a collaborative warm-up building session, ensuring participants leave with tools they can implement immediately. This presentation empowers choral educators to lead their students with confidence when approaching Musical Theatre repertoire—whether in choirs, musicals, or solo coaching.
Circling Up: Collaborative Vocal Improvisation for Choirs
Eria Breitbarth
Collaborative vocal improvisation provides a space for choral singers to develop creativity and deepen community within the ensemble. Drawing on the Circle Singing practices of Bobby McFerrin and Deep Listening philosophy of Pauline Oliveros, this session invites participants to engage in spontaneous group singing and envision how to incorporate this inclusive practice in their own choral context.
Rooted in the aural-oral tradition, collaborative vocal improvisation encourages participants to listen, harmonize, collaborate, and create in real time outside of a notated composition. These practices invite directors to step off the podium and co-construct spontaneous music alongside choir members, fostering a more equitable community through sound. Through improvised soundscapes, singers strengthen their aural, harmonic, and melodic skills in new and engaging ways within a fun, flexible framework.
Whether you consider yourself an accomplished vocal improviser or a curious beginner, this session will provide a safe space to experiment and practice this skill through musical play. Participants will explore the origins and principles of Circle Singing and Deep Listening, and leave with a rich collection of tools, exercises, and resources to guide collaborative vocal improvisation with their own ensembles.
Envisioning Auditions for a New Era-From ‘NEXT’ to ‘WELCOME’
Katy Green and Louise Carrozza
We are in the midst of a long-overdue effort to increase diverse representation in choirs across America. Yet, there is an area in our field that continues to be overlooked: the audition process. And in many ways, that’s completely understandable- auditions were never designed with inclusion in mind. In fact, they often do the opposite.
So, how can we build on the progress we’ve made and work to increase diverse representation in our select, auditioned choirs- whether in schools, universities, or at the regional, state, and national honor choir levels?
This session will examine frequently assessed audition criteria and propose adaptations for a more equitable audition process. These adaptations aim to enhance representation in select choral ensembles by identifying and exploring processes to mitigate implicit bias and more intentionally embrace the rich contributions of musicians from varied educational and cultural backgrounds. Examples of audition content and rubrics will be provided for session attendees.
Although auditions were never designed to be inherently inclusive, that doesn’t mean we can’t take steps to make them more equitable. Together, we can envision and implement audition criteria that affirm, welcome, and celebrate the wide spectrum of musical aesthetics and lived experiences that our prospective musicians bring to the table, and ideally, to our choral ensembles.
Rethinking the Sacred/Secular Dichotomy in Choral Music
Philip Silvey
Choral music has deep historical ties to religious practices, particularly within Catholicism and other Judeo-Christian traditions. Sacred choral literature includes early chant, the Roman Catholic mass, and more recent genres such as Black Gospel music. Over time, choral works have been broadly categorized as either “sacred” or “secular” based on text, function, and context.
Today, choral ensembles exist across a spectrum of settings—from churches and parochial schools to public schools and community choirs. Professional organizations such as ACDA and NAfME have crafted position statements to guide the inclusion of sacred music in non-religious spaces. Demographics and regional context also influence how sacred works are received in performance. However, the strict sacred/secular divide can limit opportunities for deeper engagement with music that reflects spiritual aspects of the human experience.
Attendees in this session will explore how historical definitions of “sacred” and “secular” have shaped choral repertoire and the perceptions of those who practice this art. Participants will be invited to reconsider this binary and recognize spiritual aspects of choral music across all genres. A 2023 Pew study found that 7 in 10 U.S. adults identify as spiritual in some way. All forms of choral music can serve as a means to explore this important dimension of people’s lives.
Attendees will consider how choral music can foster inclusivity, support diverse spiritual expressions, and transcend religious boundaries. In line with ACDA’s call to include multiple cultural traditions, I will share strategies for programming music that helps singers and listeners meet, as Anne Lamott writes, “in places we couldn’t get to any other way.”
Every Voice Belongs: Building a Low-Barrier Choral Festival
Rebecca DeWan
Honors choral festivals are often celebrated for the life-changing experiences they provide to students, yet access to these events remains uneven, particularly for those from schools with small or under-resourced choral programs. This session shares the creation of a new, low-barrier large-ensemble choral festival that seeks to reimagine who gets to participate in these transformative moments and how we can collectively expand the reach of choral music.
Led by a former high school chorus teacher now serving in higher education, the session explores how this project embodies a commitment to equity, community, and artistic innovation. With no audition or participation fee, and all materials and meals provided through university and grant support, the festival welcomes entire school choirs, including their teachers, to a one-day collaborative singing experience.
Attendees will learn about the festival’s planning process, programming, logistics, and impact during its first two years, including students’ first-time experiences on a college campus and the spontaneous, powerful connections formed through shared singing. Teacher feedback after year two offers insights into how this approach differs from traditional honors events and how it supports student morale, self-efficacy, and musical growth for all involved.
Participants will leave with adaptable tools and resources to help them envision similar efforts in their own communities. This session invites music educators and higher education faculty to envision how festivals centered on access and belonging can transform student lives and support music programs in underserved areas.
A Cappella 101: No Experience Necessary
Marci Major and Spencer Camacho
This interactive session empowers music educators to envision a more inclusive, creative, and student-centered future for choral music through contemporary a cappella. Even with minimal experience, educators can successfully launch an a cappella group that builds student leadership, strengthens musicianship, and engages those who may not connect with traditional ensembles.
Participants will explore the practical tools needed to begin: recruiting, selecting accessible repertoire, budgeting, assessment, and advocating for administrative support. The session will also address common fears—such as lack of beatboxing or arranging experience—and reframe them with practical, encouraging solutions.
Through hands-on activities, attendees will sing, learn a short a cappella arrangement, experiment with vocal percussion, and discover how existing choral pedagogy translates naturally into this vibrant style. The session will highlight how a cappella promotes skills aligned with 21st-century learning—collaboration, creativity, and student agency—and how programs can start small and grow sustainably.
Designed for educators at all levels, including those with no a cappella background, this session offers strategies, resources, and the confidence to bring a genre students already love into the classroom in a meaningful, manageable, and musical way.
Progress & Pushback: LGBTQ Inclusion in Divisive Times
Nick McBride and William Sauerland
Progress & Pushback: LGBTQ Affirming Practices in Divisive: session will focus on LGBTQ+ and queer inclusion in choral music classrooms amidst a landscape marked by political polarization, censorship, book bans, and “anti-woke” cultural pushback. Participants will explore the current challenges posed by restrictive policies and societal attitudes, emphasizing the importance of fostering inclusive environments that support and affirm all students. Our session aims to provide strategies for understanding these complex issues while equipping participants with the tools needed to advocate for LGBTQ+ students and colleagues in challenging times.
Participants will engage in discussions about effective strategies for integrating LGBTQ+ content into the choral/general music curriculum, highlighting best practices for addressing potential backlash from parents and administration, navigating difficult conversations and developing resilient responses. As a call to action, we aim to emphasize collaboration and allyship among choral music educators to create a united front in support of marginalized students, reinforcing the idea that inclusive education benefits the entire school community.
Good Treble: Envisioning a Choral World Beyond Hierarchy
J. Christine Linschoten and Julianna LoBiondo
This presentation will provide a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics surrounding treble choirs, urging for a paradigm shift towards equity and diversity within the choral community. We offer actionable suggestions of redefining hierarchy to choral directors teaching in public schools, colleges/universities, and community groups alike. By examining history, addressing current challenges, and envisioning future aspirations, we advocate for meaningful changes that will uplift all voices for generations to come.
Love City Sings! Philly Youth Learning Songs in the Aural-Oral Tradition
Whitney Covalle
This session will explore “Love City Sings” a free, inclusive, participatory, non-traditional day of singing that brings together 200 Philadelphia youth to learn songs in the aural-oral tradition from community experts including Rollo Dilworth, Norma Jean Hughes and Suzzette Ortiz. All are welcome to “come as they are” regardless of choral experience to “be” in the aural-oral tradition with their peers. Unlike typical high school choral festivals where singers (and their instructors) prepare music in advance, here singers learn music in the aural-oral tradition on site to honor the aural-oral tradition as a cultural experience and rich way of teaching and learning music. Through active participation and discussion in this session, participants will explore and experience how the aural-oral tradition is an accessible framework for teaching choral music and how it has particular relevance for emerging choral programs in city schools. We will learn songs together, including one composed for the event by Norma Jean Hughes called, “I am Enough.” Join us!
Vocal Exercises to Diversify Tone and Style in Young Singers
Kimberly Doucette
Diverse and inclusive practices must be applied to the development of choral tone. By intentionally crafting exercises, we can develop a young choir’s tonal palate to perform all musical selections with integrity. Building flexible vocal skills can and should begin with elementary and middle school singers.
This session introduces a unique format to develop skills with singers ages 8-13, with applications for older singers. Using an approach that seeks to be both culturally responsive and culturally expansive, we will address alignment, respiration, aural skills, and, most importantly, vocalization in a variety of timbres that can be applied to a diverse range of repertoire styles. Participants will experience the immersive sequence in action and learn the rationale behind the techniques.
This sequence has grown out of my process as a white conductor to become more fluent in the music-making backgrounds of my students and the vocal skills needed to execute our diverse repertoire, as well as a sincere desire to engage in this process with respect and authenticity.
Directors will leave the session with a repertoire of exercises, strategies that encourage singers to take ownership of their vocalism, and ideas for creating unique vocalises tailored to their ensembles’ needs. By connecting exercises to physical movement, participants will also develop conducting gestures that evoke desired nuances of color and style.
This method helps students feel safe to build their voice in a way that feels familiar, as well as explore other ways of creating sound. By fostering a variety of skills, we create a foundation of vocal technique, helping our students become empowered and versatile singers who are ready to respond to the musical moment.
Game On! Rehearsal Games to Cultivate Agency and Independence
Kimberly Adams and Margaret Winchell
In an ideal rehearsal atmosphere, the conductor and choir have shared responsibility and investment; yet, we often place the onus for musical progress primarily on the conductor. Singers benefit enormously from developing musical independence and agency in rehearsal. To that end, we will share a series of imaginative, engaging, and adaptable activities to increase motivation, focus, and attention to musical detail within choral rehearsals. These responsibility-centered games specifically target individual accountability, memorization and retention strategies, and informal assessment of concept comprehension.
Our approach is firmly rooted in traditional pedagogical methods but transforms them into unconventional modalities that are familiar and enticing to our students—rehearsal bingo boards, memory relay races, riddles, and more. These designs are influenced by current research in learning psychology and game-based learning (GBL). These activities are not diversions from learning, but vehicles for developing understanding, intended to be seamlessly embedded into the rehearsal process. In our own teaching, we find they increase accountability, agency, and engagement while challenging students to apply their learning with greater depth.
After learning about these creative rehearsal activities and game templates, attendees will consider how to adapt them to suit their own programs and practice creating customized games within the session. Packaging the activities as games or unorthodox deliverables—whether individual, cooperative, or competitive—both mitigates classroom anxiety and enables students to meet rigorous standards of comprehension and performance.
Envision a World without Grades: Solving the Conundrum
Doreen Fryling
Do you feel like your grading doesn’t reflect what you are doing in your choral rehearsal? Do you wish you didn’t have to assign numeric grades to your students because they don’t do what you need them to do? Does grading get in the way of you celebrating choral singing as an act of humanity? This session is for the choral music educator who is ready to examine their grading practices to find areas of improvement that allow for greater access, fosters leadership, elevates diverse voices, ensures equity, and ultimately makes for a healthier and more creative music making space. Led by a current public school music educator, this will be an exploration of the history of grading practices and the current pressures on teachers. Choral music educators will leave with realistic tools and a new lens from which to view their own assessment and feedback practices.
Based on professional development currently being conducted in a New York K-12 school system, elements of this workshop have been previously presented to district teachers in all curricular areas who are also wrestling with the systems of standardized grading that are impeding learning and hurting belonging. Arts educators have a special way in which to model effective, non-punitive assessment and feedback to our building colleagues. As music educators, we should be on the forefront of this movement that aims to serve every child’s health and well-being while providing an environment where music making thrives without barriers. There is a better way. Join us in a practical exploration of how to free yourself and your singers from the chains of standardization.
Beyond the Years: The Vast Legacy of Florence Price
Stephen Spinelli and Tamara Acosta
The renaissance of Florence Price’s music follows decades of advocacy by pioneering scholars, notably Drs. Barbara Garvey Jackson and Rae Linda Brown. Their groundbreaking work laid the foundation for today’s surge of interest in Price’s life and music—reflected in newly published editions, academic research, concert programming, and commercial recordings. While this progress is encouraging, much work remains. Many of Price’s compositions are yet unpublished or unrecorded, and key works—including her Second Symphony—are still “missing.”
History has long prioritized the lives and works of white European men; Entire books explore Bach’s Feet and Beethoven’s Hair. In contrast, Price’s substantial artistic output, and the cultural forces that shaped it, have received only a fraction of the attention they deserve. Her choral works, art songs, and orchestral manuscripts represent a legacy as vast as it is under explored. Restoring that legacy in full is not only a scholarly imperative—it is a cultural one.
This session, led by the co-founders of ONEcomposer, will offer an update on current research, recent discoveries, and emerging resources related to Florence Price. Participants will sing through selections drawn from original manuscripts and newly engraved editions—copies of which will be provided. We will also explore the impact of music industry copyright law, which continues to operate as a barrier to equitable access and inclusion. Attendees will leave with tools for performance and study, ideas for future research, and an invitation to join a movement that seeks to illuminate and celebrate the life and legacy of Florence Price in all its richness.
Conducting with Style: Envisioning Gesture as Leadership
Jennifer Sengin
We often use our physical conducting gesture to guide the ensemble and communicate a wide range of musical ideas. Conducting gesture is one of our most powerful leadership and rehearsal tools in ensembles. Using the repertoire as our guide, this interactive session will offer participants a variety of strategies and techniques to enhance musical expressivity within the ensemble. This workshop will provide opportunities to observe, explore, and experience conducting gestures and techniques that enrich the choral experience.
Survival Imperative: Reimagining What Concerts Accomplish
Erin Guinup
The performing arts face an existential crisis: while entertainment was vital fifty years ago, our constantly stimulated digital world has eliminated boredom, making traditional arts programming appear increasingly expendable. This session provides conductors with a comprehensive framework for reimagining their role beyond entertainment and education, addressing society’s most pressing needs including connection, healing, meaning, and civic engagement.
We will share a systematic needs assessment process that challenges long-held assumptions about what audiences want versus what communities actually require. Through the Community-Centered Programming Framework, conductors will discover practical tools for aligning repertoire selection, concert structure, and ensemble preparation with identified societal needs while maintaining artistic integrity and musical excellence.
The session covers change management strategies for guiding existing audiences through organizational evolution, creating genuinely inclusive spaces for previously excluded communities, and transforming rehearsal processes to prepare singers as agents of social connection and collaborative healing. Hands-on exercises will demonstrate how to design programs that address authentic community needs, implement effective measurement and storytelling strategies, and secure sustainable funding through demonstrated impact.
Learning outcomes include: mastering community needs assessment techniques, developing strategic program design skills that balance artistic excellence with social impact, implementing change management practices for organizational transformation, and creating measurement frameworks that demonstrate tangible community benefits to funders and stakeholders.
From Past to Future: Amplifying Historical Women’s Voices
Meredith Bowen
This session invites conductor-teachers to envision new possibilities for their choirs by exploring underperformed repertoire: the music of cloistered women composers from 17th-century Italy. Composers like Raffaella Aleotti, Isabella Leonarda, Sulpitia Cesis, and Chiara Margarita Cozzolani created expressive, accessible works for voices similar to those in today’s treble choirs. Participants will discover historical background, composer profiles, and a vast repertoire all with available modern editions. Alongside musical selections, the presenter will share stories about these composers’ lives, which offer rich connections for students and classroom discussion. This session invites conductor-teachers to explore music that combines rigorous vocal writing with compelling history—ideal for building vocal technique, musical independence, and cultural understanding in treble ensembles.