A Message from the President

I am so excited to have begun my term as your ACDA Eastern Region President. I’ve been thinking about this time ever since I became President-Elect designate in January 2018 (!) and after having served as NY state president, Eastern Region conference honor choir and program chair working with some terrific Eastern Region presidents, and as co-chair for the National Diversity Initiatives Committee. Like everyone else, I could not have foreseen how the events of 2020 would drastically alter how we all would have to think about how and why we do our work as choral directors. We are in a new dance where the ability to pivot, flex, and leap is as important as ever, but I feel motivated to create a space of exchange and service to help all of us RIGHT NOW and to build a 2022 conference that helps us develop and carry out a meaningful sense of purpose in choral music.

I am extraordinarily proud and happy to have put together a team of insightful and generous choral leaders who bring a host of valuable perspectives and experiences to their own work and conference planning. Please get to know us and be in contact with us to share your ideas, needs, and concerns so that our association can be a resource for you. Find us here. Our meetings have already been filled with excitement, energy, and joy, even in these uncertain and stressful times. We are imagining and setting into motion a 2022 conference that builds on all the wonderful aspects of past conferences while also forging different paths. Those meetings are A GREAT SIGN of things to come!

Penelope Cruz
Eastern Region President, 2020-2022