Conference content will be available to attendees until October 31, 2021
REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED SO THAT PARTICIPANT INFORMATION CAN BE UPLOADED TO THE VIRTUAL CONFERENCE APP BEFORE AUGUST 1. THANK YOU TO THOSE JOINING US ON THE WHOVA PLATFORM THIS WEEKEND!
Schedule-at-a-Glance
(scroll down to see more details)
Sunday |
August 1 |
Monday |
August 2 |
1:00-1:15PM |
Welcome & Group Sing |
8:00-9:00AM |
Reading Sessions |
1:20-2:20PM |
Speaker Session A (Powell) AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPIRITUALS, GOSPEL MUSIC AND ETHNIC ANTHEMS: IS THERE A DIFFERENCE? |
9:10-10:10AM |
Speaker Session C (Clark) DISABILITY AS CREATIVE SOURCE: INCLUSIVE CHORAL PRACTICE & UNIVERSAL DESIGN |
2:30-3:00PM |
Concert Session |
10:20-11:20AM |
Interest Sessions A: (details below) Withington - JUST INTONATION Hirokawa - UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Ohrt - COMMISSIONING Rardin - GESTURE |
3:20-4:20PM |
Speaker Session B (Powell) Q & A WITH ROSEPHANYE POWELL |
11:30AM-12:00PM |
Concert Session |
5:00-6:30PM |
ACDA-PA Board Meeting |
12:00-12:45PM |
Meet & Greet |
7:00-7:30PM |
Awards Ceremony & Concert Session |
1:30-2:30PM |
Speaker Session D (Clark) FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE: TOWARD AN EMPOWERING CHORAL MUSIC |
7:40-8:40PM |
Reading Sessions |
2:40-3:40PM |
Interest Sessions B: Natter - CHORALWORKS Coffey - CULTURE OF CARING Scott - NEW TEACHING PRACTICES Reiff - HOSPICE CHOIR & COVID |
9:00-10:00PM |
Social Hour |
3:50-4:50PM |
Interest Sessions C: Posada - INTENTIONAL WARM-UPS Hill - SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION Voth/Kane - MENTAL HEALTH Meade/Beaton - STUDENT SPOTLIGHT |
Concert Sessions by Pennsylvania Choirs
- Lincoln University Concert Choir – Camilla Horne, conductor
- Susquehanna Chorale – Linda Tedford, conductor
- The Bel Canto Youth Chorus of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem – Joy Hirokawa, conductor
- Muhlenberg College Chamber Choir – Chris Jackson, conductor
- Central Bucks High School-West Chamber Choir – Joseph Ohrt, conductor
- Nazareth Area High School Nightingales – Kelly Rocchi, conductor
- Lebanon Valley College Concert Choir – Kyle Zeuch, conductor
- Swarthmore College Chorus – Joseph Gregorio, conductor
Interest Sessions
Click on the + sign next to the title for more details about each session.
SPEAKER SESSION A - Rosephanye Powell
Sunday, August 1, 1:20-2:20pm
African-American Spirituals, Gospel Music and Ethnic Anthems: Is There a Difference?
Sunday, August 1, 1:20-2:20pm
African-American Spirituals, Gospel Music and Ethnic Anthems: Is There a Difference?
This session will provide insights into the distinguishing characteristics and performance practices of African-American spirituals, ethnic anthems, and gospel music. Dr. Powell will use several of her works to demonstrate the distinctions.
SPEAKER SESSION B - Rosephanye Powell
Sunday, August 1, 3:20-4:20pm
Q&A with Rosephanye Powell
Sunday, August 1, 3:20-4:20pm
Q&A with Rosephanye Powell
SPEAKER SESSION C - Andrew Clark
Monday, August 2, 9:10-10:10am
Disability as Creative Source: Inclusive Choral Practice & Universal Design
Monday, August 2, 9:10-10:10am
Disability as Creative Source: Inclusive Choral Practice & Universal Design
Cambridge Common Voices is a neurodiverse chorus made up of students from the Harvard Choruses and the Threshold Program at Lesley University, a transition program for young adults with diverse learning challenges. Founded in 2018 by Harvard’s Director of Choral Activities Andrew Clark, Cambridge Common Voices operates at the intersection of inclusive music education, disability justice, and a neurodiversity paradigm. The ensemble roots its work in Universal Design for Learning principles, reimagining concepts of choral practice through positioning disability as a liberating source of creativity and pedagogical ingenuity. Members of the ensemble will share their experiences, values, and inclusive methods that can inform our work in every choral setting.
SPEAKER SESSION D - Andrew Clark
Monday, August 2, 1:30-2:30pm
Funds of Knowledge: Toward an Empowering Choral Music
Monday, August 2, 1:30-2:30pm
Funds of Knowledge: Toward an Empowering Choral Music
Critiques of conventional choral pedagogy point to the repression of individual voices, hierarchical power structures, coercive methods, the fetishization of “sound,” craft, and technique, and a culture of compliance and monologue. In an art form reliant on unity and consensus-building, how might we reimagine a more empowering and creative practice that truly lifts every voice? This session will apply the frameworks of Adaptative Leadership and Funds of Knowledge in reimagining a choral music that aims to share power and promote cooperation, interdependence, compassion, and creativity drawn from the unique and collective wisdom of our singers. Students from the Harvard Choral Program and Cambridge Common Voices will share their perspectives and experiences.
INTEREST SESSION A
Monday, August 2, 10:20-11:20am
Enhancing Intonation and Aural Skills in the Choral Environment – Part Two: Preparing to Teach Just Intonation
Andrew Withington
Monday, August 2, 10:20-11:20am
Enhancing Intonation and Aural Skills in the Choral Environment – Part Two: Preparing to Teach Just Intonation
Andrew Withington
It was a privilege to present part one of this interest session at the ACDA-PA Summer Conference last year. During part one, the effects of different tuning systems on the choral sound were demonstrated, and how just intonation (an approach where notes are tuned to the natural overtones of the voice, rather than a tempered instrument, such as the piano) could be used to significantly enhance the intonation and aural skills of singers. Part two will go into more depth and during this interactive, hands-on session, participants will be given the tools to determine the just intonation of notes and assign corresponding tuning symbols to scores. This session will also offer an approach to teaching just intonation in a systematic, easy-to-learn way.
Stand Up: Singing the Underground Railroad into the 21st Century
Joy Hirokawa
Joy Hirokawa
This session will describe the Stand Up curriculum developed and implemented in the 2020-21 season for the Bel Canto Youth Chorus. Using traditional spirituals as well as music by contemporary African American composers and artists, this program:
• develops understanding of the story of enslaved people escaping to freedom on the UGRR;
• connects the story of enslaved people to contemporary issues of race and equity;
• features repertoire written or arranged almost exclusively by African American composers.
While told in a sequential story line, the focus is on the human characteristics required by those escaping enslavement to survive - their strength, endurance, resilience, bravery, and dignity. As the UGRR passed through our geographic area, we connected to our local role in the UGRR. Historic and contemporary inspirational quotes connected the past struggles of enslavement with the issues of racism and inequity that we face today. These are incorporated into the programmatic sequence.
• develops understanding of the story of enslaved people escaping to freedom on the UGRR;
• connects the story of enslaved people to contemporary issues of race and equity;
• features repertoire written or arranged almost exclusively by African American composers.
While told in a sequential story line, the focus is on the human characteristics required by those escaping enslavement to survive - their strength, endurance, resilience, bravery, and dignity. As the UGRR passed through our geographic area, we connected to our local role in the UGRR. Historic and contemporary inspirational quotes connected the past struggles of enslavement with the issues of racism and inequity that we face today. These are incorporated into the programmatic sequence.
Exploring New Horizons: Commissioning Music for Your Choirs
Joseph Ohrt
Joseph Ohrt
This session will give a comprehensive foundation of the philosophical and pragmatic aspects of the commissioning process. Engaging someone to write music for your choir can be an awesome and rewarding experience. It can also be a scary endeavor if you have never been through it before. Some of the things that we will discuss are: why commissioning is important, how to choose a composer, how to tailor the work to your needs, and how to create a contact so that communication is clear.
Now is a perfect time to consider fostering new art and broadening your horizon. Consider commissioning a new work for your choir this year. Create something special to celebrate, heal, or acknowledge your singers and community.
Now is a perfect time to consider fostering new art and broadening your horizon. Consider commissioning a new work for your choir this year. Create something special to celebrate, heal, or acknowledge your singers and community.
The No-Babble Zone: Bending (and Breaking) Pattern to Enhance Gesture
Paul Rardin, Temple University
Paul Rardin, Temple University
Mimes have a term for making extraneous or meaningless physical gestures: “babbling.” Do we babble when we conduct? Do our patterns look more like autopilot than artistry? Do we work harder physically than we need to? This session offers ideas for altering (and sometimes breaking) patterns to better reflect the music we’re conducting. Learn how compression, negating, melding, and sculpting can enhance your gestural artistry. Jerry Blackstone’s words can be our guide: “We must shape the pattern to the music, not the other way around.”
INTEREST SESSION B
Monday, August 2, 2:40-3:40pm
ChoralWorks - Rehearsal Tracks on Smartphones for Free
Rob Natter
Monday, August 2, 2:40-3:40pm
ChoralWorks - Rehearsal Tracks on Smartphones for Free
Rob Natter
The ChoralWorks web app makes interactive rehearsal tracks with high-quality piano sounds easy to produce on smartphones and computers. Directors can create and distribute these tracks using free resources. Singers can isolate their own part, or combine them with others to facilitate their learning. ChoralWorks can help singers learn music more quickly, letting directors use valuable rehearsal time for making music.
Creating a Culture of Caring
Matthew Coffey
Matthew Coffey
How would your rehearsals look different if your students knew that both you and their peers truly cared for them? Such a culture and community can have a profound effect on your program in many facets including, but not limited to, student engagement, recruitment, and retention. In this session, Coffey will present several easily implementable strategies for creating a program culture that will empower your students to love, encourage, support, and accept one another.
Building excellent musicians: New teaching practices for the choral classroom
Kym Scott
Kym Scott
When teaching young singers, choral educators are often caught up in the important aspects of teaching notes and rhythms, aligning vowels, and creating a healthy vocal tone. What if we were to take some time out to teach our singers how to be better musicians? By helping our young singers to listen more effectively, we are creating musicians who will struggle less with intonation and rhythm, allowing future choral rehearsals to run more efficiently, and for students to take those skills into all musical endeavors. With a fundamental grounding in Kodaly methodology, this session will present practical ways to build excellent musicianship skills that will not only assist with the learning of traditional, western repertoire, but will also facilitate the learning of non-western music.
Leading and Growing With a Hospice Choir in the Time of COVID
Nathan Reiff
Nathan Reiff
COVID's impact on a choir whose mission is to sing for the dying has been particularly intense. This session will explore ways in which JourneySongs, a volunteer hospice choir based in Newton, Massachusetts, has adapted and even thrived during the pandemic. In the process, members have had to come to terms with an uprooting of the traditional tools and approaches JourneySongs uses, at a time in which the work of the choir feels more vital than ever before.
INTEREST SESSION C
Monday, August 2, 3:50-4:50pm
Intentional Choral Warm-Ups: Skill Building & Accountability
Eric Oliver Posada
Monday, August 2, 3:50-4:50pm
Intentional Choral Warm-Ups: Skill Building & Accountability
Eric Oliver Posada
A rehearsal typically begins with a warm-up that ranges from breathing and vocalizing to stretching and movement. We must ask ourselves: Have our warm-ups grown stale? Can these skills transfer to our choral repertoire? Am I consistently assessing and giving feedback? Through various warm-up exercises, Dr. Posada will identify each targeted skill while diagnosing issues and proposing solutions.
This topic is crucial to the development of singers, choirs, and directors. Ironically, it is also a subject that remains a collective mystery. My primary objective is for middle school and high school choral directors to return to their home schools and reinvent their current warm-up routine. Warm-up exercises should be treated akin to repertoire rehearsals via constant assessment, immediate feedback, and effective solutions. Consequently, these exercises will build vocal technique, aural skills, musicianship, and awareness in singers that will transfer to the choral repertoire and rehearsal. To achieve my goal, I will use the convention audience to provide tangible examples of my methodology. I shall use a varied collection of warm-ups from familiar exercises to specific drills that encourage voice building skills, chord tuning, vowel unification, open/closed vowels, dynamic contrast, consonants and enunciation, simple and advanced kinesthetic movements, and stretching.
This topic is crucial to the development of singers, choirs, and directors. Ironically, it is also a subject that remains a collective mystery. My primary objective is for middle school and high school choral directors to return to their home schools and reinvent their current warm-up routine. Warm-up exercises should be treated akin to repertoire rehearsals via constant assessment, immediate feedback, and effective solutions. Consequently, these exercises will build vocal technique, aural skills, musicianship, and awareness in singers that will transfer to the choral repertoire and rehearsal. To achieve my goal, I will use the convention audience to provide tangible examples of my methodology. I shall use a varied collection of warm-ups from familiar exercises to specific drills that encourage voice building skills, chord tuning, vowel unification, open/closed vowels, dynamic contrast, consonants and enunciation, simple and advanced kinesthetic movements, and stretching.
EXTRA! EXTRA! A session on internal and external social media promotion of the scholastic music program
Dr. Matt Hill
Dr. Matt Hill
We live in an age of technological immediacy in communication. The cell phone is the new television, and is the vehicle through which our musicians and audiences are going to become aware of what we do.
With a heightened awareness of social media’s hold on communication, we must become strategically active on social media platforms for the purposes of: internal communication, ensemble recruitment, relationship cultivation with community organizations, and advertising for our concerts/events.
This presentation provides practical strategies for using social media channels to promote auditions, performances, highlight current and alumni musicians, branding annual events, the difference between 'pages' and 'groups' for internal and external promotion, uses for monthly newsletters, possible sponsor relationship engagement, among other topics.
With a heightened awareness of social media’s hold on communication, we must become strategically active on social media platforms for the purposes of: internal communication, ensemble recruitment, relationship cultivation with community organizations, and advertising for our concerts/events.
This presentation provides practical strategies for using social media channels to promote auditions, performances, highlight current and alumni musicians, branding annual events, the difference between 'pages' and 'groups' for internal and external promotion, uses for monthly newsletters, possible sponsor relationship engagement, among other topics.
"Standing tall": Addressing mental health through a choral collaboration
Ellen Gilson Voth and Jennifer Kane
Ellen Gilson Voth and Jennifer Kane
In this session, Dr. Jennifer Kane and Dr. Ellen Gilson Voth describe their partnership as conductor/composer in creating a new choral work to help singers engage with mental health awareness. In the wake of a suicide of a young, close family friend, Dr. Kane sought to commission a new choral work to combat the stigma that surrounds mental illness, which often prevents people from asking for help. Singers in the Handel and Haydn Society Youth Chorale, and their families, wrote and contributed personal texts about the value of life; Dr. Voth incorporated these texts into a new work, "Standing tall". In this session, Dr. Kane and Dr. Voth share how material was created; how a sensitive topic was handled with young singers; and ideas for similar collaborations. Small groups discussion will focus on ways ensembles can engage in mental health advocacy, empathy, and community building.
Student Spotlight: Practical Advice for Grad School Auditions and Job Interviews
Joy Meade and Morgan Beaton
Joy Meade and Morgan Beaton