 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2016) |
| Part of a series on |
| Music education |
|---|
 |
The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music. Its membership comprises approximately 22,000 choral directors representing over a million singers. [1]
ACDA is organized in six Regions, i.e., Midwestern, Eastern, Northwestern, Southern, Southwestern, and Western. Every year, conferences with topics pertaining to choral conductors are held - in even numbered years, a region conference is held in each region, and in odd numbered years, a national conference takes place in a major U.S. city. In 2009, ACDA celebrated its 50th Anniversary in Oklahoma City; in 2011, the national conference was held in Chicago, Illinois. The 2013 national conference was held in Dallas, Texas. In 2021, ACDA organized its first virtual national conference in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, the organization returned to an in person conference, with Cincinnati serving as the host city. James Madison University was the host for the national chapter for 2011. Each year a different university hosts the yearly ACDA chapter.
Conductors can apply to have their choirs perform at these conferences through a blind audition-CD process. Being accepted to sing at an ACDA conference is considered a great honor, both for a choir and for its conductor. Individual singers may also apply to sing with ACDA National or Regional Honor Choirs. About 300 singers are selected from around the country to sing in each national or regional choir.
Their official publications are the Choral Journal , as well as the scientific research journal International Journal of Research in Choral Singing (online only).
Robyn Hilger is the current executive director. [2]
In addition to the division organization, a similar break out is done along specialization lines. The specialties are:[ citation needed ]
Each specialty is organized under a Repertoire and Standards (R&S) Committee system, with a National Committee, Division Committees, and State chairpersons. The National Chairperson for each specialty is also a member of the National R&S Committee which meets annually to discuss issues common to all specialties.[ citation needed ]
Since 1991, the ACDA awards the "Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission" to "a recognized composer to write a choral composition in an effort to perpetuate quality choral repertoire." [3]
| Year | Composer | Title | Orchestration | Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Theron Kirk | O For A Thousand Tongues | |||
| 1993 | Carlisle Floyd | A Time to Dance | |||
| 1994 | Daniel E. Gawthrop | Sing a Mighty Song | |||
| 1995 | Daniel Pinkham | Alleluia for the Waters | |||
| 1996 | James Mulholland | That I Shall Never Look Upon Thee More | |||
| 1997 | Stephen Paulus | God Be With Us | |||
| 1997 | Gian Carlo Menotti | Jacob’s Prayer | |||
| 1998 | Samuel Adler | A Psalm Trilogy | |||
| 1999 | Gwyneth Walker | I Thank You God | |||
| 1999 | Adolphus Hailstork | The God of Glory Thunders | |||
| 2000 | David Brunner | The Circles of Our Lives | |||
| 2001 | Eric Whitacre | Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine | 10 min | ||
| 2002 | Richard Nance | Psalm 36 | |||
| 2003 | René Clausen | Memorial | |||
| 2004 | Z. Randall Stroope | We Behold Once Again the Stars | |||
| 2005 | Morten Lauridsen | Nocturnes | |||
| 2006 | Mack Wilberg | Dances to Life | |||
| 2007 | David Conte | The Nine Muses | |||
| 2008 | Eleanor Joanne Daley | Life's Mirror | |||
| 2009 | Dominick Argento | Cenotaph | |||
| 2010 | Joan Szymko | All Works of Love | |||
| 2011 | Steven Sametz | Three Mystical Choruses | |||
| 2012 | Chen Yi | Distance can’t keep us two apart | A capella mixed choir | 5 min | Text by Wang Bo [4] |
| 2013 | Steven Stucky | Take Him, Earth | SATB choir and 9 instruments | 13 min | |
| 2014 | Alice Parker | The Definition of Beauty | SSAA, unaccompanied | 4:45 min | |
| 2015 | Jake Heggie | Stop this Day and Night with Me | SATBBB, unaccompanied | ||
| 2016 | Ola Gjeilo | The River | choir, piano and string quartet | [5] | |
| 2017 | J.A.C. Redford | Homing | Mixed chorus and orchestra | 28 min | |
| 2018 | Tarik O'Regan | All Things Common | Acapella SATB | 5 min | |
| 2019 | Jake Runestad | A Silence Haunts Me | SATB choir and piano | 11:30 min | Text by Todd Boss |
A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures.
The St. Olaf Choir is a premier a cappella choir based in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1912 by Norwegian immigrant F. Melius Christiansen, the choir has been influential to other church and college choirs for its performance of unaccompanied sacred music. Conducted since 1990 by Anton Armstrong, there have been four conductors in the choir's 111 year history.
The Dale Warland Singers (DWS) was a 40-voice professional chorus based in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1972 by Dale Warland and disbanded in 2004. They performed a wide variety of choral repertoire but specialized in 20th-century music and commissioned American composers extensively. In terms of sound, the DWS was known for its purity of tone, intonation, legato sound and stylistic range. During their existence, the DWS performed roughly 400 concerts and recorded 29 CDs.
Daniel E. Gawthrop is an American composer, primarily of choral music. His output also includes a substantial body of works for the organ as well as orchestral and instrumental works. He has been the recipient of over one hundred commissions to write original music. His works have been published by Warner Brothers, Theodore Presser, Sacred Music Press, and others.
The Radcliffe Choral Society(RCS) is a 60-voice treble choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1899, it is one of the country's oldest soprano-alto choruses and one of its most prominent collegiate choirs. With the tenor-bass Harvard Glee Club and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, it is one of the Harvard Choruses. All three groups are led by Harvard Director of Choral Activities Andrew Clark. The RCS Resident Conductor is Meg Weckworth. RCS tours domestically every year and travels internationally every four years.
The University of Louisville Cardinal Singers is a choir consisting of between 29-40 members, and is the most selective choral ensemble at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
Conducted by Dr. Kent Hatteberg, the Collegiate Chorale is the premiere choral ensemble at the University of Louisville. The Chorale performs primarily unaccompanied repertoire and is known to commission works by Lithuanian composers Vytautas Miškinis and Vaclovas Augustinas. The Chorale enjoyed rising popularity in the late 1990s and now performs regularly at national choral events around the United States with a large following.
Dr. Richard Nance is an American musician. He is a former professor of music and conductor of the Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, United States.
Maria Guinand is an internationally renowned choral conductor.
Jo-Michael Scheibe is the former chair of the Department of Choral and Sacred Music at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He serves as Professor of Choral and Sacred Music, teaching choral conducting and choral development. He formerly conducted the USC Chamber Singers. In 2008, he assumed a new post as National President-Elect of the American Choral Directors’ Association. No stranger to the ACDA, Scheibe previously served as the organization’s Western Division President (1991–1993), as well as National Repertoire and Standards Chairperson for Community Colleges (1980–1989). Ensembles under his leadership have sung at six national ACDA conventions, as well as two national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference, and various regional and state conventions.
Dr. William John Dehning was an American conductor, teacher, and author who spent almost his entire career in the collegiate realm. He was known primarily for his work as conductor of the University of Southern California Thornton Chamber Choir and as author of the book, Chorus Confidential: Decoding the Secrets of the Choral Art, published in 2003. Under his leadership, the Thornton Chamber Choir won seven prizes in international European competitions, including Grand Prizes in Varna, Bulgaria and Tours, France. After winning the choral competition with the USC Chamber Choir in Bulgaria, Dehning was awarded the Judges' Conducting Prize by a panel of ten judges in 1999. During his tenure, the ensemble also appeared at American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conventions six times, including nationals in 2001 and 2005. They also completed a tour of East Asia in 2006, performing at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. While at Northern Michigan University from 1970–1972, Dehning was the founder of the Marquette Choral Society, which is still active. Later, he was from 1985-1995 the founder/conductor of the California Choral Company, a semi-professional chamber chorus that attained a reputation in Europe as well as in the United States. As Chairman of the USC Department of Choral Music, Dehning was awarded the first annual Dean’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he was also the 2007 recipient of the Thornton School's Ramo Award. Dehning was one of four founding members of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO), which held its first national conference in San Antonio in 2006.
The choirs at Brigham Young University (BYU) consist of four auditioned groups: BYU Singers, BYU Concert Choir, BYU Men's Chorus, and BYU Women's Chorus. Each choir is highly accomplished and performs from an extensive repertoire. Together, the choirs have recorded and released over 30 albums. The choirs perform frequently throughout the academic year, both as individual ensembles as well as a combined group.
The Chor Leoni Men's Choir is a male choir based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The group was founded in 1992 by Order of Canada recipient Diane Loomer, C.M., and consists of up to 65 male singers. While primarily focused on performing classical choral repertoire, Chor Leoni sings music of all genres and time periods, and in many different languages. In recent years, the group has commissioned original choral pieces from Ēriks Ešenvalds, Rodney Sharman and others. Since 2013, the group has hosted and participated in the VanMan Choral Summit, a gathering of male choirs from around the world, featuring international choirs such as Chanticleer (ensemble) and Iceland’s Karlakórinn Heimir.
International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) is an international association founded in 1982 to facilitate communication and exchange between choral musicians throughout the world.
Axel Theimer is a conductor, composer, singer, author and professor at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University (CSB/SJU) in Minnesota. He conducts the professional a cappella choir Kantorei, the National Catholic Youth Choir and the Amadeus Chamber Symphony, and as of 2020 is in his 52nd year as a music faculty member at CSB/SJU, where he conducts CSB/SJU Chamber Choir and the SJU Men's Chorus. He is on the faculty and is executive director of the VoiceCare Network. He is an acknowledged expert on healthy vocal production for solo and choral singing, and the effect of conducting gesture on vocalists and instrumentalists. His choirs are known and praised for their particularly warm, natural, expressive and efficient sound.
Joyful Noise is a chorus of fifty adults, ages 17–75, with physical or intellectual disabilities and acquired brain injuries. Founded in 2000 by director Allison Fromm and chorus member Elizabeth Fromm, the ensemble is hosted by Bancroft, a support program for those with disabilities in southern New Jersey and Delaware. Joyful Noise's mission is to foster an atmosphere of community, acceptance, and teamwork in which members can discover their voices and express themselves through music. Cathy Sonnenberg and Rob Kennan serve as associate director and Delaware director.
Zane Randall Stroope is an American composer and conductor. He has published more than 190 works, with: Oxford University Press, Carl Fischer, Alliance Music Publishing, Walton, Colla Voce, and Lorenz.
The Wartburg Choir is a select auditioned a cappella choir from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Founded in 1937, the choir became one of the first American college groups to tour Europe. The Wartburg Choir performs sacred music from all historical periods and styles and often premieres new works by contemporary composers. Called a "mighty fortress of skill" by The Washington Post, the Wartburg Choir is one of Wartburg's three musical ensembles that tour internationally on a triennial basis. Beyond national and international tours, the choir has received invitations for special appearances in the United States and abroad.
In 1983, Marguerite McCormick founded the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio to develop the artistic and personal potential of young people across the city. Today, more than 450 young musicians ages 5–18 gather every week to learn choral music and singing in a healthy, diverse, and inclusive environment. The organization runs eight core ensembles, one of which is in special collaboration with the Boys and Girls Clubs, as well as an extensive early-childhood music and movement program for babies and toddlers called Music Together. Through their specially crafted programming, CCSA continues to cultivate the arts and culture in San Antonio, while transforming the lives of young people through the power of music and friendship.
A virtual choir, online choir or home choir is a choir whose members do not meet physically but who work together online from separate places. Some choirs just sing for the joy of the shared experience, while others record their parts alone and send their digital recordings, sometimes including video, to be collated into a choral performance. There may be a series of rehearsals which singers can watch online, and their performance recordings may be made while watching a video of the conductor, and in some cases listening to a backing track, to ensure unanimity of timing. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 inspired a large growth in the number of virtual choirs, although the idea was not new.