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The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting 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: 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 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. Each year, a different university hosts the yearly ACDA chapter.[ citation needed ]
Their official publications are the Choral Journal , as well as the scientific research journal International Journal of Research in Choral Singing (online only).[ citation needed ]
As of 2020, Robyn Hilger was serving as the organization's executive director. [2]
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 |
2020 | Ivo Antognini | There is that in me | |||
2021 | Bob Chilcott | Songs My Heart Has Taught Me | |||
2022 | Ēriks Ešenvalds | Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening | |||
2023 | Jennifer Higdon | The Absence | |||
2024 | Andre J Thomas | In Time of Silver Rain |
David Conte is an American composer who has written over 150 works published by E.C. Schirmer, including six operas, a musical, works for chorus, solo voice, orchestra, chamber music, organ, piano, guitar, and harp. Conte has received commissions from Chanticleer, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Harvard University Chorus, the Men’s Glee Clubs of Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame, GALA Choruses from the cities of San Francisco, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., the Dayton Philharmonic, the Oakland Symphony, the Stockton Symphony, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, the American Guild of Organists, Sonoma City Opera, and the Gerbode Foundation. He was honored with the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Brock Commission in 2007 for his work The Nine Muses, and in 2016 he won the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Art Song Composition Award for his work American Death Ballads.
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 University of Louisville Cardinal Singers is a choir consisting of between 29 and 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.
Stephen Paulus was an American Grammy Award winning composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature.
Alice Stuart Parker Pyle, known professionally as Alice Parker, was an American composer, arranger, conductor and teacher.
Jo-Michael Scheibe was the former chair of the Department of Choral and Sacred Music at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Following a sabbatical in Fall of 2022, Scheibe retired from his position as Professor of Choral and Sacred Music and was named Professor Emeritus of Music. In April 2023, he was named a 2023-2024 Fulbright Scholar in Ireland. He formerly conducted the USC Chamber Singers. In 2011 he assumed a new post as National President 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.
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.
Daniel Ernest Forrest Jr. is an American composer, pianist, educator, and music editor.
Chor Leoni is a low voice choir based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The group was founded as Chor Leoni Men's Choir in 1992 by Order of Canada recipient Diane Loomer, C.M., and consists of up to 70 TTBB singers. In 2024, the choir announced their official name change, from Chor Leoni Men's Choir to Chor Leoni Choral Society. 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 Big Roar, a gathering of lower voice singers from Vancouver and around the world, featuring international choirs such as Chanticleer (ensemble) and Iceland’s Karlakórinn Heimir, as well as the organization's professional group, The Leonids, since 2022.
The Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus (TCGMC) is a choral group in Minneapolis—St. Paul. The all-male chorus sings a variety of songs arranged for TTBB, ranging from Broadway show tunes to Latin motets to original compositions specially commissioned by the Chorus or written by its members.
Heartland Men’s Chorus (HMC) is a gay men’s chorus located in Kansas City. Founded in 1986, and currently featuring more than 150 singing members, HMC performs an annual concert series to live audiences in excess of 6,700 at its performance home, the Folly Theater. In addition to its subscription concert series, HMC regularly performs community outreach, reaching an estimated 8,000 additional audience members. The Chorus is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and, as a performing force, is the largest men’s chorus in the region. In terms of infrastructure and budget, HMC is the largest community chorus in the region. HMC is also the oldest cultural institution serving the LGBT community in the region.
The Peninsula Women's Chorus is a women's choir based at Palo Alto, California.
Gwyneth Van Anden Walker is an American music educator and composer.
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.
In 1983, Marguerite McCormick founded the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio. 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.
Ola Gjeilo is a Norwegian composer and pianist, living in the United States.
Jake Runestad is an American composer and conductor of classical music based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has composed music for a wide variety of musical genres and ensembles, but has achieved greatest acclaim for his work in the genres of opera, orchestral music, choral music, and wind ensemble. One of his principal collaborators for musical texts has been Todd Boss.