American Choral Directors Association

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.

Background information

ACDA is organized in seven Divisions, i.e., Central, Eastern, North Central, Northwestern, Southern, Southwestern, and Western. Every year, conferences with topics pertaining to choral conductors are held - in even numbered years, a division conference is held in each division, 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. 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).

In addition to the division organization, a similar break out is done along specialization lines. The specialties are:

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.

Brock Commission

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."[1]

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
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[2]
2013 Steven Stucky Take Him, Earth
2014 Alice Parker The Definition of Beauty
2015 Jake Heggie Stop this Day and Night with Me
2016 Ola Gjeilo The River choir, piano and string quartet [3]

References

External links


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