From Lynne Gackle, ACDA National President
It is my pleasure, on behalf of the ACDA Executive Committee, to inform you that after two weeks of meetings and deliberation, we have invited Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt to serve as the Interim Executive Director for the American Choral Directors Association. Dr. Apfelstadt will begin this interim term on Sept. 14 and will continue in this very important role until new leadership has been identified for the future of ACDA.
As a past national president of ACDA, Dr. Apfelstadt’s service in various areas of leadership throughout the years is well known and she is respected by the membership and by choral colleagues throughout the world.
Hilary Apfelstadt is Professor Emerita at the University of Toronto where she held the Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting. As mentioned above, she has a long history of service in ACDA, having been elected North Carolina president, Central Region president, and national president. A member of the Choral Journal Editorial Board, she was on the Research and Publications Committee that initiated research poster sessions at national conferences. She served as chair of the Julius Herford Dissertation Award committee for several years and has been on a number of conference steering committees.
Her university choirs performed at six regional and national ACDA conferences and she has conducted ACDA honor choirs at state and regional events. She is a prolific author, having published multiple articles and book chapters. Her book on the life and music of Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson, I Didn’t Want It to Be Boring (Prism Publishers, 2017), won the 2018 Choral Canada Award for outstanding publication. She has received distinguished service awards from North Carolina ACDA, the Ohio Choral Directors Association, the ACDA Central Region, Choirs Ontario, and was the inaugural recipient of the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Toronto Faculty of Music in 2013.
I believe that ACDA is extremely fortunate and very blessed to have a leader such as Hilary Apfelstadt who is willing to once again step to the helm of leadership for the organization in which she believes so strongly. Her commitment, dedication, and affection for ACDA is very apparent and her thoughtful, straightforward, clear-headed, calm persona will be an asset to ACDA as we move forward into this period of transition. I hope that you will join me and the Executive Committee in welcoming Dr. Apfelstadt as Interim Executive Director of ACDA.
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