We return to Chicago, Illinois this year for the National ACDA Conference the week of March 9-12, 2011. Chicago was home to our 1999 National Conference, the highest attended event in ACDA’s history. ACDA has learned important lessons from the past that are now a strong part of our planning: the Conference will consist of only two tracks; the Conference will be overwhelmingly walkable; the Chicago Hilton will house the majority of our attendees; the Chicago Palmer House will host all of the Honor Choir singers; performing venues are world-class concert venues.
One programmatic feature that does not change from ACDA Conference to Conference is the utmost quality in choral performance. This year in Chicago we will hear Maestro Helmuth Rilling conduct the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra in Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, with soloists Annette Dasch, Birgit Remmert, James Taylor, and Markus Eiche. We will hear 58 choirs from 27 states in performance, including 5 International Choirs (China, Canada, Latvia, Norway, Taiwan), Children/Youth, Community, College/University, 2 Year College, High School, Junior High/Middle School, Jazz, Men’s, Women’s, Church, and Synagogue choirs.
We will have 45 Interest Sessions to choose from. There will be 13 ACDA sponsored Choral Reading Sessions, and 18 ACDA Industry-Member Publisher sponsored Choral Reading Sessions, multiple Industry showcases, with all of the above featuring new technology as well as new and proven choral literature to review. We will enjoy and support 5 Honor Choirs consisting of Children/Youth (Henry Leck), Middle School (Rollo Dillworth), Men’s Chorus (Peter Bagley), Women’s Chorus (Lynne Gackle), and Collegiate Reading Chorus (Rodney Eichenberger); and we will hear choirs perform in Chicago Symphony Hall and Chicago Auditorium Theater, along with 8 additional unique Chicago performance venues for other events.
A strong feature of this year’s ACDA National Conference will be the Jazz Choir events. The size and scope of the Jazz Choir offerings has commanded its own hotel and concert space, featuring six jazz ensembles—Gold Company, A Slice of Jazz, Pacific Standard Time, Eleventh Hour, and Central Washington University and American River College’s Jazz Ensembles. Chicago’s Swisshotel will be the 2011 Conference home for our ACDA signature Jazz Choir evening.
The planning for various repertoire areas includes a Music in Worship Immersion Day on Saturday, including a full day of unique programming such as “I’m a Traditional Church Musician doing a Contemporary Service” and “Helping Seniors Sing Well”. This immersion day concludes with a “Music in Worship” concert in Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on the campus of the University of Chicago, led by John Ferguson and Anton Armstrong. In addition to this longstanding and signature ACDA event, we will have ACDA’s premiere Shabbat Service at the Anshe Emet Synagogue, with Cantor Alberto Mizrahi, Tenor, and additional featured choirs. ACDA repertoire leaders have planned innovative and interactive Roundtable events along with intentional resource areas unique to ACDA’s Repertoire and Standards focus areas.
Our Youth and Student Activities Track for Chicago 2011 features conducting Masterclasses with Maestro Helmuth Rilling and Maestro Rodney Eichenberger. Once again, ACDA’s undergraduate and graduate Conducting Competition will be a feature of the National Conference for our student participants, with adjudicators Simon Carrington, Sandra Willetts, William Hatcher, William Dehning, and Joseph Flummerfelt. Additional opportunities unique to first-time Conference attendees will be offered for students, including Face-2-Face buttonhole sessions.
The uniqueness of the 2011 Chicago National Conference location offers our attendees special presentations at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies on “Choral Music in Germany: 1928-1948”. Similarly, we will have the opportunity to explore resources for choral directors through an Ethnic and Multicultural Perspectives’ Interest Session at Chicago’s Center for Black Music Research. Additional international explorations include Chinese and Latin American choral literature sessions. And, in tribute to one of our past legends, Conference attendees will have the opportunity to view the archival holdings from the Margaret Hillis Collection held by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
As the American Choral Directors Association continues to think about our collaboration with other organizations in the working out of our ongoing mission and purposes, Conference attendees will enjoy presentations from members of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) in sessions such as “Choral Directors are From Mars, and Voice Teachers are From Venus.” Robert Lynch, CEO of Americans for the Arts, will bring a word from our national advocacy group on our opening evening. The 2012 World Choral Music Symposium will be further advanced at our Conference by the International Federation of Choral Music, and our ACDA co-sponsored World Choir Games will be represented by the city of Cincinnati and Interkultur, further advancing our world choral initiative.
The Conference hotel for the 2011 National Conference is the Chicago Hilton, convenient to all concert and educational events and in the heart of Chicago’s arts district. The Chicago Hilton features three Exhibit Halls, with over 250 choral industry exhibitors expected. ACDA’s Repertoire and Standards areas will sponsor Resource Areas placed among industry exhibits, and publisher-sponsored reading sessions will also take place in a special room created in the Exhibit Hall. Opening Night Exhibit Hall “Midnight Madness”, intentional social and professional networking environment, and Industry Showcases will enhance the Exhibit Hall experience.
The 2011 American Choral Directors Association Chicago National Conference is the one must-attend choral conference for community, elementary, middle school, high school, collegiate, professional, choral industry, synagogue, church, children’s, youth, adult, senior adult, and choral director, future director, retired choral director, and choral enthusiast of any type and description. The concert, educational, and special interest programming is the best to be found, the opportunities and resources created for discovering choral literature have never been greater, and the networking and contact opportunities have been maximized by schedule and location.
I hope every person involved in choral leadership will consider mentoring another choral person by inviting a colleague to join us for this great ACDA National Conference event, or bring them along. For your students, just say “Chicago Road Trip!”
Marie Grass Amenta says