My perspective on the evolving way that conductors find and purchase music is formed by my experience as a composer and as an R&S Chair. I am part of both the traditional publishing model, by way of my pieces with Oxford and Walton, and the evolving model of publishing directly from my web site. As NWACDA Men’s Choirs R&S, I have been through the process of selecting and presenting pieces for reading sessions for state, divisional, and national ACDA conferences. My goal is for quality music to get the attention of conductors, regardless of publishing model.
These things led me to create an “ePublishing Reading Session” at the 2012 NWACDA conference in Seattle. This had several challenges—without any budget available for it, we had no access to printing, room rental, or internet at the conference hotel. The session was quite successful, and we presented pieces from excellent, known composers as well as less known ones that had been excluded from the reading session process because they were not published in the traditional model. It was paperless, with options of reading from tablet or laptop or projected scores. We read some in the traditional way, piano and participants’ singing, and presented recordings and YouTube video for others. We believed that we were the very first such session at an ACDA conference, but later learned there was a similar session presented the very same day at the Eastern ACDA conference. This proves to me that it is an idea whose time has come.
There is additional information available at the session web page, in an article about the session, or on my web page.
(The ACDA National Conference is just one of the many benefits of membership in the American Choral Directors Association. Join ACDA today.)
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