GUEST BLOG: “Travel and Concert Production Industry Member Collaboration,” by Tim Sharp

TRAVEL AND CONCERT PRODUCTION INDUSTRY MEMBER COLLABORATION by Tim Sharp

 

       Each year throughout the world, thousands of choral music concerts and concert productions take place that are made possible to hundreds of thousands of audience members through the hard work and creative efforts of a very important segment of ACDA’s membership. This constituency of ACDA is the companies and individuals who make up our travel and concert production industry membership. While thousands of performances and concerts take place in our schools, communities, and faith environments, similarly, thousands of concerts take place through the creative work of our conductors working in collaboration with travel and concert production companies. Through both industry and individual efforts, all of our members overlap in ACDA’s mission to inspire excellence in choral music education, performance, composition, and advocacy.
       In September of this year, I met in Chicago with a large number of ACDA members from the travel and concert production industry to discuss meaningful ways we could work together to advance our mission. The threads of overlap are easy to identify, and throughout the day, opportunities to enhance our work together became more and more apparent. The leadership of our current industry representative and national board member, Brad Matheson, aided our discussion, as well as our immediate past industry representative, Alec Harris. Alec had successfully led the effort to align our print music publishing industry members in a similar pursuit during his term as industry representative, and Brad has been eager to help us pursue similar advancement with this membership category. Leading up to this event, travel industry member Oliver Scofield helped to get the ball rolling on this summit meeting at our 2011 National Conference in Chicago.
       Throughout the day of our meeting, it became apparent that our association and our travel and concert production industry members had several areas we could embrace that would advance our collective mission. These included maximum coordination when planning division and national conferences, collaboration on international initiatives that ACDA is now embracing, strategic scheduling of time at division and national conferences, and joint participation for future festivals and cultural exchange programs. It was vividly clear to all participants in the meeting that we value each other and that we pursue parts of the same mission.
The good news for all of us who tour and participate in concert productions away from home that are created by our industry partners is that ACDA and the travel and concert production industry members of ACDA want to work even closer together for the promotion of choral excellence in the United States and around the world. Even more exciting is the fact that we have identified specific areas where we can work even more closely together at connection points in our overlapping mission. These specifics include the 2016 America Cantat Festival, our International Conductor Exchange Program, our hosting of international choirs at division and national conferences, and the future possibilities of choral festivals in the United States.
       The American Choral Directors Association is proud of and grateful to our strategic industry partners who collaborate with and support us in our performance work. While we may come to our performances from educational, aesthetic, faith, or profit motives, as members of ACDA, we are all united in our motive of the pursuit of excellence in our performances.