Bode and McDonald Receive National Appointments

Robert Bode has been appointed as the Chair of the Composition Initiatives National Standing Committee. John McDonald has been appointed as the Chair of the Education and Communications National Standing Committee. Both, Robert and John, come to their roles as Chair through prior service as committee members. Each will serve an initial four-year term that began on July 1, 2024.

John McDonald is the Director of Choir and Vocal Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, conductor of Cantus, the St. Louis Children’s Choirs tenor-bass ensemble, and artistic director and founder of the St. Louis based professional group, Continuum Vocal Ensemble. He is frequently invited as a guest conductor and adjudicator for events across the United States. An active member of the American Choral Directors Association, John has served on the Education and Communication national standing committee since 2019, is a former district representative for the Illinois state chapter, and was selected as one of six conductors to represent ACDA in the 2023 International Conductors Exchange Program with Germany.

John holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, East Carolina University, and Middle Tennessee State University. He is grateful to his many mentors and teachers including Robert Bode, Raphael Bundage, Andrew Crane, Jamila McWhirter, and Charles Robinson.

Robert Bode joins the Arizona State University faculty this fall as the interim Director of Choral Activities. Prior to coming to ASU, he was Conductor in Residence at the Ohio State University from 2019 to 2023. Before going to OSU, Bode served as the Raymond Neevel Endowed Chair of Choral Music at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Prior to UMKC, Bode served on the faculty at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, where he held the Alma Meisnest Endowed Chair for the Humanities. In 2007 he was awarded the Thomas D. Howells Award for distinguished teaching in the Humanities. 

Bode served as Artistic Director of Choral Arts Northwest (Seattle) from 2007-2021. Upon his retirement, he was named Artistic Director Emeritus. During his tenure, Bode and Choral Arts Northwest produced six CDs, including “Mornings Like This,” which won the American Prize for Best Choral Performance in 2009. In the spring of 2010, Bode and Choral Arts Northwest received the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, presented by Chorus America. In 2015, Bode and Choral Arts Northwest were invited by President and Mrs. Obama to sing for a holiday reception at the White House.

His choirs performed at regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, the Missouri Music Educators Association, the Ohio Music Educators Association, and Chorus America. Bode has the distinction of being one of a very few conductors to have performed for three national conventions of ACDA, each with a different chorus: Walla Walla Mastersingers in 1995, Choral Arts Northwest in 2015, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory Singers in 2019. In 2000, Bode trained the Mongolia State Opera Chorus in preparation for Mongolia’s first concert production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Known nationally as a conducting pedagogue, Bode has led masterclasses in conducting for ACDA conferences in Missouri, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. In 2019, Bode taught the Undergraduate Conducting Masterclass for the national convention of ACDA in Kansas City.Bode is known throughout the United States for his dedication to the commissioning and performance of new choral music. He currently serves on the Composition Committee of the American Choral Directors Association. As a prize-winning poet, Bode has written texts for over 100 choral works. His volume of lyric poetry, “Crickets and Commas: The Selected Poetry of Robert Bode,” was published by Walton Music in 2021. His book of essays, Hearts All Whole: Reflections on (Life and) Twelve Choral Gems, offers insights into the performance of such iconic choral works as Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, Brahms’s O Schöne Nacht, and Lauridsen’s Sure on this Shining Night. Composer Morten Lauridsen has called the book, “a gift to the choral community.” It is published by GIA Publications. Bode lives on four acres outside Columbus with his husband Lee Thompson and their boxer, Spencer.

Robert succeeds Dan Forrest and John succeeds Jamila McWhirter. ACDA is grateful to all these leaders for their service and commitment to ACDA.