Choral Journal Announces New Board Members

The Choral Journal is the refereed, international journal of ACDA. Each issue features Each issue features: scholarly articles, anonymously peer-reviewed by the editorial board; editorials from association leadership and the Choral Journal editor; reviews of books, recorded sound, and choral works by choral experts; and columns of practical advice and ideas for choral conductors. Regular column content is managed by a column editor and featured on a rotating basis through the volume year.

ACDA would like to thank outgoing editors William Weinert and Giselle Wyers, who are completing their second and final term. Following are bios and headshots of incoming board members, who will start terms in 2025 (Highben, Scott), 2026 (Daley), and 2027 (Williams). We are also officially introducing Jennifer Rodgers, who assumed her role as editor of the Rehearsal Breaks column in 2024. If you have any questions regarding the Choral Journal or the editorial board, direct them to: Amanda Bumgarner, Publications Editor:

Zebulon M. Highben serves as Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel and Associate Professor of the Practice of Church Music at Duke Divinity School. He conducts the Duke Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum, teaches courses in sacred music and worship, edits the Music from Duke Chapel choral series with MorningStar Music, and oversees Duke Chapel’s extensive music program. More than seventy of his compositions are published by eight domestic publishing houses and by Gehrmans Musikförlag in Sweden. Highben’s research has been published in the Choral Journal, the Bulletin for the Council on Research in Music Education, CrossAccent, The Hymn, and TRIAD. He edited the Augsburg Motet Book and the Augsburg Chorale Book and is currently editing an ecumenical hymnal (forthcoming from MorningStar Music).

Brett Scott is Professor of Ensembles and Conducting at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music, where he conducts the CCM Chorale, teaches conducting and literature, and is Music Director of Opera d’arte. He was editor of Chorus America’s Research Memorandum Series, an associate Editor of NCCO’s The Choral Scholar, and member of the Editorial Board of the International Choral Magazine. He has written for numerous publications and is a contributor to the most recent New Grove Dictionary of American Music. His biography of composer and educator R. Murray Schafer, titled R. Murray Schafer: A Creative Life was published in 2019. He is a contributing author for the upcoming publication Choral Repertoire by Women Composers through GIA publications.

Caron Daley is Director of Choral Activities, Associate Professor of Music, and Ensembles Area Coordinator at the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Choirs under her direction have performed at NAfME, NCCO, ACDA, and CMS conferences. A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Caron has held past conducting appointments with the National Youth Choir of Canada, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, University of Toronto, St. Michael’s Choir School, and Salem Academy and College. Her ongoing research in Dalcroze Eurhythmics and musician health and wellness has resulted in national and international conference presentations and publications in Canadian Music Educator, Choral Journal, Journal of Singing, The Choral Scholar, International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, and the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Music Health Advocacy.

Brandon Williams is an Associate Professor and the Director of Choral Activities at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where he conducts the Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir and the Rutgers Glee Club. He holds degrees from Western Illinois University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Michigan State University. Dr. Williams is the editor of Choral Reflections: Insights from American Choral Conductor-Teachers, and his writing appears in the Choral Journal, Music Educators Journal, and Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. He is also the editor of The Brandon Williams Choral Series with Gentry Publications.

Jennifer Rodgers is the Assistant Director of Choral Activities and an Assistant Teaching Professor of voice at Iowa State University where she directs the Cantamus and Lyrica ensembles and teaches classical and musical theater voice majors. With a bachelor’s and master’s degree in voice performance and a doctoral degree in choral conducting, Dr. Rodgers is dedicated to bridging choral and solo voice pedagogy across contemporary and traditional styles. Her doctoral dissertation at the University of Washington, entitled “A Voice in the Choir: Modernizing the Language and Practice of Vocal Pedagogy in the Choral Culture” was nominated for the Julius Herford prize and advocates for skills and training unique to choral voice singing. She has also presented and published nationally and internationally on the topic of musical self-image and on choral relevance – a movement to examine choral music through a lens of inclusivity and connective dialogue.