Dr. Charlene Archibeque has been named the 2025 Robert Shaw Choral Award Honoree. The Robert Shaw Choral Award is given to a choral leader who has made unusual contributions to the art of choral music. The recipient is chosen by the ACDA Past Presidents Advisory Council. The Robert Shaw Choral Award is presented during each national conference.
The following criteria for selection were approved by the Past Presidents Advisory Council in November 1990.
1. The recipient should be a member of ACDA (though there may be exceptions).
2. The recipient should be someone whose primary career is/was in the United States.
3. The recipient has made a significant contribution to the cause of the choral art in America.
4. Such contributions made may have been through teaching, conducting, or leadership.
Dr. Archibeque will be honored at the Robert Shaw Choral Award Reception to be held on Friday, March 21, 2024 at 5:30pm in Dallas, Texas at the Meyerson Symphony Hall. Reception tickets are $100 and can be purchased during the registration process for National conference (opening Oct. 15).
Meet Dr. Charlene Archibeque
Dr. Charlene Archibeque is considered one of America’s foremost choral conductors and teachers. She was the first woman to earn the DMA in Choral Conducting (University of Colorado, 1969) and served for 35 years as Director of Choral Activities at San Jose State University, where she trained hundreds of today’s choral conductors and mentored over eighty master’s students. The world-renowned SJSU Choraliers took sixteen tours abroad, winning seven international competitions and performing in major music halls including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Albert Hall in London, and the Berlin Philharmonie and Schauspielhaus.
Choirs under Dr. Archibeque’s direction have performed at 25 state, regional, and national ACDA conferences. Her honors include receiving the 2008 Howard Swan Award presented by California ACDA and the 2013 Excellence in Choral Music Award presented by the University of Colorado. She also won prizes for best conductor at Spittal, Gorizia, and Tallinn International Festivals. She has presented multiple choir clinics and conductors’ workshops in Australia, Canada, most of Europe, China, and throughout the United States. In 2017, she was invited to conduct and teach in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Known as one of America’s top choral clinicians, she has conducted hundreds of honor, festival, and all-state choirs in 46 US states and six Canadian provinces. She has served as headliner for state, regional, and national ACDA, MENC, and MEA conferences; the National Association of Church Musicians Convention; and the ACDA Voices United Conference. Her 2015 interest session for the National ACDA Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, “Brain-Friendly Strategies for Singer-Friendly Rehearsals” (presented with Debra Glaze of Portland State University), was attended by over one thousand directors and was repeated for the NCCO National Conference in Portland.
Known for her knowledge of the choral repertoire and performance practice of all styles, Dr. Archibeque has conducted and prepared over 150 major choral works with orchestras and performs music from all historical periods. She regularly serves as visiting professor, including previous invitations to University of Michigan and Michigan State, the University of Delaware, Seattle University, Cal Poly University, and the Westminster Choir College. Conducting activities include guest conductor for the California Bach Society in concerts of an all-Handel program, the Santa Clara Chorale Baroque Christmas concerts with Period Instruments, and an all-Britten concert in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dr. Archibeque holds degrees from the University of Michigan, San Diego State, and the University of Colorado. She was named Outstanding Alumna at the University of Colorado and was given both of San Jose State’s highest honors: Outstanding Professor and President’s Scholar. She serves on the executive board of the American Beethoven Society, is a past president of the Silicon Valley League of the San Francisco Symphony, and is editor of the Charlene Archibeque Choral Series with Santa Barbara Music Publishers. Her DVD titled “How to Make a Good Choir Sound Great” is published by GIA, and her best-selling DVD, “Daily Warm-Ups for a Beautiful Voice,” is available from Santa Barbara Music Publishing.
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