Feiszli appointed ACDA Tech chair

Dr. James D. Feiszli, Director of Music and and Professor of Humanities at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT), has been named Chair of the national committee for technology by the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in a unanimous vote by the ACDA Executive Committee. Founded in 1959, ACDA is the largest association of choral directors in the world, whose membership consists of choral directors who represent more than one million singers across the United States. Its central purpose is to promote excellence in choral music through performance, composition, publication, research, and teaching.

Dr. Feiszli joined SDSMT in 1983 and has been the guiding force behind the establishment of an academic music curriculum at the institution, establishing multiple choral and instrumental ensembles and music courses. He holds degrees in music education, music history, and musical arts from the University of Mount Union, the University of Akron, and Arizona State University. He is recognized as an international expert on the music of the early Renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac and as the director of ChoralNet, the Internet Center for Choral Music (https://choralnet.org), which he founded in 1993 and guided as it grew into a non-profit organization supported by the major choral associations in the world, eventually merging with ACDA in 2009.

Dr. Feiszli has served the choral music profession as an advisor to the International Federation for Choral Music (1996-present), Musica International choral music databank (1991-present), and the European Association of Choirs (1998-present); as the director of ACDA’s International Conductors Exchange Program (2010-present), and as president of the South Dakota chapter of ACDA (1987-1990). In the past year he has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from SD-ACDA, the Meritorious Music Educators Award from the SD Music Educators Association, the R2OPE Award from SDSMT (Residents students Recognizing Outstanding Professors of Excellence), and the SDSMT Presidential Outstanding Professor Award.