Do you have a topic you'd like to share? Submit an article through your Area Representative for our publication Bella Voce!
The ACDA Central Division Conference February 26 – March 1, 2014 Hilton Netherland Plaza Hotel Cincinnati, Ohio The first ACDA Central Division conference I attended was in Cincinnati in 2000. Pat Wiehe and Kitty O’Donnell of North Central High School in Indianapolis told me about this event and that if I wanted to go,…
Our choral art is unlike any other because of one aspect above all: the inescapable presence of text. The real impact of choral music comes from the power of text, because text is where story dwells. As a result, we must convincingly tell the story of each song we offer. What makes this possible is…
ACDA Michigan is proud to showcase the talents of some of our own composers at our conferences! Here are websites for the Michigan Choral Composers who are participating in the 2013 Fall Conference or who participated last year. (Not all of the composers have websites.) This year: Marjan Helms: www.marjanhelms.com Sean Ivory: www.caldwellandivory.com Greg Jasperse:…
Wow! What a nice list! Last year your ACDA-MI board determined that one of the most helpful things we could do to for our members is to provide you with repertoire suggestions. We have noticed that repertoire lists posted on this site always get more “hits” than any other articles. Therefore your R & S chairs…
The writer C. S. Lewis, a devout agnostic in his youth, became convinced of the claims of faith only after a protracted struggle, the outcome of which left him “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” The ultimate cause of Lewis’ change of heart became the title of his autobiography as well: against…
October 18 – 7:30 p.m. Calvin College Music Festival Covenant Fine Arts Auditorium Tickets required. Contact the Calvin Box Office for information October 19 – 7:30 P.M. “I Can See the Light” a collaboration of the Holland Chorale and the West Ottawa Middle School Honors Choir “Chanteurs” performing a concert of light, visions and discoveries. …
So you have decided to start a children’s choir – now what? There are loads of resources for you out there! Here are a few tips and suggestions to get you started. Where to Begin? First you will need to get some choir members. Are you going to take any interested children or do you…
Perhaps in a perfect world it’s possible to conduct a rehearsal without a single mistake. But experience and human nature suggest that this goal is a fantasy, no matter how devoutly we might wish otherwise. In the real world, mistakes are a part of life. Despite our best efforts to prevent them, mistakes will still…
When I was an undergrad at Western Michigan University, Dr. Joe Miller gave a lecture on the importance of owning quality choral CD’s (I guess now it would be MP3s). His lecture had two main points: 1) Recordings are always going to be expensive, so you should start collecting right away. 2) Quality recordings help…
Screwtape Maleficus, DMA (as told to Gerald Custer) 2013 is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Clive Staples Lewis, author of the Screwtape Letters, a collection of infernal advice from a senior devil to his nephew Wormwood, an apprentice tempter. In Lewis’ honor, Screwtape has agreed to release the previously unpublished correspondence that follows. …
