Message From the President (Jan. 2026)
Dear Friends and Members of ACDA-MI,
Happy New Year! The new year brings a new semester and another slate of classes and performances and curriculum to cover. The new year also brings personal reflection and for some, new year’s resolutions. I recently listened to a podcast conversation with Krista Tippett and she says that she doesn’t make new year’s resolutions but asks herself new year’s questions. These are questions that she would like to think about, investigate and ponder during the year with or without any conclusions. In my own reflections, I often ponder questions about music, pedagogy, teacher effectiveness and even the big questions of “what really matters” and “is this important and worth my time?” This past week, I was talking with some high school students about passion and what motivates them. The conversation was spontaneous because I had just heard them rehearse Paulus’ The Road Home and I told them that I was reminded of two of my favorite Frost poems, The Pasure and The Road Not Taken. Both poems are of decision-making and becoming. It occurred to me this morning that my joining ACDA was just that: my passion, a choice, a striving to become a better choral musician and belonging to an organization that could encourage me in each of those areas. Passion, decision-making and becoming. That to me is what ACDA and ACDA-MI is. The question for me, for each of us, “will I take advantage of such an opportunity, such an organization.” As I continued talking with those students, I shared that we will all have to make choices about what is important and what is worth our time and sometimes those choices change and sometimes they challenge us. So in the new year, I would encourage all of us to ask ourselves some new year’s questions and I hope that you will allow ACDA and ACDA-MI to help you on your quest for answers.
PLEASE take advantage of the ACDA website, the ACDA-MI website, and our monthly ACDA-MI newsletter. We, the board, are continuing to improve our reach to you, our membership and to meet your needs as a conductor, educator and performer. We, as an organization, are called to fulfill the Mission of ACDA, and that is – to inspire excellence and nurture lifelong involvement in choral music for everyone through education, performance, composition, and advocacy.
The ACDA-MI Executive and Full Board are planning for “Where Great Lakes Meet, Voices Rise” ACDA-MI Fall Conference 2026! It is going to be wonderful and we are encouraging you to come home.This would be a wonderful time for you to re-connect with colleagues, friends and future choral musicians. We want to see you at our ACDA-MI Fall Conference as we “welcome you back but more importantly, we welcome you “home.”
Please also consider the MWACDA Regional Conference, Feb. 26-28 in Milwaukee (with a Feb. 25 evening concert). If you haven’t been to an ACDA conference, they are inspiring and rejuvenating. This year’s conference looks fantastic with outstanding performing choirs, engaging sessions, and a chance to connect with friends and colleagues from around the region.
ACDA-MI is my choral music home, a place where I can return for reflection, respite and refreshment. ACDA is a place for choral musicians, teachers, and conductors to say, “This is where I belong, this is for me.” Reconnect with a colleague that you haven’t spoken to in awhile, send a thank you note, text that mentor, mentee or friend. Refamiliarize yourself with our website and the many things that ACDA National and ACDA-MI has to offer YOU!
“Music makes human experience “special.” It aims to achieve a level of experience different from the commonplace. Music makes ordinary experience extraordinary, or insignificant experience significant. Music creates an alternative to the reality of the everyday; an alternative to the ordinary way of being.”
– Bennett Reimer, Vision 2020
It is a privilege to serve and be a part of ACDA-MI.
Thomas Blue
President, ACDA-MI