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- 2014 Conference
Des Moines: 2014!
Greetings Colleagues in the Choral Art!
As I post this message, our 2014 North Central conference is presently well under construction. We will meet in Des Moines, March 19-22, 2014. Our present twelve-year rotation of convention/conference sites will take us back to Iowa, where we last met in 2002.
Our colleagues in Iowa, a state that boasts a strong and proud choral tradition, are already gearing up to welcome us. And the city of Des Moines promises to be a very attractive and exciting destination.
Many of our conference activities will be centered within easy walking distance of each other in the friendly and conveniently laid-out downtown. If you attended our 2002 convention as I did, then you know first-hand what a fine (and friendly!) location Des Moines is for NCACDA. If this will be your first time in Des Moines, get ready for a life-lifting, life-changing conference in one of North Central Division's best destinations! See President's Message below for more details!
News/Announcements
- The American Classical Music Hall of Fame has announced its 2012 inductees,
including renowned Minnesota conductor
Dale Warland. For details, please visit
www.americanclassicalmusic.org.
An interview with Mr. Warland can be found in the Fall, 2012 issue of Melisma.
- NC-ACDA Division Conference:
Des Moines, March 19-22, 2014
President's Message
from James B. Kinchen, Jr.
kinchen@uwp.edu
2014 North Central Division Conference, Des Moines, Iowa
Our conference theme is:
"CELEBRATING CHORAL DIVERSITY—
our many songs, our many paths, our many voices."
Our mission is to present a vibrant, growth-facilitating, inspiring, and memorable conference that will honor much of the "process orientation" of the very successful 2012 conference, while creatively focusing on and celebrating the many aspects of diversity in our choral community and our choral practice.
We will seek to attend, examine, honor, and celebrate diversity in the choral art in all the ways that it occurs, and in all the ways that it gives variety, interest, inclusiveness, accessibility, relevance, vitality, and strength to our choral community. This includes the construction of "diversity" – racial, ethnic, and cultural – that most obviously and immediately comes to mind. As a multicultural nation within a global community, we are challenged to expand our horizons – the canons of our literature, the diversity of our performance practices, the inclusiveness of our choirs, the cultural sensitivity of our pedagogy, the demographics of our audiences – in ways that will better reflect these realities.
But we will also aim to engage "diversity" in broader ways. For example, I think we do well to appreciate that for those of us who succeed in our choral teaching and performance, there is not necessarily a "one size that fits all." There are varied approaches, philosophies, and pedagogic styles among us. If we dare to utter with any credibility the words "best practice," we must quickly pluralize it. We are anything but a monolith!
And beyond the diverse ways in which any of us may personally actualize "the choral art," consider the many variables in our own different choral settings that further make us diverse. There are the many different levels, from elementary and children's community choirs at the young end, all the way to those who experience the joy of choral singing at a much more mature life-stage. Within our various institutional choral endeavors, consider all the different levels of interest and expertise.
Read the latest Melisma!
