Massachusetts ACDA
Serving Massachusetts choral directors with workshops and clinics, festivals, conferences, publications, repertoire lists, networking opportunities, and advocacy to promote excellence in choral music throughout the Commonwealth.
The MassACDA board would like to congratulate Dr. Lisa Graham, who has been elected to serve as our next President for the 2023-2025 term. Dr. Graham is the Evelyn Barry Director of the Choral Program at Wellesley College, a post at which she has served for the past twenty years. She is also in her seventeenth season as Music Director of the Metropolitan Chorale. Dr. Graham will immediately begin her term as President-Elect on the current board.
In addition, the board would like to take this time to thank both of our talented candidates, including Matthew Cunningham, who volunteered to run for president.
Congratulations again Lisa!
Sincerely,
Felicia Barber
Massachusetts ACDA President
Click here for the October 2021 edition of Mass Sings, the MassACDA newsletter
Massachusetts ACDA 2021 Membership Drive
Why join the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association?
MassACDA is committed to providing its membership with professional development opportunities, networking, and support. Member benefits include not only our conferences, repertoire, mentoring, exclusive publications, & much more!
The Fall Membership Drive launched on September 15th and run through November 15th. We have been very intentional in our pursuit of offering several initiatives to encourage non-ACDA members to join our MassACDA membership. Our fall 2021 Membership Initiatives include:
For a second year, we will sponsor our Educator Membership Grant Initiative. Applications are available at massacda.org, and the grant serves to encourage nonmembers in three categories to join:
New Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Members
Directors experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19, and
First-timers joining from around the state
Click here to apply for a free membership!
New Collegiate Chapter Initiative is a new initiative for college professors to encourage them to start new ACDA Student Chapters at their School. For directors who start a new chapter, and have at least two students join ACDA during the fall 2021 membership drive, they will receive a complimentary membership for one year.
Refer a Friend is another new initiative as well. We need help encouraging nonmembers to join, so during the membership drive, any current member who refers two people that join ACDA during the fall 2021 membership drive, will receive a complimentary membership for one year.
Student memberships: MassACDA has 40 scholarships ($10 each) that will allow students to join ACDA for $5 through December 31st. Directions for submissions by directors/professors can be found on this website: https://acda.org/membership-central/individual-membership/
It is our hope that these initiatives will encourage diversifying our membership, and give further access to this professional organization to our choral colleagues across the state.
Join MassACDA today, and join this national network of directors and educators!
Felicia Barber, ACDA President
Sarah Grina, ACDA Membership Chair
The Massachusetts American Choral Directors Association is committed to several initiatives in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion as it pertains to the following areas of our organization:
Membership: We are committed to increasing our membership to include more teachers, conductors and singers of color and from areas of our state less represented in our organization to date.
Mentorship/networking: We are committed to creating a network of teachers, conductors, and singers willing to volunteer their time to serve as mentors for new teachers and collegiate students.
Events: We are committed to re-imagining our regular events while also encouraging participation from more teachers, conductors, and singers of color leading us to learn about and hear various experiences and perspectives.
Resources: We are committed to providing resources for our membership regarding diversity, equity and inclusion comprising of:
Repertoire lists including a number of works from composers of diverse backgrounds and works beyond those of the Western classical idiom.
Databases to explore music of composers of diverse backgrounds.
Media such as articles, blogs, podcasts, interviews, books, and virtual events on the subject of diversity in the choral realm.