CHORAL PROGRAMMING TRENDS IN THE USA
Country: USA
A fascinating overview of programming trends in the United States, this presentation will review concert session programs (over 5,000 pieces) from 60 years of National ACDA Conferences.
This new study reveals how past World Symposiums on Choral Music and performances by international choirs on stage at ACDA coincided with an expansion of the repertoire beyond music of Western Europe and North America; unfortunately, it also shows a choral canon that continues to lack composer diversity.
What can we learn from exemplary programming models of the past? What factors should we consider in concert programming going forward? How can we best use technology today to discover and share choral music from beyond our national borders? What is the conductor’s responsibility to shape the future of the choral art through purposeful programming? Session attendees will be invited to contribute to this important discussion and will leave with a blueprint for future concert programming decisions.
Dr. Andrew Minear is the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Alabama where he leads the university choirs, oversees the graduate choral conducting program and teaches courses in conducting and choral literature. Dr. Minear’s choral directing experience includes university, high school, middle school, children’s choir, community choir, and both youth and adult church choir settings.
During his doctoral studies in choral conducting at Michigan State University, Minear served as the director of the MSU Campus Choir and assistant director of the MSU Men’s Glee Club. Michigan State University named Minear a University Distinguished Fellow, and his doctoral project was a study of Graduate Choral Literature Curricula and Pedagogy. Dr. Minear received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting from Michigan State University and his Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music Education from Florida State University.