ACDA National Conference
It’s that time of year again: when choral directors from across the country journey to some far flung location (which always seems to be further north than I appreciate in February) to share ideas, renew friendships, make new contacts, and revitalize our love of choral music.
To me, that sounds like a lot of responsibility for a little, ol’ professional development conference, but there is a magic in it. Something about being surrounded by choral nerds as crazy as I am is freeing. We get so locked away in our small departments spread out between hundreds of universities, colleges, school systems, churches, and communities. We are constantly fighting to be understood, but at ACDA, we can be as effusive and nutty as we want.
See y’all there!
Fun Fact
Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) took two years off from composing music to devote her time to the women’s suffrage movement in England. She wrote her The March of Women as a battle-cry to bring awareness to the cause. She was highly active in the movement and was even arrested and imprisoned for two months.
Ethel Smyth front and center at a Women's Social & Political Union meeting in 1912. Picture Source: The Women’s Library collection, LSE Library.