The conference begins on Wednesday, March 4th, with Immersion Day: a day focused on working with singers who have a variety of specific needs, with special emphasis on creating meaningful connections between singers with varying abilities. Immersion Day will include sessions that focus on the unique opportunities and challenges related to building singing communities whose members have particular learning and performance needs. Participants will also have the opportunity to observe rehearsals of an honor choir that will be a first in ACDA conference history—the Joining Voices Festival Choir. The Joining Voices Festival Choir will be conducted by Anton Armstrong, with integrated body singing sessions led by Therees Hibbard.
**See Honor Choir/Festival Choir page for application information

Opening Night Concert

The opening night concert of the Joining Voices Conference will bridge our Immersion Day focus on working with singers who have a variety of specific needs with our full conference focus on the process of making connections both within and between singers from various walks of life. This focus requires us to reflect, plan, and act both broadly and deeply regarding issues related to inclusion, access, unity, and diversity.

The opening night concert will include a program by one of our auditioned choirs, the Roosevelt High School Concert Choir entitled Building Humanity… Together. The cornerstone of the program will be the premiere of a collaborative work by Kyle Pederson and the members of the choir. The composition, exploring ideas of inclusivity, connectedness, and unity, will be performed by the choir joining their voices together with invited guest singers of all abilities. Immersion Day presenter and performers, Susan Vaughan and the High Five Choir, will participate in the evening concert through a brief performance/media presentation that will be shared virtually via video. Immersion Day presenter and invited performers, G. Phillip Shoutlz, III and the VocalEssence Singers of This Age (VESOTA), will perform selections that represent the backgrounds and values of its membership. Finally, the Joining Voices Festival Choir will sing individually and in collaboration with other performers, culminating in an opening night finale you will not want to miss!

VocalEssence VESOTA

Photo Credit © 2018 Caroline Yang