Important News & Announcements

Susan Medley

Randy Yoder

Biography:

Susan Medley is Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music at Washington & Jefferson College, where she conducts the W&J Choir and Camerata Singers and teaches conducting and music theory.  In addition to her duties at W&J, she serves as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale, Associate Conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and Music Director and Conductor of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.

Prior to coming to the Pittsburgh area, she was Associate Director of Education at Carnegie Hall in New York City and founding conductor/clinician of the Carnegie Hall High School Choral Festivals. She also held the position of Music Director of The Central City Chorus, a 60-voice community chorus that performed three annual concerts in midtown Manhattan.

Under Medley’s direction, the W&J Camerata Singers have appeared by invitation at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City, MENC Eastern Division Conference, and the State Conference of the Pennsylvania Music Education Association. In June 2010, the W&J Camerata Singers became the first winners of The American Prize in Choral Performance, College/University Division. The Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh followed suit in 2011, winning The American Prize in Choral Performance, High School Division.

Medley’s choral work has taken her to Malaysia, where she served as guest conductor of the 2006 Kuala Lumpur Young Singers Choral Festival and led workshops for choirs and conductors throughout the country.

The recipient of the 2011 PMEA District 1 Citation of Excellence Award, Medley served as College and University Repertoire & Standards Chair for ACDA-PA from 2009-2011.  She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting with a cognate in music theory from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, an M.M. in Accompanying from the University of Akron and a B.M. in Music Education summa cum laude from Kent State University, where she studied piano with Naumburg Award-winning pianist Margaret Baxtresser.

Biography:

Randy Yoder is the musical Director and conductor of The York County Senior Honors Choir and the Concorde Vocal Ensemble. He is the Director of Music at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in York, PA where he is organist and choir director.  Before coming to Eastminster in 2006, Randy taught jr high and high school choral music in the York area as well as lessons in piano, jazz improvisation and music theory in his private studio.

As the director of the 130-voice York County Senior Honors Choir, Randy has led this community high school choir since its inception in 1997.  The 40-voice Concorde Vocal Ensemble, a select group from the larger Honors Choir, has appeared by invitation at Carnegie Hall in the High School Choral Music Festival, at the inaugural PA-ACDA Fall Choral Festival and will sing for the ACDA Eastern Division Conference in Providence, RI. Randy’s choirs have performed in major venues in New York, Washington, D.C and in Canterbury Cathedral, Christ Church Oxford and the York Minster in England.

As the choral director for The Sound of America Honor Chorus and the PA Ambassadors of Music, Randy has led choirs in ten tours of Europe.  He has served as guest conductor for a variety of choral festivals, accompanist for numerous vocal recitals, and is the Community Choirs R&S Chair for PA-ACDA. He has been awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for public television WITF-TV's production of "Historic Pennsylvania".

Randy is a graduate of Susquehanna University with a Bachelor of Science degree in music education, and a concentration in piano studies with Galen Deibler. At Westminster Choir College, he earned a Master of Music degree in choral conducting.  While at Westminster, he studied with Joseph Flummerfelt and Dennis Schrock and sang under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez and James Levine.  At Berklee College of Music in Boston, he did additional studies in jazz.

Vision Statement:

We choral conductors are a unique breed.  We lead, we inspire, we teach, we perfect, we perform, and we can only do this when we have a group of singers in front of us.  Yet despite the fact that we need others in order to do our jobs, we are often the only people at our institutions who know how to do what we do. 

That is why ACDA-PA is such a tremendous organization.  It gives us a chance to connect with other people who do the same thing we do.  People who understand.  People who have “been there,” and those who “are there” right now.  We need each other.  We need to interact with our own kind.  We need to seek advice, to give advice, to share strategies, rehearsal techniques, and repertoire.  We need to learn from the masters of our profession.   We need that shot in the arm each year that energizes us and sends us back to our rehearsal rooms with renewed commitment to choral music.  And ACDA-PA is where this happens.

The great thing about this organization is that it is made up of a community of people who care deeply about the same thing.  We all love choral music, and we all want to give our singers a quality experience.  Each of our situations is different, and yet we are all striving toward the same goal. 

ACDA-PA is here for us.  It is an organization that is large enough to provide abundant opportunities to its membership, but small enough to be flexible in responding to the changing needs of its members.  And we can affect the changes we would like to see.  Would you like to see a workshop offered on a particular topic?  Suggest it!  Do you wish there was an ACDA festival in your area?  Propose it and organize it!  ACDA-PA is our organization.  We can make it what we want it to be. 

When I think about ACDA-PA, I think of an organization in which all are valued contributors who learn with and from each other.  I think of an organization made up of people who support one another and who are dedicated to becoming better at what they do.  And I think of an organization that grows ever stronger as its membership increases and it members become more involved in shaping its future.  The more active I have become in ACDA-PA, the more I have realized that its work is essential to me as a choral conductor.  We are indeed fortunate to have a resource like this.  It would be my honor to help shape the future of this tremendous organization.

Vision Statement:

ACDA-PA has come a long way in the last 20 years, thanks to a series of innovative, visionary leaders.  It’s hard to understand, especially since many school music programs are in jeopardy, why more Pennsylvania choral directors do not take advantage of the wealth of knowledge, networking and opportunities that our organization offers.  We know that many consider ACDA to be some sort of closed society open only to those who enjoy reading the research articles in the Choral Journal.  The choral groups I’ve heard, the myriad teaching tools I’ve been offered, and the professional associations I’ve made through ACDA have profoundly affected my career.  I envision an ACDA-PA that would be ever more attractive and vital to choral musicians who have not previously taken advantage of these opportunities.

Tim Sharp has offered a bold vision for the ACDA and as a result, the national organization has clearly found its place in the 21^st century. Among his many new initiatives, taking advantage of technological advances is vital. The ACDA and ChoralNet websites offer a huge treasure trove of instantly available information and connects us with the world choral community.   Similarly, ACDA-PA’s website has been upgraded and modernized, but we still are not using it as effectively as we could.  I envision our website as a place that increasingly becomes our central location for communicating with each other and that is so important to us that we think of it first when we want information about ACDA-PA.