ACDA-PA - News

Summer Conference 2025 Album

8/30/2025

Thanks to John Madas for collecting and capturing our time together at West Chester University in August!

2025 Composition Competition Winner

8/1/2025

A Big Congratulations to the Winner of the 2025 ACDA-PA Choral Composition Competition:
"Don't Send the Rain"
composed by Sam Scheibe

The piece will be presented during the self-published composers reading session at the summer conference.

Sam Scheibe is an American composer, conductor, and vocalist whose music is driven by wordplay, harmony, and groove. His influences draw from his experiences as a performer in traditional choral music, jazz, rock, and pop a cappella. Scheibe’s original music has been performed and commissioned by ensembles across the United States and the United Kingdom including Frost Chorale, Seraphour, Laude, the Catholic Sacred Music Project, Anchorae, West Jersey Chamber Music Society, Choir Next Door, and University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir. His music has been professionally recorded by the GRAMMY-nominated Westminster Williamson Voices and featured on EWTN. His compositions are published by MusicSpoke, GIA publications, Walton, Gentry Music, and See-A-Dot Music. Sam’s piece Gorgeous Nothings, written based on texts from Emily Dickinson’s envelope poems, will be premiered and conducted by Sam at Carnegie Hall on April 19, 2026 with the New England Symphonic Ensemble and participating choirs through MidAmerica Concert Productions.

Scheibe is in demand as a conductor, vocalist, and clinician. He has sung with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the New World Symphony. As an active performer, Sam sings as a bass-baritone with professional ensembles including Seraphic Fire, the Spoleto Festival Chorus, the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, Vocal Arts Ensemble, and Choir Next Door.

Sam is the Director of the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club and the Penn Chorale and is a Visiting Instructor of Music and Interim Director of Choirs at Centre College in Danville, KY.

2025 ACDA-PA Awards Recipients

6/30/2025

Congratulations to the 2025 ACDA-PA Awards recipients!

Elaine Brown Award for Choral Excellence:
Dr. Paul Rardin, Temple University
Eileen M. Hower Memorial Award:
Erica Silver, Springhouse Middle School, Parkland Area School District
Outstanding Young Conductor
Gabrielle Quandel Umholtz, Ephrata High School

Summer Conducting Masterclass

4/17/2025

Congratulations to the following students selected to participate in the conducting masterclass:

Yixin Cui, Swarthmore College
Jenna Diem, Slippery Rock University
Daniel Doyle, West Chester University
Ethan Draper, Lebanon Valley College
Megan Flanaghan, West Chester University
Daniel Garner, Grove City College
Javier Gorelik, Penn State University
Justin Knarr, Mansfield University
Kristin Nolt, Messiah University
Christian Sullivan, Duquesne University

ACDA-PA is pleased to announce this summer's choral conducting masterclass for college and university students. The masterclass will be held as part of ACDA-PA's summer conference on August 3-5 at West Chester University. Student conductors will spend Sunday afternoon receiving a preliminary coaching session from an ACDA-PA mentor. On Monday, each conductor will receive coaching from our headliners, Anton Armstrong and Pearl Shangkuan. Each collegiate conductor may nominate up to two students for the masterclass. Please confirm that your students are available to attend the conference prior to submitting their names for consideration. All nominations must be submitted to [email protected] by May 31, 2025. Nominations should include a current email and cell phone number. Contact Nate Zullinger at the same email address with any questions.

2025 Composition Competition Announced

3/30/2025

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Choral Composition Competition is open to composers of all ages.
Composers must be a resident of Pennsylvania or currently enrolled as a student in a PA college or university.
Entry deadline: July 1, 2025
Winning composition award: $500.00
Texts may be sacred or secular and can be in any language. An English translation should be included for any text that is not in English. Pronunciation guides may also be provided if needed.
Compositions must be 3-5 minutes in length, scored for SATB (no divisi). Compositions can be accompanied by piano or a cappella with the option of adding one obbligato instrument.
Composition must be an original work (not an arrangement). The piece must have not been previously published, commissioned, or performed.
Texts must be free from copyright restrictions, either public domain or written permission from the poet/copyright holder included with the application.
Composers will retain the copyright of their compositions.
Previous winners may not participate for four years after the year that they have won. (Example: The winner of 2023 may not submit to this competition until 2028.)

Winning piece will be added and performed as part of the Reading Session for Self-Published Composers and will be provided and sung through by all choir directors in attendance at the 2025 ACDA-PA Summer Conference. You may work with the R&R Chair to provide information for directors to have the ability to purchase the score if requested at a later date.

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

2025 Choir for All Honor Choir

3/30/2025

The ACDA-PA Choir For All is a one-day honor choir festival for singers ages 8-98, at West Chester University on Monday, August 4, 2025, led by guest conductors Anton Armonstrong and Pearl Shangkuan. The goal of this choir is to foster intergenerational and intercultural dialogue through choral music. The day will be divided into age-appropriate rehearsal segments, but combine to make the "Choir For All" in the final concert:

Young Singers: ages 8-10
Middle Singers: ages 11-14
Festival Singers: ages 15-98

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

National Conference Gallery

3/30/2025

Check out some pics from our ACDA-PA members and honor choir participants from the National Conference in Dallas!

Call for Interest Session Proposals

2/25/2025

ACDA-PA invites proposals for interest sessions to be presented at the 2025 conference. Sessions will be 50-60 minutes in length and should fall under the following topics:

Cultivating musical excellence, career longevity and meaningful vocation for conductors
Developing independent, knowledgeable and vocally-healthy choral singers
Discerning choral leadership on and off the podium
Illuminating choral repertoire from cultures and traditions within and beyond Pennsylvania.

ACDA-PA encourages applicants to think creatively, deeply and specifically about these topics and offer sessions that expand our memberships’ perspectives and challenge and question existing models. Applications should be empowering and inspiring for all ACDA members, and collaborative applications and those that include audience participation are encouraged.

The deadline for interest session applications is 11:59pm EST, May 15, 2025. Successful applicants will be notified of acceptance by May 31, 2025.

CLICK TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL

Scholarships Awarded

2/25/2025

Congratulations to Payton Goodyear, Isaac Darga, Lincoln Shanks and Landon Shanks for earning the inaugural ACDA-PA $300 National Honor Choir Scholarships. We are grateful to support these deserving PA students in their national honor choir participation in Dallas. Make sure you look for them at the conference and follow their honor choir journey on our social media!

ACDA-PA to Offer Scholarships for National Honor Choirs

11/16/2024

ACDA-PA is pleased to award eight, $300 scholarships to Pennsylvania students participating in the National ACDA Honor Choirs in Dallas, TX. Applications are due by January 15, 2025. For the committee to consider your application, please ensure your director/reference submits an endorsement email to Joy Meade [email protected] by January 15th. A committee of ACDA-PA board members will evaluate these applications equitably and respond by February 1st to all applicants with the results.

CLICK TO APPLY

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