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Poster Sessions

The following selections have been selected for poster presentations at NCCO10, November 9-11, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Poster Session with Mini-Presentation

Poster Session

A Guide to Performing with Projections

Are you contemplating incorporating visual projections into your choral concerts but unsure where to start? Singers and audience members alike rave about the immersive concert experience that a visual component provides in a concert setting. And now, in 2023, there are quite a few extended choral works by innovative composers available for performance, and many are conceived with visuals in mind. They add contextual information, a way to engage with the art dynamically, as well as beauty. Many of these visuals are also timed to sync with the music to make the collaboration even more exciting and meaningful.

As a composer and multidisciplinary artist, I have been involved in over 30 multimedia choral concerts of my work in various venues across the country and abroad since 2019. There are so many new logistics one must manage in producing a show with projections, and it can be hard to know where to start, or where the common problems might arise. My poster presentation will inform best practices in programming multidisciplinary works, provide tips and resources on the technology needed for success, and share repertoire ideas featuring images from some of the most exciting multimedia choral works available today including Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, Timothy C. Takach’s Helios, Andrea Ramsey’s Suffrage Cantata, my symphony The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, and more. Diving into software, I will also feature and explain the different kinds of tools artists are using to sync visuals with the music such as Muséik, QLab, Keynote, and Click Track, many of which are accessible to those in a collegiate setting. Finally, I plan to create a handout that lays out the necessary rights involved in producing concerts with visuals and what you can expect in terms of licensing and permissions requirements, as well as a breakdown of approximate costs for bringing these works to life and tips for pulling off an outstanding immersive performance.

Multidisciplinary programming can transform a choral audience’s experience, and can also provide the opportunity for students to take on leadership roles in the coordination and technological management of arts programming, something that can bring about inter-departmental collaboration and an appreciation for how one arts discipline can enhance another. This poster presentation will provide you with new programming ideas and the confidence to bring this imaginative music to life.

Ms. Jocelyn Hagen

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Jocelyn Hagen composes music that has been described as “simply magical” (Fanfare Magazine) and “dramatic and deeply moving” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul). She is a pioneer in the field of composition, pushing the expectations of musicians and audiences with large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, and opera. Her melodic music is rhythmically driven and texturally complex, rich in color and deeply heartfelt.

Considering Care: Nel Noddings's (1928-2022) Contributions to Approaching Divisive Issues in Choral Music

The purpose of this poster is to illustrate how care theory and the ethics of care can inform our field’s ongoing conversations about gender identity and sexuality. Issues of gender and sexuality are often considered “divisive topics” in current political parlance, even as our professional associations increasingly highlight these issues in all manner of spoken and print resources. This poster will inform how choral teacher-conductors may consider topics of gender and sexuality within the scope of their professional responsibilities.

This poster reports a systematic review of care theory-related literature in choral music and choral music education, with application toward the development of a coherent approach toward ethical practice. Care theory is most notably associated with the work of Nel Noddings, who passed away one year ago in late 2022. This review began with the foundational, core texts of Noddings, and then narrowed to the years 2015-2023, commencing with the publication of an article focused on gender and sexuality in choral music (Palki, 2015).

Teacher-conductors who struggle with reconciling their moral or religious values with pedagogy reflective of the genders and sexualities of students and choir members might begin with focus on the ethical care of singers as vocalists and musicians. The applications of this research suggest that this can be accomplished through elements of care theory (Noddings, 2013) and through awareness that choral teacher-conductors are both uniquely positioned and ethically required to provide developmentally appropriate, voice-appropriate instruction to the singers who stand before us.

Dr. Patrick Freer, Georgia State University

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Patrick K. Freer is Professor of Music at Georgia State University where he conducts the Tenor-Bass Choir and directs the doctoral programs in music education. He has held Visiting Professorships at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg (Austria) and at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). His degrees are from Westminster Choir College and Teachers College-Columbia University. He is Editor of the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing.

Contemporary Korean Choral Repertoire and Pedagogical Considerations

The choral world strongly advocates the importance of programming choral music with diverse cultural backgrounds. Teaching such music helps to make a rehearsal space more inclusive for singers with different backgrounds. It also helps us to expand our musical understanding beyond Eurocentric views. Fortunately, many experts have been actively studying choral repertoire written by composers of underrepresented cultures, and more and more music with diverse backgrounds is programmed in contemporary choral concerts.

Often, choral directors, who program diverse choral music written in unfamiliar languages, may have concerns regarding teaching. One may feel it is difficult to find repertoire or arrangements that represent the culture in a respectful and sensible way. Others may feel inept about teaching dictions of foreign languages and discussing cultural understanding as a non-native person.

This poster session aims to provide help on these concerns, focusing specifically on Korean choral music. The choral scene of South Korea has been recognized in the Western Choral World for impressive performances of Korean choirs and emotionally stirring melodies of Korean folk arrangements. This session aims to introduce carefully selected composers, some of their choral works suited for different sizes and levels of choirs, and information about score purchase. The attendees will receive a packet of sample scores. The selected composers include Byunghee Oh, Hye-young Cho, Hojun Lee, Hyun Kook, Hyo-Won Woo, and Jung Pyo Hong.

Second, the poster session aims to provide practical and hands-on teaching resources about Korean diction, which non-native speakers can easily apply. The presenter will explain the system of the Korean phonetic alphabet, Hangeul as well as the basic rules of singing in Korean. Hangeul has an assembling system, a fundamentally different method from Latin Alphabet languages; understanding how the assembling system works will immensely help singers to understand the basics of Korean diction. Further, the presenter will discuss some of the common pitfalls of performing Korean choral music along with suggestions. For more pragmatic understanding, attendees will have opportunities to practice Korean diction in speaking and singing.

Third, the poster session aims to stir thoughts about the concept and application of Korean traditional vocal sounds and expressions in rehearsals. Many Korean folk arrangements are performed by numerous choirs in the US, often in a beautifully balanced way of Western singing, somewhat lacking an understanding of Korean traditional singing and its timbre. While the thoughtful adaptation of Western singing methods in Korean choral music creates another extraordinary musical art of cultural amalgamation, knowing key elements of Korean traditional singing will help musicians for more informed interpretative decisions.

Lastly, the poster session will provide additional resources including the presenter’s research project, the Northeast Asian Choral Music database, which also includes Chinese composers. To sum up, the session aims to provide practical resources for non-native choral directors as well as share considerations in teaching Korean choral music.

Dr. Minji Kim, Gordon College

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Dr. Minji Kim currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Music at Gordon College and the Music Director for the Newburyport Choral Society in Massachusetts. As a native South Korean Conductor now living in the US, she is passionate about incorporating her cultural background into teaching. She earned a Master of Music degree in choral conducting at the Ohio State University and a Doctoral Musical Arts degree at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Damián Sánchez and the Choral Representation of Argentinian Folk Music

This poster focuses on the choral arrangements and directing style of Argentinian director/ composer, Damián Sánchez (b. 1944). Though Argentinian folk music has been documented since the beginning of the 19th Century, it was not included in choral repertoire until the 1960s. Sánchez was one of the first to arrange Argentinian folk and popular music for choir, and to also distill a method for these arrangements. Sánchez has particular authority in the folk repertoire of Argentina, as he is also a solo artist of this genre, having published over 300 folk songs and 30 albums. In his pedagogical choral writings he encourages arrangers of Argentinian music to prioritize the text, authentic folkloric rhythms, and appropriate vocal timbre. Sánchez thus warns against overt polyphonic textures, which, according to Sánchez can interrupt the clarity of text (Rogativa de Locomeo by Sánchez). To preserve folk rhythms, Sánchez often relies on original instrumentation, including guitars, tambores, and flutes. Many times, when other composers attempt to imitate the faster folk rhythms with the voice (such as the chacarera or gato), these rhythms can easily overpower the melody and text, which should remain the protagonist (Pregones del altiplano by Sánchez). Lastly, in the moment of rehearsing and directing his arrangements, Sánchez encouraged his choirs to maintain a vocal timbre “sabor a la tierra”, or flavor of the earth. This is perhaps the most difficult instruction for foreigners to understand and follow, seeing as this “flavor” is not only an indication of vocal timbre or technique, but rather a deep understanding of the poetry, context, and emotion behind the particular folk song.

Ms. Teresa Murphy

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Teresa Murphy is a choir director, mezzo-soprano, and Latin dancer pursuing her DMA in Choral Conducting at Arizona State University. For the past three years, she has focused on the use of Argentinian folk and tango rhythms in choral arrangements, and how these rhythms can be embodied in a choir in culturally informed ways. Her learning of this music is threefold; dance, song, and then choral study.

A Choral Exploration of the U.S./Mexico Border Crisis

The choral community in the United States has become increasingly interested in social justice topics in recent years. Some choirs are using tours to give singers a real-life glimpse into equity topics (e.g., the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus’s Lavender Pen Tour through the Southeast U.S. and the Chicago Children’s Choir tour retracing the route of the freedom riders). In late March 2020, the university choir that I was privileged to lead was set to embark on a “Beyond Borders” concert and tour to San Diego. The idea came from David Limón, a student who had spent the summer of 2019 traveling back and forth across the U.S./Mexico border to see family. His contention was that very few people truly comprehend what is happening and that his classmates could benefit from visiting this site. This immersive “Beyond Borders” experience was meant to give the university choir students a better understanding of the complex border situation happening less than 100 miles from my former campus and to present a program of repertoire that explored various aspects of this situation. This tour was, of course, canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this session, I will present a panoptic, unfiltered exploration of our experiences in planning and attempting to re- this tour. The process of planning this trip raised many complex questions that likely would not arise during planning for a more “mainstream” tour. By learning from our mistakes and uplifting successes, attendees may better understand how social justice projects can function in their institutions. The experience of planning this tour also raises the question: is the time, effort, and money required for such a trip worth it in the end? To that end, the session will present a critical view of our work—interrogating the delicate and sometimes fraught nature of social justice work through choral music.

Dr. Joshua Palkki, Arizona State University

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Joshua Palkki (he/him) is Assistant Professor of Music Learning and Teaching/Choral Conducting and Associate Director of Choral Activities at Arizona State University and co-author of Honoring Trans and Gender-Expansive Students in Music Education. At ASU, he leads the Barrett Choir and guides students in music education pedagogy, choral pedagogy, music teacher education, and choral conducting. Dr. Palkki is an internationally recognized scholar on inclusive practices for LGBTQA musicians.

A Conductor’s Analysis of Balintawak: Misang Pilipino by Bonifacio Abdon (1876-1944)

The Philippines is a diverse country, but its people are united because of their shared history, and the central role of music and religion in their lives. Balintawak: Misang Pilipino by Bonifacio Abdon is an important work in the history of the Philippines. The use of the Tagalog language, the nationalistic text, the re-interpretation of the traditional mass text, the selection of a respected Filipino composer to set it, the commission by the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), and the incorporation of the national anthem–all of these were revolutionary aspects of the work at the time it was composed. They infuse the mass with a unique spirit and musical character that embodies the identity, pride, and independence of the Filipino people. In studying and performing this mass, scholars and conductors can benefit through an understanding of the historical and cultural context of the work, the life and work of the composer, the central place of music in the lives of Filipinos, and knowledge regarding Balintawak’s connection to Iglesia Filipina Independiente.

Ms. Sinamar Pascua Respicio

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Sinamar Pascua Respicio is currently an ABD student in choral and orchestral conducting at the University of Arizona studying with Drs. Elizabeth Schauer and Thomas Cockrell. Currently, the Chancel Choir Director of Christ Church United Methodist, High School Music Director at the Academy of Tucson, and serving on the World Music and Culture Board for the American Choral Directors Association Arizona Chapter.

The Choral Works of Florence B. Price: Compelling Music for a Range of Choirs

Florence B. Price (1887-1953) is an important Black composer from the early twentieth century in the United States, and although some of her music has been kept in the public eye since her death in 1953, her stature has only recently begun rising back to the prominence it held during the last two decades of her life. The majority of Price’s works currently being programmed are keyboard pieces, art songs, and orchestral works, but she also composed a significant number of choral works that display a diversity of musical style and language. Less than half of her choral pieces are published, and the others are housed at the University of Arkansas Library Special Collections in manuscript form. Through this session I aim to provide an objective look at Price’s music to show the interesting and useful pedagogical challenges available for a variety of educational and community settings—particularly regarding musical texture and harmonic language—and allow conference attendees to be exposed to this artistic and appealing music.

The poster includes original research that charts a selection of Price’s short-form works on a range of complexity according to harmonic and textural analysis with accompanying musical examples, a brief biographical timeline of Price’s life that highlights her historical significance, and a display of the pedagogical usefulness of the music for high school, collegiate, and community choirs with intermediate and advanced ability levels. Handouts would be given to attendees that include a comprehensive list of Price’s choral music that includes each piece’s voicing, accompaniment, length, text, and where to find or purchase, a complexity level chart regarding her short-form music, and a selected bibliography.

Dr. Mark Statler, University of Tennessee at Martin

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Dr. Mark Statler is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He holds a doctoral degree in choral conducting from Ball State University, a master’s degree in choral conducting from Bowling Green State University, and a bachelor’s degree in music education from Taylor University. Before teaching collegiately, Mark taught general music and choirs in elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States and Nairobi, Kenya.

Cultivating Empathy Through the Avant-Garde

Have you ever reflected on the exact moment when you chose your favorite song or wondered why you despise the music you hate? This poster will answer these questions of cultural consciousness in the context of research on the origins of music and western preference for consonance, allowing music of the avant-garde to teach us how to cultivate empathy for others. Score excerpts and QR links to recordings of several avant-garde works will invite observers to build the R.I.B.S. of empathy: Resist judgment, Invite information, Be present, Stay curious. By challenging our societal definition of “good” music, we train ourselves, our students, and our audiences to suspend judgment, sit with discomfort, think creatively, ask questions, and value ideals that differ from our own. In this way, engaging with unfamiliar music prepares us to build right-relationships.

Dr. Julian Bryson, Jacksonville University

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Julian Bryson is Director of Choral Activities at Jacksonville University and has conducted grades 4-12, church music programs, operas, and musical theatre. He holds a DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Kentucky, writing his dissertation on choral collectives. As a composer he has earned awards and commissions from ACDA, the American Prize, Yale Glee Club, Florida All-State Choirs, and San Jacinto College. His work is published by MusicSpoke and JulianBryson.com.

Leaders to Teachers: Student Leadership and the Formation of the Choir Director

For preservice music teachers, the decision to become a music educator often occurred during high school and was related to participation in teacher-like activities through leadership opportunities. These early teacher-like experiences can be important in teacher identity development, as teacher identity may begin forming even before entering a teacher education program. The purpose of this study was to examine what factors are most important to secondary choral music teachers when selecting student leadership. An online questionnaire was distributed to several private online forums for secondary choral music educators in the United States. Respondents overwhelmingly identified “dependable” as the most important factor when identifying student leaders. The next most important factors were “positive and enthusiastic, mature, and passionate about music.” Data also revealed that personal factors were more important than musical or teaching factors when identifying student leaders. If student leaders are considered potential preservice teachers, these data are congruent with previous studies that have examined the most-valued factors in preservice and early-career teachers. Findings reveal that these factors may be present even before entering a music teacher education program, and that students may develop these personal factors in secondary ensembles and leadership opportunities therein. For music teacher educators, this may indicate that reflection on leadership experiences is a great entry point to teacher identity development, and leadership development could benefit teacher development. Continuing to provide or encourage leadership experiences at the collegiate level could further develop these personal factors. Lastly, students who have been identified as leaders may demonstrate more self-confidence in teaching, and therefore move more easily through the Fuller-Bown model from self and task concerns to student concerns. The value of personal factors in music teaching could have implications on curricular priorities for music teacher educators. Opportunities for further research include examining how many preservice and inservice choral teachers had a leadership role in their secondary experience, how leadership may develop these most-valued personal factors to successful leadership and teaching, and how else personal factors are developing in ensemble participants.

Ms. Annika Stucky

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Annika Stucky is a PhD student in Choral Conducting-Music Education at Florida State University. She earned an MM Choral Conducting from Texas Christian University and her undergraduate degrees from Kansas State University. She taught high school choir in Kansas where JCHS ensembles were invited to perform at the KMEA state conference in 2017, 2019, and 2021. An active presenter, Ms. Stucky has led sessions at TMEA, KMEA, KWLA, and CSCTFL.

Rebuilding through Repertoire: Contemporary Works with Limited Divisi by Women Composers

As we return to in-person rehearsals, many of us are rebuilding our choral programs and teaching fundamental skills that were lost during online instruction. This literature-focused poster session will feature music with limited divisi by women composers for SATB and SSA choirs suitable for a wide range of singers and ability levels. The poster will highlight important contemporary female composers, as well as rehearsal strategies that build and reinforce vocal pedagogy and sight-reading skills.

Dr. Rachel Carlson, Kean University

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Rachel Carlson, DMA, is the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Kean University in Union, NJ, where she conducts the Concert Choir and Chorale and teaches Aural Skills, Conducting, and Voice. Dr. Carlson currently serves as President of the MD/DC chapter of ACDA. She is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, presenter, and guest conductor and has toured the country and the world as a freelance professional choral singer and soprano soloist with many top professional ensembles.

Supporting Transgender Individuals in Education: Problems & Solutions

Despite the growing number of openly transgender-identifying people (Kosciw et al., 2018), gender-diverse students remain a vulnerable population in schools; A number of factors contribute to these issues, including peer-inflicted violence, discrimination by school staff, and nonspecific or nonexistent school policies that reinforce cisnormativity and neglect students who fall outside traditional categories of gender (Johns et al., 2019; Wyss, 2004; Palkki, 2017; Rands, 2009; McGowan, Wright, & Sargeant, 2022). Though well-intentioned educators may consider themselves allies of the transgender community, many may not be truly confident in implementing gender-inclusive teaching practices in the day-to-day classroom (Frohard-Dourlent, 2015; Bartholomaeus & Riggs, 2017; Marx, Roberts, & Nixon, 2017; Payne & Smith, 2014; Rands, 2009; Silveira & Goff, 2016). Surface-level strategies (e.g., incorporating gender-inclusive language) are often where educators feel most confident, but few understand the specific physiological and social-emotional aspects of the transgender experience (Cates, 2022; Silveira & Goff, 2016), and many are wary of openly supporting or interacting with transgender students for fear of making errors and/or encountering parent backlash (Frohard-Dourlent, 2015; Martino, Kassen, & Omercajic, 2022; Payne & Smith, 2014). Music education poses particular challenges to transgender students and educators, both in terms of the subject material itself (e.g., hormone-based vocal change, gender stereotyping in instrument selection) and in navigating circumstances unique to musical school activities (e.g., overnight trips, concert attire, repertoire selection, and the like) (Cates, 2022; Eros, 2008; Palkki, 2020).

This poster will examine common problems faced by transgender people in music education and present research-based solutions to these problems under three focus areas: transgender individuals, cisgender teachers, and school policy. The benefits of gender-inclusive education extend to all individuals within the school system, not only transgender students (Bartholomaeus & Riggs, 2017; Cates, 2022; Frohard-Dourlent, 2015; Luecke, 2018; Martino, Kassen, & Omercajic, 2022; Rands, 2009). Recommended strategies include the implementation of specific pedagogical strategies, improvements to in- and pre-service teacher training, and changes to school policy and curriculum.

Mr. Evan Montemayor

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A pianist and conductor-educator, Evan Montemayor is co-chair of the NY-ACDA Repertoire & Resources Committee. He holds degrees in music education and speech-language pathology from Hofstra University and in choral conducting from California State University, Los Angeles. He is currently pursuing a DMA in choral conducting at Arizona State University. Research and teaching interests include absolute pitch, musicians with speech and language impairments, and gender diverse voices.

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