The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) is a national nonprofit organization with a mission to “inspire excellence and nurture lifelong involvement in choral music for everyone through education, performance, composition and advocacy,” according to its website. So what does this group do on campus?
The KSC chapter was established in 2010, according to Professor of Music Dr. Sandra Howard, who has been the faculty advisor since the chapter’s inception.
Led by senior president Cailyn Gorman, the group had a normal start to the academic year. It had its membership activations, a process where students who want to join ACDA register through the national standard by paying a fee, which is covered by KSC’s ACDA annual budget. For active members, it’s $125 each according to its website.
“One of our missions is to promote choral music education in the New England region, but also with our national association,” said sophomore Ellis White, ACDA’s public relations coordinator.
“We work really hard to make sure that our members understand what being a choral music educator is but also how to be a well-rounded educator if they aren’t in the choral scope as well,” White said. “We have a lot of members who are instrumental majors or some who aren’t even music education [students].”
“It’s a really nice mix of people with a lot of ‘intentions’ and a lot of passion,” White added.
“We try and keep it a mix of professional development, and then also the fun,” Gorman said. The first week back, the meeting they hosted was a “slumber party” with pizza.
Howard described the fall semester as very productive, stating that ACDA “attended the 2025 New England Area Collegiate ACDA Conference at Plymouth State University, hosted the annual Cantate! High School Choral Festival on campus, increased chapter membership and made plans for members to attend a regional conference.”
As of this paper, the first thing ACDA plans on doing is attending a conference for the East Division of ACDA in Providence, R.I., on Feb. 25. Every year, the group alternates between going to a regional conference and a national conference. Last year, the group went to Texas with eight members. This year, the group is going to have 16 members attend out of 22, which Gorman said she is thankful that the entire membership is understanding of the situation.
Gorman said that it would be four days of professional development, which she said she has experienced before and enjoyed.
“I’m pretty excited for the underclassmen to be able to experience it because I honestly learned so much and we met some pretty incredible people,” Gorman said.
White also said it is an opportunity to meet big people in the choral world.
Next year, the conference will be held in Minnesota. White said the group hopes to be able to have the budget to have ten members attend.
Throughout the semester, ACDA is also hosting guest lectures. Gorman said that there will be some alumni lecturing, one of whom is Logan Phillips, a graduate from last year who is going to come to campus and talk about music education after a time out in the field. It also plans on having ‘16 alumnus Kevin Lackie, who was the founder of the Keene SCORES project, which is something the group has been doing since 2015.
“This is the community and K-12 school annual outreach project that focuses on raising funds to purchase choral music for one selected choral music program in the state,“ Howard stated. “Students travel to community choir rehearsals to ask those members to donate $1 each– the idea is that many people donating $1 each demonstrates the philosophy and value in supporting K-12 choral programs.”
The money raised goes towards a school of its choosing.
Keeping a close relationship with the music department, White mentioned that ACDA helps fund a lot of things on campus in correlation to the music department to make sure it gets something that appeals to all students, not just members.
“We’re very lucky to have a music department that’s like a family,” White said.
An example of this is the SING Series that the group hosts, highlighting students in the program by allowing them to present on topics of interest aligned with music and education, according to Howard. Another event that ACDA hosts is the Department Formal, where students within the department can get together. ACDA and the National Association for Music Education (NAFME), another nationally known music group on campus focused on “every aspect of music education,” choose a member of the year for each organization, alongside announcing their respective e-boards for the upcoming academic year. ACDA recently held its elections on Feb. 5.
Both Gorman and White expressed their love and gratitude for ACDA itself and their experiences that came with it.
“I’m just so thankful of the community that it built because honestly it’s a huge community and it’s just so nice to have it,” Gorman said.
“Our ACDA chapter this year especially is very very strong,” White said. “We had a really wonderful incoming freshman class and they’ve contributed so positively to our membership. They’re involving themselves in ways that is really nice to see from a bunch of people who are really passionate about what they love.”
“No matter if you’re a singer or not, it’s a really comfortable place to be,” Gorman said. “You don’t have to be a music major. You don’t have to be involved in music whatsoever. You can just get started by doing this.”
“The e-board organizes an excellent balance of educational and social events,” Howard stated. “Our student leaders model professionalism and work to reinforce the positive and supportive spirit in the music department community.”
“The whole point of what we do is the advocacy piece,” White said. “We do so much with professional development but we are advocating for the arts in our school, in New Hampshire, in the world: That’s ACDA’s big mission.”
“If you’re someone who’s passionate about music in this world, in this life, it’s such a great place to be to keep those connections alive and to really help with keeping it alive, helping advocate with our art,” White added.
For those interested in joining, ACDA holds its meetings weekly at 8 p.m. every Thursday in the choral room 112 at the Redfern Arts Center.
Hayley Doda can be contacted at
hayley@kscequinox.com
