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2024 ACDA Southern Region Conference

Performing Choirs
P er f orming C hoirs

University of Georgia Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham
Hodgson Singers

The UGA Hodgson Singers serves as the flagship The Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham provides
ambassadorial choral ensemble of the Hugh Hodgson performance opportunities for outstanding singers in
School of Music at the University of Georgia. Com- North Carolina’s Triangle region (Durham, Chapel
prising many of UGA’s most gifted and dedicated sing- Hill, and Raleigh). Its thirty-two members are selected
ers, this ensemble provides vibrant, pre-professional en- from among musicians who have sung in other choral
semble training for the next generation of professional groups under Dr. Wynkoop’s direction. VAE’s mostly a
singers, choral music educators, and talented choral en- cappella repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the
thusiasts. Membership in the UGA Hodgson Singers is present and has included such diverse and challenging
open to all UGA students. The choir has performed at works as Tallis’s Spem in alium, Schoenberg’s Friede Auf
ACDA Southern Region (2014, 2018, and 2024), and Erden, Penderecki’s Agnus Dei, and MacMillan’s Cantos
for the GMEA In-Service Conference (2012, 2017, and Sagrados. VAE has performed at the 2005 ACDA Na-
2023). tional Conference and at five Southern Region confer-
ences.
Daniel Bara is the John D. Boyd UGA
Foundation Professor of Choral Music Rodney Wynkoop is the founding director
and the director of choral activities and of the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham
professor of music at the Hugh Hodg- and has served as artistic director of the
son School of Music at the University Choral Society of Durham since 1986.
of Georgia, where he oversees seven university choral He recently left his position as director of
ensembles as well as the graduate choral conducting University Choral Music at Duke University, where he
program. Bara is in demand as a guest conductor and conducted the Duke Chapel Choir and the Duke Uni-
clinician, having conducted all-state and honor choirs versity Chorale for almost forty years. He has brought
in twenty states and Carnegie Hall, and has served as three of his choirs to perform at previous ACDA South-
clinician for conferences sponsored by NAfME, ACDA, ern Region conferences and has conducted at Carnegie
AGO, and other school and church musical organiza- Hall on several occasions. He is a recipient of Duke’s
tions. He is a past president of NC-ACDA. Bara holds Meritorious Service Award for Executive Leadership
a DMA from the Eastman School of Music, degrees and the Lara Hoggard Award for Distinguished Ser-
from the University of Michigan, and is a graduate of vice in Choral Music in North Carolina.
Interlochen Arts Academy.

76 CHORAL JOURNAL January 2024 Volume 64 Number 5