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ACDA NATIONAL
Alphabetical Listing of Interest Sessions
2025 2025 ACDA National Conference March 18-22, 2025 Dallas, Texas
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March 18-22 Dallas, TX Interest Sessions (Open to Both Tracks) )
Every Student Matters: Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
Crafting Inclusive Spaces about Race in Choral Music
for LGBTQIA+ Students
Thursday 1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
Friday 1:10 pm - 2:00 pm National Shrine Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe
First United Methodist Church Sanctuary

Upper Room (3rd Floor)
Considering the current socio-political climate, we
This session empowers music educators to foster as choral conductor-teachers are faced with some un-
inclusivity for LGBTQIA+ students. We will explore comfortable truths about choral music. We as artist
proactive strategies for creating welcoming environ- citizens can, and must, leverage coalitions to dismantle
ments in music classrooms, addressing unique chal- systems of oppression. Utilizing Intercultural Dialogue
lenges faced by that community. Participants exam- and Whiteness as Property as frameworks, the present-
ine how inclusivity enriches learning and cultivates ers will equip attendees with tools and language need-
empathy, while also gaining insights into the needs of ed to become comfortable engaging in uncomfortable
LGBTQIA+ students. Interactive discussions provide conversations surrounding race and contemporary
actionable insights and resources to celebrate diversity, choral culture This uncomfortability may be seen as
ensuring every student’s voice is heard and valued. By growing pains for a choral community grappling with
the session’s end, educators will leave equipped to cre- difficult and long overdue conversations about equity,
ate supportive spaces that embrace diversity in music “inclusion,” and access.
education.
Joshua Palkki (he/him) is fortunate to
Joshua Donaldson is the director of serve on the faculty at Arizona State
choral activities at Emporia State Uni- University. After high school he was too
versity, where he leads three ensembles afraid to leave the Midwest to pursue an
and teaches classes in conducting, choral undergraduate degree. After completing
methods, and music theory. He is an ac- a master’s degree, he could not secure a teaching posi-
tive choral artist, singing with KC VITAs. He clinics tion in California, which resulted in an unplanned so-
choirs across Kansas and most recently was the clini- journ to the East Coast. After being rejected from one
cian for the SEKMEA District Honor Choir. His re- of the two doctoral programs to which he applied and
search focuses on creating inclusive choral classrooms finishing a PhD, his application failed to advance in job
as well as emphasizing women composers and LG- searches at more than twenty universities. We are as
BTQIA+ composers. He holds a BME and MM in much a product of our failures as our successes. Palkki
choral conducting, an MM in vocal performance from often sings to his two rescue cats, who begrudgingly tol-
Pittsburg State University, and a DMA in choral con- erate his shenanigans. He is co-author (with Dr. Mat-
ducting from the University of Kansas. thew Garrett) of Honoring Trans and Gender-Expansive Stu-
dents in Music Education (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Arreon A. Harley-Emerson is a conductor, composer,
nonprofit strategist, and equity coach. He is the presi-
dent and CEO of Equity Sings and the CEO and ar-

48 CHORAL JOURNAL January 2025 Volume 65 Number 5