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2026 ACDA Southern Region Conference March 4-7, 2026 Memphis, Tennessee

Marsteller Middle School Miami Arts Studio 6-12 @ Zelda Glazer
8th-Grade Women’s Choir Maverick Singers

The Marsteller Eighth-Grade Women’s Choir fre-
quently receives invitations to perform at community The Maverick Singers are the premier SATB en-
and county-wide events. The ensemble has performed semble at Miami Arts Studio, a performing arts mag-
twice at the Virginia MEA’s annual conference, and in net school in Miami, FL. Students are predominant-
2012 they performed for a Christmas party at the White ly first- or second-generation immigrants from Latin
House, where they had the distinct honor of meeting America, which parallels the community in which the
and singing for President Obama and the First Lady. school is situated. We make it our mission to bring Mi-
They have a standing invitation to perform the national ami’s English, Spanish, and Haitian culture to audi-
anthem at a GMU men’s basketball game each season. ences throughout the United States. The ensemble has
However, if you were to ask these ladies, they would recorded for several artists and award shows, including
tell you that one of their favorite yearly performances the Latin Grammys, the American Music Awards, and
is singing for their elementary feeder schools and area a performance with Jacob Collier on his DJESSE Vol-
nursing homes. The ensemble consistently achieves su- ume 4 World Tour.
perior ratings at assessment and in competition.
Ryan Ellis is a jazz pianist and director
Julie Phelan is in her twenty-sixth year as of vocal music at Miami Arts Studio. In
a middle school choral director and her addition to leading the vocal magnet, he
twenty-first year at Marsteller. Born and is also piloting a sound engineering pro-
raised in Iowa, Phelan attended Wart- gram that connects students with leading
burg College double majoring in music music professionals to provide a relevant music edu-
education and music therapy. Her women’s choir has cation in a rapidly evolving industry. Ellis’s mixed en-
performed twice at the VMEA fall conference. Her sembles have performed throughout the United States
choirs consistently achieve superior ratings at assess- with concerts at FL-ACDA, Washington DC, Chicago,
ment, while individual students regularly participate in Atlanta, Orlando, and New York, including five fea-
county, district, state, as well as regional and national tured concerts at Carnegie Hall. Ellis is published as a
honor choirs. She is a frequent adjudicator for honor contributing author on Jason Max Ferdinand’s Teaching
choir auditions and assessment. She is a member of with Heart and Teaching Beyond the Music (GIA). As a pro-
her church’s worship team and has served as a worship fessional jazz pianist, Ellis has worked extensively in the
leader for several churches and ministries in Michigan Caribbean, Florida, and Hawaii.
and Northern Virginia.

CHORAL JOURNAL January 2026 Volume 66 Number 5 113