Page 144 - CJJanuary2026

2026 ACDA Southwestern Region Conference March 4-7, 2026 Albuquerque, New Mexico

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ew H
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New Horizons Immersion Day - Wednesday
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(2020–2021), the Excellence in Education Award from Honor Choir Conductor Sessions
the Miami Chamber of Commerce, and the Dobson
Distinguished Service Award (2018–2019). She creates
collaborative projects and shares her love of world mu- 4-6 Grade Treble
sic with students and the community. Taylor earned her
DMA in choral music from the University of Southern
California, her MM in choral conducting from the Uni- Evolving Harmony:
versity of Oklahoma, and her BM from Rhodes College.
Crafting a Purposeful Career in Choral Music

This session invites choral music educators to create
Vocal Jazz a career pathway as dynamic and responsive as their
art. We will explore how to intentionally define success
Strengthen Community Through beyond traditional metrics, embracing personal and

Tonal Memory professional pivots that honor evolving family and life
responsibilities. Learn strategies for setting effective
boundaries, navigating the complexities of grief and
Tonal memory can be a useful tool to strengthen your loss, and finding new opportunities to “bloom where
choir’s cohesiveness as a confident community. It builds you’re planted.” This presentation provides a compass
independent musicians and empowers student leader- for designing a fulfilling career that is resilient, flexi-
ship. Students’ intonation and ability to have a “hearing ble, and deeply connected to your well-being, ensuring
eye” will easily increase, and valuable rehearsal and per- you can lead with authenticity and purpose throughout
formance time will be saved. your journey.

Beth Enloe Fritz holds degrees in music Elizabeth Hogan will be the clinician for this session.
education, music therapy, psychology, and Her photo and bio are on page 170.
an MM in jazz with an emphasis in vocal
jazz arranging. She taught for thirty-one
years across K–12, including general mu- 7th-9th Grade Tenor-Bass
sic, AP Music Theory, band, choral music, and vocal
jazz. Under her direction, the FZWHS Jazz & Madrigal
Ensembles performed at the MMEA State Conference Look, Ma, No Hands!
(2008, 2019); and the 2019 J&M received the 43rd An- Developing Artistic Gestural Expression Through
nual Student DownBeat Award for Outstanding Perfor- Confidence, Individual Gestures, Musical Instinct,
mance and Lead Soloist. She has led numerous sessions
and served in multiple R&R chair roles in MMEA and Facial Expressions, and Much More
MCDA, and she coordinated the MO all-state vocal jazz
ensemble for nine years. She currently works as a clini- At some point we stopped playing, laughing, and
cian, adjudicator, substitute teacher, and assistant direc- enjoying our intuition for both musical and non-musi-
tor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s IN UNISON cal things. Creativity is born from our ability to “color
Chorus. outside the lines” and like it! As we learn more, we of-
ten surrender our confidence, individualism, instincts,
and more. We stop laughing, we stop playing, and our

142 CHORAL JOURNAL January 2026 Volume 66 Number 5