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

Music in W orship Immersion Da y - T hursda y
Music in Worship Immersion Day - Thursday

Holy Disruption: Ecumenical Service
Composing Faithful Music
for a Changing Church
Singing Our Faith Together:
This session will examine the dynamics involved in A Community of Voices
finding or creating choral music for churches in today’s
climate. Subjects include: adapting music for smaller On Thursday, March 5, 2026, SWACDA invites con-
voicings, cultural appropriation issues, commissioning, ference participants to a special ecumenical worship
and current trends in composition. service, Singing Our Faith Together: A Community of
Voices, at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in downtown
Mark W. Lawson serves as the CEO of Albuquerque. This service offers an opportunity to ex-
ECS Publishing Group, which owns E. perience the unity of Christian traditions through mu-
C. Schirmer, Galaxy Music, Morning- sic, with congregational hymn singing and choral offer-
Star Music Publishers, and distributes ings that highlight the power of shared faith expressed
Colla Voce publishing. He also chairs the in song.
board of Chorus America, a leading organization for The service choir will feature singers from Central
community and concert choruses in the United States United Methodist Church and St. John’s United Meth-
and Canada. odist Church, directed by Karen Marolli and Matthew
Greer. Speakers include Mark Lawley, past SWACDA
president; Karen Marolli, composer and music director;
and service leader Bryan Taylor, SWACDA R&R chair
for music in worship. Accompanists are Stephen Mon-
toya, organist; and Nathan Cleaveland, pianist. Join us
in a vibrant hour of praise, prayer, and music as we lift
our voices together in worship.

2026 ACDA Southwestern Region Conference

ting Mast
classes
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Student Conducting Masterclasses
t C
tuden
Undergraduate taught music at all levels in Houston public schools.
A respected clinician, adjudicator, and lecturer on the
Negro Spiritual, she has conducted nationally and in-
A. Jan Taylor, conductor, pianist, and edu- ternationally, including with the Houston Symphony
cator from Houston, holds music degrees Chorus, Houston Ebony Opera Guild, and the “105
from the University of Houston and Prai- Voices of History” HBCU National Choir. In 2023 she
rie View A&M University. She served as received the Texas Choral Directors Association’s pres-
associate professor and director of choral tigious Choirmaster Award.
activities at Prairie View A&M (1996–2022) and has

146 CHORAL JOURNAL January 2026 Volume 66 Number 5