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2026 ACDA Northwestern Region Conference March 4-7, 2026 Tacoma, Washington

University of Washington Opening Night Concert
Chorale

Northwest Sings

The NWACDA conference opens with Northwest
Sings in the acoustically remarkable Lagerquist Con-
cert Hall on the campus of Pacific Lutheran University.
The evening includes a performance by the Portland
State University Chamber Choir under the direction
of Dr. Ethan Sperry, a collegiate showcase featuring
each of the participating seven college choirs, and the
combined NWACDA choir with more than 225 sing-
ers. The Combined Collegiate Choir will be under the
direction of Dr. Tram Sparks, professor of practice at
USC. The Combined Collegiate Chorus is performing
Giselle Wyers is the Donald E. Petersen a newly commissioned work by Saunder Choi with an
Endowed Professor of Choral Music at original text by Brian Sonia-Wallace, titled, “Citizens
the University of Washington, where she of the Neon Republic.” The text, created in conjunc-
conducts the award-winning University tion with ChatGTP, imagines a dystopian future where
Chorale and teaches graduate and un- AI reigns. Paired with this new work is Brahms’s lament
dergraduate courses in choral conducting and music of the death of beauty, Nänie, and an arrangement of
education. Wyers is the newly appointed director of Vienna Teng’s “The Hymn of Axcion.”
Concord Chamber Choir, an adult community chorus
within the Columbia Choirs community. Her profes- Tram Sparks is a professor of practice at
sional project choir, Solaris Vocal Ensemble, specializes the USC Thornton School of Music and
in the performance of contemporary American cho- serves as Choral Music Department chair.
ral literature. Wyers has guest conducted high school She holds degrees in piano performance
honor choirs and all-state choruses around the country, and an MM from Temple University and
and she is a leading national figure in the application a DMA from Yale University. Prior appointments in-
of Laban movement theory for conductors. Her choral clude the associate director of choral activities at Tem-
works are published by Santa Barbara Music Publish- ple University, Boyer College of Music & Dance, and
ing Company as part of the “Giselle Wyers Choral Se- Dordt University. Sparks’s research interests include
ries,” as well as with MusicSpoke and Hildegard Pub- conducting technique rooted in modern dance theory
lishing. and cheironomy’s forms and functions in contempora-
neous early communities of worship. A child refugee of
the Vietnam War, Sparks’s early musical training was in
Okinawa, Japan, and subsequently, at the San Francis-
co Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division.

CHORAL JOURNAL January 2026 Volume 66 Number 5 73