Page 6 - Mar_Apr23

From the
CHORAL JOURNAL
EDITORIAL BOARD Guest Editor

EDITOR
It’s an honor for our Composition Committee to
AMANDA BUMGARNER speak to the ACDA community through this Compo-
ACDA National Office sition Focus Issue. Our committee, according to our
405-232-8161 (ex. 205)
abumgarner@acda.org mission statement, “encourages the creation of quality
new music for choruses of all sizes, ages, and abilities
MANAGING EDITOR by actively supporting the work of living composers.”
Dan Forrest We advocate for the composer membership of ACDA
RON GRANGER and seek to foster increased collaboration and aware-
ACDA National Office
405-232-8161 ness between conductors and composers.
rgranger@acda.org At the risk of stating the obvious, without composers there wouldn’t be
choral music for us to sing; and without living composers, our art would be
EDITORIAL BOARD relegated to the past—some relic of a bygone era. But choral music is alive
and well, not dwindling through time and not defeated by the events of the
SEAN MICHAEL BURTON last few years. Composers have not stopped creating, and many composers
seanburtonmusic@gmail.com
and publishers are seeing performances and sales rebounding with incred-
MARQUES L. A. GARRETT ible strength, throughout 2022 and into 2023. We creators of choral music
marques.garrett@unl.edu have important things to “say,” and we want to provide timely expressions
in our current day and age. We believe that choral music, at the intersection
MICHAEL PORTER of text and music, expresses the human soul more powerfully than either
michaelporter2@boisestate.edu
words or music could apart from each other. We seek to create beauty that
WILLIAM SOUTHERLAND is neither stuck in the past, nor merely “faddish,” but timely, impactful, and
williamgsoutherland@gmail.com resonant in our current contexts.
As our committee advocates for composers, we’ve received such encour-
DEBRA SPURGEON
dspurg@olemiss.edu aging support from Robyn Hilger and the national leadership. Composers
can now join ACDA as “Composers” instead of having to choose some
WILLIAM WEINERT other primary activity. Our slate of annual awards has been doubled, with
wweinert@esm.rochester.edu new prize amounts that re-establish ACDA prizes as some of the most

GISELLE WYERS substantial awards in the choral composition world; the new flexible Focus
wyersg@uw.edu Prize nurtures the creation of repertoire to fill identified gaps for ACDA
members and their ensembles, and connects choral publishers to compos-
COLUMN EDITORS ers. Brock Prize and Brock Commission pieces are being performed at ev-
ery conference (even regional conferences), and we continue to offer and
MICAH BLAND promote new and existing channels through which composers can network
mbland1613@gmail.com with each other as well as conductors.

DUANE COTTRELL My deepest thanks to my fellow committee members and friends Robert
dco@udel.edu Bode, Brandon Boyd, Katie Houts, and Joni Jensen, as well as recent past
members and friends Andrew Crane, Susan LaBarr, and Nancy Menk, for
CHRISTOPHER EANES
eanesc@gmail.com volunteering extraordinary time and energy in addition to their already-full
lives to serve our ACDA composers.
BRYAN E. NICHOLS We’ve designed this issue to offer unique and needful information that is
bnichols@psu.edu sometimes difficult for composers to find, as well as insightful perspectives
on the creation of new music. We hope this will be valuable and enlighten-
GREGORY PYSH
gpysh@fpcmid.org ing to composers as well as the conductors we collaborate with. Thank you
all for your contributions to this magical process of creating and singing
LAURA WIEBE new music!
wieb0043@morris.umn.edu
4 CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2023 Volume 63 Number 7