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ACDA Archives at the
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University of Illinois
Univ ersit y of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign:
Urbana- C hampaig n:
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-Hidden
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Not-So-Hidden Treasures
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by Hilary Apfelstadt

In January 2022, the Sousa Archives and Center for many decades ago, and holds research potential for
American Music, housed at the University of Illinois contemporary scholars interested in the history of our
Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), acquired archival mate- field and, in particular, the musical approaches of these
rial from the American Choral Directors Association’s luminaries.
(ACDA) national office in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. When I started working at ACDA in September
Prior to that time, I served as ACDA’s interim executive 2020, the archives were housed on the second floor of
director from September 2020 to September 2021, and the national office building in Oklahoma City. At one
one of my responsibilities was to help direct the dispo- point we had a full-time archivist, Dr. Christina Prucha,
sition of materials housed in the national headquarters. now head of collection services at the University of
Not only were they taking up valuable space, but they Portland Library, who did a wonderful job cataloging
were somewhat inaccessible to researchers. It occurred and organizing the materials. It was she who provid-
to the Executive Committee at the time that at least ed the index we shared with the University of Illinois
some of the holdings should be in a university library archivist, Scott Schwartz, when we proposed sending
where they would be safely stored yet accessible to peo- them to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
ple interested in the materials. and that index proved very helpful. After Christina left
In addition to records of national conferences and ACDA, there was no full-time archivist hired, and the
correspondence with regions, as well as multiple cop- work was absorbed tangentially into the jobs of oth-
ies of past Choral Journals, ACDA had received items er employees. We continued to acquire materials from
from the estates of outstanding choral leaders such as conferences, issues of the Choral Journal, and occasional
Elaine Brown, Walter Collins, Harold Decker, Colleen donations, but without one person overseeing things,
Kirk, Robert Shaw, and Fred Waring, among others. the archives were in limbo of sorts.
Among the documents were examples of teaching ma- As a former member of the Research and Publi-
terials such as syllabi for conducting and choral litera- cations Committee, I was determined that we not lose
ture courses, marked scores used for personal analysis valuable archival materials, and in October 2020,
and teaching purposes, copies of concert programs, sought the advice of Dr. Marvin Latimer, the author
and performing editions. Looking at the materials in of Excellence in Choral Music: A History of the American Cho-
person provides fascinating insights into the minds of ral Directors Association (Hinshaw Music Pub.), and Dr.
some of the American choral profession’s leaders from John Silantien, then chair of the Research & Publica-

CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7 63