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ACDA Archives at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
A CD A A r chiv es a t the U niv ersit y of Illinois Urbana- C hampaig n

more choral music. People celebrated the war’s ing choirs. Several of them taught generations of choral
end by communal singing in churches, and in musicians, both directly and indirectly, and had powerful
community, high school, college, and profession- and lasting influence. There is a plethora of potential
al choirs. research topics for scholars, and I encourage our mem-
bership to investigate.
Americans were already listening to choirs on In addition, according to Scott Schwartz, the archi-
weekly radio programs like Fred Waring & the vist, “The Center [for American Music] will consider
Pennsylvanians. During the late 1960s, Robert adding other significant conductors’ papers to our col-
Shaw’s Choir in Atlanta became popular. The lections if they have a direct national connection to the
Winter Olympic Committee selected Charles work of ACDA, while other conductors’ papers might
Hirt, a choral director from Los Angeles, to be better suited in appropriate regional archives that best
direct a choir at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw reflect those individuals’ contributions at a regional lev-
Valley, California. Following this, Walt Disney el.” Sometimes universities will house materials of dis-
asked Hirt to conduct a series of concerts at Dis- tinguished graduates, for example. For questions about
neyland’s Main Square USA in the early 1960s. the ACDA Collection, please contact the UIUC Sousa
Archives staff directly at sousa@illinois.edu.
Nearly fifteen years before the Civil Rights move-
ment gained national visibility, Elaine Brown, Hilary Apfelstadt is professor emerita of choral stud-
the director of Singing Cities in Philadelphia, ies at the University of Toronto. She is a past national
included African Americans in her choir. Brown ACDA president (2007-09) and past interim executive
was also the director of choral music at Temple director of ACDA (2020-21).
University, one of many universities where cho-
ral music grew in importance.
NOTES
Meanwhile at the University of Illinois, Harold
Decker established the first doctoral degree pro- 1 For detailed information on the context of this program,
gram for choral conducting, causing Decker and see Marvin E. Latimer, “The Nation’s First D.M.A. in
the University of Illinois to become leaders in Choral Music: History, Structure, and Pedagogical Im-
the movement to educate generations of choral plications,” Journal of Historical Research in Music Educa-
directors. tion 32, no. 1 (2010): 19–36. A more recent document
about the program is Andrew Bruhn’s 2023 DMA dis-
This exhibit highlights the work of four of sertation, “The History of the University of Illinois
America’s leading 20th-century choral directors Urbana-Champaign Graduate Choral Music Program,
who shaped the nation’s choral music traditions: 1958–2023.”
Robert Shaw, Elaine Brown, Harold Decker, 2 https://archon.library.illinois.edu/archives/index.
and Charles Hirt. php?p=collections/controlcard&id=13001&q=AC-
DA+archives
3 Readers may be interested in Janet Yamron and Sonya Gar-
Conclusion finkle, “Elaine Brown: Breaking Down Barriers through
The ACDA Archives housed at the University of Il- Song,” Choral Journal 58, no 5 (December 2017): 24–32.
linois Urbana-Champaign provides a wealth of artifacts 4 https://www.library.illinois.edu/sousa/2023/10/25/new-
and information that sheds light on our profession and sousa-archives-exhibit-opens-today-at-the-krannert-
some of its outstanding luminaries of the twentieth cen- center/
tury. Many of these people not only set high standards
for choral music but also served ACDA in leadership
roles as national presidents and conductors of perform-

68 CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7