Funded organization, program director & location

Angel City Chorale
Heather Catalena, Creative Director, Angel City Youth Chorale
Los Angeles, CA, ACDA Western Region

Project information

Based on pilot program work started prior to the pandemic, the Angel City Chorale will establish Angel City Youth Chorale (ACYC) ensembles within two locations in 2022-23. ACYC is non-auditioned and meets for 1.5 hours a week at a variety of locations including Title 1 school sites, housing developments, and Boys & Girls Clubs. Participants enjoy a variety of music education activities from theory and history to learning and demonstrating performance skills. Funding from the ACDA Fund for Tomorrow will support costs related to music licensing, venue rentals, snacks & water for children during rehearsals and concerts and help meet transportation needs for rehearsals and concerts. Grant amount: $4,500.00.

Funded organization, program director & location

The Bel Canto Children’s Chorus (BCCC) of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem/Bethlehem Area School District
Joy Hirokawa, Founder & Artistic Director, BCCC
Tiffany Tarleton, elementary music teacher, Bethlehem Area School District
Pennsburg, PA, ACDA Eastern Region

Funded organization, program director & location

Children’s Chorus of Washington
Margaret Nomura Clark, Artistic Director
Washington, DC, ACDA Eastern Region

Project information

The Children’s Chorus of Washington (CCW) will undertake a concert tour to destinations crucial to the story and success of the Underground Railroad. The journey will be told through song and is focused on honoring the bravery of Harriet Tubman, who helped lead tens of thousands of enslaved people to freedom. Beginning in Washington, D.C., the choir will travel north and sing at influential Railroad stops along their journey, including Philadelphia, Delaware, and Harriet Tubman’s final resting place of Auburn, New York. The choir will also premiere a composition created expressly for this project at each tour performance by esteemed Black composer Dr. Brandon Williams. Video and journaling documentation will be created by directors and students to share insights and experiences, as well as inspire tours like this for other choirs. Materials will be made available free of charge to support efforts of other choirs who would like to undertake this or a similar project-based tour with their choirs. Funds from ACDA’s Fund for Tomorrow will be used to support the costs for professional musicians and accompanists along the tour. Grant amount: $5,000.00.

Funded organization, program director & location

The Choir School of Delaware
Arreon A. Harley-Emerson, Director of Music and Operations
Wilmington, DE, ACDA Eastern Region

Project information

Bent But Not Broken: The Choral Music of Black Composers conference will feature a choir festival that will be the first of its kind, providing developing singers, ages 12-17 of backgrounds, an immersive experiential learning opportunity to perform idiomatic and non-idiomatic choral repertoire written by Black composers. Choir experiences feature Black women conductors, Maria Ellis and Alysia Lee. The choirs will perform a new commissioned work by Dr. Rollo Dilworth and will have a masterclass with Evertt McCorvey and the American Spirituals Ensemble. A guided tour of Wilminton’s Underground Railroad sites and a lecture by author Dr. Eileen Guenther on the use of Spirituals as coded messages on the Underground Railroad will ensure that music-making and learning is also contextualized for students within place and history. Support from ACDA’s Fund for Tomorrow will ensure that all participating students can access this opportunity free of charge. Grant amount: $5,000.00

Funded organization, program director & location

Columbia Choirs Association
Katrina Turman, Artistic Director
Seattle, WA, ACDA Northwestern Region

Project information

The Columbia Choirs Day Camp will provide a five-day musical experience for children and youth in the Redmond area of Washington State. Days at camp are filled with group singing, introductory music literacy, games, dancing, and community building activities. The camp culminates in a free performance for the local community. While the camp has historically been held for Columbia Choir members only, this year the camp seeks to expand offerings to nonmembers and in partnership with local youth-serving nonprofits to expand opportunities for children and youth who might not have ever had a choral experience before. Funding from ACDA’s Fund for Tomorrow will provide financial aid packages for students to attend the camp at a greatly reduced cost or for free. Grant amount: $2,000.00.

Funded organization, program director & location

Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C.
C. Paul Heins, Director of GenOUT Youth Chorus
Washington, DC, ACDA Eastern Region

Project information

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s GenOUT Youth Chorus has embarked on a five-year plan to proactively welcome people of color, especially youth in southeast Washington, D.C. As part of the Year 3 plan, GenOUT wil locate half of its fall 2022 rehearsals to The ARC, a community arts center in southeast D.C. The goals of the five-year plan are to (a) build awareness of the people, places, and policies that are part of the racist past and present, as well as our own biases and privilege; (2) inspire and empower GenOUTers to fight racial injustice; and (3) make GenOUT proactively welcoming to people of color, which requires investment in the communities where the missing voices in the ensemble are located. Funding from ACDA’s Fund for Tomorrow will support the cost of The ARC rehearsal space for GenOUT to hold rehearsals in D.C.’s Ward 8 community. Grant amount: $2,000.00.

Funded organization, program director & location

Roosevelt High School Rider Choirs
Jean-Marie Kent, Director of Choirs
Seattle, WA, ACDA Northwestern Region

Project information

Project Citizen Oratorio is a performing arts experience focused on a social issue that has building better musicians and better citizens at its core. It emboldens singers to use music to speak against injustice and promote social change. Students in Roosevelt High School Rider Choirs choose a social issue that is meaningful to them. Students then will work with composers to create two, new compositions that speak to the issue and tie all of the ideas together for opening and closing numbers of an oratorio. Additionally, in small groups under the guidance of professional songwriters, students compose original songs that address the complexity and capture the emotional intensity of the issue. Throughout the process, singers learn from experts about the complexity of the social issue. They volunteer with local organizations and write to their local politicians to advocate for change. The capstone choral compositions and the student songs are sewn together with a narrative thread that gives voice to the urgency of the issue. With drama, movement and visuals, students present a culminating concert for their peers, families, community and stakeholders of the issue. Funding from ACDA’s Fund for Tomorrow will support the program costs related to this commissioning project. Grant amount: $1,000.00.