Collegiate Choral Festival

​The Collegiate Choral Festival is an annual, non-competitive and educational choral festival held each November. This year's festival will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church in Huntsville, AL. Choirs representing two and four year colleges from across the state gather to perform concert literature for each other and enjoy the opportunity of working with a nationally recognized guest clinician. All two and four year schools in Alabama whose directors are members of ACDA are eligible to participate. Directors who are not currently members of ACDA are encouraged to join and participate in this festival. It is a wonderful day of music making and sharing, and we hope all collegiate choirs will be able to join us!

Each participating choir will have 20 minutes onstage to perform their chosen literature followed by a 20 minute offstage in-depth clinic with one of our clinicians. This time limit is established to allow a maximum number of choirs to participate. A piano will be available for use, though no accompanist will be provided.

Performances will be professionally recorded by Zac Upton and sent directly to the conductors of each choir. After the festival, he will mix and master each individual choir’s performance at his studio to get a very high-quality live recording. He has committed to a one week turnaround for this service.
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To balance the participating choirs' scheduling needs and to insure each performing choir an adequate audience, we will perform in two separate blocks, morning and afternoon, and allow schools to eat lunch off-site as they choose. The morning block will last roughly from 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. (depending on the number of participating ensembles), and the afternoon block will last roughly 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (again, depending on the number of participating ensembles).

While all participating choirs will be invited and encouraged to attend the full day, it will be necessary for a choir to attend the entire block in which they are performing. This means that in whichever block a choir performs, morning or afternoon, they will need to be seated in the audience from the beginning to the end (other than their performance time, of course!). No lunch will be provided on-site, so all are free to explore the offerings in the Montgomery area.

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Registration

The deadline for registration is Thursday, October 12, 2023. The registration fee is $250.00 per school choir, or $300.00 if registering after the October 12th deadline.

To register a choir for the Collegiate Choral Festival, please submit the following by October 12th:
1. Registration Form
2. Payment
3. Program Information

1. First, complete the online registration form. Register early! Space is limited, and requests for morning or afternoon blocks will be granted on a first come, first served basis. You will receive confirmation of performing block via email.

2. Send $250.00 payment ($300.00 if registering after October 12th) by check or credit card (see below). Make checks payable to Alabama ACDA.

Mail payment to:
Collegiate Choral Festival
Attn: Jordan Banks, ACDA treasurer
13401 Cooper Boyd Road
Cottondale, AL 35453

To pay by credit card, call Alabama ACDA Treasurer, Jordan Banks , at (205) 393-8028. The following information is required for credit card transactions: card number, expiration date, security code/CVV, and billing ZIP code. There is a 2.75% processing fee.

3. Email Dr. Eliezer Yanson Jr. your anticipated program with composers' dates and translations of any non-English text. Program information deadline is October 12th.

NOTE: Your school's registration fee must be paid to participate in the festival. Payment should be made prior to the festival or brought to the festival. As most schools' budgets turnover around October, we understand that there may be delays in receiving your payment. If you plan on participating but have complications and/or delays regarding the payment of fees, please go ahead and submit registration to reserve your spot right away and then follow up with payment as soon as possible. Remember, space is limited.

ACDA AS VENDOR: Most schools will require Alabama ACDA to become an official vendor in order to issue checks. This is easy to do, all your school will need is the Alabama ACDA W-9 form. If your school participated in the festival last year, there should likely be no need to repeat this process. If this is your first time participating (welcome!) then please make sure to take care of this as soon as possible to avoid undue delay.

For more information, contact the College and University Repertoire and Resources Chair and Alabama ACDA Collegiate Choral Festival coordinator, Dr. Eliezer Yanson Jr.

Guest Clinicians

Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt

University of Toronto
Professor Emerita of Choral Studies

Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt is Professor Emerita of Choral Studies at the University of Toronto where she held the Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting and received the inaugural Teaching Excellence Award in 2013. Previously she taught at the Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, after receiving her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her teaching experiences range from teaching public school to directing community ensembles and church choirs. From 2013 – 2018, she was Artistic Director of Exultate Chamber Singers in Toronto.

A native Canadian, she has performed with her university choirs at conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and at Podium, the national conference of Choral Canada. She has conducted honors choruses throughout Canada and the U.S., including more than 35 all-state high school choirs. She has directed choral festivals at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and throughout Europe.
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A prolific author, she has published numerous articles and book chapters. She is currently editing a book for GIA on female-identifying choral composers. Her book on the life and work of Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson, I Didn’t Want It To be Boring (Toronto: Prism Publishers) won Choral Canada’s award for the Outstanding Choral Publication in 2018. A Life Member of ACDA, Dr. Apfelstadt served as National President from 2007 - 2009 and as Interim Executive Director from 2020 - 2021. She has received leadership awards from NC-ACDA, Ohio CDA, ACDA Central Region, ACDA Midwestern Region, and Choirs Ontario.

Dr. Jason Max Ferdinand

University of Maryland
​Director of Choral Activities

Dr. Jason Max Ferdinand is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Maryland School of Music. He most recently served at Oakwood University as Professor of Music, Director of Choral Activities, and Chair of the Department of Music. He conducted the world-renowned Aeolians. He is the author of the book, Teaching with Heart: Tools for Addressing Societal Challenges Through Music, published by GIA and the editor of The Jason Max Ferdinand Choral Series, available through Walton Music. He maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and lecturer at schools, universities, churches, and choral festivals and conferences, both domestic and international.
In 2017, he earned the Outstanding Director, and the Aeolians were awarded the coveted “Choir of the World” title at the Llangollen International Musical Festival, in Wales. In 2018, his choir won three gold medals at the 10th World Choir Games held in South Africa and won the competition’s overall championship in both the Spirituals and University Choir categories. 

In 2018, he was named “Teacher of the Year” by Oakwood University. The Aeolians made their first appearance at the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in 2019 and the term “they broke ACDA” was used to describe their outstanding presentation. 
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He is the founding director of the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, which made their debut on the Voces8 concert series, Live From London. Ferdinand holds degrees from Oakwood University, Morgan State University, and a doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Cameron Weatherford

Lee University
Assistant Professor of Music

Dr. Cameron Weatherford serves as Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee where he conducts the Ladies of Lee, Choral Union, and teaches courses in the undergraduate and graduate choral music curriculums.
Dr. Weatherford has served as an educator and conducted award-winning ensembles at both the secondary and collegiate levels for over a decade. He has conducted numerous honor choirs and has served as an adjudicator both nationally and internationally.
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In 2017, he won first place in the National ACDA Graduate Conducting Competition in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2016, he was awarded the Outstanding Young Music Educator Award by the Louisiana Music Educators Association.

Dr. Weatherford holds a B.M. in Church Music from Louisiana College, a M.M. in Choral Conducting from The University of Southern Mississippi, and a DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Kentucky. He lives in Cleveland, Tennessee with his wife Caroline and their four children, Hudson, Annie, Scout, and Betsy.