Collegiate Choral Festival

​The Collegiate Choral Festival is an annual, non-competitive and educational choral festival held each November. The 2025 festival will be held at Samford University. 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 Shaun Gates of Sweet Spot Recordings, LLC (www.sweetspotlive.com) 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 two week turn around 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.

1. Registration

Please take a moment to complete this registration form so we may have record of your participation.  We will use the information you provide to devise a schedule that best suits all participants.  Membership in ACDA is not required, but encouraged.  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.

REGISTRATION (PER CHOIR) THROUGH OCTOBER 9, 2025: $250.00
REGISTRATION (PER CHOIR) AFTER OCTOBER 9, 2025: $300.00

Collegiate Choral Festival Registration - NOW open

ACDA MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION

2. Payment

Send  payment by check or credit card (see below). Make checks payable to Alabama ACDA.  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.

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

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.

3. Program

Email Dr. Eliezer Yanson Jr. your anticipated program with composers' dates and translations of any non-English text. Program information deadline is October 10th.