2026 ACDA-MI Fall Conference
Emeritus Choir Director
GRAMMY Award winner Jerry Blackstone is a leading conductor and highly respected conducting pedagogue. Now emeritus professor of conducting, he served on the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance for thirty years where as director of choirs he led the graduate program in choral conducting and oversaw the University’s eleven choirs. In February 2006, he received two GRAMMY Awards (“Best Choral Performance” and “Best Classical Album”) as chorusmaster for the critically acclaimed Naxos recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The Naxos recording of Milhaud’s monumental L’Orestie d’Eschyle, on which Blackstone served as chorusmaster, was nominated for a 2015 GRAMMY Award (“Best Opera Recording”). Opera Magazine reviewer Tim Ashley wrote: “the real stars, though, are the University of Michigan’s multiple Choirs, who are faced with what must be some of the most taxing choral writing in the entire operatic repertory. Their singing has tremendous authority and beauty, while the shouts and screams of Choéphores are unnerving in the extreme. Their diction is good too: the occasions when we don’t hear the words are Milhaud’s responsibility, rather than theirs. It’s an extraordinary achievement, and utterly mesmerizing.”
The University of Michigan Chamber Choir, conducted by Blackstone, performed by special invitation at the inaugural conference in San Antonio of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) and presented three enthusiastically received performances in New York City at the National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). As conductor of the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club from 1988-2002, Professor Blackstone led the ensemble in performances at ACDA national and division conventions and on extensive concert tours throughout Australia, Eastern and Central Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States.
In 2017, NCCO presented him with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Membership Award and, in 2006, for “significant contributions to choral music,” he received the ACDA-Michigan chapter’s Maynard Klein Lifetime Achievement Award. From 2003-2015, Dr. Blackstone served as conductor and music director of the University Musical Society (UMS) Choral Union, a large community/university chorus that frequently appears with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and the Ann Arbor Symphony and presents yearly performances of Handel’s Messiah and other major works for chorus and orchestra. Choirs prepared by Blackstone have appeared under the batons of Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Leonard Slatkin, Hans Graf, Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams, Helmuth Rilling, James Conlon, Nicholas McGegan, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Peter Oundjian, and Yitzak Perlman.
Professor Blackstone is considered one of the country’s leading conducting teachers, and his students have been first place award winners and finalists in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions of ACDA’s biennial National Choral Conducting competition. His 2016 rehearsal techniques DVD, Did You Hear That? (GIA Publications) deals with the conductor’s decision-making process during rehearsal. Santa Barbara Music Publishing distributes Blackstone’s acclaimed educational DVD, Working with Male Voices and also publishes the Jerry Blackstone Choral Series.
Blackstone is an active guest conductor and workshop presenter and has appeared in forty-two states as well as New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Sicily. In the summer, he leads the Adult Choir Camp and the Choral Conducting Institute at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Intercollegiate Honor Choir
Dr. Derrick Fox is the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Creative Endeavors and a Professor of Choral Conducting at Michigan State University. Prior to MSU, he was the Director of Choral Activities and Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Ithaca College. Dr. Fox has taught at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. His conducting experiences have included singers from upper elementary choirs through collegiate and community choirs. He was awarded the 2021 Bryan R. Johnson Service Award by the Nebraska Music Educators Association and the 2022 University of Nebraska Omaha Award for Distinguished Research/Creative Activity.
Dr. Fox has conducted all state and regional choirs across the United States, led international, national and regional choral concerts/residencies and presented professional development workshops across the United States and internationally. His professional workshops focus on assessment in the choral classroom, building classroom community, rehearsal strategies, choral conducting techniques and shape note singing in the African American community. Dr. Fox has held teaching residencies at the Latvian Academy of Music and Syracuse University and led performance tours through Lithuania and Estonia. Dr. Fox conducted the 2019 National ACDA Middle School/Junior High Mixed Honor Choir and traveled to South Africa as a 2019 ACDA International Conductor Exchange Fellow where he led choral workshops and rehearsals in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Potchefstroom.
As a baritone soloist, Dr. Fox has collaborated with various organizations; among them are the Arkansas Symphony, Lansing Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Columbia Chorale, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha Symphonic Chorus, University of Missouri, Michigan State University, Webster University and the Espaço Cultural (Brasilia, Brazil). He can be heard singing selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess on the compact disc In This Hid Clearing, available on the Naxos Classical Music label.
As an author, Dr. Fox has written articles for many organizations and was a contributing author in the Hal Leonard/McGraw Hill choral textbook Voices in Concert. His compositions and arrangements are published by Hal Leonard and Brilee Music. His book, Yes You Can: A Band Director’s Guide to Teaching Choirs is published by Carl Fischer. He launched The Derrick Fox Choral Series with Music Spoke to publish works by and about marginalized and minoritized people. He also partnered with the Country Music Association Foundation to create the Unified Voices for Music Education Initiative which provides learning activities for instrumental and elementary music educators. He is the writer and host of the radio show Reflections of Us, a show focused on amplifying diverse voice in the classical music.
Dr. Fox serves on the advisory board for Sounding Spirit, a research lab and publishing initiative of Emory University’s Center for Digital Scholarship, which promotes collaborative engagement with the songbooks that sound America’s musical landscape.
Performing Choirs
Las Almas
Pam Pierson, Conductor
Hope College Chapel Choir
Eric Reyes, Conductor
Portage Central High School Treble Ensemble
Randi Simons-Miller, Conductor
Vanguard Voices
Kevin Dewey, Conductor
Interest Sessions
Empowered Ensembles: Building Student Leadership Through Routine – Katie Huzinga
“This session demonstrates how intentional daily routines serve as the primary engine for fostering student agency, leadership, and foundational musicianship. Drawing from a successful 6–12 choral model, this session provides a step-by-step walkthrough of a classroom routine designed to foster student autonomy. Attendees will explore how every segment of the choral rehearsal—from body warm-ups to score study—acts as a catalyst for independent musicianship. By navigating the nuances of a consistent, student-centered routine, participants will discover how structural anchors allow directors to step back while students take ownership of their own musical and social growth. This approach builds genuine student buy-in, variety, and ensemble community. Attendees will leave with a practical blueprint for developing a self-governing choir room, including a toolkit of engaging warm-ups, ensemble games, and pedagogical approaches that empower student leadership.”
A Community of Song: Starting or Revamping A Community Chorus – Thomas Larner
“This session gives attendees an opportunity to understand multiple perspectives of how to begin their own community chorus in their city or even revive a community chorus that was once thriving. Attendees will be able to understand how some conductors have started or revitalized their choruses along with the steps they took to do it. Attendees will also be able to take away strategies back to their own communities to not only start or revitalize their chorus, but to drive membership in their home choir, no matter the level.”
Political Music, Class of 1940: Lessons for Our Time – Clayton Parr
“With recent interest in choral works referring to issues of violence against marginalized groups in our society, this session looks back at two works written in and around 1940 on similar themes: A Child of Our Time by Michael Tippett, and William Grant Still’s And They Lynched Him on a Tree. In addition to an overview of the content, structure and message of these two works, we’ll look at the circumstances around their creation and reception, and how they were affected by racism, war, anti-Semitism, deportation, political assassination, state-sanctioned violence, homophobia and other issues of the time. Discussion of these issues as they relate to present-day realities of performing music with political overtones will close the session.”
A Very Good Place to Start: Solfege for Conductors & Singers – Dusty Francis
“Let’s start at the very beginning. There is no more powerful tool for improving music reading than the system whose first three notes just happen to be “do, re, mi.” Solfege is quick to learn, easy to implement, and unmatched in its ability to help singers and ensembles improve their music literacy and intonation. A novel sight-reading methodology built around scale function and the intrinsic tendencies of the tonal system empower singers and conductors of all skill and experience levels to find success quickly and easily. Participants will leave with practical warm ups, exercises, and pedagogical sequences to help singers grow in both musicianship and musicality in five to ten minutes each rehearsal.”
Chants and Chance: Ancient and Modern Techniques for Independent Musicianship – Rose Rodrigue
“Medieval monastics and avant-garde improvisatory musicians alike, from Hildegard von Bingen to Pauline Oliveros, understood the importance of the independent singer-listener. Participants will explore ways to incorporate these seemingly-disparate (and often overlooked) musical styles into their ensembles’ practice to revitalize their concert performances or worship services.”
Choral Programming and Popular Music – Andrew Martin
“In educational settings, perhaps a show choir, vocal jazz group, or other pop-specialty ensemble carries the popular music banner, allowing the concert choir to focus on segments of the repertoire deemed more “traditional” or “appropriate.” Certainly, many pop arrangements have been written specifically for these specialty groups, resulting in pieces with characteristics that simply may not suit the goals of a concert choirs—perhaps it is too focused on solo singing, maybe the choral writing is overly simplistic (or the parts are really just instrumental lines masquerading as vocal parts), or it demands an investment in developing a style of singing for which we cannot devote the necessary rehearsal time. Folk songs once faced a similar barrier to choral performance, but the creation of arrangements that meet the expectations of concert choirs has helped elevate folk music to equal status on the choral stage with the music of the Western art music canon. Are there arrangements of popular songs that also meet these expectations? Can popular music make the same leap in legitimacy? Through score examples and analysis, this session provides conductors with criteria for evaluating the characteristics of arrangements of popular music with respect to their idiomatic suitability to concert choirs, as compared to those arrangements that may better suit a pop-specialty ensemble. ”
Playful Pathways to Music Literacy – Amanda Goldberg
“This session equips educators with strategies to promote music literacy through play. Teaching students literacy can be daunting, but utilizing play-based strategies to reinforce and incorporate literacy into the classroom will help students find success quickly and find literacy-focused activities rewarding. This session will draw from multiple theoretical traditions to establish a shared understanding of what comprises music literacy, then to provide methods to incorporate a spiral of teaching through a play-based approach. These games, appropriate for all ages and settings, will incorporate audiation, dictation, and improvisation to ensure students are experiencing a well-rounded approach to developing music literacy. Educators will walk away with a comprehensive understanding of spiral sequencing when teaching music literacy, the value of audiation, dictation, and improvisation in the learning process, and how to implement these strategies in their classroom through play. By supporting literacy through a prism of approaches—rote, aural, visual, and kinesthetic—educators can better meet the needs of every learner. In doing so, we elevate the voices of students, giving all learners supported opportunities to be self empowered in their music making.”
Historical Choral Literature by Female Composers – Meredith Bowen
“This interest session highlights high-quality, accessible, historical choral repertoire by female composers that is artistically compelling and immediately practical for today’s ensembles. Participants will explore curated repertoire for treble and mixed choirs that balances musical depth with real-world considerations such as limited ranges, flexible voicing, and rehearsal efficiency. Repertoire includes works by historical composers, with strategies for integrating women composers across eras into existing concert programs. Attendees will leave with curated repertoire lists organized by voicing and difficulty, programming and pairing strategies that support inclusive canon expansion, and rehearsal and teaching insights for developing and advanced ensembles.”
The Sacred Sounds of The Black Church Experience – Ryan Bowie, Sadarra Fields, & Darrius Washington
“Through storytelling, sound, and song, we’ll journey through the legacy of African American spirituals and gospel music—and how they shaped the Black church, its worship, and the soul of Black America.”