CASMEC & ACDA WESTERN DIVISION CONFERENCE

by Julie Dana

CCDA, the California Band Directors’ Association, the California Music Educators’ Association, the California Alliance for Jazz, and the California Orchestra Directors’ Association are excited to welcome you all to Fresno on February 17-19, 2022, as the California All-State Music Education Conference returns in person! There are wonderful new things coming to CASMEC 2022, including a new venue for our Friday Choral Performances at Fresno City College’s beautiful Old Administration Building Auditorium. This venue is a wonderful place to experience choral music, and we are excited to be hosting our invited choirs in this glorious space!

As in the past, this conference offers attendees interest sessions, guest ensemble performances, and reading sessions for every level and musical interest.

We are pleased to announce our 2022 guest performing choirs and their conductors:

Ayala High School Women’s Ensemble (Robert Davis, director) Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Women’s Chorus (Dr. Scott Glysson)

Clovis North High School Women’s Chorale

(Heather Bishop) Fresno State University Concert Choir (Dr. Cari Earnhart) G Clef from Bullis Charter School (David Belles) Los Osos High School Chamber Singers (Bethany Encina)

Once again the conference will host our All-State Honor Choirs and the Choral Leadership Academy. We are grateful to Fresno State for hosting the honor choir rehearsals as they did in 2020. The Honor Choir concerts will be on Saturday, February 19 at Saroyan Hall in downtown Fresno. For more information, check out the Honor Choir article in this issue!

The Choral Leadership Academy, led by John Sorber, is a wonderful way to engage your student choral leaders with hands-on experiences they can carry into their future profession. Dr. Kevin Fenton from Florida State will be this year’s headliner for the two-day CLA. This experience has been an amazing opportunity for participants to learn not only from their headliner, but from one another as they interact and collaborate to bring choral music to life. This experience is open to university, community college and high school students. Space is limited, so start considering whom you might encourage now.

Please tell any instrumental colleagues who are also teaching choral music that several of these sessions would be a wonderful information source for them as well! There are some exciting and innovative sessions being offered this year, including:

Better Together: Strategies that allow choral directors and voice teachers to work cohesively toward the creation of fulfilling, healthy, diverse,

and inclusive experiences for our students (Jenny Bent, Justin Montigne)

Musical Ice Breakers for Inclusion, Diversity,

Equity, and Access (I.D.E.A.) (Carlin Truong)

Tools of the Trade: Utilizing Kodály Method Strategies in the Secondary Choral Classroom

(Angel M. Vázquez-Ramos)

Never Gonna Give You Up: CTE and music

technology beyond COVID (Molly Peters)

A Special Session with Dr. Kevin Fenton Inclusive Vocal Pedagogy for the Choral Rehearsal

(Olga Perez Flora, Desiree La Vertu, and Lori Marie Rios)

Honoring Trans and Gender-Expansive Singers

(Joshua Palkki and Matthew Garrett)

No Frills Family Time: 5 Keys to the Connected

and Plugged-In Choir (Corie Brown)

This conference brings together all of us in music education, and it’s an important and rewarding time to experience concerts, sessions, and fellowship that celebrate music education in our state! We look forward to seeing you in Fresno for CASMEC 2022 February 17-19! 