CMEA Choral Festival Returns

by Stacey Kikkawa

After a two-year hiatus, the 2023 CMEA State Choral Festival took place at Meng Hall on the campus of California State University, Fullerton in Southern California! This beautiful day in Orange County highlighted the following choirs, with the following clinicians:

Particpaitng Choirs

• Encore High School for the Arts Women’s Choir - Robert W. Hekel, director (Hesperia, CA)

• La Quinta High School Vocal Ensemble - Darlene Machacon, director (Westminster, CA)

• Robert F. Kennedy High School Song Birds - Marlex Booc, director (Bakersfield, CA)

• University High School Madrigals - Rob Blaney, director (Irvine, CA)

• Troy High School Vocal Ensemble - Mark Henson, director (Fullerton, CA)

• Trabuco Hills High School Chamber Choir - Kenneth Haro, director (Mission Viejo, CA)

• Norco High School Madrigals - Rachelle Randeen, director (Norco, CA)

Clinicians:

• Julie Dana (President-Elect of Western ACDA, past Choral and Vocal Professor at Fresno City College)

• Dr. Arian Khaefi (Director of Choral Studies, San Diego State University)

• Dr. Christopher Peterson (Director of Choral Music Education, California State University, Fullerton, current CCDA President)

Each school walked away with the following:

• A musical day of artistic and diverse repertoire!

• An on-stage clinic with one of our amazing adjudicators

• A CMEA participation plaque with each school’s name and director

• A digital on-stage photograph for each school’s social media distribution

• Printed programs to distribute to school’s Administrators and archives

• An audio recording of their performance and clinic

• Audio comments from each adjudicator

Lots of thanks to Trish Adams, Chad Zullinger, and Anne Fennell for their leadership and guidance for this event! A special thank you to the student volunteers from the Vocal Music Program at Troy High School, and the TRI-M Chapter #7054 at Fullerton Union High School - the day went smoothly with their help as ushers and guides. Thank you also to Dr. Christopher Peterson and the staff at CSUF for hosting a beautiful day of music making. Lastly, I really want to thank the directors and all of the singers - it was so lovely to listen to all of your performances from application to stage. You are really the heroes in all of this!

The State Choral Festival switches to Northern California next year! It will be on April 2, 2024, at Weill Hall in the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University. Applications are live at calmusiced.com, and are due on September 1, 2023. We hope to see you there!