Colleagues,

I hope you have had a great summer break and are refreshed and ready for a new and exciting new year. I’m sure we all look forward to reconnecting with our students and colleagues. Your AVA board had a productive summer board meeting and work session in June. We planned for all our AVA events to look more normal this year. Some highlights of the exciting AVA offerings for the year are below (please check myamea.org/ava for the most updated calendar):

Fall Workshop will be on September 10. Our keynote speaker is Jaclyn Normandie-Johnson, author of The Mindful Musician: Finding a Healthy Balance, lecturer, choral clinician, and Wellness Life Coach. There will also be reading sessions, and other professional development interest sessions led by our colleagues from around the state.

All-State Auditions will be face to face rather than virtual this year. We will continue to explore the possibility of virtual auditions in the future.

All-State Show Choir Auditions will be virtual again this year.

AMEA Conference will be in Birmingham January 20-22, 2022. Please plan to attend this professional development opportunity. There will be sessions for Elementary, Middle, and High School Teachers, and performances by some outstanding Alabama choruses. All-State Show Choir and Alabama Honor choir will also be a part of the conference.

All-State Show Choir will be January 20-22 at the AMEA conference. Auditions will be virtual.

Honor Choir will be January 20-22 at the AMEA conference. Honor Choir is open to students in grades 9- 12. This year’s Honor Choir will be a contemporary/vocal jazz choir. Information regarding screenings in each district will be available soon.

All-State will be March 10-12 in Birmingham.

State Choral Performance Assessments as well as Solo and Ensemble Adjudications will be held in person in each district.

If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to renew your NAfME membership so you and your students are eligible to take full advantage of AVA offerings.

I am pleased to announce that Meg Jones has been hired as the Executive Secretary, and Jim Schaeffer has been hired as the Webmaster. They had both been serving in these positions as interim employees. I thank them both for their willingness to continue to serve our vocal association.

Wishing you the best as you begin your school year,

Randall