Happy second semester! I hope you are off to a great start and are making beautiful music with your students. I know we all have been reminded in the last few weeks of the importance of remaining flexible and patient not just with our students, but with ourselves and the many obstacles that are put in our way. Thank you for remaining positive when we encounter these barriers and for teaching your students to do the same.

AMEA Conference

I am deeply disappointed that we were not able to see each other at the AMEA conference this year. Please know that the decision to cancel was not made lightly, and that we were all very upset to have to make such a tough decision. There were many consequences to the cancellation, including not being able to hear the beautiful performances from the Hartselle High School Chamber Chorale, Hewitt-Trussville High School Chamber Choir, Indian Springs School Chamber Choir, Jacksonville State University A Cappella Choir, and the University of North Alabama Collegiate Singers and Chamber Choir. I know the performances would have been fantastic and I want to personally thank the students and directors for their hard work and preparation for these performances. I also want to extend a special thank you to the AVA board who put in a tremendous amount of work to prepare for this conference. Your attention to detail and work ethic was greatly appreciated and a huge help to me.

Thankfully, we have rescheduled our Gospel Honor Choir for March 22 at First Baptist Huntsville. We will rehearse during the day and combine our concert with the All-State Elementary Choir that evening. We are thankful for the work of our directors and clinicians who were able to make this rescheduled event happen.

General Membership Updates

Thank you to everyone who helped our All-State auditions run so smoothly. I was extremely pleased with the number of students we had to register and audition. I am confident that we are returning to our pre-covid numbers with our auditionees. Your students were well-prepared and they should be proud to be a part of truly the best choral students in our state. We are still looking to streamline the audition process. If you are a member of our All-State teacher panel, please be looking for a survey about our audition process and new options for auditions.

Our All-State Show Choir auditions also went very smoothly this year. We had an increased number of auditionees for this event, and the judges were impressed with the quality of auditions. Thank you to Cameron Johnson for continuing to facilitate our All-State Show Choir. The All-State Show Choir Festival will be held at Hartselle High School on April 24-26.

All-State Choral Festival

I am looking forward to seeing you all at the All-State Choral Festival on February 29-March 2 at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex. I am excited for our conductors Eric Barnum, Julie Yu-Oppenheim, Jeffrey Benson, Alex Gartner, and D’Walla Simmons-Burke. This year, we are thrilled to have as our guests at convocation, the Miles College Choir under the direction of Mrs. Valerie Harris and the University fo Alabama Singers under the direction of Dr. Morgan Luttig.

A few reminders for our upcoming festival:

• All students who were selected for All-State must pay the registration fee, even if they choose not to participate in the festival.
• Please encourage students to review their music prior to the festival.
• The state high school basketball championships will be happening at the Legacy Arena during this time, so please be aware that parking will be even more difficult than usual.

Reminders

Deadlines for State Choral Performance Assessment and Solo and Ensemble are quickly approaching. Please be sure to register early in order to secure your preferred performance time. Please remember to check deadlines prior to registering so that no late fees are incurred.

I hope that your semester is going smoothly and is filled with beautiful music-making with your students. I look foward to seeing you at All-State. As always, if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please contact me at hilen.wilson.ava@gmail.com.

Thank you, Hilen Wilson

It was wonderful to see so many of you at this year’s Fall Workshop. We greatly appreciate Dr. Melinda Doyle and the University of Montevallo for hosting us again this year. I want to reiterate my gratitude to you for being flexible and positive throughout the workshop as we encountered obstacles. I walked away from the workshop with lots of beneficial activities and ideas for my classroom. Thank you again to Matthew Gawronski for serving as our clinician and the AVA Board for helping facilitate a successful event.

CHANGES FOR 2023-2024

Here are the changes that were shared during our Fall Workshop General Membership Meeting:

• We have accepted a bid from Sweet Spot Live Recordings to record our All-State Choral Festival performances. Recordings and videos will be sent via Dropbox link to each director to share with students and will not be on a flash drive this year.
• The State Choral Performance Assessment Standing Rule E.1.a.ii now states:
• “Any director of any level choir may choose to read an example with one voice part less than their highest performance voicing but must provide a rationale for this adjustment on the auxiliary information form. For example, a choir performing SSA and SA on stage may sight-read SSA or SA in the sight-reading room.”
• Judges for State Choral Performance Assessment will participate in a training that consists of watching three different level choirs, completing an adjudication rubric, and scoring the choirs.
• The membership voted and approved the following proposal: “Any community choir student who does not have a school choral program may participate in AVA events with a director who is an AVA member.”
• An All-State Teacher Panel has begun working on evaluating our All-State audition process and will continue working throughout the year to implement changes for the 2024-2025 school year.
• All-State Show Choir will be held on April 24-26 at Hartselle High School.

ALL-STATE AUDITIONS AND FESTIVAL

All-State auditions are fast approaching.  Prior to the auditions, please make sure that your students have all of the required pieces, including “Alabama;” that all of their measures have been numbered; and that their adjudicator forms have been signed by a parent. Please ensure that all adjudication forms have been completely filled out prior to the audition. Also, be certain to follow the instruction pages included in the music packets to ensure that your students are learning the correct notes for your district.

A few reminders about auditions:

• There may be no substitutions the day of the audition. The students that are registered are the ones who audition.
• Students who are sick on their audition day are welcome to audition at any other site, but virtual or makeup auditions will not be accepted.
• Students who are accepted into the All-State choirs will have to pay their registration fee, whether or not they attend the festival.

Our All-State Choral Festival will be held at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Alabama on February 29-March 2, 2024. Our clinicians will be:

• High School SATB: Eric Barnum, Drake University
• High School SSAA: Julie Yu-Oppenheim, Oklahoma City University
• High School TTBB: Jeffrey Benson, San Jose State University
• Middle School Mixed: Alex Gartner, Pensacola Children’s Chorus
• Middle School Treble: D’Walla Simmons-Burke, Winston-Salem State University

AMEA CONFERENCE

The 2024 AMEA Conference will be January 18-20 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Our guest clinician will be Francis Cathlina, the Director of Choral Activities at University of Memphis. He will present three sessions including: Intentional Voice Building Through an 8-Step Warmup, 7 Essentials for Developing Voices in Choir, and a conducting masterclass with 4 of our directors. I am thrilled to have him at our conference, and I hope you all will attend his wonderful sessions!

Congratulations to all the choirs who were accepted to perform at the conference.  We are looking forward to performances from the Hewitt-Trussville High Chamber Choir, University of North Alabama Collegiate Singers, Jacksonville State University A Capella Choir, Hartselle High School Chamber Choir, and Indian Springs Chamber Choir. It is a great honor to be selected to perform during this state-wide conference, so please be sure to come and support these groups and enjoy the music they are going to share.

We will also have a Gospel High School Honor Choir led by Valerie Harris, the Director of Choral Activities at Miles College. Directors may send up to two balanced quartets of students in grades 9-12 to participate in this honor choir. This is going to be a fantastic experience for our students and I cannot wait to hear them on Friday night at our AMEA conference.

I am looking forward to seeing you all at our upcoming All-State auditions as well as at our conference in January.  Until then, if I can be of help in any way or if you have any suggestions or ideas, please contact me at hilen.wilson.ava@gmail.com. See you soon!

Hilen Wilson

AVA President