Andrew Henderson and Mary Huff attended the ACDA conference in Cincinnati last week. Here are a few thoughts from their trip: 

In recent years (minus Covid), Andrew and I found ourselves using our MAPC Continuing Education time to contribute to the larger church through leading conferences, workshops, guest conducting, organ recitals and masterclasses. While we have started to field requests for our return to such ventures, we found ourselves in the position of being able to attend a national conference for the American Choral Directors Association. With a conference theme of making all voices heard, we attended to deliberately learn outstanding choral music, new and old, from female and black composers particularly, as well as hear recently published works from many different living composers. 

We were able to hear a performance by a stellar new choir, the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, as well as a performance by the Cincinnati Symphony & Chorus of Nathaniel Dett’s oratorio, The Ordering of Moses. Meetings with composers Cecilia McDowall, Jocelyn Hagen, Marques Garrett, Benedict Sheehan, and Trevor Weston were exciting, and we look forward to sharing their music with MAPC in the future.  

Other highlights were attending performances in the beautiful, historic Music Hall and Plum Street Temple, both architectural gems; attending worship on Ash Wednesday at Christ Church Cathedral and hearing their new Richards Fowkes organ; having dinner with Dr. Michael Unger, organ professor at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music; and meeting Martha Shaw, conductor of the Spivey Hall Children’s Chorus, a program after which our NYC Children’s Chorus is modeled.  

A final planning meeting with KI Concerts and their France specialist yielded a final itinerary for the NYC Children’s Chorus’s proposed 2024 tour to France with concerts in Evreux, Normandy, Mont-Saint-Michel, and Paris, including a concert at La Madeleine on July 4, 2024. Sightseeing in Giverny, Bayeux, and Paris round out a culturally enriching experience to mirror an outstanding musical experience.  

A trip to Cincinnati wouldn’t be complete without several visit to Graeter’s Ice Cream and lunch at Skyline Chili.