As you are making plans for your new season of musical activities, make sure that our SWACDA 2012 conference in Dallas is on your schedule! We have so many wonderful experiences planned for this year’s conference that an extra day to the month of February was added to make it all fit!

Join me in the Dallas Arts District Wednesday, February 29 through Saturday, March 3, 2012 for SWACDA Conference – A Community of Choral Musicians!

We welcome the Middle School/Junior High Conference co-hosted by ACDA and Cambiata Institute of America as a pre-conference event. Special focus will be placed on best practices that deal with the very difficult middle years of music education and performance. The conference features Junior High/Middle School Classroom Choirs, presentations by leaders in the area including Kari Gilbertson, Rollo Dilworth, Patrick Freer, Mary Jane Phillips, Judy Bowers, Rebecca Reames and Alan McClung. A Research Poster Presentation and Cambiata Composition Initiative and Contest. $10 will allow you to add the Middle School/Junior High Conference to your regular SWACDA conference registration.

The first concert session of SWACDA Conference features some of the best of the best in very diverse genres. I am excited to announce that the Crystal Children’s Choir, Orpheus Chamber Singers, Vocal Majority and Street Corner Symphony will join us on Wednesday, February 29 to perform in the lovely and nostalgic Majestic Theater. 

You will be awed and inspired with performances by the 21 choirs who were selected from the 97 choirs who sent in audition recordings. These choirs will perform for us in the Majestic Theater, Guadelupe Cathedral and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. Please see the list of these choirs and their directors on our website.

Evensong is hosted by Dana Efler and the First United Methodist Church on Thursday early evening. In addition to this special worship service, there will be several sessions geared toward the church musician.

Please take advantage of our six Honor Choir opportunities. The deadline for submitting on-line applications for the four graded honor choirs is October 3, 2011. We are using the same on-line process as was used for the National Honor Choirs. Please go to: http://acdasw.opusevent.com/ to register your singers for a graded honor choir. Application forms for the Collegiate and the Church/Community Honor Choirs can be found on our website. The deadline for Collegiate Honor Choir applications is September 15. The deadline for the Church/Community Honor Choir is November 15.

The Sheraton Dallas serves as our headquarter hotel and will host Honor Choir rehearsals, Interest Sessions, Reading Sessions and Round Table Sessions as well as the Exhibits. It is not too early to make your hotel reservations with the Sheraton Dallas to ensure that you will be right in the middle of all the activities. Single to Quad - $159 plus tax (15%). All reservations should be made directly with the Sheraton Dallas Hotel. 1-888-627-8191 or online at: http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/StarGroupsWeb/res?id=1106216835&key=A7E2B. Indicate that you are part of the SWACDA and list everyone who will be staying in the room.

The only thing that would make this conference even better is for us to have record attendance as we bring our community of choral musicians together for inspiration, education and comradeship.

See you in Dallas!

Margie Camp

SWACDA President