Promising Practices and Core (al) Innovation

Abstract

I want to use innovation as the organizing principle for this presentation, to help us get a handle on a complex area. I am going to frame innovation in the three-tiered classification system that helps me as I direct the work of the American Choral Directors Association. Using the categories of core innovation, adjacent innovation, and transformational innovation, my aim is to survey “Promising Practices” in the choral art around the word, as well as survey innovation taking place at the core of our art. As Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association, it is my joy and opportunity to view and experience a wide variety of choral practice, in the United States as well as beyond our borders. As you would deduce, my motivation is first and foremost to assist our members in ACDA to fulfill our choral mission, which is to inspire excellence in choral music through education, performance, composition, and advocacy. These four pillars—education, performance, composition, and advocacy—therefore form something of a secondary structure to this presentation.