NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State University Chamber Choir has been selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Southern Regional Conference in February in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Chamber Choir, conducted by Director of Choral Activities Dr. Nicholas B. Cummins, was selected by a blind audition of recordings submitted in April. More than 100 other choirs from the 11-state southern region supplied recordings. Northwestern State is just the second Louisiana institution chosen to perform at the conference. The Southern ACDA is the largest division of the six regions in the national ACDA conference and holds its meeting every two years. Northwestern State was selected along with Florida State, East Carolina, The University of Georgia, and Middle Tennessee State.
“To be one of the four or five collegiate choirs selected for Southern ACDA is the one of the highest honors our profession offers for choirs and their conductors,” said Cummins. “The only other higher honor is being selected for a National ACDA or NCCO. The Southern ACDA Auditions process is the most difficult of all the regions in National ACDA and I am very excited and proud of the Northwestern Chamber Choir being one of the selected choirs.”
At the conference, the Chamber Choir will sing the live premier of an arrangement of “My Old Kentucky Home” that was featured on the choir’s CD released in May 2023 and commissioned by composer Richard Burchard.
This is the second time in six years Northwestern State’s Chamber Choir has received a major conference invitation. The Choir performed at the 2019 National Collegiate Choral Organization National Conference in Maryland.
The Northwestern Chamber Choir, founded in 1987, is the flagship choral ensemble at Northwestern State. The Northwestern Chamber Choir is made up of 34 undergraduates encompassing various majors throughout the university. The choir often collaborates with composers and conductors for projects. The Northwestern Chamber Choir was the featured choir at the 2017 Louisiana Music Educators Association conference. In 2021, they placed in the top four of the Leonardo da Vinci Choral Competition in Florence, Italy. The Chamber Choir has also placed second in the Laurea Mundi Budapest in Budapest, Hungary, and Second and Best Interpretation in the AVE VERUM ICC in Baden, Austria.
