NC ACDA ELECTION RESULTS

President-Elect

Congratulations to José Rivera!

José Rivera has been elected as NC ACDA's new President-Elect, with a term beginning on July 1, when Jeremy Tucker takes the role of President and Wendy Looker becomes Past President. José's term of office as President-Elect runs for two years, after which he will move into the role of President.



José is a long-time advocate and active participant in ACDA. José serves as an Associate Professor of Choral Music, Coordinator of Music Education, and conducts the University Chorale at the University of North Carolina- Pembroke. José just completed serving a six-year term as ACDA National Chair for Ethnic-Multicultural Music and currently serves on the NCMEA Board as Teacher Education chair. Read José’s bio here.

The International Tuba Euphonium Association has chosen two arrangements of early music by female composers arranged by Dr. Joanna Ross Hersey for the upcoming 2021 Tuba Euphonium Conference. This conference will be held virtually, and features competitions, where students will learn assigned repertoire to present to a panel of judges. Dr. Hersey’s works by Medieval composers Beatriz de Dia and Hildegard von Bingen have been selected for inclusion in the Euphonium Solo category. 

Beatriz, Comtessa de Dia, lived a life which remains fascinatingly mysterious to us, even today. We know her musical compositions in her native France were popular enough with her audiences, that they were included in the Chansonnier du Roi, a medieval collection of songs. This phenomenal book, written around 1260, and containing more than six hundred songs, has survived until this day, and may be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. While only about five of her works have survived, Beatriz was a part of a strong music composition and performance tradition we today refer to as troubadour, the female version of the designation being trobairitz. These performers shared poetry in the Occitan language, set to music, with text that often dealt with courtly matters, love and lost love being a favorite central theme.  

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), medieval nun, composer, author, and theorist, lived and worked in Germany. Hildegard joined the convent at Disibodenberg as a young girl, traveling the seventeen miles from her home in the neighboring town of Bingen. When Hildegard arrived there, in the year 1112, she found a quiet and peaceful setting, the convent buildings in harmony with the surrounding forest and farmland.  Hildegard flourished under the creative atmosphere she found there, and after receiving her education, stayed into adulthood, and became Abbess in 1136, overseeing all operations of the thriving community of nuns. Hildegard went on to become a major political figure, author, and spiritual leader. She later left Disibodenberg to found two more convents, and wrote scientific and medical treatises, as well as music for services at the convent, much of which has been preserved.