Inside ACDA-MN

By Jamie Andrews

ACDA-MN Election Results

Welcome to these three new board members who will begin their term on July 1, 2025.  

James Cox (6-year term: 2025-2031)
Eagan High School
President-elect

Randi Erlandson (3-year term: 2025-2028)
Prior Lake High School
Metro West District

Chris Mason (3-year term: 2025-2028)
University of Minnesota-Duluth
Northeast District

Bri Bergstrom (3-year term: 2025-2028)
S. Peter Public Schools
Southwest District

We wish to thank outgoing State Vice President Stephanie Trump for her outstanding leadership and service to our organization over the past six years!

We also wish to thank the following outgoing board member for their outstanding leadership and service to ACDA-MN over the past three years:

Bryan Fisher
Metro West District

Adam Giebner
Northeast District

Kerry Johnson
Worthington High School
Southwest District

2025 Summer Dialogue

Collaboration

Save the date and join the ACDA-MN community for the 39th annual Summer Dialogue at Concordia College in Moorhead. There will be many engaging interest sessions that target all levels of teaching have been planned by conference chair and ACDA-MN President Jerry Upton.

Highlights include: 

• Jo Ann Miller – keynote address: Building Community Through Singing, & clinician for the annual Student Conductor Workshop
• Matthew & Michael Culloton  – Directors’ Chorus co-conductors
• Paige Armstrong, Joe Osowski, Emma Silvestri – Align, Adapt, Achieve: Choral Collaboration in a Changing World
• Steven Albaugh, Michelle Bendett – Raise Your Voice, Open Your Heart and Sing Together: Strategies for Successful Collaborations
• Amy Jo Cherner, Jim Cox, Adam Geibner – Stop, Collaborate, and Listen: Fostering Partnership in the Choir Office  
• Colleen Chester – Songs of HERstory: Choral Music Highlighting the Lives of Historically Significant Women
• Bryan Fisher – Real Talk with Bryan
• Michael Buck – Creating a More Inclusive Choral Class for English Learner & Accommodation and Modification in Choral Classes
• Diane Heaney, Zack Carlson-Giving, Jamie Andrews – IDEA Fund: Choral Mentorship Program
• Wendy Suoja, Amy Jo Cherner, Jim Cox, Kristen Kivell, moderator: Honor Choir Audition Primer
• Kristina Boerger: TS’MINDAO GHMERTO!
• Sam Grace – Embracing the Power of Creative Collaboration
• Zack Carlson-Giving – Recruitment, Retention, and Rigor: Building Stronger High School Choir Programs
• Jon Cambell – A Cappella for Everyone: Fresh Idea for Unaccompanied Singing
• All-State Conductor Panel with
  • Timothy Sawyer – guest conductor of the All-State Mixed Choir
  • Adrianna Tam – guest conductor of the All-State SA Choir
  • Bradley Miller – guest conductor of the All-State TB Choir

The Wednesday opening day schedule will feature the 14th annual Exhibits Fair with exhibitors representing undergraduate and graduate schools, tour companies, fundraising and attire specialists, composers, music vendors, community and professional choirs.

Online Summer Dialogue registration is open with
early discount registration rates available until June 15.

Make your summer complete by attending Summer Dialogue!

For more information and to register visit: acda-mn.org

State Conference 2025

Save the date! November 14 & 15 is slated for the annual State Conference located at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi.

Featuring a wide array of interest sessions for our members who lead choirs at the elementary, middle school, high school, college/university, church, community and professional levels. Saturday will feature the inaugural festival choir specifically for older adults. This day-long festival will consist of singers ages 55+ from across Minnesota. Conducted by Natalia Romero Arbeláez. Stay tuned for more information.  

Encouraging choirs representation from all seven districts of the state, Conference Chair and ACDA-MN President-elect Mark Johnson has charged each District Chair to personally invite choirs to appear on the conference performance schedule. The result will again be a fascinating celebration of a diverse group of conductors who have inspired their students to excellence in performance from all geographic corners of the state.

While the Friday performance schedule will be filled with district geographic choirs, the Saturday morning and afternoon concert schedule will be filled with auditioned choirs submitting online auditions via Opus Events. Auditions are due June 1, with notification by July 1.

Click to access the online audition site here.

STATE HONOR CHOIRS

The Honor Choir season for 2025-26 is sure to be another fantastic music making experience for young singers.

Schedule:

• State 9-10 Honor Choirs: Saturday, February 14, 2026 (in conjunction with the MMEA Midwinter Clinic)
• State 4-5-6 Honor Choirs: Saturday, March 28, 2026
• State 7-8 Honor Choirs: Saturday, April 11, 2026

Guest conductors will be:

• 9-10 SATB:     Brandon Dean, Gustavus Adolphus College
• 9-10 SSAA:    Maria Wilson, Brooklyn Middle School
• 9-10 TBB:  Luke Wilson, Spirit Lake High School, Iowa
• 4-5-6 Aurora: Stephanie Schumacher, Honor Choirs of Southeast Minnesota
• 4-5-6 Polaris: Katie Houts, Rise Up Children’s Choir, Salt Lake City
• 7-8 CTB:  Jim Papoulis, composer and conductor, New York City
• 7-8 SSA:     Bri Bergstrom, St. Peter High School

Our Honor Choir leadership team offers outstanding support to our student singers and their directors throughout the year. Thanks to these co-chairs…

• 4-5-6 Polaris: Melanie McIvor & Seth Boyd
• 4-5-6 Aurora: Deveny Beaton & Andrew Parr
• 7-8 CTB:  Susan Snorek & Matt Kiminski & Eli Johnson
• 7-8 SSA:  Megan Cox & Katie Irvin
• 9-10 SATB:  Bri Bergstrom & Zach Kubasta
• 9-10 SSAA:  Laura Odden Quaintance & Wendy Suoja
• 9-10 TBB:  Jim Cox & Chris Jacobson

Look for more information about the exciting 2025-26 honor choir season posted via The Weekly Pulse and Star of the North Fall issue later this summer.

We wish to acknowledge our “retiring” co-chair for her outstanding support to our honor choir program over the years.

Bri Bergstrom
9-10 SATB

Jim Cox
9-10 TBB

Laura Quaintance
9-10 SSA

THANKS TO OUTGOING R&R CHAIRS

After several years of faithful service and leadership, ACDA-MN bids farewell and says a special thank you to these outgoing Repertoire & Resources (R&R) Chairs. 

Stephen Kingsbury
R&R: Student Activities

Nicole Thietje
R&R: Pop/Commercial Music

Ryan Deignan
R&R: Vocal Jazz

Summer Dialogue Scholarship applications

Scholarship applications to attend the ACDA-MN Summer Dialogue are now available at:

http://acda-mn.com/scholarships/summer-dialogue-scholarship/

Scholarships will be awarded in these categories:

• Full (registration and 3 nights of on-campus housing) @ $439
• Partial (registration only) @ $280

Eligibility:  

• Recent college/university graduate or members in their first two years of teaching
• Members attending their first Summer Dialogue regardless of years of experience

Application due date is June 1, 2025

2025 ACE Award Nominations

Members in each of the seven geographic districts within ACDA-MN, will have an opportunity to nominate colleagues to receive the annual Advocate for Choral Excellence (ACE) Award. 

Past recipients have been administrators, accompanists, parent booster organizations, church and community choir conductors, civic leaders who promote the choral arts, neighboring ACDA-MN members, etc. Nominations are due to your district chairs by June 1.

Contact your District Chairs as follows: 

• Central District: Kennedy Niska, kmniska@gmail.com
• Metro East District: Shaun Halland, sth1977@gmail.com
• Metro West District: Bryan Fisher, righttomypc@yahoo.com
• Northeast District: Adam Giebner, adamgiebner@gmail.com
• Northwest District:Joseph Kemper, kemper.joseph@gmail.com
• Southeast District: Stephanie Schumacher, sschumacher@honorschoirs.org
• Southwest District: Kerry Johnson, kerryjo363@aol.com

Nominate a deserving ACDA-MN member for the annual Awards Program:  

• Emerging Choral Director Award
• Minnesota Choral Director of the Year Award
• F. Melius Christiansen Lifetime Achievement Award
• VocalEssence Creative Programming Award – (note: middle/junior high & high school choirs are eligible in 2025)

Applications require the nomination form to be filled out with three letters of recommendation.  

Nominations are due June 1, 2025

Click HERE to submit a nomination.

THANKS TO SON EDITORIAL TEAM

Special thanks to these ACDA-MN members who have inspired and led the development of the Star of the North during the 2024-25 academic year:

Richard Carrick
Managing Editor
University of Minnesota – Duluth 

Miriam Augsburger
Associate Editor
Benilde-St. Margaret’s School

Garrett Laethe
Associate Editor
Youth Chorale of Central MN

Erik Doucette
Associate Editor
United Methodist Church, Anoka

Elisabeth Cherland
Associate Editor
Minnesota State University – Mankato

Emily Chmielewski
Associate Editor
Holy Family Academy, St. Louis Park

---

About Jamie Andrews

Jamie Andrews (he/him) has over two decades of experience working in the arts, education, and nonprofit administration. He is currently the Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota, and a founding member of PrimeLife Arts Learning, an on-line platform dedicated to Creative Aging. Previously he served as Development Manager for Lakeshore Players Theatre, Recruitment and Events Planning Liaison at the University of St. Thomas, and as the Chief Learning Officer at the Minnesota Opera, where he oversaw an extensive array of programs for all ages, including an industry-leading Creative Aging initiative, Music Out Loud, the first opera-based El Sistema-inspired youth program in the US, and the commission of a youth opera The Song Poet, based on the novel by Kao Kalia Yang with music by Joceyln Hagen. Active in arts advocacy, Jamie serves on the board of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts.

Jamie started his career in the arts, teaching band and choir in Forest Lake and Lester Prairie, Minnesota, after earning a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He also earned a master’s degree in Arts and Cultural Management from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.