On February 10, 2022, the University of Southern Maine (USM) Chamber Singers participated in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) regional conference in Boston, Massachusetts.
This ACDA conference is a first for choral director Dr. Nicolás Dosman and his students. When asked about his thoughts and feelings going into this event Dr. Dosman said, “It is intimidating —to put yourself out there — this is a conference of your peers, experts, people who know choral music very well.”
To be invited to this conference is a great honor. The group had to go through a rigorous blind peer review process. This process includes the review panel going through three years of Chamber Singers’ performances with, hopefully, an invitation to the conference being the result.
For their performance at the conference, Dr. Dosman has chosen to include BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and women composers to bring underrepresented artists to the forefront of choral music.
The theme of the conference is “resonate”, which is what Dr. Dosman hopes this music will do for people.
The USM Chamber Singers performance will include compositions by Scott Joplin, an African American composer and pianist; Abbie Betinis, an American composer; Marques L. A. Garrett, a composer and educator who specializes in non-idiomatic choral music of Black composers; Mark Butler, a composer, conductor, pianist and music educator; Cristian Grases, a Venezuelan composer, conductor and professor; and Katie Lind, a student at USM who composed her piece called “Summer Rain” during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Making sure underrepresented composers are at the forefront of this conference is not the only thing that Dr. Dosman is hopeful for. He also hopes the choral music community can see with how much respect the Chamber Singers perform these pieces. Since most of the students in the group do not fall into the BIPOC category, there is a fine line to walk between appreciation and appropriation.
Dr. Dosman said of his students, “They have their hands on the pulse of the world, where it is going. When they are finally ruling the world, the world will be a better place. They are treating the music with respect. They represent through their art what could be. All art is valuable.”
Inclusivity in music is imperative to Dr. Dosman, and that is unmistakable as he leads the Chamber Singers to their first American Choral Directors Association regional conference.