The honors keep rolling in for the David Lipscomb High School Music Department.
David Lipscomb's Concert Chorus has been chosen to perform for the American Choral Directors Association's Southern Division conference, has had a selection chosen for an a cappella music collection and has just released its own new CD, said Robert King, chorus director and chair of the school's music department.
Their appearance at the ACDA conference, to be held in Nashville next February, is the highest of honors received to date, King said.
"ACDA is the preeminent choral directors association in the nation, and, arguably, the world," King said. "The primary emphasis of the convention is performance. To me, it's the Olympics of the choral world."
The Concert Chorus will be one of 17 performing at the conference. Nearly 90 choirs competed for selection, King said.
"Each school sends in a recording of selections from their most recent three years, which are heard by an audition committee. It's a 'blind audition' - the committee members don't know whom they're listening to. The groups are evaluated, ranked, and then the top groups are selected," King said.
Fortunately, the David Lipscomb chorus has plenty of recordings to share, recently completing "Gloria," the fifth CD in the school's "Commitment to Excellence" series of a cappella recordings.
The CD features 17 selections ranging from "timeless classics" to "contemporary compositions on the cutting edge of choral music," such as Eric Whitacre's "i thank You God for most this amazing day," based on an e.e. cummings poem, King said.
"Our literature has grown in difficulty in recent years, and this CD represents the most challenging literature we've ever recorded. Anecdotally, we've have also received the most positive reviews, and I think the ACDA selection suggests that we've gotten better as the literature has become more difficult," King said.
One selection from last year's live performance CD, Morten Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium," has been chosen for inclusion on the "Best of High School A Cappella" compilation, produced by the "Mainely A Cappella" catalogue company.
This is the second consecutive year that a David Lipscomb Concert Chorus performance has been chosen for the Best of High School A Cappella compilation. Their rendition of "Lord of the Dance" was included last year.
The Concert Chorus was the only "mixed chorus" to earn three A+s at the ACDA's State Choral Festival earlier this year, and is the only chorus to attend every State Choral Festival since its inception 16 years ago, King said.
Thirty David Lipscomb High School students were chosen for the All Region Chorus, and ten were chosen for All State. "We had well over double the average number of students per school participating in All State, and we're smaller than the average school, so it was quite an accomplishment," King said.
A total of 110 students participated in David Lipscomb's three choruses this year - the Concert Chorus, Chorale, and Freshmen Chorus. That represents about 20 percent of the student body, King said.
In addition to leading the music program at David Lipscomb, King is president of the Middle Tennessee Vocal Association, is chair of repertoire and standards for Tennessee ACDA, was recently chosen as president-elect of Tennessee ACDA, and directs the Lipscomb University Community Chorus, a non-audition adult chorus open to any interested singers in the community.
King is assisted in directing the David Lipscomb music department by Cindy Fehrman, assistant choral director.
For more information, visit http://music.dlcs.lipscomb.edu.