About AVA |
Our Mission is to provide a variety of educational experiences for students that will encourage their lifetime appreciation of and participation in the art of choral music.
Our Purposes include promoting cooperation among choral directors in Alabama, enhancing the programs of vocal music in schools in Alabama, providing a means for professional ideas and methods to be shared, and promoting growth and higher standards in music education throughout the state.
Our Affiliation: The Alabama Vocal Association (AVA) is the choral division of the Alabama Music Educators Association (AMEA). AMEA is the state chapter of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).
Our Membership is made up of over 400 choral teachers in public and private high schools, junior high schools, middle schools, colleges, and universities in Alabama. If you are a choral teacher in Alabama and are a member of MENC, you have automatic membership in AVA.
Our Structure...The Alabama Vocal Association is a non-profit educational organization governed by its Board of Directors under the rules of its Constitution and Bylaws. Sitting on Board of Directors are the AVA Officers on the Executive Board (the President, Vice President, President-Elect, and Recording Secretary are volunteers elected by the membership; the Executive Secretary is hired part-time) whose duties include organizing and implementing state events (All-State Festival, State Performance Assessment, All-State Show Choir, Honor Choir, State Outstanding Choral Student and Outstanding Accompanist auditions, the Music Education Scholarship, and the Frances P. Moss Award) and the seven District Chairs, who are appointed by the AVA President and who schedule and plan district events (District Outstanding Choral Student and Outstanding Accompanist auditions, All-State auditions, District Performance Assessments, and Solo/Ensemble Festival), keep the choral directors in their district informed about events and activities, keep a district bank account, and serve on the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors also includes non-voting appointed positions, such as that of Webmaster and Parliamentarian. All of the board members except the Executive Secretary are school choral directors who volunteer their time to serve on the AVA Board.
District I |
District II |
District III |
District IV |
District V |
District VI |
District VII |
Colbert |
Bibb |
Jefferson |
Blount |
Jackson |
Autauga |
Baldwin |
What We Do... AVA offers adjudicated performance evaluations, All-State festival venues, and in-service opportunities for Alabama choral teachers and their students each year. AVA gives each choral teacher in Alabama an opportunity to make AVA policy by participating and voting in the three AVA membership meetings held each year, or by serving in a volunteer capacity as a District Chairman or Officer. AVA recognizes outstanding choral teachers with the Frances P. Moss Choral Director's Award and encourages future choral teachers with Outstanding Choral Student/Accompanist scholarships and the Music Education Scholarship.
AVA Events |
The Alabama Vocal Association offers adjudicated performance assessments, all-state venues, and in-service opportunities for Alabama choral teachers and their students in a variety of events detailed below. AVA also recognizes outstanding choral teachers with the Frances P. Moss Choral Director's Award and awards a Music Education Scholarship to one outstanding future teacher each year. See the description of each event below and click the link to any event for checklists, registration forms, dates, and more information.
Adjudicated Performance Assessments:
1 State Choral Performance Assessment is offered in each district for choirs in the spring for choirs that have 17 or more members. All choirs perform from memory two repertoire selections in a public performance for three judges and sight-read for one judge in a closed setting.
2 State Solo & Ensemble Performance Assessment is offered in each district in the spring, and in some districts in the fall for soloists and choral ensembles that have 2-16 singers. Soloists and ensembles perform unconducted, from memory, two selections for one judge in a closed setting. There is no sight-reading at Solo & Ensemble Assessment.
All-State Venues:
3 All-State Festival is an opportunity for students with outstanding ability and initiative to receive public recognition, work with outstanding choral clinicians, and perform choral literature of the highest quality. Auditions for All-State Festival are held in each district in October. Students audition on the All-State music for their choir and the state song, Alabama. All-State Festival is a three-day event held in March that culminates in a professionally recorded concert. The five All-State choirs are:
- High School SATB: selected by audition from grades 10-12
- High School SSA: selected by audition from grades 9-12 (females only)
- High School TTBB: selected by audition from grades 9-12 (males only)
- Middle School Mixed: selected by audition from boys grades 7-8 and girls grade 8 (boys may audition for any part)
- Middle School Girls: selected by audition from girls grades 7-8
4 The Alabama All-State Show Choir (ASSC) is a highly selective group of 60 students (30 male, 30 female) who are chosen after undergoing a vocal audition on the current year's ASSC music selections as well as a dance audition. The dance routine will be taught at the audition site. Students enrolled in their school choir program in grades 10-12 may audition for ASSC, and are not required to be a member of a school show choir. The All-State Show Choir rehearses and performs during the January AMEA Convention and give a second performance at the opening ceremonies for the All-State Choral Festival. Students selected for ASSC are encouraged but not required to audition for All-State Choir.
5 Honor Choir is a venue at the AMEA Conference during even-numbered years (i.e., January 2010, 2012, etc.). Choral directors choose one or two quartets (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) from their best students in grades 10-12. Candidates are screened in each district on the Honor Choir music and, if selected for Honor Choir, rehearse and perform during the AMEA Conference.
Student Scholarship, Recognition, and Career Opportunities
6 Outstanding Choral Student auditions are held to select a male and a female winner from each district, who then compete at the state level to be selected as Outstanding Male or Outstanding Female Choral Student. All candidates prepare a resume and a vocal solo, and are interviewed after performing. District and State OCS winners are honored at the All-State Concert, and State winners receive trophies and scholarships.
7 Outstanding Accompanist auditions are held to recognize those students who contribute significantly to the choral programs of the state with outstanding choral accompanying. Candidates must be able to play the accompaniments and vocal parts for the music of an All-State choir and must demonstrate the ability to follow a director. District winners will be chosen for each of the five All-State choirs, and a state winner will be chosen from this pool. The state winner will accompany Alabama at the All-State concerts. District and State OA winners are honored at the All-State Concert.
8 An AVA Music Education Scholarship is awarded to one senior each year planning to major in Choral Music Education. District winners are chosen on the basis of a resume and an interview, and the state winner is chosen during AMEA from this pool.
9 FAME (Future Alabama Music Educators) is a one-day seminar, sponsored by AMEA, and held in conjunction with the January AMEA Inservice Conference. This seminar is for 11th and 12th grade high school students who have an interest in pursuing a music education career to meet and interact with current music educators.
Teacher In-Service and Recognition Opportunities:
10 Fall Workshop, held each in September on the Friday and Saturday after Labor Day, is a two-day workshop for choral teachers that features sessions with choral clinicians, a read-through of the All-State music, performances by selected choirs, an AVA membership meeting, and more.
11 AMEA Conference in January is a three-day conference for all of Alabama's music educators in the band, choral, orchestral, and elementary divisions. Events for choral directors include open All-State Show Choir and Honor Choir rehearsals and concerts, choral vendor exhibits, choral clinician workshops, performances by school, college, church, and children's choirs, an AVA membership meeting, the keynote address, concerts and workshops in other divisions, and more.
12 All-State Festival in the spring, a three-day festival for all students who have made All-State, features open rehearsals conducted by world-renowned clinicians, All-State concerts, an AVA membership meeting, and more.
Directors who attend Fall Workshop, AMEA Conference, and All-State Festival will receive in-service certificates for each event.
