The A Capella Choir will add another honor to its list of achievements this week when it performs at the ACDA Convention. The Southern Division American Choral Directors Association Convention is scheduled for March 9 to 12 in Memphis, Tenn. This is the seventh time in the last 25 years the A Capella Choir was invited to perform. Dr. Kenneth Fulton has directed the choir for all 25 years. The ACDA hosts national competitions in March of odd-numbered years, and the seven division conferences take place in February and March of even-numberd years. To be considered for a performance spot, choirs must send a demo of performances from the last three years to the ACDA. A committee listens to the demos and then chooses the perfomers. “The year I was on the committee, there were 96 submissions,” Fulton said. “From those 96 submissions, only 4 were chosen to perform.”The choir has performed twice at the national convention. This year will mark the choir’s seventh performance at the division convention. “The convention isn’t a competition,” Fulton said. “When you receive the invitation to perform, you have already won.”The choir will join the University of Mississippi Choir and the Loyola University Choir in singing “Requiem” by Johannes Brahms for its performance. The choirs won’t have a chance to practice together until they all arrive in Memphis. “As a whole chorus, we will have about five hours of practice together,” Fulton said. “We will only have about four and a half hours of practice with the orchestra. Not a whole lot of time to perfect a one hour piece.”Terrance Brown and Kathryn Drake, both University graduate students, will perform solos. The choir will perform Friday night, and come back to Baton Rouge on Saturday. Some students were concerned about traveling so close to midterms.”Some students have expressed their concerns to me,” Fulton said. “But this is the time of the year that we usually travel – they are used to it. They have to make it work, just like any athlete that has to travel away for games.” 
 
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Contact Mandy Francois at [email protected]