OR ACDA Summer Workshop 2025

ORACDA Summer Workshop

August 4 & 5, 2025

@ Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon

Tentative Schedule

Monday, August 4, 2025

8:00 am Registration Opens

9:00 am Coffee and Warm Ups

9:30 am Reading Session I: Elementary, Children’s Choirs, & Middle School

10:30 am Headliner Session I: Dr. Angela Kasper 

Contests, and All-States, and Festivals! Oh my! 

It’s time to discuss choral competitions and festivals. Join us as we brainstorm 1) how to improve what we already offer, and 2) imagine other “out of the box” opportunities for our choirs and choral students. We’ll examine evaluation instruments, selection criteria, and benefits/drawbacks of current practictes as we explore what other states are doing to enrich the lives of choral students and further their students’ choral education!

12:00 pm Lunch (provided)

1:30 pm Reading Session II: SA, TB, & High School

2:30 pm Headliner Session II: Dr. Angela Kasper

From Screen to Score: Inclusive ways of introducing intermediate repertoire to our choristers that enhances focus, participation, and skill building

4:00 pm Falling to the Level of Our Systems: Systematic Implementation of 

Sightreading in the Secondary Choral Classroom

Terence Madlangbayan

This session presents a systematic and OSAA-compliant approach to sightreading and music literacy for both middle school and high school choral programs. Using the audience as a demonstration choir, the presenter will model a scoped and sequenced framework of practical sightreading techniques for ensembles of any skill and voicing, paired with free or low-cost resources. The session emphasizes strategies that foster music literacy skills in ways that are authentically transferable to the repertoire-learning process.

5:00 pm End of Day 1

6:00 pm Enjoy a wine tasting and dinner….

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

8:00 am Registration Opens

9:00 am Coffee and Warm Ups

9:30 am Reading Session III: Collegiate, Community & Worship

10:30 am Headliner Session III: Dr. Angela Kasper 

Collaborations with Culture Bearers

This session highlights the gifts that come from collaborations with culture 

bearers as we seek to enrich our choristers’ understanding of cultures and 

musical traditions from around the globe. Joined by a panel of musicians who 

have served as culture bearers in choral settings as well as students who have 

experienced teaching and learning from these musicians, presenters will discuss 

their experiences and provide a template for other directors who wish to bring 

this enriched and necessary form of learning into their own choral rehearsal 

rooms.

12:00 pm Lunch (provided)

1:30 pm Reading Session IV: Vocal Jazz, Pop, A Cappella  

Kathleen Hollingsworth & Karen Bohart

2:30 pm Headliner Session IV: Dr. Angela Kasper 

At a time when most music performances involve dance, lighting, costume 

changes, and variations in setup and positioning, we ask a lot of our audience 

members to sit and observe a static choir on risers for the length of an entire 

concert! In this session, we explore simple ways to add visual interest to our 

choral concerts by positioning and moving our choir to enhance the music they 

are performing. We will utilize entire concert spaces to explore transitions, 

groupings, body facings, traditional movement, and composed movement.

3:15 pm OR-ACDA Best Practices: This Works for Me!

Come prepared to share ideas from a vocal warm up to a fun game, a way to

structure rehearsals, a new piece of music- ANYTHING that worked for you that you think can help someone else!

4:00 pm OR-ACDA Awards

Dr. Angela Kasper has 32 years of experience serving as Director of Choral Activities at the university level where she conducted choirs and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting, choral methods, global choral traditions, and choral literature.

Angie is constantly redefining what makes a meaningful choral experience and how best to place this evolving view at the center of her work with her own choirs. No longer bound to a choral ideal that was espoused during her own university education, she is exploring the choral community as a place to expand cultural awareness while experiencing the world’s group singing traditions. Collaboration with culture bearers and traveling abroad for her own study help her realize how little she knows about the vast subject she teaches. 

Dr. Kasper is passionate about sharing what she has learned over the course of her career with other practicing choral teachers. She hopes to empower young conductors to recognize and celebrate their unique strengths while encouraging them to lead with authenticity and vulnerability. In teaching undergraduate music education students, her goal is to help these future educators understand that collaborative choral rehearsals with ample time for student voice, student leadership, and student input into artistic interpretation are a much more enjoyable and equitable approach to ensemble music making than is the podium-driven model. 

Angie is so fortunate to have met and worked with many young people while conducting honor choirs throughout the United States and abroad. Whether it be fourth graders in Indiana or high school students in the United Arab Emirates, she considers every experience to be a reminder of our shared humanity and the power of music to unite us. As she continues this work, Dr. Kasper is focused on inclusive enrichment activities that can serve all students regardless of economic status and experiential level.

Angie is forever grateful to all her teachers and mentors including Dr. Mary Goetze, Mr. Robert Porco, Dr. Dennis Shrock, Dr. Karen Howard, Dr. Michael Rogers, Dr. Julie Schnepel, and Dr. Jean Sinor. Mostly though, she is grateful for her mom who gave up her own dream of being a choral director in order to raise a family in a manner that would allow her daughter to realize that dream instead.