Colwitz Co-Hosts Panel at ACDA Midwestern Conference

Northern Michigan University Director of Choral Activities Erin Colwitz recently collaborated with colleague and friend Gabriela Hristova from the University of Michigan-Flint to host a panel discussion at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Midwestern conference. Their panel focused on one of the most pressing challenges facing higher education music programs today: how to serve a student population that arrives with wildly varying levels of preparation, while still maintaining the rigor the profession demands.

"We desire to create an encouraging and rigorous experience in college, while also making it attractive to those who do not always have access to elite music lessons or ensemble experiences," Colwitz explained in a story on the collaboration prepared by UM-Flint.

"The students' preparation for college and music in particular post-pandemic is quite different," said Hristova in the story, adding that external factors such as time management, life circumstances, the ever-present pull of social media and AI, have fundamentally changed how students engage with learning. "Adapting to these changes as we teach music is truly important for the success of our students. It is a process of constantly reinventing our teaching methods, while keeping the principles of choral music education and the expectations of music students high."

Rather than present a tidy set of solutions, the two educators chose a panel format specifically to invite more voices into the conversation, including other Midwest music educators. The result was a discussion that felt less like a lecture and more like a community reckoning with shared challenges.

At its heart, the work Colwitz and Hristova are doing reflects exactly what ACDA has championed for more than six decades: That choral music is for everyone, and that those who teach it must continually grow alongside the students they serve.

The two professors first connected through the Michigan ACDA board and have built a collaborative relationship that spans continents. They have presented together at the Michigan Music Conference and even traveled to the Athens Institute of Performing Arts in Greece. But for both women, earning a spot in the ACDA Midwestern conference program was particularly meaningful.

For more information about this collaboration, read the UM-Flint story here.