Annual Conference Details
2024
Conference & Concert
February 1st-3rd, 2024
Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place
2 Waterfront Place
Morgantown, WV 26501
Please note the concert will be at the Marriott this year.
Honor Choir Details
Three state-wide honor choirs will participate in the conference: The Junior High/Middle School Honor Choir for children in grades 7-9; the High School Honor Choir for 10-12 graders; and the Collegiate Honor Choir for college students.
The 2024 All-State Honor Choir Conductors are...
Jr. High/Middle School: Vincent Oakes
High School: Dr. Jeffrey Allen Murdock
Collegiate: Mr. Terry N. Eberhardt
Click on each Honor Choir below for more details!
Repertoire
Middle School
El Cielo Canta Alegría - Pablo Sosa, arr. Bergs SATB https://www.jwpepper.com/El-Cielo-Canta-Alegria/3304175.item
Sing to the Lord a New Song - Mass no.3 in d minor - Franz Josef Haydn, arr. Hopson SATB https://www.jwpepper.com/Sing-to-the-Lord
O Magnum Mysterium - Evan Ramos SATB https://www.jwpepper.com/O-Magnum-Mysterium/11370926.item
Music of Life - Brittney Boykin SAB https://www.jwpepper.com/11384777.item
I Shall Not Live in Vain - Reese Norris SATB https://www.jwpepper.com/I-Shall-Not-Live-in-Vain/10801413.item
Down By the Riverside - trad. Spiritual, arr. Robert Gibson SATB https://www.jwpepper.com/Down-by-the-Riverside/11393276.item
High School
Veni Sancte Spiritus - Mozart Click to download the PDFs.
Locus Iste – Karl Jenkins https://www.jwpepper.com/Locus-Iste/10490820.item
Erev Shel Shoshanim – Joseph Hadar/Arr. Jack Klebanow https://www.jwpepper.com/Erev-Shel-Shoshanim/4958831.item
O Love – Elain Hagenberg https://www.jwpepper.com/O-Love/10667410.item
Daniel, Servant of the Lord – Undine Smith Moore https://www.jwpepper.com/Daniel%2C-Daniel%2C-Servant-of-the-Lord/1254267.item
The Awakening – Joseph Martin https://www.jwpepper.com/The-Awakening/3027786.item
Collegiate
Alleluia - Paul Basler https://www.jwpepper.com/Alleluia/8061800.item
Where the Light Begins - Susan LaBarr https://www.jwpepper.com/Where-the-Light-Begins/11174706.item
Go Down Moses - B.E. Boykin https://www.jwpepper.com/Go-Down%2C-Moses/11377810.item
Lift Every Voice and Sing - arr. Roland Carter https://www.jwpepper.com/Lift-Every-Voice-and-Sing/11316577.item
2024 Conductor: Vincent Oakes
Vincent Oakes is in his twentieth year as Artistic Director of the Chattanooga Boys Choir. He earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Florida and Master of Sacred Music degree in Choral Conducting from Emory University, studying under James Morrow and Eric Nelson. In addition to teaching public school choral music and serving churches in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee, he has also served as music director of the Emory University Exodus Singers and the Candler School of Theology Youth Theological Initiative. A frequent choral clinician and guest conductor of honor and festival choirs, recent conducting engagements have included the Vocalizze Choral Festival in Portugal, the ACDA International Conductors Exchange Program in Cuba, the Bangkok International Choral Festival in Thailand, and honor choirs throughout the United States. Mr. Oakes has also been a conductor and clinician at the Lake Junaluska, Massenetta Springs, and Montreat worship music conferences and a clinician on conducting, choral literacy and musicianship, and working with the adolescent singing voice. He has published articles and reviews in Choral Journal and has authored chapter on child and adolescent voices in the textbooks Choral Pedagogy by Robert Sataloff and Brenda Smith and Class Voice: Fundamental Skills for Lifelong Singing by Ron Burrichter and Brenda Smith.
Mr. Oakes is an active member of National Association for Music Education and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), of which he served as Southern Division Chair of Boychoir Repertoire & Standards from 2005-2011. He is a Past-President of Tennessee ACDA and served as President of ACDA’s eleven-state Southern Region from 2019-2021, chairing its Lift Every Voice conference in Mobile, AL in 2020. Mr. Oakes is also the Chair of the Fine Arts Department and Director of Choral Music at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, where he conducts four student ensembles and the faculty choir. He received Baylor’s 2016 Ireland Chair for Distinguished Teaching and the Belz-Lipman Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education from the Tennessee Holocaust Commission in 2021.
2024 Conductor: Dr. Jeffrey Allen Murdock
Dr. Jeffrey Allen Murdock is internationally known as a conductor, clinician, and music educator. He currently serves as Director of Choral Activities, Professor of Music, and Director of the Arkansas Center for Black Music at the University of Arkansas. He is a 2016 Connor Endowed Faculty Fellow in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, a 2018 recipient of the Golden Tusk Award, the 2019 Most Outstanding Faculty Member among all university faculty, and the 2021 GRAMMY Music Educator of the Year.
Dr. Murdock appears regularly in concert, recital, and stage performances, having previously conducted the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the (Mississippi) Gulf Coast Symphony and has also performed as a soloist with the Fort Smith Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and the Southern Mississippi Opera. Dr. Murdock’s love of scholarship and performance has led him to study and perform around the world.
As a music educator, he loves to invest his knowledge and experience in the next generation of young musicians through clinic opportunities with secondary choral programs, conducting honor choruses, and mentoring choral music educators. Dr. Murdock is highly sought after as a clinician in the field of choral music and education, having conducted All-State and All-Region choirs, or headlined conferences in 27 states and 7 countries. In 2013, he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the Millington Chorale in a well-received concert of diverse repertoire. The evening concert featuring the ensemble was praised for its preparation and the ensemble’s maturity of sound.
While Dr. Murdock is an accomplished classical musician, he is also a skilled Gospel musician. He has served on the conducting staff of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. and has collaborated with Gospel recording artists, including Donnie McClurkin, Richard Smallwood, Mary Mary, Marvin Winans, Marvin Sapp, Lisa Knowles, Kathy Taylor, and numerous others.
Dr. Murdock’s research interests include cultural hegemony in choral music education, social justice in music education, culturally responsive pedagogy in music education, and music in urban schools. He has been invited to present at the National Research Conference for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) as well as two World Conferences of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) – (Glasgow, U.K., and Helsinki, Finland). Dr. Murdock is also a frequent research presenter at local and regional conferences of the American Choral Directors’ Association (ACDA) where he is president-elect of the Southwestern Division (SWACDA), past president of the Arkansas Chapter, and serves on the national subcommittee for diversity. Dr. Murdock holds both Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music in Conducting degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Education from the University of Memphis. In addition to NAfME and ACDA, his professional memberships include the ASCAP and the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO). He is also a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated.
Dr. Murdock is married to the Reverend R. Janae Pitts-Murdock, Senior Pastor of the Light of the World Christian Church Indianapolis, Indiana, and they have two amazing children, Jeffrey Allen Murdock, III, and John Patrick Alexander Murdock.