Trends in choral repertoire performed at American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division conferences by selected high school mixed choirs from 1978 through 2016

The cornerstone of all choral music ensembles is the content that the choir is performing: the repertoire. The music that is selected by the choir director is of the utmost importance and directly effects the musical success of the students. High school choir directors searching for outstanding musical material, as the vehicle for educating their choirs, need resources that identify repertoire of choirs of excellence and a thorough analysis of said literature.The American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division Conferences provide a platform where selected high school choirs perform repertoire in concert that is considered a model of excellence. Missing from the related body of choral literature studies is a study that specifically examines the repertoire of high school mixed choirs of excellence, such as choirs chosen to perform at ACDA conferences. The purpose of this study was to examine trends in choral repertoire performed by selected high school mixed choirs at the ACDA Eastern Division Conferences from 1978 to 2016. This study is a content analysis of the trends regarding what was performed across the four decades under investigation.The content analysis findings revealed that the two most frequently selected Style Categories across the four decades were Late Contemporary and Medieval/Renaissance. The Accompaniment Status used most often was A Cappella. The most frequent language performed was English. Across 40 years, there were upward trends in the use of Late Contemporary, World Music, Spirituals/Gospel, Folk Songs/Hymns, and Jazz/Pop/Show, as well as an increase in the number of languages in the repertoire that was performed. While only 10.80% of the selections programmed were performed within three years of publication, there was a trend upward in utilizing recently composed/published music. The data suggests a continued interest in some traditions of past choral repertoire while also indicating an increasing, albeit limited, interest in diverse choral repertoire from around the world. In the process of repertoire selection, choral educators need to reconcile the idea of honoring the heritage of past traditions while also incorporating new practices that embrace contemporary composition in a globally connected diverse twenty- first century. The findings in this study can serve as a resource for choral educators in the vital and ongoing task of repertoire selection that continually occurs in an ever-changing and evolving rich choral heritage.