The 2025 University of Montevallo Choral Festival Day is designed to affirm the participation of young singers in the vocal arts. The choirs are comprised of high school students throughout the State of Alabama. Students work closely with the festival clinician in intense rehearsals focusing on musicianship skills, voice building, and ensemble performance. The choir also rehearses and performs side-by-side with University of Montevallo Choirs, some of the state’s foremost collegiate choirs. Our goal is to provide students with the highest level of musical achievement through education and performance experiences. Students will experience concerts and masterclasses and will perform with seasoned professionals on traditional and exciting new choral repertoire.
Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2025
2025 TTBB Festival Clinician:
LEONARD RAYBON is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Tulane University, where he also serves as Associate Chair of the Newcomb Department of Music, and as the interim Artistic Director of Summer Lyric Theatre. Raybon is the founder of Sacred Nine Project (sacrednine.com), where he engages with music, texts, and events from an earlier America in order to help shape a future one. Most recently, he collaborated with John Wood Sweet, creating a kind of musical companion to his multi-award-winning book,The Sewing Girl’s Tale,about the first woman in the United States to sue for sexual assault (1793), and presented it at UNC Chapel Hill, where Sweet is a professor. In November 2023, Raybon’s article, “Oh Don’t You Want to Go,” about the issue of whites engaging with African American Spirituals, was published in Journal of Singing. In September his first published piece, “The Busy Bee,” for TB or SA, will be released by Santa Barbara Music Publishing. Raybon also hosts Sacred Nine Project Podcast.
2025 SSAA Festival Clinician:
MARGARET HERON recently retired from a 25-year career as Choral Director and AP Music Theory Instructor at Mortimer Jordan High School and Choral Director at North Jefferson Middle School in the Jefferson County School System. For her first nine years, Mrs. Heron also taught Junior and Senior High Band. She earned a BA in Instrumental Music Education from The University of Alabama and a Masters in Choral Music Education from The University of Alabama at Birmingham, summa cum laude. Mrs. Heron received National Board Certification in Choral Music in 2008. Under her direction, her choirs consistently received Superior ratings at District, State, national, and international festivals and were invited to perform all over the Southeast. She has been the Choral Clinician and adjudicator for numerous honor choirs, festivals, and camps throughout the south. Mrs. Heron served on the state board of the Alabama Choral Directors Association and the Alabama Vocal Association Executive Board. She has worked for the College Board, training teachers to score AP Theory exams. Mrs. Heron developed It Works in Theory, a sequential and comprehensive curriculum for teaching music theory in the classroom. She has been on the teaching staff of Birmingham Girls Choir since 2013 and took over as Executive Director in 2021. In the three seasons post the pandemic shutdown, BGC has grown from 4 to 105 choristers. She is passionate about teaching young people the value of commitment to excellence and unity through the beauty of choral singing. Mrs. Heron and her husband reside in Kimberly and she loves reading, gardening, canning, flyfishing, and tennis.
2025 ChoralFest! Highlights
- No preparation is necessary!
- Music will be provided on-site!
- Final Sing! will be held at historic UM Palmer Auditorium
2025 ChoralFest! Registration
- Student Registration – $35.00 (credit card only)
- Application deadline: Wednesday, January 8, 2025
- Register Here
2025 ChoralFest! Schedule
8:00am-8:45am Check in at Davis Hall
9:00am-12:00pm Rehearsal
12:00pm-1:15pm Lunch
1:15pm-3:45pm Rehearsal (Rotating Spaces, TBA)
4:00pm All performers – Report to Palmer Auditorium!
4:30pm Guest Ensembles and Festival Finale Concert!
6:00pm Depart from Campus
