Comparison of Printed Concert Programs at ACDA, ASTA, and Midwest Clinic National Conferences

This short-form article reports a content analysis of all school-based ensemble concert programs distributed at the 2015 national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, the American String Teachers Association, and the Midwest Clinic. The purpose was to address perceptions that print and design expectations for the concert programs were elaborate and, therefore, beyond the means of schools and organizations with limited financial resources. Programs were analyzed for characteristics such as overall dimensions, number of pages, use of color and photography, letters of administrative or political support, and design intensity. Analysis revealed substantial differences between the aggregate concert programs by conference, as well as between the individually distributed programs. These differences indicate that norms for the three professional conferences afford conductors and sponsoring organizations varying flexibility to design and distribute conference concert programs. Data are examined to suggest opportunities for further flexibility.

Content Analysis of Four National Music Organizations' Conferences

We examined the content of the 2002 and 2004 National Biennial In-Service Conferences of MENC: The National Association for Music Education; the 2002 and 2004 Midwest Clinic: An International Band and Orchestra Conferences; the 2002 and 2004 Orff-Schulwerk Conferences; and the 2003 and 2005 American Choral Directors Association Conventions. Each of the 2,302 sessions was examined and classified according to category, subject area, and focus. The largest proportion of categories of sessions at the MENC (74.2%), Midwest (4 7.5%) and Orff-Schulwerk (80.3%) conferences was education, while performance (56.9%) was the largest proportion at ACDA. The predominant subject areas within education were performance for ACDA (53.3%) and Midwest (42.8%), general music (47.1 %) for Orff-Schulwerk, and industry (42.3%) for MENC. The proportion of industry to non-industry sessions at MENC was more than double any of the other conferences examined.