An interview with Arreon Harley-Emerson about his career trajectory and changing the choral landscape for emerging leaders of color.
Arreon A. Harley-Emerson, President and CEO for Equity Sings and Chair of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Diversity Initiatives Committee, shares a conversation on equitable access and engagement of our youth for careers in the arts.
A conversation on equity, community, and inclusion in the arts will be facilitated by Arreon A. Harley-Emerson and Daniel Parsley.
This session explores impactful and appropriate means inclusion of gospel music in the k-12 and community choir contexts. Attendees are provided with demonstrations and resources to aid them in teaching gospel in the aural/oral tradition with their own ensembles and classes.
Music educators as a sector often false sense of progress, an illusion of illusion. This keynote address demystifies these allusions, explores music education roots in coloniality, and provides frameworks to center students in a more equitable and culturally responsible way.
This two-part reading session and conducting masterclass presents idiomatic and non-idiomatic choral compositions of Black composers and provides guidance and best practices regarding gesture in conducting music from the gospel tradition.
Arreon A. Harley-Emerson and Margaret Nomura Clark lead The Choir School of Delaware and the Children’s Chorus of Washington join forces to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s birth. The collaborative choral and historical tour is called Stand Up: Harriet Tubman Tour and features stops in Washington DC, Wilmington and Philadelphia.
Governor John Carney and First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney announce the 2022 Compassionate Champion Awardees. The Compassionate Champion Awards recognize individuals, organizations, and educational institutions across the State of Delaware that provide trauma-informed services in a manner consistent with the Delaware Developmental Framework for Trauma-Informed Care.
The work of equity and justice activist Arreon Harley-Emerson and explored. We discuss living in Delaware, working in Delaware, and making Delaware a more inclusive community through the arts and education.
Town Square Live covers the historic launch of Bent, But Not Broken, a conference amplifying the contributions of Black choral musicians and scholars.
In this first installment of Lift Every Voice, the Diversity Initiatives Committee leaves you with truths regarding access, diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and restorative practice. Unfortunately, musicians and organizations have been conditioned to see access as a chore, an item on a checklist to secure grant funding or appease an irritating voice in our community, instead of what it is: an integral, essential part of our art. Once the table is filled with persons from all walks of life, the task of problem solving, decision making, and action should be a load equally shared with deliberate and thoughtful effort.
Composer, conductor, equity coach, and nonprofit strategist committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging – meet this week’s guest and Black History Month episode, Arreon A. Harley-Emerson. Mr. Harley-Emerson is the Director of Music and Operations of the Choir School of Delaware where he is responsible for the musical components of the renowned Choir School program as well as the day-to-day operations of the organization.
In the United States, the Black church’s mission has been two-pronged. It has been a place of comfort, where members of its community can celebrate, mourn, and commune in an affirming spiritual center. The Black church has also served as an incubator for change-agent thinking, addressing the issues that intellectually, physically, and socially impact the Black community. The soundtrack of the Black church begins with the Negro spiritual and evolves into gospel, freedom songs, and contemporary gospel idioms. This interest session traces the development of this soundtrack and offers a grounded and practical approach to performance practice, gesture, programming, and choral pedagogy. Attendees will actively engage in singing and conducting, with examples expertly demonstrated by the St. Thomas Gospel Choir.
Identity, Inclusion, and Excellence in ACDA: a panel discussion moderated by Wendy Moy, with a panel of Penelope Cruz (Eastern Region President), David Fryling (National ACDA Vice President), Robyn Hilger (Executive Director), and Arreon A. Harley-Emerson (Diversity Initiatives Chair). Panelist discuss the state of diversity initatives in the American Choral Directors Association.
Dr. Geneva Gay asserts that a child’s education should be “emancipatory.” But how do we plan, deliver, and assess this educational choral experience? And, what IS an emancipatory choral education? Using a framework grounded in access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) research and industry best practices, this session will differentiate between culturally relevant content, culturally responsive teaching/pedagogy, and culturally responsive practice. All three of which are necessary to effectively deliver the Emancipatory Choral Education.
A half-day, training, workshop and working session to educate choral leaders in best practices regarding inclusion and preparing them to develop and implement effective and strategic diversity plans.
America has responded to the worst global health crisis in generations and a subsequent crippling economic downturn, confronted its issues regarding racial equality and equity of opportunity, steeled itself in the fight against historic natural disasters, and even worked its way through a particularly contentious presidential election season – and we still have more than two months to go. It can be enough to fray nerves and test the patience of even the best professionals.
But we’re excited to bring a bit of a respite to all of that swirling around our communities today with our seventh annual DBT 40 list, which recognizes the efforts of 40 of our most promising and accomplished professionals under the age of 40. Many of our honorees this year are already leaders within their companies while others surely will be in coming years.
Arreon Harley-Emerson, Director of Music and Operations at the Choir School of Delaware, joins us to kick off Season 3 of the DCF’s Building Opportunity in Delaware podcast with a conversation about how nonprofits and arts organizations can build equity — and opportunity — in the communities they serve.
Host DCF President & CEO Stuart Comstock-Gay and Harley-Emerson also discuss how organizations can consider questions of equity internally, and what’s needed to turn new diversity and inclusion initiatives into long-lasting, systemic changes for the betterment of all.
Representation matters. Over the past year, there has been much-needed attention to programming the works of Black composers. But how do we teach this music? This reading session will introduce participants to choral works by Black composers and discuss ways in which we can use a culturally responsive approach in introducing, contextualizing, teaching, and performing these works.
Arreon A. Harley-Emerson and Andrew Trites explore ways in which music educators can effectively take inventory of their own biases, boundaries and barriers as a means to create and sustain inclusive classroom and rehearsal room cultures.
The Choral Commons hosts a timely conversation with Black choral leaders on the liberatory potential of the ensemble as a site of radical imagining.
This month, The Oratorio Society revisits its 2018 world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s The World Called, based on Rita Dove’s poem, Testimonial. Guests will have the opportunity to hear the performance on YouTube at 7:00 PM. Then, at 7:30 PM, all are invited to join Music Director Michael Slon with our two special guests, composer Adolphus Hailstork and conductor Arreon Harley-Emerson, for an exploration of African-American achievements in choral Music.
Arreon Harley-Emerson and the Choir School launch an innovative virtual concert season that integrates choral music and literacy.
America has responded to the worst global health crisis in generations and a subsequent crippling economic downturn, confronted its issues regarding racial equality and equity of opportunity, steeled itself in the fight against historic natural disasters, and even worked its way through a particularly contentious presidential election season – and we still have more than two months to go. It can be enough to fray nerves and test the patience of even the best professionals.
But we’re excited to bring a bit of a respite to all of that swirling around our communities today with our seventh annual DBT 40 list, which recognizes the efforts of 40 of our most promising and accomplished professionals under the age of 40. Many of our honorees this year are already leaders within their companies while others surely will be in coming years.
Arreon A. Harley-Emerson discusses the importance of diversity in the arts, particularly in leadership and philanthropy.
Dr. Edryn Coleman and Arreon A. Harley-Emerson present non-idiomatic compositions of Black composers suitable for choirs of varied voicings and difficulty levels and engage in a discussion about race and culture in the choral setting.
Tapped for his perspective as the Executive Director of the Choir School of Delaware, Arreon A. Harley-Emerson is interviewed about the changing landscape of arts programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arreon A. Harley-Emerson speaks to the importance of funding from governmental and philanthropic entities in order to sustain the nonprofit and arts and cultural sectors in Delaware.
Penelope Cruz and Arreon A. Harley-Emerson speaks to the Washington State chapter of the American Choral Directors Association about diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in ACDA.
As a guest columnist, Arreon A. Harley-Emerson identifies microaggressions and systemic racism in the philanthropic sector and proposes a path forward to address these concerns and to establish and sustain a culture of inclusivity and justice.
Chris Munce and Arreon A. Harley-Emereson have a wide-ranging discussion exploring diversity, equity, and inclusion in choral classrooms and choral communities.
Let’s talk about how to conduct gospel! Have you considered how to adapt your conducting gesture to communicate in culturally-informed and effective way? This session explores the ways in which Western conducting techniques can and should be adapted to support singing in the gospel tradition.
Arreon A. Harley-Emerson contributes to a discussion that explores the changing face of the Arts sector in Delaware and the urgent need for organizations to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in policies, best practices and decision making.
Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, choirs are analyzed as socio-educational structures that have the potential to fulfill the basic and psychological needs of its members in a similar manner that gangs meet the needs for their members.
Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, choirs are analyzed as socio-educational structures that have the potential to fulfill the basic and psychological needs of its members in a similar manner that gangs meet the needs for their members.