Philip Steen

Past President Memories

Philip Steen (1970-1972)

From 1970-72 I served as President for ACDA of Minnesota. I recall that in those early years, there were not a lot of official activities sponsored by the organization. In fact, there wasn’t a board of directors, or district chairs, or R&S chairs as you have today. I had accepted a position as Director of the Undergraduate Choral Music Program at the University of Minnesota in 1968, with the specific charge of developing a strong program that would prepare future choral directors. In that role, I had an opportunity to place many student teachers in outstanding programs with such directors as Oscar Dahle-Mpls Southwest; C. Wesley Anderson-Mpls Public Schools, Bill Lydell-Mpls Washburn, Carl Lipke-North St. Paul, Bud Engen-White Bear Lake, Dennis Brown-Stillwater, Bob Hotvedt-Mound Westonka, Dick Edstrom-Robbinsdale Armstrong, Hal Wildung-Robbinsdale Cooper, Don Brost-Sibley, Frank Johnson-Kellogg, Solveig Westby-Richfield, and Gar Lockrem-West St. Paul, to name a few. Several years later in 1971 during the last year of my term, I accepted the position as Director of Choral Activities at Hamline University, succeeding Robert Holiday. In my position at the U of M and at Hamline, I had access to these and many other directors around the state, and it was through those contacts that many of those directors were able to join ACDA. I do recall that in order to become a member of ACDA in those early years, one would have to be “recommended” by a sponsor (existing ACDA member) that would officially nominate the new person for membership. I also recall that ACDA performances and interest sessions at the state, division and national levels were limited to sponsored events at MENC conferences.

While ACDA in Minnesota at the time was not the strong organization that it is today, what we did together as a broader community of directors was to promote choral music by sponsoring major choral festivals and workshops. What I have been able to observe over these forty plus years is the common thread that has tied the organization together both from the past and present is the awareness that we in Minnesota have something very special…a strong and vibrant choral tradition that needs to be fed and nourished by all of us--both veteran and emerging directors.