Honor Choir Festival
The Alabama Honor Choir is designed to give recognition to students of outstanding ability and initiative, provide the opportunity for these students to work with outstanding choral clinicians, and perform music representing the finest choral literature. The Alabama Honor Choir Festival will be held in alternating (even-numbered) years in conjunction with the AMEA In-Service Conference. The Alabama Honor Choir will consist of students in grades 9-12 who are nominated by their school choral director and approved by a district screening process.
The next Honor Choir Festival will be held January 22-24, 2026 during the AMEA Conference at the BJCC in Birmingham.
The 2026 Honor Choir will be a Gospel Choir. Directors will register one or two balanced SATB quartets for participation in the ensemble. Instead of a screening process for this event, rehearsal tracks will be provided and directors will ensure that the students that they register will rehearse their music and come prepared to the festival.
Honor Choir Festival Registration
The Honor Choir registration and payment postmark deadline is Wednesday, December 1, 2025. Registrations will not be accepted after Wednesday, December 1, 2025. Payments postmarked after December 1 will be charged a late fee. Contact Executive Secretary John Kincaid (execsecava@gmail.com) with any questions.
School Fee: $50
Student Fee: $25
Honor Choir Forms
Honor Choir Repertoire
Complete music packets can be purchased through J.W. Pepper.
Rehearsal Tracks
Choral Tracks is the proud sponsor of a $1,000 scholarship for one of our Alabama Outstanding Choral Students each year. Please support Matthew Curtis and the wonderful Choral Tracks resource!
Honor Choir Rehearsal Schedule
2026 Clinician
An Alabama native, Valerie Reese Harris is currently a professor of music and Director
of Choirs at Miles College. Before securing the position in 2016, she earned a BA and
excelled as a classical pianist at the University of Montevallo (Montevallo, AL), where
she was quickly recognized and offered the position as university accompanist after
graduation. Valerie also earned a MA with Distinction in Music and Worship from Liberty
University.
Valerie’s musical partnerships with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Tuskegee
University, Alabama A & M University, Birmingham-Southern College, University of
Alabama at Birmingham, and a host of other professional music forums in teaching and
accompaniment, continue to grow. She has also worked with renowned arranger and
conductor Henry Panion, III by serving as choral director for several projects he has
authored. April 2017, Valerie partnered with Maestro Stacey V. Gibbs as co-composer
and accompanist on the composition, Freedom, which had its world premiere on the
stage of Carnegie Hall.
Professor Harris has served several churches as Minister of Music with duties ranging
from conductor, pianist and coordinator of music and worship ministries. As the Director
of the Miles College Choir, she has strengthened its program by growing its
membership and diversifying the repertoire. Her choir was selected amongst other
university choirs within the state to perform at the Alabama Music Educators
Association (AMEA), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Southern
Regional Collegiate Festival and the Alabama Bicentennial Celebration (2019). Miles
College Choir is also the choir that performed in the award-winning Dreams of Hope
documentary. Miles College Choir was also a part of The World Games 2022 of which
Professor Harris was the Choral Director.
Not only has her choirs been recognized for their distinct sound, but her teaching
methods have also appealed to national record labels. Some of these labels have
employed her services around Choir Vocalization/Band Direction for Recordings. She
has also provided services for artists such as Juanita Bynum, Jonathan Butler, Joseph
Garlington, Joe Pace and a host of contemporary Christian music artists.
Professor Harris serves as alto coach for the 105 Historically Black Colleges and
Universities National Choir – The 105 Voices of History which was featured in the
national virtual premiere of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and a collaboration with the
United States Navy Band on the national virtual premiere of “The Star- Spangled
Banner.”
Professor Harris has successfully demonstrated her ability to cross musical genres with
ease and has maintained her place in classical, gospel & contemporary Christian music
effectively.