NC Triad Choral Festival

April 2027

The Carolina Theatre

310 S Greene St, Greensboro, NC 27401

7pm-9pm concert

April 13 or 22, date to be confirmed by September 1

Sponsors

Festival Overview

Featuring INSPIRO Mass Choirs & Regional Spotlight Choirs

100-voice high school mass choir, clinician Dr. Kari Adams, UNC Greensboro
100-voice middle school mass choir, clinician Dr. Heather Graham, Guilford County Schools
5+ guest spotlight choirs across elementary, middle, and high

Who are we?

The NC Triad Choral Festival is built to embolden equity and excellence in choral music in our region. It is a reflection of the weekly work of INSPIRO: The Triad Youth Choir, but in one day, for the whole community.
It’s a movement! NCTCF is entering its 4th season, and each year, it grows. The first season welcomed 75 singers, the second, 150, the next 300. This season, our maximum capacity is 400, including mass and spotlight choir participants.

Music for all

INSPIRO believes that music isn’t held as an opportunity only for the naturally gifted, but is practiced as an inspirational force for all.
NCTCF is not about competition! At the festival concert, students sing in mass together and listen to each other, celebrating the work of student choirs of all ages.

A Low-barrier festival

The mass choir fee is valued at $90/student. But, with the support of grants and sponsorships, students pay only $20 for the full event. This includes attire, sheet music, professional instruction, snacks, and 2 meals.
Full needs-based scholarships are available.
Minimal preparation is required of directors bringing mass choir participants.

Community music is made possible by community support. We are incredibly grateful to the organizations who share our commitment to empowerment through music education. A number of sponsorship opportunities are still available. For more information, contact us at inspiro@triadyouthchoir.org.

2027 High School Mass Choir Clinician

Kari Adams, Ph.D., is a teacher educator, conductor, and researcher dedicated to bridging scholarship and practice in music education. With experience teaching at both the K–12 and collegiate levels, she brings a practitioner-informed perspective to her work, empowering future educators through innovative teaching, impactful research, and national service to the field.

Dr. Adams serves as Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Adams engages in guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator opportunities regularly. She has conducted All State and regional honor choirs in Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. She has also presented at state practitioner conferences in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Florida, Missouri, and Texas as well as at national ACDA and NAfME conventions. Her articles focused on research-based strategies for practitioners have been published in Music Educators Journal, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Florida Music Director, and Choral Journal.

Adams’s research has been published in leading journals in the field including Journal of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, and International Journal of Research in Choral Singing. Her research interests include music teacher education, teacher identity construction, and implicit theories of musical ability. In addition to her publications, she has presented on these topics at regional, national, and international conferences. Adams currently serves as chair of the Learning and Development SRIG through NAfME and as a member of the editorial board for Update: Applications of Research in Music Education.

Prior to her appointment at UNCG, Dr. Adams served on the faculty of the University of Missouri and Florida State University, where she was awarded the Outstanding Teaching in the Major (Undergraduate) award in 2023. She holds a PhD in Music Education from the University of North Texas. Prior to her work in higher education, Dr. Adams taught middle school choir in Knob Noster, MO, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2015.

2027 Middle School Mass Choir Clinician

Dr. Heather Graham teaches music at Claxton Elementary School in Greensboro, NC, where she was named the 2026 Teacher of the Year and is now a Top-5 Finalist for Guilford County Schools Teacher of the Year. Her teaching emphasizes modern band, popular music, singing, and creating meaningful, inclusive, and culturally responsive opportunities for students to make music.

Dr. Heather Babb Graham holds a Ph.D. in Music Education, a Master of Music in Music Education, and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Ethnomusicology from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She received a B.S. in Music Education from Elon University, is an alumna of the Washington Center in D.C., and was a North Carolina Teaching Fellow. During her studies at UNCG, she served as a graduate teaching assistant and taught classes in music education, guitar, ukulele, and supervised student teachers. Additionally, she began a guitar program at a juvenile detention center.

Dr. Graham is also an active researcher. Her work has focused on popular musicians’ experiences in school music settings, music teacher identity development, and social justice in music education. She also serves on the Elon University Music Education Advisory Board, is a member of the National Association for Music Education, and she presents regularly at local and state conferences. Previously, Dr. Graham served as music director at Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville, NC for six years. While there, she directed the concert choir, show choir, and advanced chorale, symphonic band, marching band, and jazz band. In addition to directing ensembles, she taught courses in music theory, AP music theory, guitar, and general music for severe profound exceptional children.

Registration

Phases:

September 1 – October 1 Registration and $50 deposit. This includes your mass choir allotment request, and, for spotlight choirs, your preliminary repertoire selection.
November 1 – February 1 Student forms and spotlight choir forms. Invoice payment for mass choir and spotlight choir fees.
April 1-10 Schools re-confirm participation, record any changes to registration.

3 Ways to Participate:

INSPIRO Mass Choirs: Up to 20 students per your choral program enrollment . 9am-6:30pm. $20 per student includes t-shirt, lunch, dinner, and sheet music. Each mass choir will perform 2 pieces. Arrive familiar with notes/rhythms. Students participating in the mass choir outside of their school must register through a sponsoring community choir director. Field education letters are available upon request.
Spotlight Choirs: Feature your elementary, middle, or high school choir on one of the Triad’s finest stages! 20 minutes slots from 3p-6:30p for warm up and sound check. 6-8 minute performance window. 1 ensemble per school. Community choirs welcome. $100-$150 per ensemble based on choir size includes a ticket in the house for each student. Selection requires submission of a recent recording of your ensemble which exhibits excellence in musical preparation and performance conduct. Your selection as an NCTCF spotlight choir is not a choral competition. It is a celebration of excellence practiced throughout our region. Candidates will be reviewed and accepted in the order they are received.
Both: Bring students to participate in both the mass choirs and your spotlight choir. Unlike past seasons, your mass choir allotment will not increase when bringing a spotlight choir. For instance, if your mass choir allotment is 12, but your spotlight choir has 20 members, 8 members would not participate in the mass choir unless additional allotments open up. Your spotlight choir fee of $100-$150 is lowered by $5 per student also participating in the mass choir.

Mass choir allotment:

Program enrollment	Allotment
1-50	7
51-100	12
101-150	16
151+	20
Community choirs of any size	15

*Please bring a balanced voicing. Additional allotments will be announced as they become available.

Spotlight choir fees:

Spotlight Choir Size	Participation Fee
All choirs	$50 registration
10-20	+$100
20-30	+$150

Phase 1 – Registration & $50 Deposit

Look out! Registration will open September 1.

FAQ

Director presence – All students, whether participating as a spotlight choir or mass choir, must have their director present on site for the duration of the event.
Mass choir repertoire – Original copies will be kept on site. Schools are responsible for printing and bringing PDFs to be made available by January, 2027. Schools must arrive to the festival with sheet music, and must dispose of copies at the conclusion of the festival.
Spotlight choir repertoire – Our 2027 theme is “Grow Together.” To the best of your ability, please select music of any genre that fits within this theme. Upon the submission of your preliminary repertoire choices, we will confirm your selection or request a change. Time your pieces. The performance window is 6-8 minutes. Please submit any change at your earliest convenience. Changes may not be made after February 1.
Attire
- Arrive in your chorus t-shirt or school colors. Spotlight choirs will perform in this. Mass choir participants will change into an NCTCF t-shirt provided on site.
- Nice blue jeans, dark or light, unaltered (please no designs, minimal-0 rips).
- Sneakers
Spotlight choir accompanists – Pending the acceptance of further sponsorships, spotlight choirs will have the option to perform with the spotlight choir accompanist. Choirs can provide their own accompanist as well.
Equipment – Pending the acceptance of further sponsorships, all choirs will have the option of an acoustic grand piano for accompaniment. All choirs will have access to choral risers and the option of amplification.
Tickets – While we do have to charge for tickets, we are working hard to keep costs low for families. Tickets will go on sale in the early spring. We plan to open several windows, with the first including family tickets at $6.50, and the last no more than $10.
Low-barrier – We work hard to garner community support through fundraising, grants, and sponsorships. Without the help of our community, mass choir participation would cost upwards of $90 per student. Their support reflects a reduction in cost of $70 per student, resulting in a $20 per student mass choir fee.
Scholarships – NCTCF is for everyone. For students in need of additional financial support, we first request the support of their school or community choir to help cover their mass choir participation fee. If their program cannot provide a scholarship, we do have needs-based scholarships available. Contact us at nctcf@triadyouthchoir.org.

Questions?