Performing Arts

Meet Our Guest Conductor

Dr. Mary Hopper, Guest Conductor

Mary Hopper is Wheaton College Emeritus Professor of Choral Music. During her 43 years of teaching at Wheaton she directed the Women’s Chorale and the Men’s Glee Club and served as Chair of the Performance Area of the Conservatory of Music. The Women’s Chorale was invited to sing at two National ACDA Conferences (Salt Lake City and New York City) and four Central Region Conferences. She has toured

both nationally and internationally with both choirs.


Dr. Hopper has been Artistic Director of the Hinsdale Chorale since 2018 and also serves as Minister of Music at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Warrenville, IL.


Dr. Hopper served as National President of the American Choral Directors Association and was conference chair for the ACDA 2015 National Conference in Salt Lake City. She has served ACDA on the state and division levels since 1983 when she was a member of the planning committee for the Central Division convention.


Dr. Hopper is a frequent guest conductor, clinician and judge. She has conducted All-State Choirs in Indiana, Illinois, Delaware, Georgia, New York, Idaho, Wisconsin and Louisiana and several Women’s Choir festivals including both Southern and Western ACDA Division Women’s Honors Choirs. In 2007 and 2011 Dr Hopper was a guest conductor, mentor and plenary speaker at the International Summer School in Choral Conducting sponsored by the New Zealand Choral Federation.


She has been honored by Wheaton College with a Senior Teaching Achievement Award and the Distinguished Service to Alma Mater Award. In 2014 Illinois ACDA awarded Dr. Hopper the Harold A. Decker Award in recognition and appreciation of the significant contribution she has made to choral music. In 2018 Dr. Hopper was given the Stace M. Stegman Award for service to the choral profession by Central Region ACDA.


Schedule

3/5 Wednesday - Travel Day

6:00PM - Opening Cultural Dinner “Boodle” fight - Cuatro Christian School (walking distance from YMC guest house)


3/6 Thursday

8:00-10:00 – Rehearsal Session 1

Merienda

10:30-12:00 – Rehearsal Session 2

12:00-1:00 – Lunch

1:00-1:30 – Icebreaker / Team Building Game

1:35-3:30 – Rehearsal Session 3

Merienda

4:00-5:30 – Rehearsal Session 4

6:00 – Dinner (we will also have a time of icebreaker games, worship, and prayer for our ministry at this time)


3/7 Friday

8:00-11:00 – Ministry Project

11:30-12:30 – Lunch

12:30-2:30 – Rehearsal Session 5

Merienda

3:00-5:00 – Rehearsal Session 6

5:30-7:30 – Fiesta-on Faith Campus

3/8 Saturday

8:00-10:00 – Rehearsal Session 7

Break

10:30-12:00 – Rehearsal Session 8

12:00-1:00 – Lunch

2:00-3:00 – Concert

3:00 – Milk Tea / Grazing Table Reception

5:00 – Closing Dinner


Watch the 2025 ACSC Concert

Link coming soon!