The Bluff City Choral Festival is a unique festival, sure to provide lasting experiences for your students, no matter your ensemble size! Competitions across three categories of activities provide all students the chance to grow and show off where they excel. From performance clinics with quality music educators to the trampoline park and more, this festival is sure to be the one your students talk about for the rest of the year!
Performances to take place at Maples Memorial UMC in Olive Branch, MS
Friday, April 17, 2026 - High School Festival
Saturday, April 18, 2026 - Middle School Festival
Important Documents for Directors
BCCF Info Sheet 2026
BCCF Registration Form 2026
BCCF Performance Adjudication Form
BCCF Community Service Adjudication Form
Kristin M. Claiborne, a Valparaiso, Indiana native, serves as the Assistant Principal for Curriculum & Instruction at Spring Valley High School in Richland School District Two in Columbia, South Carolina. Prior to this appointment, she served as assistant administrator for two years & choral director for ten years at Blythewood High School. During her tenure as choral director, Claiborne directed four levels of choir and the acaBengals, a premier pop/jazz a cappella group, while also serving as the lead teacher for secondary choral directors in her district. Each year, her choirs consistently earned a superior with distinction rating in choral performance assessments, and her students earned placement in the South Carolina All-State Choir & ACDA state, regional, & national honor choirs. Her choirs toured both domestically & internationally, including performances in Italy, New York, Atlanta, Charlotte, & Orlando. In 2019, the BHS Concert Choir was selected to perform at the South Carolina Music Educators Conference. In 2022, Ms. Claiborne presented a session entitled “Fear Not the Unknown: Pop & All That Jazz” at the SCMEA conference, where the acaBengals served as a demonstration ensemble. Claiborne often serves as a clinician &/or adjudicator for various choral events throughout the US, most recently having judged the Georgia Southern Invitational & the Arkansas State Choral Festival.
As a performer, Claiborne has performed as the featured soprano soloist at Lincoln Center in New York City for Will Todd’s world-renowned jazz mass, “Mass in Blue,” in 2019, & she then reprised a performance of this work at Southwark Cathedral (London, UK) & St. George’s Bristol (Bristol, UK) in June 2022. Outside of the choral realm, Claiborne is a company member of Trustus Theatre in Columbia, SC, where she has performed the following roles: Deena Jones in Dreamgirls, Crystal in Little Shop of Horrors, Mrs. Greene in The Prom, Depression in Dandelion, Nehebka in Aida, & Rapunzel in Into the Woods. Offstage, Claiborne served as musical director for both Choir Boy & Into the Woods at Trustus.
Claiborne holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education with an Emphasis in Choral Studies degree and a Master of Educational Administration degree, both from the University of South Carolina. She is pursuing a doctorate in teacher leadership from Concordia University Chicago. Although she is no longer a full-time choral director, she is an educator through & through, & she is endlessly grateful for the continued opportunity to share her love of choral music with those near & far!
Amy Kotsonis is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of New Hampshire, where she conducts Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, and teaches choral methods. She also serves as conductor and instructor at the Summer Youth Music School at the
university. Prior to her appointment at UNH, Amy was Associate Professor of Choral Ensembles and Music Education at the University of Northern Iowa, where she conducted UNI Singers and Cecilians, and taught conducting and music education courses. Her choirs have toured internationally to Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Italy. An active clinician, she has worked with colleges, high schools, and middle schools as
well as conducted honor choirs throughout the United States. Amy has presented regionally, nationally and internationally including the Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium, the American Choral Directors Association National Conference, and various state music education conferences, and her research is published in the International Journal of Music Education. In 2022 she was awarded the Iowa Choral Directors Association Honors Initiative Award for Collegiate Directing.
Amy is also the music director of the Community Chorus at South Berwick, and has served as the Artistic Director for the Metropolitan Chorale and UNI Children’s Choir in Iowa, Conductor of Soho Voce and Assistant Conductor for the Soharmoniums in New York City, and several church choirs. Previously, she was Assistant Conductor, Director of Workshops, and Satellite School Teacher for the Young People's Chorus of New York City, and taught in public schools in New York City and Boston.
Amy completed a Ph.D. in Music Education and Choral Conducting at Florida State University, a Master of Arts in Choral Conducting and Music History at the University of New Hampshire, and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education at New York University.
Stay tuned for Mr. Davis' bio!