The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two independent variables, race and racial perception, on ratings of choral performances attributed to racially homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. A secondary research objective examined relationships between adjudicators' choral performance ratings and their self-reported ethnic social encounter preferences.

Subjects were 26 Black and White choral music educators from five counties in North Carolina. Subjects from the two racial categories were assigned randomly to experimental Treatment Group A (n = 10), B (n = 8) or Control Group C (n = 8). Subjects in Groups A, B, and C evaluated the same listening stimulus while presented respectively with a photograph designed to be perceived as a choral group comprised of homogeneous Black, homogeneous White or heterogeneous Black and White members, Subjects also completed a posttreatment measure of preferences for Black and White social encounters.

A two-way ANOVA was used to analyze ratings of choral performances; the Pearson Product-Moment correlation procedure was used to analyze choral performance rating data and data from the social encounter measure. An alpha level of .05 was established for all statistical and inferential analyses.

Results of the study revealed no significant main effect of race, and no significant interaction effect of race and treatment on the dependent variable; however, a significant main effect was found for treatment. Correlation analyses revealed weak to strong negative relationships between adjudicators' racial-encounter preference mean scores and choral performance evaluation ratings for subjects in Treatment Groups A and B. Moderate, positive relationships were found between these variables for the control group.

The following conclusions were drawn from the study: (a) adjudicators' racial perceptions may influence their evaluations of choral performances, and (b) although adjudicators' ratings of music performance and their ethnic social encounter preferences do not appear to be strongly associated, future studies should examine these relationships further while controlling for factors known to influence responses to measures designed to examine racial attitudes. Continued research concerning the effect of non-musical factors on choral performance evaluation may result in the enhancement of the educational value of choral performance experiences for students and teachers.