Reminder: Registration Deadline This Friday!

Hello all,

Don't forget to register for the 35th/15th Anniversary Weekend and Concert! The deadline is this Friday, February 26th 2010. The online registration site is through Alumni Hall (HoosOnline) and is secured by VeriSign.

Click here to register online.

VWC Alumna Profile: Caroline Zill

Carrie Zill graduated from UVA in 2006 with a degree in History. More importantly, while she was at UVA Carrie was in the Virginia Women's Chorus and served on the Managing Board as Publicity Chair, Concert Chair, and Fundraising Chair. Her favorite memory from being in VWC is having the chance to live in the chorus house for 3 great years! Carrie is originally from Pittsburgh, and also lived in South Carolina and Virginia before attending UVA. She currently lives in Fairfax, VA. She has two younger sisters, Becky and Jamie, who are both currently students at Virginia Commonwealth University.

After graduation, Carrie joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to teach English in Bayankhongor, Mongolia. She became interested in Asia after studying abroad in China for a summer while at UVA, and later studied Chinese. In Mongolia, Carrie spent two years teaching children English to secondary school students, learning the Mongolian language, living in a ger (a traditional Mongolian tent), traveling around Asia, and gaining a new-found appreciation for truly cold winter weather. Her favorite experiences of being in the Peace Corps were forming new friendships, living in a ger, and having the opportunity to learn about a new culture and language.

Carrie returned to the United States in the summer of 2008 with a new found calling for teaching. She is currently in graduate school at George Mason University to get a Masters degree in Education, with a focus on teaching ESOL. She is currently teaching ESOL at Fairfax High School, her high school alma mater! In her free time Carrie enjoys running, swimming, sky-diving, doing crossword puzzles, rooting for the Steelers, playing with her dogs, and going to the beach.

Conductor Profile: Libby Moore Slade

Libby Moore Slade and her son, Jacob.

Greetings, VWC friends!

It's Libby Moore Slade, your former conductor of 2000 - 2005. I'm writing to you from frozen, rural Ohio where I have been with my family since my husband Pete took a professorship starting in August of 2006. Our daughter Anna is now 5, and our son Jacob is 3. Time flies when you're sleep deprived. I'm sure some of you can relate. I feel infinitely blessed, though my current hiatus from conducting leaves me with some longings. I'm delighted to get to wave my arms around in front of you once more this coming April! I'm even more delighted that I'll be able to see such dear old friends again, hear your singing, and sing with you. Thanks so much for including me.

A word about the pieces I've chosen to conduct in the concert:
I remember Durufle's beloved Tota pulchra es from my undergrad days singing with VWC, and I shared it with the group again as director. The Latin text is from a 4th-Century Marian prayer. Durufle's quirky rhythms and haunting melodies, based on Gregorian chant, make this motet both exciting to sing and an important piece of women's choral music history. I look forward to enjoying it again with you.

Out of all of the wonderful pieces we shared, it was difficult to choose only a couple. I've always felt, and feel even more strongly today, that our music should draw us closer in community with each other and with the world. This conviction, combined with my interest in folk music traditions, led me to think back on the small collection of songs we performed some years ago from the island of Hispanola, or modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Aires de Quisqueya ("Quisqueya" being another name for the island from the native Taíno language meaning "mother of the earth") will be our tribute to the people of Haiti. With these songs we will remember our sisters and brothers there, and salute their courage and the courage of those helping them to rebuild their lives. Though some of you remember performing these pieces in a Spanish/ Taíno dialect, we will draw from an English version to make the spirit of the music more immediately accessible to us.

What a blessing it will be for me to make music with you again!

With love and gratitude,
Libby

List of Attendees thus far

Hooray, ladies--we currently have 45 alums for Anniversary Weekend!!!!! We will be sending out packets by the end of this week, so you can still register--it's not too late! Here's a list of current attendees:

Kathie (KaeRenae) Mitchell, '76
Dorothy Markwort Stalnaker, '77
Rebecca Wooldridge Ewell, '77
Claudia Fletcher, '77
Patricia Zaice Klass, '77
Kathy Yamamoto Hepner, '77
Nadine Woodard Huffman, '78
Lynne Leach Greber, '79
Heidi Schichl DuPree, '80
Kathy Williams Butler, '83
Cyndi Gosain Messick, '84
Lynne Stein Benzion, '85
Sally Mouzon, '86
Susan Durbin Conniff, '88
Andrea Kahn Kothmann, '89
Jane Holt, '89
Wynne Krause Kelch, '95
Candace Burton, '96
Esta Jarrett, '97
Melissa Mustard, '97
Robyn Berger, '98
Karen Lee, '98
Joscelyn Fisher, '98
Liz Gallagher Lane, '98
Nancy Lin, '98
Schlese Castilla, '00
June Liang, '00
Joan Lee, '00
Sara Girovasi, '02
Emily Ing Lowe, '02
Laura Fimiani Harders, '03
Kyle Jones Hayden, '03
Alexis Beauvais, '03
Meredith Willey Harper, '03
Shannon Montague, '05
Carrie Zill, '06
Stefanie Wallace, '06
Michelle Cho, '06
Elliott Neal, '07
Clare Anderson, '07
Alissa Rubin Hansen, '07
Katie Brackett, '07
Courtney Costello, '09
Jessica Bashkoff, '09
Megan Van Syckle, '09
Elizabeth Grim, '09