VWC Alumna Profile: Kathie Mitchell

The excitement in B012 when 60 young women gathered for the first rehearsal of the first women’s choral group at UVA was enough to make the walls quiver, and B012 has never been the same after that January rehearsal in 1974. Jim Dearing, our founding director, was a fun and demanding conductor who chose challenging contemporary repertoire. Mountain Nights by Kodaly were eerily dissonant and we learned enough Hungarian to sing Bartok and Russian to sing Stravinsky. Back then we used our music during concerts and if we did not watch Jim, he would expel a loud “psst” and stare directly at us – for a long time. It was intense but fun and kept us on our toes so we would not be the next “psst” recipient. If we went flat, he kept moving the key up by half steps. Luckily I was an alto but my heart went out to the first sopranos!

One of the first challenges as a newly-formed chorus was to choose dresses. This took almost 2 full rehearsals and many (sometimes heated) discussions. Jim was beside himself. We ultimately decided that each member could choose the pattern of the dress but it was mandatory that the fabric be the same: gross, dark green polyester that was supposed to match the interior of the Old Cabell Hall auditorium in some odd way. Needless to say, 3 years later these dresses were donated to the Drama Department. Tours were a lot of fun, but Jim got a little ambitious on our tour to Canada and the bus ride was excruciatingly long and several people composed songs or wrote funny lyrics about our aching backs and adventures. I believe it was the Canadian tour when we stayed in the dorm rooms of a private boys’ school and most of us sneaked out and …I’ll leave those stories left untold. I remember it was the first time I had seen such an abundance of Playboy magazines. We decided going to Canada over spring break was not such a good idea and the next tour was planned for Florida. I remember performing outside, and while accompanying a piece, a gust of wind suddenly decided to redistribute all my piano music on the ground. Somehow we kept going. These are just a few memories from the actual rehearsals and performances. There were plenty of memories of times outside of Chorus, but … hmm…these are better left unspoken because, well, this was the ‘70’s when feminism was in full force, when opposition to the war in Vietnam was growing exponentially, when rock stars were dying in their 20’s, etc., etc. I confess. I was a hippie. There were parties with GC members but I can’t remember too much about them. I’ll leave it at that.

I hope you will all come and share your memories of your times with the Chorus! Or if you can't come this time, send us an email with your favorite memory and we'll put them in a book for all to enjoy.

Kathie (now KaeRenae) Mitchell