The W&M Botetourt Chamber Singers Featured at All-Virginia Choral Event
On Thursday, April 28, the W&M Botetourt Chamber Singers were the featured college choir at the All-Virginia Choral event held at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach. The choir boasts eighteen of some of William and Mary’s best singers who rehearse three times a week under the direction of Dr. Jamie C. Bartlett, Associate Director of Choirs and current Chair of the Music Department. The group sang a portion of their spring program to hundreds of upper middle school students and high school juniors and seniors who were selected by audition to participate in the three day event. Some of the Bots were able to reach out to a handful of students wearing W&M T-shirts who will matriculate at the college in August.
The Bots sang with a real sense of pride as six W&M alums, Katie Hidalgo Pierce, Meredith Green Lee, Margie Marbella Woods, Wes Dunnavant, Kate Tidaback, and Sarah Frook, are currently teaching music in VA schools. Katie, Kate, Wes, and Sarah were at the concert. Michelle Graham, (parent of W&M alumna Meredith Graham currently pursuing a PhD in musicology at Duke), and a Richmond area high school teacher was also in attendance. For the first time in 20 years, seventeen of the eighteen Chamber Singers are from VA, with only one student currently from out of state. It is through high visibility performances like this one that we are able to spread the message of our exceptional arts programs at W&M.
This event was made possible with the generous support of the Parent's Travel Fund administered through the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences.
