Allegheny College Choir Reunion 2012

Senior Recital, 1994

Every three years, my college's regularly scheduled reunion bash includes a gathering of choir alums.

The school's choral program has its roots in the St. Olaf tradition and there have been only three directors since its inception in the 1920s, the third being my teacher, Ward Jamison.

To say that we choir kids are passionate would be an understatement.  Any given reunion year draws 150, 200 singers from the graduating classes of 1940s to present.

But this year was special, because Ward and his wife Vicki, my voice teacher, are retiring after 31 years.  This year more than 300 of us came back.  The auditorium stage had to be built out to hold everyone.

Rehearsals ran from Thursday night through Saturday morning, with the concert on Saturday afternoon.

2012

And then Ward passed the baton.

How bittersweet.  Many tears, but also a celebration of my mentors' careers and a joyful welcome for his successor, my friend James who graduated a few years after me and has gone on to get a doctorate and teach at the college level and generally make his parents proud.  James is married to the lovely Carol (also an alum, and a soprano like Vicki) who will be joining the faculty as a voice teacher (like Vicki).

The end of an era, but the beginning of a new one.

The next choir reunion, in 2015, will coincide with the college's bicentennial.

James is already planning the program.