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"The collective sound is warm and
rich, while the music-making is disciplined and vocally well-blended. Most
importantly, the choir delivered the spirit of the work, never overdoing, which
would be easy, but conveyed its power with their restraint. In short, it's one
fine chorus." Times
Argus Article
“These women could stand toe to
toe with some of the finest ensembles in the United States.”
Vermont
Woman Article
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Our Choir
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History of
Bella Voce
Board of Directors
Singers
Biographies
Dr. Dawn O. Willis,
Music Director
 Dawn
Willis, Music Director and Founder of Bella Voce Women’s Chorus, also
serves as the Assistant Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra
Chorus. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Music from
Arizona State University and Masters degrees in Sacred Music and Choral
Conducting from Southern Methodist University.
In 1999, Dr. Willis conducted the New
England Symphonic Ensemble and the McMurry University Choirs in a
performance of Mozart’s Solemn Vespers at Carnegie Hall. She has
also served as a guest conductor for the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra
and prepared choruses for regional orchestras in Iowa and Texas. Dr.
Willis has served as the Director of Choral Activities at McMurry
University and Iowa Wesleyan College, and has conducted the University of
Vermont Catamount Singers and Arizona State University Women's Chorus.
She has conducted numerous festivals, clinics, and workshops throughout
Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Iowa, South Dakota, and Vermont. She has served
as the choral director for churches in several denominations and directed
numerous collegiate and community musicals, operas, and madrigal dinners.
Dawn also composes and arranges sacred and secular choral music and pieces
for handbell ensembles.
Glory
Reinstein, Assistant Director
 Glory
Reinstein received her B.S. in Music Education from the University of
Vermont and her Masters Degree in Music Education at Central Connecticut
State University in New Britain, Connecticut. She presently teaches
vocal/choral music as well as other music electives at Essex High School.
Glory has conducted church choirs and been involved in community musical
theater throughout her career. She has been an adjudicator and guest
conductor throughout Vermont and Northern New York. Glory is a former
President of the Vermont Chapter of American Choral Directors’ Association
and the Vermont Music Educators’ Association and presently serves on both
boards. Her awards include being named the 1997–1998 Vermont Music
Educator of the Year, the 1998–1999 North Country Union High School
Teacher of the Year, and the 2007 Vermont Arts Alliance award recipient.
Shirley Smith,
Accompanist
Shirley
Smith earned two Bachelors Degrees from Hartt College of Music (West Hartford,
Connecticut) and her Masters from Nazarene Theological Seminary (Kansas
City, Missouri). Trained as a singer and pianist, Shirley has taught
music for over 20 years in public schools in New York State, Kansas and
Vermont. She served as accompanist for the South Burlington Community
Chorus and has served as rehearsal pianist for The Burlington Choral
Society since 1996. That same year she also began playing for the
musical productions at Williston Central School and became affiliated
with the Stowe Theatre Guild, serving as music director and keyboardist
for many of their musical productions. Before joining Bella Voce,
Shirley accompanied the South County Community Chorus and In Accord. She
currently serves as the choral accompanist for Essex High School and
South Burlington Middle and High Schools. Shirley also works with
students of several local private teachers and studies herself with
Elaine Greenfield. She is often called upon to play for events sponsored
by professional music organizations including the ACDA and VMEA. Shirley
and her husband, Robert, live in Jericho and have a daughter, son,
daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.
Xiudan
Lin, Assistant Accompanist
 Xiudan
Lin moved to the United States in 2002 from south-eastern China. She is
currently a Sophomore music major at The University of Vermont. She has
studied piano for five years with Paul Orgel, a member of the UVM piano
faculty. Past awards include first place in both the Vermont
Philharmonic Jon Borowicz Memorial Student Music Scholarship Competition
and the Vermont All-State Music Festival Scholarship Competition in the
piano category, and an award from the Music Teacher’s National
Association (Eastern Division).
Chelsie
Henderson, Conducting Intern
 C helsie
Henderson is in her second year as the high school choral director and
middle school music teacher at the Bellows Free Academy - Fairfax. Chelsie
graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Music Education in
May of 2007. She currently serves as the Choral Chair of the Vermont Music
Educators’ Association. Chelsie has been a member of Bella Voce’s Young
Conductors’ Mentoring Program since its inception in 2005.
Top
The History of Bella Voce
Bella
Voce Women's Chorus of Vermont has grown from a passing thought in January
of 2004 to a performing ensemble of 35 women one year later! With the
support of several members of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the
encouragement of the VSOC conductor Robert DeCormier, Dawn Willis surveyed
singers to ascertain whether the Greater Burlington Area could support
another choral ensemble - one devoted to classical music for women's voices.
Following a flurry of emails, audition dates were set and arrangements were
made for rehearsal and performance sites. The first rehearsal was held March
and the inaugural performance was given May 22nd. The chorus includes
singers from 4 counties throughout northern Vermont, many of which also sing
in a variety of school, church, and community choruses across the region.
It has been an exciting four years for Bella Voce, and this chorus will
continue to strive toward its goal of providing artistic performances of
quality choral music written for women's voices.
Top
Board of Directors
Chris O'Brien, Chair
Judith Hillman, Recording Secretary
Linda Wheeler, Treasurer
Becky Peterson,
Membership Secretary
Glory Douglass, Assistant Conductor, ex officio
Sylvia Allen
Kelly Daige
Vikki Day
Donna-Sue Hain
Mary Harwood
Nan O'Leary
Rosemary Zamore
Dawn Willis, ex officio
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Singers
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Sylvia Allen
Heather Aube
Rose Bacon
Kelly Daige
Vikki Day
Glory Douglass
Caroline Edmunds
Deb Flanders
Michele Grimm
Ellen Gurwitz
Donna-Sue Hain
Michelle Haley
Diana Hall
Amy Hamlin
Cynthia Harlow
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Mary Harwood
Chelsie Henderson
Jane Henderson
Judith Hillman
Sarah Himes
Janet Jackson
Sharon
Lamb
Meghan Levick
Xiudan Lin
Cathy Mander-Adams
Gisele McRae
Kate McRae
Karen Mendes
Laura Nassau
Esther Nui
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Christine O'Brien
Doris Ogden
Nan O'Leary
Tracy Perrapato
Becky Peterson
Cecelia Redmond
Jenny Robbins
Lynne Robbins
Sylvia Robison
Susan Romanoff
Suzanne Scharf
Shirley Smith
Susan Walker
Linda Wheeler
Martha Whitfield
Rosemary Zamore |
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Back to About Bella
Voce |
