President's Address

Greetings from Cornell! My name is Kristen, and I am a rising senior Human Development major and Music minor. I am ecstatic to be representing the Chorus as President for the 2010-2011 school year!

The Chorus had an amazing and demanding year. We gained extremely talented and motivated new members, many who have already joined our Council and positively contributed to our organization. In addition to new members, the Chorus also pursued new projects. We began a Community Outreach Committee to help spread our music, and we performed at the Bridges Nursing Home and are planning future outreach activities. Our organization also launched a brand new website- www.cuchorus.com- that gives us more resources for our members, alums, audiences, and prospective members (including this electronic newsletter)! I encourage you all to visit our site- you can learn about our upcoming concerts, listen to our music, buy merchandise, donate to the organization, and re-connect with members and alums! The Chorus also created a new Grants Council Position, and we are in the process of researching grants to help fund our new endeavors to help us to continue to grow musically. This has without a doubt been a busy year, with so many dedicated women helping to promote our organization and our music!

As always, the Chorus enjoyed very rewarding and challenging musical experiences this year. Conductor John Rowehl took over for the fall semester while Professor Tucker was on sabbatical, and we greatly appreciated all of his dedication and musicality! We continued our “No Whining, No Flowers” commissioning project with a Halloween-inspired piece, A Book Of Spells, written by Libby Larsen for our October 31st Twilight Concert. We also joined forces with the Glee Club to perform in our third Vespers Service at Sage Chapel, which is becoming a beloved tradition of both the Chorus and our audience.

In the spring, we hit the ground running with the challenging "Northern Lights" joint concert with the Glee Club, featuring Scandinavian works. Then we toured the Mid-Atlantic States, where both our musicality and friendships flourished. We were so lucky to enjoy homestays and concerts with some of our alumnae and friends, and we thank you for supporting us! We ended the year with a performance of Brahms’ Schicksalslied with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra at Ithaca College.

We were terribly sad to say goodbye to our seniors at our Senior Week Concert and Commencement, but I am extremely excited for the year ahead and to continue making the Chorus the best it can be! I am very proud of the progress that was made this past year, and I look forward to continue to promote the positive spirit, musical excellence, and progress of our organization.

I hope you all enjoy your summers, and please come say hello if you are ever in Ithaca! We love hearing from our alumnae and friends- you are the people who keep this organization running, and we could never do it without your constant support and advice!

Best,

Kristen Dilzell '11, President