Convocation Choral Workshop
Welcome
You are welcome to join in singing for Convocation with the Choral Workshop! The Convocation opens the academic year and formally welcomes new students to Middlebury. No audition is required and all students, incoming and returning, are welcome to sing. Members of the College Choir host the workshop and alumni and faculty instrumentalists augment the singing.
2025 Choral and Dance Workshops and Instrumentalists
Jeffrey Buettner, Professor of Music, organist and conductor
Christal Brown, Associate Professor of Dance, choreographer
Ronnie Romano ‘20, piano
Jon Jon March 23.5, drums
Anina Dentel-Pham ‘27, violin
Cornelia Abakah ‘28, bass
Choral Workshop
Adina Newman-Toker ‘29
Daphne Frank ‘29
Morgan Lomax ‘28.5
Simon Hall ‘26
Andrés Contreras-Villalta ‘29
Ontario Osoinach ‘29
William Mortell ‘26
Danny Smith ‘27
Chelsea Roinson ‘26
Sebastian Holbrook ‘26
Liam Salerno ‘27
Oran von der Heydt ‘28
Phoebe Davis ‘25.5
Cathy Dyer ‘28
Quinna McCarty ‘28
Anna Miller ‘25.5
Dance Workshop
Liefe Temple ‘25.5
Yuzhuo Wang ‘28
Marli Cohen ‘26
Evelyn rodriquez 26.5
Eloise Kennedy ‘28.5
Maya Zelkin (Community Member)
Monique Pond ‘28
Ana Holmes ‘27
Sophie Mathewson ‘28
Avery Swett ‘28
Fiona Tran ‘27.5
Francesca Pelosi ‘28.5
Schedule and Requirements
Join the Workshop rehearsals as follows - please attend as much as you can. You must attend at least one to sing on Sunday afternoon.
All take place in the College Chapel unless noted below.
2025
Friday, September 5, 3:00-4:30 PM College Chapel
Saturday, September 6, 4:30-6:00 PM College Chapel
Sunday, September 7:
- 12:30-2:00 PM rehearsal
- 4:00 PM Service: arrive by 3:45. Dress is very nice/appropriate to a major college function. New students, please join us in the Chapel up front (chancel) via the back door as soon as possible.
Advance preparation with material below is also important, as there is limited rehearsal time for this formal, highly significant College event.
Repertoire
Please see preparation audio/music excerpts here or linked below!
Welcome Dance Song (specific song TBD)
Typically performed with singers, dancers, and an instrumental ensemble of faculty, students, and alumni, this piece serves as the formal processional of College administration and staff.
Gamaliel Painter’s Cane
We sing the famous college song with text written by E. Pruda Wiley, Class of 1912.
Tell Me Where Is Fancy Bred
The text from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is a song advising that truth is found deeper than superficial impression. We adapt Matthew Harris’s a cappella setting for a neo-Baroque ensemble of singers and instrumentalists. You may sing a part of the polyphony, or you may join one of the two main melodic parts shared here. Like the first piece, there is a call and answer (“reply”) character to this melody.
Walls of Ivy
We will lead the singing of the Alma Mater, Walls of Ivy, sung to the tune Cwm Rhondda by Welsh composer John Hughes (a fairly popular Welsh hymn tune in its day). The text is by Margaret Dounce Dale ‘43 and Dorothy Hood Bittman ‘43.
Contact
Interested in choral singing at Middlebury? Consider auditioning for the College Choir! Audition information is posted at go/choiraudition (go.middlebury.edu/choiraudition/)