Student projects: Middlebury College Choir oral histories
This oral history project is centered in the Middlebury College Choir and aims to explore music’s place in the lives of choral singers at Middlebury College. It covers a range of student experience—interviewing members of the choir spanning 1960 to 2025—as well as choir directorship.
Together, these oral histories form the story of a musical ensemble grounded in community and tradition. Those interviewed reflected on memorable moments and repertoire during their time in the college choir. They often tell of a deeply connected membership and shaping social experience. Each participant gave an overview of the general structure and organization of choir, reflecting on rehearsals, time commitment, student leadership, and other topics.
Check out an interview with Chelsea Robinson, Class of 2026 and member of Middlebury College Choir, below.
Chelsea Robinson interviewed by Samantha-Grey Solomon
From the inclusion of members across a wide span of time emerges a narrative of intergenerational connectedness. Tradition took hold in the Middlebury College Choir and many of these persist in 2025. The collection reveals how tradition takes on new forms and adopts the value systems of a particular moment in time. This project tracks the connection between Middlebury College Choir and religion—choir historically performed each Sunday at an on-campus chapel service—and how this relationship has shifted. To interviewees, the Middlebury College Choir served as a place of musical growth, gave students the opportunity to travel, incepted a tightknit community, and was understood as a way of belonging at Middlebury College.
–Samantha-Grey Solomon, Class of 2025
Samantha-Grey (SG) contributed five oral history interviews with Middlebury students, alumni, faculty, and staff to the College Archives. Listen to SG’s interviews at the Internet Archive!
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