Department of Music

Ensembles

Orchestra image

© 2005 by Leo Charette

The Department of Music is home to a wide variety of ensembles. Majors and non-majors are welcome to audition for these groups. Generally auditions are held at the beginning of the fall semester. Check the Events Calendar and flyers posted in Ewell Hall for more information.

All music ensembles may be repeated for credit. Although students may take as many credits as they wish of ensemble courses, a maximum of 14 credits may be applied toward the 120 credits required for a degree by those not majoring in Music.

Band Program

Director: Evan Feldman

Wind Symphony

Founded in 1929 as the Concert Band, the William and Mary Wind Symphony brings together talented wind, brass, and percussion players to perform wind ensemble and symphonic band music from a repertory that spans the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries.

The Wind Symphony has performed for numerous special occasions, including the launching of The Susan Constant at Jamestown; for Lady Margaret Thatcher on her installation as College Chancellor; for Prince Charles, in honor of the College's Tercentenary; and as part of the festivities surrounding the Inauguration of Gene Nichol as the twenty-sixth President of the College.

For more information, visit the Concert Bands web page or contact Dr. Evan Feldman , director.

Jazz Ensemble

This 20-piece big-band performs many styles of jazz. The Ensemble and gives several performances each semester, featuring faculty and student soloists and combos; the group is also in constant demand for informal gigs in the Williamsburg area. In 1993 the Jazz Ensemble gave the capstone concert at the College of William and Mary Tercentenary Music Festival with special guest artist Ed Shaughnessy. In recent years the Ensemble has performed regularly with guest artists from across the country, frequently at the Kimball Theatre.

For more information, visit the Concert Bands web page or contact Dr. Evan Feldman , director.

Choir Program

Director: James Armstrong
Associate Director: Jamie Bartlett

Concert Choir

The William and Mary Concert Choir is an undergraduate ensemble of about seventy members, who represent a wide array of disciplines. Its repertory is drawn from the great Western European choral tradition of the last five hundred years as well as from choral traditions from around the world.

Each year the choir makes more than thirty appearances. It sings at most of the formal events of the College, including Convocation, Homecoming, Sunset Ceremony, Yule Log, Charter Day, and Commencement. Additional major events are the Holiday Concerts at the end of Fall semester, and the Spring concerts in late April. Every third year the choir presents a concert of a major work from the choral/orchestral repertory, given in honor of George and Ida Clayman.

The Choir undertakes an annual five-day regional Spring Tour in mid-March. The Ensemble also sings abroad every third year, and since 1999 has performed in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, and Croatia. It has performed for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, and was one of four choirs invited to perform in concert with the United States Marine Band at the 1997 Presidential Inaugural on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C. At the invitation of the Marine Band, the Choir participated in the Marine Band's recording of Charles Cushing's "Angel Camp," which was released on CD in 1998. The Choir has released several of its own cds, available from Choir members, on the Choir webpage, and at the William and Mary bookstore.

For more information, visit the Choir's web pages or contact Dr. James Armstrong , director.

Women's Chorus

The Women's Chorus is an ensemble of some sixty undergraduate women; it performs regularly on campus and in the Williamsburg community. Like all Department of Music ensembles, the Women's Chorus is made up of students from a wide variety of backgrounds and majors. Each semester the Chorus is featured in a major Candlelight Concert at Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg, and in the regular Choral Program Holiday Concerts and Spring Concerts in December and April, respectively. The ensemble regularly performs in a variety of other venues in the Williamsburg area, including at services for the Temple Beth-El, the Williamsburg Unitarian Universalist Church, and the Inter-Faith Council of the College.

Since 1999, the Chorus is under the direction of Dr. Jamie Bartlett. The ensemble has developed into an inspired, skilled, and exciting vocal group. The Women's Chorus mounts an annual tour of the East Coast every spring; since 2001 the ensemble has performed in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and West Virginia. For more information, visit the Chorus's web pages or contact Dr. Jamie Bartlett , director.

Botetourt Chamber Singers

A vocal chamber ensemble of eighteen, the Botetourt Chamber Singers started in 1975 as an elite offshoot of the William and Mary Concert Choir. The ensemble is under the direction of Dr. Jamie Bartlett, and performs frequently on campus, in the Williamsburg community, and elsewhere. The "Bots" perform as a regular component of the Choral Program Holiday Concerts and Spring Concerts each December and April, with the Women's Chorus in its Candlelight Concerts, at Homecoming, with the William and Mary Early Music Ensemble, and at Grand Illumination in Colonial Williamsburg. In Spring 2005 the ensemble participated in its first international tour, traveling to the Balkans with the William and Mary Concert Choir,

In November 2006 the Botetourt Chamber Singers was a featured ensemble at the Virginia Music Educators Association conference in Norfolk. In Spring 2006 the ensemble cut a new cd, to be released during the 2006-2007 academic year.

For more information, contact Dr. Jamie Bartlett , director.

William and Mary Symphony Orchestra

Director: Dr. Akiko Fujimoto

The William and Mary Symphony Orchestra, which was founded in 1932, has as its mission the preparation and performance of a wide range of orchestral music at a high artistic level. The Orchestra generally presents five concerts each academic year, including a Halloween "pops" concert, a concerto competition in the spring, and end-of-semester concerts in December and April. In past seasons, the ensemble has performed orchestral masterworks by such composers as Bartok, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Chadwick, Dvorak, Mahler, Ravel, Rossini, and Tchaikovsky. The orchestra has also collaborated with the Concert Choir to perform major choral works such as the Mozart Requiem and Haydn Te Deum. The ensemble is featured on a compact disc released by the Department of Music during the 2005-06 academic year.

For more information, visit the Orchestra's web pages or contact Dr. Akiko Fujimoto (Director of Orchestras).

Classical Ensembles

The Department of Music offers a wide variety of traditional ("classical") performance ensembles. For audition and rehearsal information, contact the directors of each ensemble.

Brass Ensemble
Director: Peter Dubeau

Classical Guitar Ensemble
Director: Timothy Olbrych

Early Music Ensemble
Director: Ruth van Baake Griffioen

Jazz Improvisation Lab
Director: Harris Simon

Mixed Ensemble: Gallery Players
Director: Burton H. Kester

Opera Workshop
Director: Ryan Fletcher

Percussion Ensemble
Director: John Lindberg

Saxophone Ensemble
Director: James Nesbit

String Ensemble
Director: Neal Cary

Woodwind Ensemble
Director: Patti Carlson

Non-Traditional and World-Music Ensembles

The Department of Music offers several non-traditional and world-music ensembles. For audition and rehearsal information, contact the directors of each ensemble, as listed below.

Appalachian String Band
Director: Peter Frostic  

Indonesian Gamelan
Director: Cynthia Benton-Groner

Middle Eastern Music Ensemble
Director: Anne Rasmussen

MEME in concert

Middle Eastern Music Ensemble

Established in 1994, the William and Mary Middle Eastern Music Ensemble is composed of 15-25 primarily undergraduate students who come to the group with excellent musicianship, but no prior experience with the Arab, Turkish, Persian, Armenian and Greek traditions that comprise the music of the Middle East.  The ensemble, an extension of the ethnomusicology curriculum in the Music Department at W&M, is a forum for exploration and performance.

Performance Art Ensemble
Director: Duncan Neilson