Choral Arts Academy (CAA)
St. Mary's College of Maryland
July 8-19, 2013
Fostering the Independent Choral Artist
for current high school students through graduates
Faculty includes:
Larry Edward Vote is professor of music at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. An accomplished vocal soloist and conductor, he has performed throughout the United States and Europe. As a member of The Tidewater Ensemble he has been heard in and conducted concerts in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and Jordan Hall in Boston, as well as on regional and national broadcasts of this group. A founding member of The Maryland Bach Aria Group, Mr. Vote may be heard in music of Bach, Handel and Telemann on two compact discs published by Crystal Records.
He has conducted or performed as baritone soloist in the premieres of works by Gian Carlo Menotti, William Thomas McKinley, and David Froom, among others. He recorded McKinley's “Dallas, 1963” with the Slovak Radio Orchestra, which has been released on MMC Recordings. “Hearing the Call,” featuring new brass music conducted by Mr. Vote, was released on Sonora records in September of 1999. Mr. Vote served as resident musical director to Interact; a Washington D.C.-based theater company. With Interact he performed and directed productions for The National Gallery of Art, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Landsburg Theater, Arena Stage, and in a tour of the United Kingdom. He continues to serve as a yearly guest conductor for the River Concert Series and Co- Artistic Director of the Alba Music Festival in Alba, Italy.
The 1993 production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” for which he was music director and conductor, won the award for Best Musical in the 1994 Helen Hayes Awards. He was nominated for Outstanding Musical Director for the production of “H.M.S. Pinafore” in 1996 and again in 2000 for “Pirates of Penzance.” He is also holder of the Norton Dodge Award for Creative and Scholarly Achievement presented by St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
In his performance with Voices of the Golden Age, the Washington Post noted that "His reverberant reading of Bouvard's “Le Temple de Bachus” filled this aria with so much nobility and fervor that some real life thunderbolts outside seemed anticlimactic."
Krystal Rickard McCoy is an adjunct faculty member at the College of Southern Maryland where she teaches music appreciation, ear training, and conducts the CSM Chorale. Additionally, she directs St. Maries Musica, a select community choir based in Southern Maryland and is the director of the Southern Maryland Encore Chorale at Asbury in Solomons. She is the current president of the Maryland/DC American Choral Director’s Association.
From 2007-2010 Ms. Rickard McCoy taught choral methods, choral conducting, choral literature, and supervised secondary choral student teachers at the University of Delaware. In her choral curriculum she addressed vocal pedagogy, rehearsal techniques, score preparation, and lesson planning as applied to both middle and high school. She also conducted the University Singers, Concert Choir, and co-directed Schola Cantorum. Before arriving at Delaware, Ms. Rickard taught high school choral music in the New Jersey Public School System for five years. Under her direction her choirs won superior awards at competitions, frequently performed in Carnegie Hall, and traveled to Sydney, Australia to perform in the Sydney Opera House.
Ms. Rickard McCoy adjudicates at choral festivals and clinics in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. She presents at conferences and choral reading sessions and has conducted honor choirs on the east coast. McCoy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from Bucknell University and a Master's Degree in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College. She has studied conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt, Andrew Megill, James Jordan and William Payn. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Music Education from Boston University. Her research interests include preservice teacher education, movement in music, community engagement, adult music education, and authority in the choral rehearsal.
Drew Belsinger, baritone/countertenor, is a current junior studying Music and Psychology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Hailing from Howard County, Drew came to St. Mary’s in 2010 and has been enveloped in music since. You may see him in classical groups on campus such as Chamber Singers, Choir, and St. Mary’s newest ensemble, PING.
Drew also is heavily involved in the “a cappella scene” at St. Mary’s. As a member of the all-male group on campus, SMC-Men and music director of the co-ed group, Interchorus, he has honed his skills in music arranging, conducting, beat-boxing, and vocal coaching.
Mary Coy received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree for music from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where she sang in both the concert choir and chamber singers. Mary has performed as Alto Soloist for performances of Handel’s Messiah, the Mother in Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Belinda/Second Lady in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, all SMCM productions.
Mary is a graduate student at the University of Maryland College Park, where she is completing the Master of Music in Composition. She maintains a studio for voice, piano, and woodwind instruments in White Plains, Maryland.
Alex Kennedy is a sophomore Music major, Education minor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She has been involved with choirs as a soprano in and out of school since the age of four, particularly in middle and high school. She went to Sudbrook Magnet Middle School with a Band Magnet playing oboe and a Chorus Component, then was very active in her high school choir and theatre departments.
Alex has worked on and performed in multiple school productions in high school, including The Wedding Singer and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and was a member and eventually leader of Costumes Crew for four years. She also began playing piano in her freshman year of high school.
She is a member of St. Mary’s Choir and Chamber Singers, and also takes voice lessons.
Jaclyn Royer is an upcoming second year at SMCM, and is currently pursuing
a major in Chemistry with minors in music and math. She was born and raised
in Easton, MD and her experiences in music come from choral participation,
lessons, and roles in a variety of musicals.
She began singing in the fourth grade in general performance choirs.
Freshmen year she began piano lessons, along with occasional vocal help.
Junior year in she made it into the EHS chamber choir, and also gained a
position at Christ Church of Easton singing as a Choral Scholar. Although
she played minor roles in many shows, senior year she had her first musical
lead as Sally in “You're a Good Man Charlie Brown”, and later that year
also played Catherine in “Pippin”. Upon coming to college she made it into
both the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers here at SMCM. She sings for
Larry Vote at a St. Peters Parish, continues to play piano, and hopes to
take up lessons again next semester."
Ben VanNest is a rising Senior, a student of vocal music performance, arrangement, and composition, as well as conducting and production at Saint Mary’s College of Maryland, and is a member of the Choir, Chamber Singers, and the small ensemble “Ping”. He plays several instruments and currently studies cello privately with Susan Orban. Having had serious problems with his voice over the past, he has had a lot of experience in maintaining vocal health. He found his love of choral music during his sophomore year of high school, and has been studying in the field ever since. He has been in rock bands, school choirs and theatre (both musical and non-musical), extra-curricular choirs and a cappella groups, local theatre groups (both musical and non-musical), and studied composition and cello in Alba, Italy. He still tries not to take himself seriously. Also he likes dogs.
