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Where
Are They Now?
Read
below to see what AYSC graduates are doing lately.
Cheryl
Bowen Bansen
(1988-1995) married Justin Bansen in September 2006.
Two days after their honeymoon, they bought a house in Orlando and
are busy making it their own. Justin is a transportation engineer,
and Cheryl works as an oncology social worker. She is currently
singing with the Orlando Chorale.
David
Aspinwall (1980-1982)
received his BM at the New England Conservatory of Music in 1990
and his MM at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1992. He
served 8 years as clarinetist with the U.S. Air Force Band in Washington
D.C.until 2000. David then travelled to Vermont to work as
a ski instructor and serve in the 40th Army Band in the Vermont
Army National Guard. Then in 2002 he maintained a private clarinet
studio for four years in Austin,
TX,
where he met his wife Stephanie. Recently this summer, David won
a clarinet position in the U.S. Navy Band back in good ol' Washington
D.C. David and Stephanie will move back this Fall.
Abby
Nardo
(1978-1984) received her PhD from the School of Psychology at Indiana
University in August 2005. She is now living in Boston and conducting
neuropsychological assessments of children with ADD, Learning Disabilities,
Anxiety, Autism, etc. Abby was an active member of AYSC, serving
as a music coach and a counselor at AYSC Summer Music Camp for 6
years.
Katy
Hollenbach,
formerly Katy Crutchfield (1984-1988), gave birth
to twin boys on July 27, 2005. She currently lives in Colorado with
her husband John and her two boys, Copelan Jay and Zachary Dean.
Katy was an involved Singer, and her time with AYSC greatly influenced
her choice to pursue music in college. She received her Bachelor's
in Music from Ithaca College and her Master's of Music from Colorado
University.
Speare
Hodges (1996-2003
) joined the La Guardia Arts High School (the "Fame" school)
cast of Hair in the fall of 2005, playing the role of
Claude. On September 19, 2005 he and other cast members performed
at a peace rally with Cindy Sheehan. James Rado, original composer
of the musical, accompanied the group, and the original Broadway
cast was present at the rally.
Carl
Christie
(1982-1986) is happy to announce his marraige to Carrie Ragsdale.
Carrie brought her parents to the 30th Annual Music of the Holidays,
and they are AYS's newest fans.
Erin
Freeman (AYSC
1981-88) has been named Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic
Orchestra in Richmond, VA. In addition, for the 2004-2005
academic year, she will continue her position as Resident Conductor
of Peabody Conservatory and Director of Orchestras at the Baltimore
School for the Arts, a Grammy Signature school for the arts.
She has given pre-concert lectures for the National Philharmonic
and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and hopes to complete her
DMA in Orchestral Conducting at Peabody in May. She and her
husband Drew Cahoon (remember they were married at Callanwolde with
the AYSC singing!) just bought a Victorian row-house in Baltimore
and are currently enjoying gardening and dealing with the occasional
roof leak! For more information, check out www.novoartists.com/freeman.html
and www.richmondphilharmonic.org.
Angie McGowan
(AYSC
1979-83) is living in Atlanta and working in public health at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an Epidemic Intelligence
Service Officer. What that means in plain English is that she
went to school for entirely too long and is now a “disease
detective” for the agency, focusing on evaluating violence programs
as well as working in part on public health legal issues. Unfortunately,
she hasn't gotten to use many of her YSC skills recently, unless
you count tapping her fingers in tune to the beat, singing a
little harmony in the car, or every once in a while amazing
people by knowing the words to a seemingly unlikely (former YSC) song. She'd
love to hear from any other “old-timers.”
Chelsea
Toledo
attended New England Conservatory in Boston
where she is studied to vocal performance. Her freshman year yielded
a good deal of success; she sang the role of Tytania from Britten's
A Midsummer Night's Dream in their opera scenes program,
and she made it to semifinals in the NATS competition.
Michael
Ivey
received a B.A. in Religious Studies
from Georgia State University in 1997. He married Emily Airey Nix
on July 3, 1999, and is currently a Senior Partner with Ivey &
Brown, Inc., a Software Process and Technology Consulting firm.
Emily and Michael are the Religious Education Directors for Fairhope
Unitarian Fellowship and the Youth Directors for the Southeast Unitarian
Universalist Summer Institute. They live in Bay Minette, AL with
their dog, Angus, and cat, Betty. Michael spends his free
time fly fishing and enjoying the wonders of South Alabama. Website:
http://gweezlebur.com/~ivey/
Pamela
Cohen (AYSC
1978-1982) received her Bachelor's degree
in Biology from Antioch College and her Master's in Genetic Counseling
from Brandeis University. Currently she is living in Berlin, Germany
with her husband and two children (Julia, 5, Lara, 2) where she
works as Director of International Affairs at the Max Delbrueck
Center for Molecular Medicine.
Susan
King Danos (AYSC
1979-1984). After completing a MSW at UC Berkeley in 2001,
Susan returned East to marry her husband Robert in Atlanta that
fall with a lovely reception at Callanwolde. A wonderful group
of YSC summer training week friends (Patrick Brown, Joann Cordera-Garcia,
Kate Hilenski, Sally Martin, Robin Smith, and Matielyn Williams)
blessed the wedding with Mr. O's arrangement of "Jesu, Joy
of Man's Desiring" and "The Great Trees." Susan
and her husband now live near Asheville, NC where Robert runs a
summer camp for kids. Susan worked as an Early Interventionist
social worker with Latino children experiencing developmental disabilities,
until her daughter, Marie, was born last August. She still
uses her singing talents as the song leader and guitarist at the
summer camp, and of course, she sings to Marie. Susan writes,
"I would really like to make contact with my old YSC group.
Are any of you out there? All the best to you!"
Kendra
Thompson-Welch Davidson (AYSC
1985-1988) married J.R. Davidson on July 3, 2003 at Fripp Island,
SC, which also coicided with her parents' 20th wedding anniversary.
Kendra and J.R. now live in Temple, GA and both work in Douglasville,
GA where she is the office manager in the Public Defender's Office
and J.R. is a detective with the police department. This past
year Kendra's mom recruited a new Young Singer, Deidre Eskildsen,
from her church - the same way the McKenney family and the Krekling
family recruited Kendra years ago.
Mark
Ross (AYSC
1986-1989) is living in Los Angeles for the sole purpose of realizing
his musical dream. He owns his own keyboard repair business
and works on Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos from the 1960's
and 70's. His client base in LA is scattered with some pretty
famous folks, and he also does graphic work and web design.
He is writing and performing in his own original rock project where
he's the lead singer, and he is currently working on a new album.
Mark has gone from singing second alto to what he calls "being
a baritone faking tenor." Additionally, Mark graduated
from Berklee College of Music's Production and Engineering program.
He is married and is an avid disc-golfer.
Sumner
(Ted) Thompson
made
his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Handel's Messiah with the
Masterwork Chorus from NJ. He also performed at Wigmore Hall in
London. He toured the Midwest with the Ensemble for Early Music
out of NYC. Also, he was in Chicago for two months for a production
of Britten's “Death in Venice” and Rossini's “Il Viaggio a Reims,”
and Copenhagen for some more performances of Monteverdi's “Orfeo.”
Matielyn
J. Williams (Aysc
1995-1999) is in the process of applying to graduate school to earn
a Master's degree in Education. She is singing with the Atlanta
Opera Chorus and preparing for the production Madama Butterfly.
Matielyn recently took her first trip to Europe, visiting London
and Paris for ten days.
Marquelle
(Oliver) Wohlford
(AYSC 1976-1981) writes: I currently live in Alpharetta, GA with
my fantastic husband and two wonderful kids, Jenna, 13, and Brett,
7. My daughter has the music bug and has joined the band playing
the Tuba. Brett entertains us by singing Queen at the top
of his lungs in the car. I look upon my years in the Young
Singers as one of hte most special times in my life. Although
I did not pursue a career in music, I wish I had. My art comes
out in spreadsheets and numbers for IT departments. Thank
you Young Singers for the best memories a gal could ask for.
Are you an AYSC graduate?
Email
us
and share your update.
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