Goals of the Lafayette Vocal Ensembles:
  • Create and perform new music as well as celebrate music of past centuries
  • Honor the score, the composer, the poet, the culture
  • Question musical boundaries and redefine the relevance of ensemble
  • Use our whole instrument, our whole body to communicate each song
  • Identify our own expectations and travel beyond them
  • Recognize that choir is a human shared experience made up of text, breath, community

Dr. Jennifer Kelly, Associate Professor of Music,  is the Director of Choral Activities , recent Artistic Director of the community ensemble Concord Chamber Singers (2012-21), and the author of In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States presenting her research in the United States, Europe, and China. Earning her doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, under her mentor Donald Neuen, Dr. Kelly is a conductor of vocal and instrumental ensembles, musical theater director, and cabaret vocalist. An active guest conductor and clinician, her ensembles are known for their energy, dynamic versatility, innovative programming, and impactful storytelling. With a grant from The Hearst Foundations, she developed several new commission projects with conducted premieres including a major work by Gabriela Lena Frank; the first concerto for sitar, tabla, orchestra and chorus, composed by Hasu Patel; and a major work honoring the shared narrative of cultures in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, composed by Libby Larsen


Patricia O’Connell is the accompanist for the Lafayette College choirs. She is also the organist/choir director at First UCC in Hellertown, PA. She has been in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania since 1984. Pat taught piano at Community Music School and at Lehigh University. She has accompanied musical theater, voice, and instrumentalists in the area for over 40 years. She was the chapel organist at DeSales University for 9 years and continues to work there as an accompanist for the theater department. Pat also plays keyboard in local orchestra pits for musicals. She has two grown sons, a daughter-in-law and 2 grandsons. Pat’s education includes a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from West Chester University and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of Michigan.

CONCERT CHOIR
Made up of all students from around the school, it is for students who love to sing, regardless of major. Highlights of recent years include a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, John Rutter’s Mass of the Children, performance tours to Italy,  Costa Rica, and Portugal, premiere works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Mulgrew Miller, Libby Larsen, Svetlana Bukvich, and sitar concerto by Hasu Patel for sitar, tabla, chorus, and orchestra. Choir has also participated in the Yankee Stadium halftime show for Lafayette/Lehigh’s 150th rivalry game, sings for the Homecoming games, and field trips. We are an eclectic group performing traditional works throughout the ages as well as a modern concert-in-the-dark, combining acoustic voice with electronics, commissioning new works, and collaborating with other ensembles in the Valley, and international soloists and ensembles. 


CHAMBER SINGERS
This is an auditioned vocal ensemble chosen from members of the Concert Choir. Members of CS are those willing to take musical risk, sing moderately advanced independent parts, and is comfortable working as part of a small team. CS sings a variety of chamber ensemble music from the Middle Ages to the 21stC, all genres and and all styles. Highlights of recent years include a collaboration with the early music Musicians in Ordinary, attending workshops with New York Voices, Bobby McFerrin, and Cantus, major works by Fauré, Rutter, and Vaughan Williams, Carnegie Hall performance, Yankee Stadium halftime show for Lafayette/Lehigh’s 150th rivalry game, performance tours to Italy, Costa Rica, and Portugal, a  Madrigal Dinner, frequent performances at Lafayette’s Chateau Chavaniac, collaboration with the Allentown Symphony, and the performance of an improvised work in collaboration with art installation by Nestor Gil.