Kathy Vadala:  

I would never have expected that I would end up teaching high school choirs - and loving it - but that's where life has led me. I guess it isn't so totally surprising: I worked with singers and choirs at WHRHS, in college, and through my Masters and Doctorates in piano performance and spent 15 years directing church choirs when my daughters were growing up. One year I finally realized that I hadn't been home on CHristmas eve since my younger daughter was an infant, and, in the odd way that life sometimes has of throwing out opportunities when you most need them, a choral music job at a private Catholic girls' high school opened up. It didn't hurt that I followed a - shall we say, uncongenial - choir director into the position... I could have been really awful, but the fact that I was a new face was really all I needed to be welcomed with open arms. Despite the many years I'd spent working with singers as an accompanist, I had nothing beyond a good general grasp of music to go on. Over the years I've learned a whole lot about what it takes to make a good choir, mostly by observing other directors, reading up on resources, and learning from the comments that my choirs receive at their annual adjudication festival. I"ve also served as accompanist for the Maryland All-State choirs for several years, and the opportunity to work with and take notes on the conductors of those groups has been invaluable. I teach in Prince...Expand for more