With finals season around the corner, and weekly schedules packing assignment upon assignment, you may be having trouble finding things to do outside of studying. You may have witnessed the choir performing in their regularly scheduled concerts in previous semesters or featured in lavish collaborative projects with other choral groups such as VTSU-Castleton’s University Chorale. Look no further as there is a possibility the Polaris Singers may return to the Dibden stage once again! The best part? With Vermont Chamber Artists’ very own Jessica Pierpont making her return!

Sophia Berard and Sarah Anctil-Krumeich are the two members of this semester’s Polaris Singers Curriculum. Due to the current impacts from our merger and optimization, the activeness of the class’s popularity has been downplayed. Yet, despite uncertainties surrounding what the class’s finished product will be, they are still going strong as a small group! Both vocalists are NVU alumni and community members. 

As of the current semester, Jessica Pierpont is the conductor and course instructor for Polaris Singers. Pierpont is also the conductor, artistic director, and founder of the Vermont Chamber Artists, a small choral group consisting of sixteen Vermont-based choral singers, and the Vermont Girls Choir, another choral group open to girls and young women from ages 12-18. Pierpont holds a Master of Music Degree in choral conducting from the University of Arizona and a B.A in Music with a concentration in Piano from Castleton University. She was previously a professor at McGill University. 

Anctil-Krumeich explains that the songs they worked on included Bring Me Little Water Silvy, The Tide, and Mothers and Daughters. All together, these songs are not your average set for a vocal performance. Here, the vocalists will be bringing folks a musical culmination of the medieval and contemporary sounds of Moira Smiley, singer-songwriter and composer, Hildegard Von Bingen, a 10th century German composer during the High Middle Ages, and many more!

Regardless of whether or not the VTSU-Community will have a concert, Anctil-Krumeich hopes that future audiences will walk away with the sense of community that they believe their music brings. Even the song selections themselves are a part of “something bigger” when the vocalists sing together.