If you can dream it, you can do it - Stetson University

Holy Trinity Church
The piper, a young lass
from just a few miles
outside St. Andrews,
led the 52 choristers
into the church, the
haunting notes of her
bagpipes drifting up
into the hardwood
rafters more than 100
feet above the heads
of the audience.
Nearly three years of
rehearsal, preparation
and fund raising by the
Stetson University
Children's Choir was
about to culminate in
the next 90 minutes of
performance. It was the
performance of their
lives and it kicked off
more than a week of
hard work- a week
that left the best music
teachers in the world
using phrases like
"world class" and
"professional level" to
describe the young
singers from DeLand,
Fla.
4
Photos by Judy Miller,
Brian G. Miller and
Mary Beth Heacock.
Stetson University
Children's Choir takes the
high road to success
in Scotland
By Brian G. Miller
St. Andrews, Scotland-It is not very original to say, but there was not a dry eye in the
house. And this house was a church that, if you believed the sign out front that said it
was 300 years old when it was moved to its present location in 1407, has seen a lot of tears.
This night the members of the Stetson University Children's Choir encircled the stone
sanctuary, hand-in-hand with their new best friends from the Lochgelly High School
Chorus, singing Auld Lang Sync as sweetly as Robert Burns ever imagined it could be sung.
And these extra special tears shined on the smiling faces of performers and observers alike.
To understand how this group of young performers made the venue change from the Elizabeth Hall
Chapel in DeLand to the Holy Trinity Church in one of Scotland's oldest and most famous cities, you
have to talk to Dr. Ann Small, the founder and artistic director of the choir. In just 15 years (longer than
most of the current choristers have been alive) Small has taken this group from zero to international
prominence.
Members of the Children's Choir, along with the Scottish Lochgelly High School Chorus, were invited
to be the Young-Artists-In-Residence, the best of the best, at the Choral Music Experience for Choral
Teacher Education. This is the premiere professional development opportunity in the world, held each
summer for choral teachers and conductors to learn from some of the top professionals in the world,
while conducting and practicing on the most talented choirs. Also invited, though not as the coveted
Young-Artists-in-Residence, were the children's choirs from a couple of other small towns you may have
heard of-St. Louis and Tampa.
"This group of wonderful young people deserved so much to make this trip, we knew we had to find a
way," Small said.
That is where nearly three years of planning; grant writing; golf tournaments; Christmas ornament
sales; individual contributions; sponsorships; and the genuine generosity of countless family, friends,
neighbors, businesses, and
Stetson administrators, staff,
faculty, students and alumni
became involved. Pat Baldauff,
whose daughter Ginny has been
a soprano in the choir for nine
years, agreed to spearhead the
fund-raising effort. The goal: to
offset the costs to send 52
choristers, 26 chaperones and
three staff members on what
Choristers take a
break in St. Andrews
before one of their
performances.
STETSON UNIVERSITY