As we celebrate Stone Soup and, in less than two weeks, Winter Festival, I want to extend my gratitude to Gerri Matthews, our substitute Choral Director! Gerri was able to pick up with the WES Chorus and Youth Voices in early October, right after we said goodbye to Bailey Whiteman. Thanks to her work–and to the *incredible* dedication of our Chorus and House Band, as well as some great guest musicians, we have been surrounded by music during these first few months of transition.  

Now it’s time to turn our attention to the next chapter. I’m delighted to share that we have assembled an awesome search team for our Music Director position: Perry Beider, Jason Fettig, Judy Oppenheim Myers, John Pfeifer, and Vincent Tyler. As is typical with hiring processes at WES, Tom Hutton will advise the team in his role as Administrator. And I serve as the hiring staff person. I’m so excited to be working with all these folks! We want to share with you our tentative schedule for the search process, and welcome your engagement. 

After Winter Festival and before Christmas, members of the team will be meeting with the chorus and band to hear from them what they are hoping for the music program, and how that might shape our search for the next Music Director. We will also offer listening sessions for the community as a whole on Sunday, December 15, between platforms (at 10:45am) and after the second platform (at 1pm). We hope you will join us! 

Ideally, we will use that information to tweak our current job description for the position, and post a new one by the end of December. That would allow us to receive resumes in early January and to conduct interviews in late January…with the hope that we’ll bring someone on board in February! 
Of course all of that depends on plenty of things outside our control, including the pool of candidates. You can help! When the position description goes up, please be sure to share it as widely as possible: with your school’s music teacher, with that person you know in arts administration, with the cool creative friend that always knows all the new artists. We are eager to reach as many potential candidates as possible! 

Please do attend the listening session, as well, and tell us what you dream of for music at WES. We look forward to hearing from you, and to imagining our next phase of music leadership together. 

Warmly,

Amanda