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December 2005: Maria Archetto

Music Professor Maria Archetto Directs the Oxford Chorale Holiday Concert at Emory University’s Oxford College Campus in Oxford, Georgia

Maria Archetto, associate professor of music and director of the Oxford College Chorale and Oxford College Instrumental Ensemble, will be directing her thirteenth Oxford Chorale Holiday Concert on December 8 and December 9 at 8 p.m. in the Oxford College Chapel. The Oxford Chorale will be singing Christmas, Hanukkah, and winter songs.

In a recent interview, Archetto talked about the history both of the Holiday Concert and of the Oxford Chorale, as well as about how she came to be at Oxford College.

Q: What will people experience at the concert?

A: Our holiday concert is very audience-friendly. Each year the chorale sings a different mix of pieces including some classical, folk, popular, ethnic, gospel, and Broadway music. This year we will feature music of Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Humperdinck, as well as traditional and popular Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs. There will also be an audience sing-along. The concert is held in the historic nineteenth-century chapel on the Oxford campus, which will be beautifully decorated for the holidays.

Q: How has the Oxford Chorale Holiday Concert program changed over the years?

A: Annual choral Christmas concerts were a tradition at Oxford for many years before I arrived. My contribution was to broaden the focus of the December concert, which I titled the “Holiday Concert.” I program traditional music for Christmas and Hanukkah, as well as other multicultural music for the winter holiday season in order to celebrate the many traditions of our students, faculty, and staff.

Today, as in the past, the chorale is very popular with students, faculty, and staff of Oxford College and also with the people of the surrounding community.

Q: What is the history of the chorale? How did it start?

A: Choral music at Oxford College has been going on for many years. In the days before women were admitted to the college, there was a strong tradition of all-male glee clubs. Choir directors at Oxford included the legendary Harold Mann and Joseph Edwin Guillebeau. Brownlee Waschek and William Lemonds instituted the modern Oxford Chorale in the late 1980s as an ensemble of men and women. Today the chorale is open by audition to students, faculty, and staff of Oxford College, as well as to members of the Oxford and Newton County communities.

Q: How many members are in the chorale this year?
A: There are twenty-seven members, all of whom will sing in the concert. The performers will also include the Oxford String Chamber Ensemble (five members).

Q: What are the strengths of the music program at Oxford?

A: The music program at Oxford College, which I direct, is truly unique. Because of the small size of our campus, I know everyone in the program and am able to tailor music instruction to fit the background and abilities of each student. Within the context of the Oxford Chorale, for example, I offer a great deal of training in vocal technique and I coach individual students to help each one develop his or her individual voice. I also offer music appreciation, music theory, and world music classes that are designed to be liberal arts intensive courses for all students but that also help to prepare students who wish to major or minor in music at Emory College. In recent years I have offered chamber music classes for students who wish to continue to develop their instrumental playing skills while at Oxford. This year I am teaching a string chamber ensemble class which is a theory-practice-service-learning course. String students form a performing ensemble while also serving as assistant conductors and coaches for the Newton County Youth String Orchestra.

Q: How do people get tickets to the concert?

A: Tickets are available at the Oxford College Student Center at $5 each. Tickets may be reserved by calling 770-784-4718.

Q: How would you tell a friend who was planning to attend the concert and coming to Oxford for the first time how to make a night of it?

A: Some good restaurants nearby at which I have dined happily include R& L's ( New Orleans cuisine) on the Covington Square, Chianti (Italian cuisine) and On Main (New American cuisine) in Conyers, and the Blue Willow (Southern cuisine) in Social Circle.

Q: How did you come to be at Oxford?

A: I came to Oxford in 1992 after completing my PhD in Musicology at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. I taught previously at Eastman, Syracuse University, and Nazareth College of Rochester. When I came to Oxford College for an interview, I was enchanted by the historic nature of the place and the warmth of the people. I knew also that it was a place where devotion to teaching would be valued.  

Q: What is your music training?

A: I began my musical studies at the age of nine with piano lessons. I was a very committed choral singer (and often a soloist) in elementary school, middle school, and high school, but I entered college with the idea that I would major in history. Very soon though, I was drawn to major in music, and I have been a professional musician ever since. I completed a degree in Music Education with a piano/vocal emphasis at Rhode Island College in Providence, R.I., and then completed the MA and PhD degrees in Musicology at the Eastman School. The study of musicology enabled me to combine my love of history with my love of music. My work in musicology has focused on the study of the madrigal in Renaissance Italy and other early music.

Edited by Nancy Condon
Communications Coordinator
Arts at Emory

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