CONCERTARIUS VOLUNTARIUS
Did you stop to wonder how the grand piano arrived in St Luke's for the glorious Vermont Symphony concert last fall? Volunteers did it. Lots of volunteers who sold tickets, hung posters, found sponsors, fed the "band," and, yes, lugged and tugged hundreds of pounds of piano into the sanctuary. None of that was particularly visible. None of it would have happened without Melissa Ewell.
Melissa Ewell divides her time between teaching music at Swanton Elementary and volumteering for the VSO. She is a regional board member and chairs the symphony's education committee. She mans tables at exhibits and conferences, gives pre-concert lectures at schools, and chaperones youth conferences. For the St Albans concert, she organized devoted poster hangers and chefs, soccer players and the national guard.
"I enjoy putting it together," she said. "Everyone does." And the students and grownups in the audience get to savor every event.
Born in Connecticut, Ewell has family roots in Stowe. Melissa and (husband) Michael Ewell are both opera lovers, which means an annual trip or two to NYC to see performances at the Met. Michael sings with the VSO chorus. Their love of travel took them to Italy for two weeks last summer. We might suspect they took in a little music there as well.
"There are mutual benefits to participating in VSO and arts council endeavors," Ewell said. The AAC -- and particularly Melissa Ewell -- will prove that again as she hosts the symphony's return appearance in St Albans this September.
Many of the AAC profiles first appeared in the County Courier, the St Albans Messenger, and online in ArtBits on this site, in the Arts and Entertainment section of VermontNOW magazine, and on Themestream.com
All Arts Council of Franklin County
Dick Harper, Chair
P.O. Box 1
Highgate Springs, VT 05460
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