Meet the Choir: Cora Voce

Lovely, young ladies, clad in rich, red dresses sweetly singing complex melodies. This is the Cora Voce choir. Now in their fourth year, Cora Voce is comprised of girls in the ninth through 12th grade.

The young ladies will begin this season as they did their last, with a special retreat at The Ponderosa Lodge located in scenic southern West Virginia near the New River Gorge area. A fantastic experience for the girls, it allows them to bond personally and musically. This bond is so important for a cohesive sound especially when they are called on to handle challenging repertoire. Being at such a beautiful, secluded area causes them to rely on interacting with each other and focus on singing. The girls are currently looking for people to help underwrite this adventure as many of them cannot afford the full expense of what it costs, per person, to rent the lodge.

The Cora Voce girls sing at ACC’s Holiday and Spring Concerts as well as perform during womenSong events. They will perform at other events during the season as determined by the girls. This past season, the girls performed at a special event at the governor’s mansion during the Christmas holiday.

Girls interested in joining should love to sing a variety of music and want the experience of singing in an all-girls ensemble as well as desire to improve musicianship and vocal technique. In order to participate, girls must have prior singing experience as well as audition. To arrange an audition, please contact Emily Capece, Director, at barberem@yahoo.com. Ms. Capece will talk with each applicant and will check for voice quality, range, and the ability to sing in tune.

Emily Capece has completed her master's degree in music education and choral conducting from the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ and holds bachelor’s degrees in vocal performance and music education from Otterbein College in Ohio. While in Princeton, Emily conducted the training choir of the Princeton Girl Choir and sang in the world-renowned Westminster Choir, Westminster Symphonic Choir, Kantorei and Fuma Sacra. Ms. Capece has taught choral music in Okinawa, Japan; Fairfax County, Virginia and New York City. She was awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities Teacher Grant to study Mozart Operas in Vienna, Austria in the summer of 2005. Emily has studied with some of the choral profession's most respected conductors and is a gifted mezzo-soprano. She has sung in numerous operas and musical theater productions. Emily is also the director of the womanSong choral who recently performed in the internationally-acclaimed Spoleto Festival in South Carolina.

For more information about joining Cora Voce or assisting the ladies with support for their retreat, please call the ACC office at 304-343-1111.