Kelsey Rothera, a graduate of High School North, Class of 2008, and a West Windsor resident, will perform with the choir of the College of WIlliam and Mary at two area concerts during the choir’s annual spring tour.
The program, “Songs of Hope: A Celebration of the African-American Spiritual,” will be performed on Saturday, March 20, at St. James Church, 115 East Delaware Avenue, Pennington, and on Monday, March 22, at the First Presbyterian Church of Hamilton Square, 3550 Nottingham Way, Hamilton Square. Both concerts begin at 8 p.m. and are free.
The program is a celebration of the concert spiritual for choir beginning with arrangements sung by the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Hampton Institute Singers in the 1870s and proceeding through the much-beloved 20th-century arrangements of Harry Burleigh, R. Nathaniel Dett, Hall Johnson, William Grant Still, Jester Hairston, Roland Carter, and Moses Hogan. Featured in the program will be “Of Darkness and Light: Three Spirituals,” a work newly commissioned by the W&M Choir from William and Mary composer Brian Hulse expressly for this program. The Choir will also sing works by Palestrina, Kodály, and Georg Schumann. James Armstrong, Jr., director of the choirs, received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rothera has been singing in school choirs since third grade and undergoing classical voice training for the past five years. While at North, Rothera was a member of the Concert Choir and the a capella groups, Out of the Blue and Silver Lining. She served as president of both the Choir and Out of the Blue her senior year.
A sophomore at the College of William & Mary, she has been a member of the Choir of the College of William and Mary for two years. She has also been a member of Reveille, a women’s a capella singing group, and the Botetourt Chamber Singers. Rothera is a double major in music and business marketing.
Born in Trenton, Rothera and her family have lived in West Windsor for almost 20 years. Her parents, Andrea and Robin Rothera, lived in Hamilton Square and attended the First Presbyterian Church before Kelsey was born. “When we moved to West Windsor, we decided to continue to go to FPC Hamilton Square versus transferring to Dutch Neck,” says Andrea. “Consequently, Kelsey has attended FPC Hamilton Square her entire life, and this was a logical place to hold the concert. When the choir goes on tour, where they perform is related to students who live in the area.”
