President’s Corner New Widows CD Dear family, friends, fans, alums and everyone else in the “web”— The weather is finally warming up, which can only mean one thingspring is here!! We are so excited to be back for another semester of singing for you...and you wouldn’t believe all the progress we have been making!! While Juniors Anisha Gupta and Heather Mellquist travel the world, we’re lucky to welcome back some of our lovely Widows who have returned from their various fall adventures: Lillian Chu ’09, Siobhan O’Keefe ’09 and Karel Olsson ’09. With them, we have brought Sia’s “Breathe Me” back into our repertoire, a song that we temporarily retired last semester and are so excited to be singing again! In addition to “Breathe Me”, we’ve selected some knockout songs to add to our repertoire, and are very excited to be performing them throughout the semester in a number of very exciting concerts, which cumulate to our final spring concert in Jewett Auditorium on Friday, May 2nd at 8pm. Check out the blurb from our Business Manager, Lillian, for some more information about the gigs we have lined up- including an extra-special concert with the original artists of a song in our repertoire! When the spring concert is over, we certainly won’t be done singing! Our Tour Manager, Katie K., is planning a week-long tour to Washington, D.C. We are pumped and ready to rock and roll. Check out her section for details, and be sure to get in touch with us if you’re in the area and want to lend a hand! Our new album, “Unwed”, is out and available for purchase through mail and on our website. “Unwed” was nominated for two awards from CASA, the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America- one for best female album and another for our song, “Who Makes You Feel”, by Dido and sung by our own Erin Brown ’07. Buy the album while you still can (before we become swamped with fan mail and requests for a production partnership with Timbaland). Finally, our 60th Anniversary is coming up next year (in 2009), and with it we’re planning a big party with an official Wellesley Widows 60th Anniversary Memory Book to match. Look for more information in this newsletter for how to submit pictures, music, stories or anything else you’d like to share with us to put in the book. Happy reading! Beth 2007-2008 President Our newest album, “Unwed”, is now for sale! Please send $15 and $2.50 S&H to: Wellesley Widows 21 Wellesley College Rd Wellesley, MA 02481 More about the CD in the Musical Director Report! Spring 2008 Members: Members: Beth Santos '08- Alto 2- President Dominique Parris '08- Sop 2 Katie Kinnaird '08- Alto 2 – Tour Manager Lillian Chu '09- A1/Sop2- Business Manager Siobhan O'Keefe '09- Sop 1- Asst. Musical Director Karel Olsson '09- Sop 1/Sop 2 Emma Lueger '10- A1- Musical Director Meredith Hall '10- Sop 1- Secretary Katie Colaneri '10- Sop 2- Treasurer Christy Burke ’11 – Sop 1 Betsy Grether ’11 – Sop 2- Choreographer Nooreen Meghani ’11 – Alto 1 Julia Shew ’11 – Sop 1- Social Chair Members Currently Abroad or On Leave: Roheeni Saxena '08- Sop 2 – On leave spring 2008 Anisha Gupta '09- A1- Abroad year 07-08 Heather Mellquist ’09- A2- Abroad spring 2008 Hannah Rainey ’10- A2- On leave spring 2008 NEW WEBSITE Don’t forget to check out our new WEBSITE, thanks to Caroline Sun ‘11! Read about us, see the latest news, PURCHASE MUSIC and give your support at www.wellesleywidows.com! And if you’re an alum, be sure to update your alum page! We also have a brand new Paypal account so you can buy CDs online soon too!! Current Available CDs UPCOMING EVENTS All may be purchased off our website! Unwed (2007)- Now available for sale, “Unwed” is our hottest, coolest, most Widows-esque album yet. Nominated for TWO CARA awards! Fade to Black (2005)featuring hits such as Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” and Vienna Teng’s “The Tower”, which she loved so much she had us perform it at her Fall, 2006 concert in Somerville, MA! Along Came A Spider (2003), classy beats such as “Walking in Memphis”, “In These Shoes” and a Madonna medley. Gigs, Gigs, Gigs! The Widows have kicked off this semester with a bang! In February, we honored teachers across America by singing for the NADE 2008 conference. Following that concert, we had the amazing opportunity of opening for Rachael Yamagata, artist of a song we currently cover in the Widows, then sang with the Stanford Mendicants on March 30 during their spring East Coast tour. But arguably our favorite trip was, of course, coming “home” to our beloved Haverford S-Chords to sing with them in their final show. Stay tuned to the website for more information about upcoming gigs and events! -Lillian Business Manager May 2nd – WIDOWS SPRING CONCERT! ...or the Adventures of Super Widow! 8pm in Jewett Auditorium Only $5 for off-campus guests! th May 8 - Inaugural Activities at Wellesley College May 20th-25th- TOUR TO WASHINGTON DC! Can’t come to hear us live? Order our Live Recording CD! Now available for only $5! Send requests to [email protected] Widow’s Washington Tour A note from our tour manager: A Capital Affair The Widows Tour DC The Widows are touring Washington, D.C. from May 20 to May 25! With concerts ranging from benefit events to educational programming and evening entertainment, A Capital Affair promises to be an unforgettable tour. Staying true to Wellesley motto "not to be served but to serve," the Widows have committed to singing at a benefit concert for the Sami Suleiman Exchange Fund, which helps provide education to Jordanian children as well as promotes cross-cultural understanding. Along with this benefit concert, the Widows will be performing around the metropolitan area during Memorial Day weekend. For more information on the tour or to inquire about specific events, email Katie Kinnaird at [email protected]. We hope to see you in DC! -Katie K. Tour Manager Fundraising Report Musical Director Report As treasurer, I am very pleased to announce the success of our fundraising efforts this past semester! We began the year selling Halloween candy grams to students and faculty on campus. With the help of our tour manager, Katie Kinnard and our president, Beth Santos, we extended our fundraising efforts outside of the college to our family and friends in our Black Tie, No Show fundraiser. We greatly appreciate the generosity of those who helped us to make the release of our new album, Unwed such a success! This semester is musically exciting for the Widows, as always! -Katie C. Treasurer Current Repetoire Spring 2008 Garbage- Special The Cranberries- Dreams (w/Linger) Barenaked Ladies- It's All Been Done The Supremes- Can't Hurry Love Paul Simon- American Tune Backstreet Boys- The Call Sia- Breathe Me Jewel- Foolish Games Rachel Yamagata- I Want You No Doubt- Spiderwebs Kate Havnevik- Unlike Me Pink- Who Knew Goo Goo Dolls- Slide Jem- They Melissa Etheridge- Come to My Window We added a few new songs to our repertoire: "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes “Special" by Garbage "It's All Been Done" by Barenaked Ladies, and "Dreams" by The Cranberries These new songs are upbeat (like "You Can't Hurry Love" and "It's All Been Done"), beautifully harmonic ("Dreams"), and, as always, right "in tune" with the Widows' characteristically warm, mature sound ("Special"). Besides our current repertoire, we are all excited about the release of Unwed, our latest CD. Nominated for two Contemporary A Cappella Awards "Best Female Collegiate Album" and “Best Female Collegiate Song” (for “Who Makes You Feel” by Dido), Unwed has some great songs on it: "I Want You" by Rachael Yamagata, for whom the Widows performed in February, "Come to My Window" by Melissa Etheridge, "Who Makes You Feel", and, of course, our signature song, "American Tune." The CD captures the essence of the Widows perfectly, and we are all very proud of it! -From Emma and Siobhan Our lovely Musical Directors ..::Alum ..::Alum Corner::.. Corner::.. Making Memories The Widows 60th Anniversary is just around the corner (in 2009!) and we’re making a memory book to kick off another wonderful 60 years of making music. If you are an alum and have any pictures, memories or blurbs to contribute to our book, shoot an email to [email protected], or mail them to the address at the bottom of this page! Post your updated bios now! Would you like to be listed in the Widows alum section of our website? Send us a picture of yourself and an update about your life to [email protected]. Check out the alum section at http://www.wellesleywidows.com/alums.html for some great examples!