Meet the Broads

BroadBand is the brainchild of four college pals nostalgic for their a cappella glory days who decided to dig up some old arrangements and play. Three founders are still with us: Jana, Evangeline and Mary-Elise (M-E). Like power shoppers at a Macy's sale, they picked up a few extras -- Mary-Elise called on her high school buddy, Mimi (alumna), who knew Carla from their kids' preschool, who went to college with Tina, who told her neighbor Rebecca, who brought in her friend, Polly (alumna). Polly knew Hope and Erika. Evangeline knew Karen from the tennis courts. The Carla-Tina combo also brought in Kim from college days, and Holly, who collared Eliza (alumna) and recruited Carolyn (alumna) at a new mother's brunch. Carolyn worked with Stephanie. Randi was surfin' the web in her lab one night and came upon an audition posting; six years later, she brought in Mandi (alumna) from her college singing days and then Koty, who she knew from the tropical marine biology circuit. Shelley taught Jana's son. And, of course, afficianados of the Slavic music scene had all heard of Laurie, whom we'd been hoping to snag in order to add depth to our world music platform, who in turn discovered Liz and Emily (who are not yet known in Slavic music circles).

	Holly talks and writes for a living. (She's a school communications director.) As mom to three lively kids, she also writes and talks a lot at home (grocery lists and unsolicited advice). She loves good novels, and creating elaborately messy feasts that empty all her cabinets and leave a trail of garlic across her countertops. Her favorite sounds are: BroadBand warming up, middle school orchestra practice at the school where she works, any one of her children belly laughing or singing, her husband shouting at the TV during Patriot games, and her golden retriever crashing through the underbrush on their daily woodland walks.
	This could be you! To audition, please contact us!
	Mary-Elise has sung all her life. For a brief interlude she forsook singing for what she thought at the time were loftier pursuits; family and a legal career. Now older and wiser, Mary-Elise has rededicated herself to those activities which illuminate the eternal truths in life - climbing, gardening, poetry and of course singing. In her spare time, when not singing with the Broads, you will likely find Mary-Elise playing a mean set of tennis or playing catch up in her garden.
	Shelley comes from a family of piano teachers, band directors, and avid music listners. Growing up, she dabbled in flute, violin, guitar, and piano, but when she discovered her voice, she never turned back! Trained as an operatic singer, she’s thrilled that she found the Broads to balance her out. Shelley spends most of her time teaching general music and chorus to K-8 kiddos (including Jana’s son!) and occasionally arrives home with enough remaining energy to walk her dogs and wash the dishes after her wife makes a fabulous dinner.
	A "triple threat," (dancer/vocalist/actress), Tina is the only Broad to have done the following: entertain cruise ship passengers, have her image plastered on a billboard, perform for a sitting President, and been a member of Actors Equity. In addition to having a great voice, she has the best laugh in Broad-dom. A tireless volunteer mom, Tina leads the "Classical Café" program, which brings musicians to perform for students during public school lunch periods.
	This could be you! To audition, please contact us!
	Carla took the next logical step after majoring in English in college to pursue a career in jewelry marketing and product development. As everyone knows, this is the best training for motherhood. So three children was an obvious next move. When Carla is not rehearsing or performing with "the Broads," she is a museum guide at the Orchard House Museum in Concord. Well, either that, or she's watching theatrical performances of her husband's and the aforementioned kids, driving them to rehearsals, applying stage makeup, removing stage makeup, ushering or assisting with costumes. We leave it to the reader to imagine life in a household with this many residents needing to be the center of attention.
	Jana worked in the film industry for many years until she decided to go with her idiot-savant strengths and become a professional organizer for individual clients. After child-bearing, however, her savant strengths seem to have flown the coop, leaving only the idiot ones which she utilizes daily, mostly in looking for her keys. On BroadBand rehearsal nights, however, things are entirely different: on those days, she also spends time looking for her music.
	Rebecca, after working as a pastry chef and then subsequently getting her masters in elementary education, traded in her chance to raise some dough for the chance to raise a family, putting all those childhood education classes to good use. She spent many satisfying years transporting her children between ice hockey practices, dance rehearsals and music classes -- and cooking up a storm for her extremely grateful husband. However, education eventually called her back. She now spends her days working in the Admission Office at Lexington Montessori School, where, if you listen carefully, you can hear her singing in the hallways.
	Hope joined the group in 2007 after a 17 year hiatus from singing a cappella, which she did with the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones in the late 80's. A resident of Groton, Hope is a wife to one totally tone deaf David and a mother of 2 daughters, Molly and Lyle. She is a competitive squash player, winning multiple state championships and collecting 2 gold Medals as a member of the 2006 US Womens National Team. (Note- Hope was the oldest female player EVER to play on a national squash team and also the only mother!) Hope also does some independent school consulting. If you ever wonder how much Hope loves BroadBand, well, you might just see her driving Route 2 with her not-so-subtle magnetic advertisment (www.broadbandsings.org).
	Liz: Liz finally found her way to the Broads this year after many years of informal a capella singing while driving, cooking, and walking mostly. A practicing psychotherapist and mother, Liz keeps herself busy attending to the emotional needs of others, and is always working to create balance in her life. Liz also enjoys cooking, gardening, and hiking.
	This could be you! To audition, please contact us!
	An emergency physician by day (and sometimes night!), and an outdoors enthusiast in her free time, Emily first sang in an a capella group in medical school. She was thrilled to join the Broads in 2010 when a family friend fortuitously connected her to the group. In addition to singing, Emily has been playing piano since childhood and recently picked up guitar. She's a life long soccer player, loves running on the Charles River, biking on any backroads, and swimming in Walden Pond. Oh, and swing dancing!
	Laurie got her a capella start singing Slavic folk songs in college. After keeping relatively quiet for a decade or so, she discovered the Broads, and nobody's been able to get her to shut up since. When she's not penning the occasional tune for the Broad repertoire, Laurie spends her time developing affordable housing, obsessing about her garden, and looking for her kids' shoes. She still harbors hopes of getting the Broads to pad the repertoire with a couple of Bulgarian fertility songs.
	Karen: Come back to learn more about Karen.
	When Randi's not singing, she is busy working as a marine biologist. If she's not at a gig, you can bet she's somewhere 60' under the sea checking out fish, coral, algae, snails, or some other slimy marine organism. Never one to slack off, Randi practices her Broadband repertoire underwater when she's not on land and the dolphins at her field site have almost perfectly mastered the 4-part harmonies of "How High the Moon". (An octopus has requested that the Broads soon add "Under the Sea" to the repertoire.)

Harmony at a higher bandwidth

All-female a cappella

Sopranos

Altos

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Not your average bunch of Broads...