The Asheville Singers, UNC Asheville’s student vocal ensemble, performed for visitors to the White House in the East Room on Dec. 3, and as part of the same trip, provided musical entertainment for injured soldiers at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington D.C.
This was the choir’s 11th year of holiday season performances at the White House. The Asheville Singers are directed by UNC Asheville Music Department Chair, Professor Melodie Galloway.
“This is a great honor for our students to travel to D.C. as ambassadors for UNC Asheville,” said director Melodie Galloway, chair and associate professor of music.
The choir singers, as shown in the photo, include: Front row, right to left, MacKensie Kvalvik, Bailey Smith, Sarah Summers, Meghan Houston, Melodie Galloway (director), Michael Davis, Claire Hoke, Tessa Kvalvik, Keilah Avery; and in back row, left to right, Lex Sedman, Jay Ponton, Sam Abel, Zach Dorcas, Gary Freedman, Marshall Jordan, Kyle Muench and Sean Petersen.
The White House East Room is an event and reception room. It is the largest room in the Executive Mansion; it is used for dances, receptions, press conferences, ceremonies, concerts, and banquets. The East Room was one of the last rooms to be finished and decorated, and it has undergone substantial redecoration over the past two centuries. Since 1964, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House has, by executive order, advised the President of the United States and First Lady of the United States on the decor, preservation, and conservation of the East Room and other public rooms at the White House.