Nazareth Choral Group in Jamestown 400th Celebration

Fourteen Nazareth students participated in the year's long celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown as a part of a multi-state choral performance in front of a crowd of 10,000 including President George Bush.

Thanks to the reader who submitted this information and the following:

The musicians and Chorus performed “The National Anthem”, “America the Beautiful” and a fanfare to introduce the president. After brief remarks by President Bush, JoAnn Falletta was doing what a conductor should - concentrating on the orchestra in front of her. Falletta did not spot Bush until alerted by a musician.

"I'm embarrassed now that I didn't notice him, but I was just thinking of the music," she said. "President Bush was smiling at me kind of devilishly," Falletta said.

She gave him her baton and stepped aside. Bush stepped onto the podium and took over. “The musicians were impressed by how musical Bush was,” Falletta said. "He was queuing the brass, he was queuing the percussion, he kept the tempo going," she said. Gesturing exuberantly, the president led the orchestra during part of its performance of "Stars and Stripes Forever." "We didn't expect him to know the score so well," Falletta said afterward. "He was not shy about conducting at all. He conducted with a great deal of panache."

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin introduced three modern-day explorers to the crowd. The audience was ‘connected’ to the International Space Station and Astronaut Sunita Williams via satellite video downlink. She is a flight engineer and part of the Expedition 15 crew along with two Russian cosmonauts, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov. They addressed the audience via the two gigantic screens overlooking the large choruses.

Other dignitaries included the local Indian chief, Powhatan, and the Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine. As the three-day Jamestown festival wound toward its conclusion of music and fireworks, perhaps the best place to be was the island where it all began.

Nazareth Choral Director Kelly Stanton said, “This was a great experience, and I think one that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.”



Thanks again for forwarding this information and congratulations to the students who were selected and able to participate in this once in a lifetime performance.