Niblack guest Derrick Gay sings, teaches, and opens eyes

Opera, hair and tolerance were among the subjects professional singer and independent school administrator Derrick Gay covered in early January when he spent two days on campus, courtesy of the Helen Cudahy Niblack '42 Arts Lecture Series. The visit, which included a "master class" with Foxcroft's voice students, attendance at English and History classes, and a two-hour workshop on diversity, culminated in a splendid concert Saturday night that featured four of our girls and voice teacher Susan Merriman, in addition to Gay.

And what a performance they all gave! The program ranged from operaticarias and "art songs" to Broadway and spiritual classics. Luisa '12, Michelle '11, Jamie '10 and Jessa '11 sounded wonderful -- no doubt, in part because of the advice Gay gave them in the Master Class -- and student translators helped the audience understand the pieces sung in foreign languages.


A wonderful performer, Gay opened and closed the performance with several solos and sang two duets with Merriman, a beautiful and animated singer. Click here to watch videos from Saturday's performance. 

Earlier Saturday, students and faculty gathered in the Library to take advantage of another of Gay's many talents: his ability to address and engage his audience on matters of diversity, tolerance and related social, economic and political issues. The two-hour workshop, entitled "Tolerance and Hair," presented some stunning statistics demonstrating persisting inequities among men and women, different races and the like. He then used the teen-friendly subject of hair types, styles and fashions to illustrate how often we make assumptions about others based on things we see.


"Hair helps us determine age, socioeconomics, intelligence, marital status and sometimes religious affiliation," Gay noted. "It can signify conformity (think about men in the miliatary) or it can signify rebellion -- Joan of Arc, punksters . . ." Clips from the new documentary film Good Hair by actor/comedian Chris Rock and exercises in which everyone contemplated her own hair and that of others, as well as general exercises illustrating differences, engaged the girls and sent them away with an increased awareness of the need for understanding and accepting each others' differences.


A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and Oberlin College of Arts and Science, Gay recently sang the role of Balthasar in English and Melchior in Spanish in Chelsea Opera's production of Amahl and The Night's Visitors. He currently serves as the Director of Community Life and Diversity at the Nightingale Bamford School, a girls school in New York City. 

The Helen Cudahy Niblack '42 Arts Lecture Series established by Austi Brown '73 in 2007 to honor her mother, brings avariety of literary, performing and fine artists to Foxcroft to share their work and the nature of the creative process.

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An all-girls boarding and day school in Northern Virginia, Foxcroft prepares young women in grades 9-12 for success in college and in life. Our outstanding academic program offers challenging courses, including Advanced Placement classes and an innovative STEM program. Our premiere equestrian program is nationally recognized, and our athletic teams have won conference and state championships. Experience the best in girls' boarding schools: visit Foxcroft.