News Release
August 2003
(Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)—A group of Moravian College choir
alumni from the mid-1980s has been holding a combination of reunion
and tribute to retired music faculty members Richard and Monica Schantz
for some years now on or about Midsummer. This year it was held June
19 at the home of Dave ’85 and Corinne Parker ’86 Edmonds
in Coopersburg.
“We always love to have Dick and Monica come,” says
Wendy Talmont Lega ’85, Flemington, N.J., a regular attendee. “After
all, if it weren't for them, a lot of us probably wouldn’t have
met, married, and had kids!”
The theme changes every year, and this year it
was a Hawaiian luau. “One
of our dear friends, Jane Ramsey, whose brother lives in Hawaii, helped
put together an authentic menu: lomi lomi salmon, papaya and cucumber
salad, fish steamed in banana leaves,” says Wendy. “Authentic
fabrics from her collection were on the tables, and the food was served
on platters that she brought back from her many trips.”
Dave Edmonds built a tiki bar and dug a trench
for the pig roast. It was prepared the traditional way: covered in
banana leaves and left
to roast slowly for most of the day. “The music, sadly, was from
the Hawaiian satellite channel.”
The event also functions as a birthday party for
those members hitting a landmark year. This year, Dave Edmonds, Wendy’s husband Peter
Lega ’85 and Harris Hoke ’85, Flanders, N.J., hit the big
4-0.
In addition to the Legas and the Hokes (Kathleen
Hanifan ’87),
Moravian alumni guests included Linda Pettinelli ’91, Alpha,
N.J.; Jim and Amanda Taylor Roth, both ‘87, Sinking Springs;
Dave Roth ’85 and Sherry Kozero-Roth ’84, Fogelsburg; Geoff ’86
and Jayme Smith, Pittsburgh; Robyn Zwickl Randolph ’84 and Nelson
Randolph, Bethlehem; Cynthia Bogan Rupprecht ’84 and Andrew Rupprecht,
Califon, N.J.; James and Lynda Farrell Swartz, both ’86, Allentown.
Dave Roth, a jazz pianist who performs regularly
at The Café and
other Lehigh Valley venues, is also an artist-lecturer in music at
the College.
“Most of the other attendees are connected via various choirs,” says
Wendy Lega. “Three or four of them are lifelong friends of my
husband from an Anglican boys’ choir that he sang with for 10
or 12 years. Another conducts a group called the Madrigal Singers,
which I sang with for about 10 years after graduation. Over the years,
all these people have grown to be good friends and have mixed in interesting
ways.”
Last year, Kathleen and Harris's son Harris, 9,
was a “Morning
Star soloist at the Moravian College Christmas Vespers. “We have
many more potentials on the way,” says Wendy. “Dick and
Monica love to hear about their ‘choir grandkids.’ ”
