Campus Connection

  UW-La Crosse Alum Ben Wilson jokes that he joined UW-L’s Concert Choir to meet girls. Although it truly was not his primary motivation, he admits today the strategy works. Choir is where he met his wife, Kristine, and the two now live in La Crescent with their three children. The couple’s choir connection is no anomaly. Lifetime friendships and marriage between choir members have happened frequently within the UW-L Concert Choir’s 20-year history, says Gary Walth, choir director. About 10 married couples who are also former concert choir members returned for the choir’s 20th anniversary celebration and reunion Saturday, Oct. 20. As part of the celebration, about 70 former choir members formed an alumni choir, which performed three selections and sang with the current Concert Choir during its first choral concert of the school year. [caption id="attachment_2550" align="alignright" width="360"] Ben Wilson and his wife, Kristine Wilson, ’04, music performance major, met in UW-L’s Concert Choir.[/caption] Some say the marriages in Concert Choir were initiated by the great friendships Walth nurtured throughout the group. Walth admits one of his mantras is: “A choir that knows each other, sings much better.” Joey Hyland, ’02, a choral music education major, recalls Walth encouraging connections and now applies that with his own choirs as a high school choir director. “When you know someone next to you in choir really well, you will sound better,” says Joey. “I make my students do bonding activities. It’s so important. You feel the connection when you walk in the room.” In Joey’s case, the choral connections at UW-L also meant meeting someone special who sat in the seat in front of him in choir— his future wife Aimee (Gaertner) Hyland, ’04. “I was dating a girl from Viterbo at the time, but I realized Aimee was the one I needed to be with,” recalls Joey. “Aimee had everything I was looking for and more. We both knew we were going to be music teachers and we both shared our mutual respect and admiration for Dr. Walth. He was like a father to us when we were there.” And their relationship with Walth continued even after graduation. When the two married in August 2004, he composed a song for their wedding gift. [caption id="attachment_2555" align="alignleft" width="360"] Joey,’02, choral music education major, and Aimee (Gaertner) Hyland, ’04, choral music education and general music major, married in 2004. Now they have two children and live in Waukesha, Wis. “I wouldn’t trade my five years there with Gary Walth for anything,” says Joey. “I learned so much.”[/caption] Similarly Jonathan Barnett, ’04, and his wife, Trina (Burton) Barnett, ’02, just celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary Oct. 9. What started as playful flirting between a soprano and a bass developed into much more. Trina would turn around in her chair to tease Jonathan, a private first-class in the U.S. Army, about her father, a lieutenant colonel, outranking him. “I said, that’s great. I don’t hang out with lieutenant colonels that often,” Jonathan recalls responding. Trina notes that he didn’t pick up on the fact she was flirting. The two didn’t get together until they met up again after graduation. Both concede that without the connections in choir, the spark wouldn’t have had a chance to catch fire. “In sharing music, you share an emotional experience in so many ways. It lends to a shared emotional connection with so many people,” says Jonathan. Trina agrees. She says concert choir was “probably the most defining experience of my time at UW-La Crosse.” And it was important in ways far beyond academics or music, she adds. “It was the most important part of my day and the part that I would look forward to more than anything else,” she says. Jonathan recalls being on campus during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Choir was the only class he went to for the week. Otherwise, he stayed in his residence hall room waiting for a call to potentially be sent somewhere as a private first class with the National Guard. [caption id="attachment_2560" align="alignright" width="350"] Jonathan Barnett, ’04, history major and economics minor, and his wife, Trina (Burton) Barnett, ’02, double major in finance and economics and minor in music. The couple now lives in Madison.[/caption]“Choir was the only thing that got me out of my dorm room. They were the only people I wanted to see,” he says. “It was the most emotionally helpful thing in my life. These were the people who made me feel the best and I knew singing was the experience that would help me the most.” He recalls taking choir even when he could receive no credit for it — even when he had 21 other credits on his plate. It was this unique, shared experience that one couldn’t find anywhere else on campus, he says. This is where his friends were — friends who shared a common bond through music and felt like family. That keeps him coming back to campus to see them. “Even though we don't spend a lot of time with our friends from choir I would definitely say they are some of the most important people in shaping who I am today,” says Trina.