The Northern Virginia Chorale’s Interim Director
and Accompanist:
Interim Director, Karen W. Kyger
An alumna of Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music (Shenandoah University), Mrs. Kyger chaired the Music Department of T. C. Williams High School, (Alexandria High School) in Alexandria, Virginia, 1987-2006. In addition to fifteen Broadway Musicals on the high school stage, her choirs have performed at The White House, The John. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and various other prestigious venues. In addition, Karen is a choral clinician, choral adjudicator, choral music curriculum designer, and mezzo-soprano soloist. She is also an accomplished accompanist on piano, organ, and harpsichord, collaborating at graduate, postgraduate, and professional levels. As a guest director, Mrs. Kyger has conducted the F. Wayne Taylor “Friends and Family Orchestra and Chamber Choir” where she is currently the performing piano artist, and has accompanied and assisted the Northern Virginia Chorale, where she is Interim Director. Karen currently serves as Director of Choral Music and Assistant Organist at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Springfield, Virginia.
Accompanist, Alice Real
Alice has a B.A. in Music and History and M.A.Ed. in Elementary Education from the College of William and Mary, where she studied piano and harpsichord. She is in her 11th year as handbell director at St Mark’s Lutheran Church, where she also directs the children’s choir and coordinates youth and family ministries. Alice taught general music in Fairfax County Public Schools for 13 years and has many years experience accompanying choirs, vocalists, and instrumentalists. She is also a member of Virginia Bronze, an auditioned community handbell ensemble, and has performed on handbells throughout the DC area, including the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, The Music Center at Strathmore, and Nationals Stadium. Alice began studying organ in 2021 on scholarship through the Potomac Organ Institute and is currently completing a graduate certificate in Church Music through Shenandoah Conservatory.
Artistic Director Emeritus, Robert S. Webb, Jr.
Robert S. Webb Jr. was the Director of The Northern Virginia Chorale since the fall of 1982 until the spring of 2023. Under Mr. Webb’s talented guidance and leadership, the Chorale continually provided quality music to audiences across the Northern Virginia region. Mr. Webb fostered the Chorale’s musical relationships with English, French, and Italian choirs with whom the Northern Virginia Chorale has been associated through a series of exchange concerts and visits. He has also directed the Chorale in several prestigious venues in Europe, including the Salisbury Cathedral, Bath Abbey, Covent Garden in England, as well as the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, Italy.
Mr. Webb was the Director of Music at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church where he directed the Chancel Choir and managed a comprehensive music program. In 2011 the church commissioned a new choral work by Daniel Gawthrop in honor of his 25 years of service.
Mr. Webb is a retired and currently adjunct professor of music at the Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale campus, where he directed the NVCC Annandale Chorale, and taught music theory, music appreciation, and voice. He has also been an adjunct professor at George Mason University and at the Catholic University of America, directing the CU wind ensemble and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in music education. Prior to teaching at NVCC, he taught instrumental music at Garfield HS in Prince William County. Mr. Webb has a broad range of experience in performing instrumental music, as well as conducting. As an instrumentalist, he has played trumpet with the U.S. Navy Band (in Washington, DC), the Richmond Symphony, the Filene Center Orchestra, the Virginia Chamber Orchestra, the Arlington Symphony, and the National Symphony. He has also conducted the Prince William Symphony, the NIH Orchestra, and the Federal City Silver Cornet Band. Additionally, he has also performed in both the Heritage Americana, and Lillybell Saxhorn brass bands, which have made numerous recordings of mid-nineteenth century brass band music, played on antique instruments. Mr. Webb currently plays in the Virginia Grand Military Band.
Mr. Webb earned degrees from Ithaca College and the Catholic University of America where he studied orchestral conducting with Frederick Fennell and Lloyd Geisler. He was a conductor and performer in the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Summer Conducting Institute, where he worked with Richard Lert. He has also participated in the Robert Shaw Choral Institute at Westminster Choir College. Mr. Webb is a member of the following musical organizations: Music Educators National Conference, Virginia Music Educators Association, The National Association of Teachers of Singing, and The American Choral Directors Association.
