Board of Trustees
From the meeting of September 16, 2020
Appointment of Singers Emeriti/ae
MOVED:
That the Board of Trustees of the Providence Singers appoint Allison McMillan as Soprano Emerita.
Notes on the candidate
Alli McMillan joined the Providence Singers for the 1990-91 season and sang with the alto section until 2002-03, when a voice teacher determined that her voice lay comfortably within the soprano range.
When she joined the Singers, Alli was director of data services for Brown University’s Development Office, with professional fundraising experience and a Brown degree in music that would soon be useful for the Providence Singers. She joined the Singers Board of Directors in 1994 as vice president for fundraising, became vice president for music in 1997, and was elected Board president beginning with the 1998-99 season.
The Singers had made a strong commitment to artistic growth, and the process was well underway with collaborations in Boston and New Haven, commissions and premieres of new music, and more ambitious programming. The Board’s strategic plan called for a governance and management structure to support that progress. Alli was awarded a fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation to study how other community choruses had made the jump to professional-level performance. She visited chorus leaders in the United States and Europe and led Singer planning retreats and working groups. At an all-member meeting June 10, 2002, the Singers approved a total reorganization with a new Board of Trustees and a professional management staff. Alli became the group’s first executive director.
At the March 13, 2014, meeting of the Board of Trustees, Alli announced her intention to step down after 16 years as the Singers’ chief executive officer. Later in the meeting, the Board unanimously elected her a trustee and in May appointed her Executive Director Emerita. She would serve on the Board for six more years.
The December 2019 performance of Handel’s Messiah, which proved to be the Singers’ last concert of the Covid-shortened 2019-20 season, also turned out to be Alli’s final performance as a Singer.
Approved unanimously September 16, 2020
Return to Board minutes of September 16, 2020