Loveland Teacher Celebrates Five Years with the May Festival
In their 23 years of marriage, Andrea and Sean Kiehl have lived in eight cities. If you do the math, it’s clear how lucky the May Festival is to have had her for a full five years now!
Music has always been a part of Andrea’s life, as her mother was the local church’s organist, pianist, and bell director. It wasn’t until high school that she began to focus her studies specifically on singing, after some “ill-advised attempts at strings and flute” in middle school. Andrea went on to achieve her bachelor’s degree in music education, pursue her teaching career, get married, and raise two wonderful daughters with Sean, all while perfecting the art of moving.
Once the girls got a little older, Andrea returned to singing in a professional setting while the family was living in Florida. As a member of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, Andrea had the opportunity to sing with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for a combined concert. (As you may know, the May Festival’s Director of Choruses Robert Porco served as Director of Choruses for the Cleveland Orchestra for many years.) When Andrea found out that Sean’s job would relocate the family to Cincinnati next, she let the Artistic Director of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay know that she would not be returning. He recommended that she should audition for the Cincinnati May Festival with Robert Porco, and the rest is history.
In reflecting on her time with the May Festival, Andrea says “It’s ironic to me that the most frequently performed choral pieces consistently get the biggest audience reaction, like watching your favorite movie over and over. It’s incredibly gratifying to have the responsibility of making that experience possible for audience members. At the end of a concert, you know you’ve reached people because of the wild applause. Carmina Burana always gets that reaction.”
While her girls were in high school, Andrea served as “band mom extraordinaire” and Music Booster President for Loveland High School. Now that her youngest has graduated, Andrea looks forward to beginning a new position this fall at St. Mark’s Lutheran School in Milford, teaching middle school English and History. She has been serving as St. Mark Lutheran Church’s choir director for a few years.
Sean and Andrea now live in their newly remodeled house along the bike trail in Loveland, enjoying the convenience of a walkable life. For Andrea, this is an incredible advantage, as she happens to be legally blind and cannot drive. Clearly though, this has never held Andrea back from being an important part of her church, school, and choir communities.
Join us in congratulating Andrea on her 5th anniversary with the May Festival and a new job this fall! We wish her nothing but the best in her new adventure.
To learn more about how you can become a part of the May Festival Chorus, click here.
To listen to some of Andrea’s favorite choral works, visit her playlist on the May Festival Spotify channel.