The Boston Alumnae Chapter came into being on November 5, 1947 when 14 alumnae became Charter Members. They immediately established relations which Lambda Chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1955 the Alumnae Chapter participated in the installation of Gamma Alpha Chapter at Boston University. Another college chapter, Epsilon Zeta, was installed in 1968 at Boston Conservatory.
In 1969 the Chapter inaugurated its own Radio Series Broadcast from the radio station WERS-FM. A year later the chapter presented its first TV program, Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. It was shown over WGBH-TV Channel 2 and subsequently purchased by National Education Television for showing throughout the country. Our efforts with the college chapters in radio programs were rewarded with National Awards for 13 years.
We have received several other awards including the National Yearbook award, the Phi Province Alumnae Chapter Achievement Award numerous times, and the American Music Concert Program Award (1975-1976). We have also received the National Alumnae Chapter Achievement Award and the Alumnae Service Award multiple times.
1984-1985 was a landmark year for the Boston Alumnae Chapter. The Phi Province Conference held at Regis College featured Donna Roll in a Benefit Concert for SAI Philanthropies, Inc. During the year a joint concert was presented by members of our chapter and the Mu Phi Epsilon Boston Alumni Chapter. In the summer the chapter was honored to entertain the National Executive Board at a reception and dinner at Regis College, at which time the chapter received the 1984-1985 National Alumnae Chapter Achievement Award from Patricia Sternberg, National President.
The 40th Anniversary of our chapter was celebrated with "Womensong of Massachusetts" a concert showcasing some of our fine Massachusetts women composers and performers. The chapter applied for and was granted monies from the Natick Arts Lottery Council in order to bring music informally to nursing homes and from the MetroWest SMILES Award for Operations Music - a program that brings music into area hospitals.
At the National Convention held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in August 1990, the Boston Alumnae Chapter received the Alumnae Service Project Award for chapters having over 50 members. This award was granted for our nine-week summer concert series at the historic Old North Church. The chapter was honored to have a national officer elected from its membership for the first time in its history. Geraldine Barretto-Sims became the National Vice President of Alumnae Chapters at this convention.
In October of 1990 the Boston Alumnae Chapter again hosted Province Day at Regis College. This exciting event was enriched with the presence of Dr. Mary I. Arlin, Geraldine Barretto-Sims, Elfrieda Hiebert, Robert DiDomenica, William Joseph Schwann, Ron Della Chiesa, and Randolph Emerson. We continued the year with nursing home concerts in fulfillment of grant requirements.
We most recently hosted Phi Province Day in November of 1996. In 1997-98 we celebrated our 50th Anniversary with a concert series that was kicked off by a vocal recital in November of 1997, presented by Ruth Sieber, National Executive Secretary. We also continued with presenting concerts to area nursing homes. In 1998-99 the celebration of our 50th year of Incorporation continued with an organ recital presented by chapter members in September of 1998.
In 1999-2000 we focused on strengthening our relationship with the college chapters. We hosted a college-alum picnic in the fall, awarded a scholarship to an Epsilon Zeta member, attended and participated in initiation ceremonies at Epsilon Zeta and Eta Mu, and hosted the Senior Farewell for Epsilon Zeta at the end of April. All of our hard work paid off when we won the 1999 Alumnae Chapter Achievement Award for Phi B Province.
The 2000 National Convention in Dallas was a time of mixed emotions for the Boston Alumnae Chapter. Geraldine Barretto-Sims reached her term limit as National Vice President, Alumnae Chapters. We were saddened to see her productive and successful term come to an end, but also very happy to have her back as one of our own active members. We were all excited when former chapter president Martha Ebel was elected Phi B Province Officer and when current chapter president Michelle Yaiser was honored with the Doctoral Dissertation Grant. We were also very tired after spending much time preparing for and selling items at Phlea Phlam and spending quality time (often late at night) with the college delegates from Epsilon Zeta and Eta Mu.
In the 2000-2001 year, we affiliated five new active members. We also added a number of new associate members to our numbers. Perhaps the newest membership activity we did was initiating our first patroness member as alumnae chapters received approval from NEB to initiate patroness members. In March we presented an American Musicale at St. Mary's Hall at Boston College. The concert was well received and may lead to a concert series there in the future. We continued working closely with Eta Mu and Epsilon Zeta. In addition to the annual college-alum picnic in September, we "re-initiated" all of the Epsilon Zeta members in December in an effort to re-energize the chapter. Many of our members donated time, skills, and money to present each of them with their chapter guard and with homemade SAI sweatshirts.
2001 also brought the award of best Alumnae website! Way to go ladies!
Fast forward to the year 2004-2005. We affiliated 1 new active member, Shannon McInnis, at Arlene Veron's home in January 2005. Joan Reddy had a song book sing-a-long at her home, Katie Tibbits hosted a wonderful musicale at her church in Worcester, and Martha Ebel's holiday sing-a-long was a hit. At Clarissa Steinbach's home, 7 of our members performed "Clarinet-a-palooza!" What a time with all those clarinets!! Shannon McInnis wrapped up the year with a Barbeque and meeting at the beach at her home in Scituate. A partial officer installation was done there.
2005-2006 shaped up to be on the of the best years ever. We affiliated 2 new members, Krista Wilhelmsen in October and Stephanie Booth in November. We have also had visits at meetings from several interested SAIs in the area. We had a very successful yard sale at the home of Martha Ebel which netted us $150.00 to be donated to Philanthopies. Our chapter purchased a brick at National Headquarters so that we may be identified there forever. We had a wonderful lunch with Ginny Johnson when she was in Boston. Our chapter has also been successful in obtaining approval to initiate 2 National Arts Associates: Michael Gandolfi and Thomas Enman. Martha Ebel attended a wonderful Province Day hosted this year by Eta Rho in Delaware. The chapter is going great places this year with a wonderful Community Arts Connection Concert at the Morse Institute Library in Natick. The performance starred Belle Voci. These talented ladies performed a wonderful array of songs from the American Song Book entitled "Two of a Kind." Thank you to soprano Martha Ebel(SAI member), soprano Karol Carroll and pianist Katherine Southworth!!! April 29th, 2006 will be our first intiation of a National Arts Associate, Mr. Thomas Enman. Keep checking back, more events will be posted as the year progresses.
Member Performances | Chapter Scrapbook
email our webmistress