Bush Vocal Music Award Recipient Announced by Dudley Birder Chorale

The Dudley Birder Chorale of St. Norbert College announced Maria Sausen, a junior from Notre Dame Academy in Green Bay, as the recipient of the Robert and Carol Bush Vocal Music Award for 2013. Sausen will be presented an award of $500 at the chorale's performance of "America Sings" on Friday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m. in St. Norbert College's Walter Theatre. She will also appear as a featured soloist during the concert.

Sausen's vocal music teacher, Teresa Schmidt, will also receive $500, and Notre Dame Academy will be presented $300 for its choral library.

Robert and Carol Bush established the endowed program in 2003 for the Dudley Birder Chorale. The program's aim is to promote vocal music within high schools, choosing from those communities represented by membership within the chorale. These communities include high schools from the counties of Brown, Outagamie, Kewaunee, Shawano, Door, Manitowoc and Oconto.

Auditions were held on Sunday, April 21, at St. Norbert College. Students were recommended to audition by their teachers as outstanding junior or senior vocal students in their schools. The judges were Dudley Birder, St. Norbert faculty members Kent Paulsen and Linda Feldmann, and with Lee Anne Scovell, a music educator at Holy Cross Catholic School in Green Bay.