If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O! it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odor!
TWELFTH-NIGHT, Act I, sc. i
-William Shakespeare
With the sentiments
of Shakespeare's words lingering in the air on a summer day in 1983, a group
of persons with a love for music desired to establish an organization that would
produce programs of selected master choral works with orchestral accompaniments.
The Arundel Vocal Arts Society (AVAS) was created, with a goal towards enhancing
the cultural, aesthetic, and educational development opportunities for individuals
in the Chesapeake Bay area.
The Arundel Vocal Arts Society strives to maintain a high caliber profile through
the presentation of musical performances that are dignified yet exciting, symphonious,
inspirational, and committed to evoking subjective sensory impressions in every
listener. The Society's potential to attain its goals has been nurtured and
enhanced under the accomplished and perceptive direction of Ava Shields from
1983 to April 1994, and Glenette Schumacher from December 1994 to the present.