Staff Spotlight by Lynn Kendall Vickie Hellyer, Music Director
While most of us congregants delight in and appreciate the fine music at UCE, it’s an interesting journey into what’s behind the scenes with Vickie Hellyer, our Director of Music. Here are some little-known facts about Vickie and her quest to bring the best music to our services.
The choir is happily used to Vickie’s repartee, which makes the hard work of bringing a choral piece to life much more enjoyable. Her skill in quick humor comes from her family. Her father was a radio host for many years with the talent of dealing well with unexpected situations, and her mother was a wordsmith, so it was an ongoing family practice of cracking one another up with jokes.
Vickie’s association with our church dates back to the 90s when she first came to UCE. She became a member of our choir when it was under the direction of John Giles, and enjoyed singing soprano because she’d always sung alto parts prior to this., Vickie was working in a corporate environment with people whose political and world view were quite conservative. She found it refreshing and reassuring to be with people who shared her values and political views.
John recommended her to the Interim Search Committee when he became ill, a role she undertook for half a year before Bart Bradfield took over as Director. She found the experience so motivating that she accepted an offer to conduct the choir at the DuPage UU Church in Naperville, a position she filled for 24 years. All of this solidified her decision to stay with vocal teaching and choir conducting as a career, and to continue as a church musician.
So where do the choir pieces that we enjoy on Sunday mornings come from? It might surprise you to know how varied and diverse Vickie’s sources are. She attends music conferences, as well as general choral concerts and musical theater. In fact, she goes to them with pen in hand to make detailed notes about the music on the programs that are given out. She gets many ideas from Rev. Eileen, Rev. Susan and other colleagues, as well as suggestions from choir members who sing with other groups. She is a member of a few online vocal groups, meets monthly with of UU Music Directors (a group she founded) to share ideas, and looks up songs with particular themes.
What’s perhaps most impressive about Vickie’s work ethic is the time and effort she puts into her work with the choir. This includes gathering ideas for appropriate pieces for the choir to sing, becoming familiar with each piece for conducting purposes, researching backgrounds of pieces, providing choir members with recorded voice parts, whether purchased or recorded herself, ordering scores, and many email communications, most of them with the choir. In fact, it is her frequent communications with the choir that give members not only important information, but solidify their sense of partnership with her.
Various meetings take much of Vickie’s time: with staff members, ministers, music publishers, the Worship Arts Committee, and other church music directors. Where does the time go!
Outside of music, Vickie enjoys bike riding, reading, rendezvousing with friends, and listening to “Fresh Air” podcasts, and is a longtime fan of musical theater. She and hubby Jon share an interest in the visual arts, the company of their three cats, dining al fresco, and watching movies and compelling TV series.
It’s a busy, busy life, but we can agree that we are the beneficiaries of Vickie’s talents and hard work. Thank you, Vickie!
