Artistic Leadership
Dr. Dawn O. Willis, Artistic Director
Dr. Dawn Willis is the Artistic Director of Solaris Vocal Ensemble, a twenty-four member mixed-voice ensemble she founded in 2013. Her broad knowledge of exceptional choral repertoire is at the base of the Solaris mission to present exciting and meaningful performances to its varied audiences. Under her leadership, Solaris has performed as the featured ensemble at the Vermont/New Hampshire American Choral Directors’ Association Gather at the River conference in New Hampshire, and on performance tours in Maine and Canada. Solaris has also performed at the Vermont statehouse in Montpelier by invitation. Solaris regularly performs in Burlington, Montpelier and Waterbury along with other venues throughout Vermont and has produced four CDs. Dr. Willis is also the founder and Artistic Director of Bella Voce Women’s Chorus of Vermont, and she has served as the Interim Music Director at College Street Congregational Church, Burlington and Music Director at First Baptist Church, Burlington; Chorus Director for the Green Mountain Opera Festival; and as the Assistant Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
Marne Lopez, Collaborative Pianist
Cameron Brownell, Assistant Conductor
Cameron, a native Vermonter from Colchester, graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music with degrees in Music Education and Voice Performance. He went on to earn a master’s degree in Sacred Music from the University of Notre Dame where he received the Sacred Music Program’s Academic Achievement Award.
After living in Utah for three years, where he worked as a chorus teacher and parish music director, and sang with the Utah Chamber Artists under the direction of Dr. Barlow Bradford, Cameron moved back to Vermont to accept the job as Chorus Teacher at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg in 2020. In February 2022, he took on the additional role of Music Director at Charlotte Congregational Church in Charlotte.
James Stewart, Composer-in-Residence
You might recognize James’ voice as the afternoon host on Vermont Public Classical. As a composer, he is interested in ALL genres of music; writing for musical theater, rock bands, symphony orchestras and ensembles of all shapes and sizes.
James holds a Master’s of Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. You can find out more about James’ music at his artist website jamesstewartcomposer.com.
Solaris Board of Directors
Dean King, Chair
Nan O’Leary, Secretary
Linda Wheeler, Treasurer
Jenny Berchling
Becky Peterson
Caleb Roman
James Stewart
John Trackey
Gail Whitehouse
Dawn Willis