NEW MILFORD – Former resident Bonnie Alger said she knew from a young age that she was interested in singing and playing an instrument. She is now the first officer to lead the United States Army Chorus, part of the United States Army Band in Washington, DC.
“I feel really privileged to be here,” Alger said. “I work with really wonderful people every day. The U.S. Army Band is made up of a bunch of extremely talented, intelligent musicians who care about making music at the highest level and care about their country.”
Alger said her primary responsibility at the U.S. Army Chorus is to “ensure the musical readiness of the choir” to support senior government and military leadership.
Band officers also have a number of non-musical responsibilities, Alger said, often related to the operation and overall well-being of the unit. As the officer in charge of the U.S. Army Corps, she said she is responsible for knowing the health and well-being of all soldiers and their families in the group and assisting the unit’s supply team with their monthly inventories.
Regarding her new position, Alger said she is coming to the Army Corps at a “really big and very important time in its history.” She said the military choir has been around for 66 years and has gone through various changes over the years in terms of the configuration of the voices and the type of repertoire they sing.
“I’m often the one choosing the repertoire, leading rehearsals and performances — what we call ‘missions’ — and serving as band leader,” Alger said.
Alger said the choir previously consisted exclusively of tenor and bass singers, who sang classical, patriotic, show tune, pop and operatic selections, among other things. However, in recent years it has been transformed into a soprano, alto, tenor and bass ensemble.
“We’ve been holding auditions for sopranos and altos,” Alger said, “and when that transition is complete and we have a perfectly balanced group with all four parts, we’ll continue the tradition of the music we’ve been singing. “
Alger plays violin and sings mezzo-soprano, although conducting has been her main focus for several years. She described conducting as a combination of all the things she loves about music, adding that it adds the component of teaching, coaching and leading.
Career decision
A 2002 graduate of New Milford High School, Alger attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, graduating in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in music. She attended graduate school at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she earned a master’s degree in conducting, and then attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, where she earned a master of arts degree in music education.
After her time in Los Angeles, Alger returned to Iowa for a year, directing a youth orchestra and church choir, singing in regional choirs and playing violin in several regional orchestras. She was given the opportunity to move to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where she taught high school music for two years. She returned to the United States to pursue a doctorate in musical arts at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md.
Alger said that while pursuing her doctorate in Maryland, she decided to audition for the U.S. Army program and join the U.S. Army.
She said she was motivated to apply to be an officer in the U.S. Army Band program because she had several colleagues and classmates auditioning for full-time Army band positions when they graduated with their degrees.
“I thought it was really great that they could serve their country and still be able to play the music they were trained to do and love,” Alger said, “so I decided to see what military bands had to offer conducting… and that’s when I discovered that the US Army holds auditions for conductors.”
Alger said the application process for the U.S. Army Band is similar to that of other professional bands: Applicants must submit an application package that includes an essay, their resume, rehearsal and professional recordings of their conducting, and a full-length, professionally taken photo of themselves. Alger said the top applicants are invited to an in-person audition once the application goes through.
During the two-day audition process, Alger said, candidates are tested on their written music theory, speaking skills, singing and ability to sing or play a lead instrument. There is also a conducting component where candidates work with a concert band of either the United States Army Band, the United States Army Band, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, or the United States Army Corps of Engineers. At the end of the audition, there is a voice interview with the audition committee.
Alger said one to two officers are selected through the audition each year. If they are not already in the army, she said, selected officers go to basic training, which lasts three months, and then three more months to officer candidate school. At the end of officer candidate school, she said, officers are commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army and must attend a three-month basic course for officer leaders at the United States Army School of Music in Virginia Beach, Va. After that, she said, they were assigned to their first job.
Alger auditioned for the United States Army Band program in May 2017 and said she was offered the position of chief officer the same day. She joined the Army in October 2018, and last September she became the leader of the United States Army Corps.
