LAKE COUNTY— The holidays are here and the My Divas all female vocal ensemble has been busy performing at various festive events around the lake, adding to the magic of the season with their traditional Christmas caroling. For over a decade My Divas has graced Lake County with their historical dress and harmonized carols throughout the holidays and beyond as they provide a wide variety of custom entertainment.
For example, My Divas have been a staple of the Lakeport Dickens Festival and Christmas Market for the past eight years. The Dickens Festival kicks off the holiday season in November, kicking off a string of bookings for the group. This year they have been featured at the Blue Wing Saloon, Brassfield Estate Winery, The Lakeport Blizzard at Library Park, Fults Family Winery, Chacewater Winery and also the Wreaths Across America at Hartley Cemetary.
During the Lakeport Blizzard on Thursday December 15 at the Gazebo in Library Park, My Divas encouraged the crowd to sing along with classics like Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. The Lakeport Volunteer Fire Association held and hosted the event providing free hot chocolate and faux snow, creating a “blizzard” that kids of all ages gathered to play in. Glistening fake snowflakes combined with nostalgic holiday songs and topped off with smiling children is the recipe for a Lake County Christmas.
There are six members of the group including Director Marie Schrader, Booking Manager Barbara Clark, Jo Fay, Laura McAndrews-Sammel, Carole Cole Lewis and Susan Yeagan. According to Clark, Schrader has a degree in music and has enjoyed helping people perform their best whether on stage with the Lake County Theatre Company or at United Christian Parish where she is the music director.
Schrader also freelances doing social media marketing. McAndrews-Sammel is Chief Executive Officer at Lake County Chamber of Commerce and enjoys spending her free time with her husband. Fay is a retired Elementary Teacher who enjoys playing tennis with her husband and volunteering as an adult literacy coach for the Literacy Coalition. Yeagan retired from UCSF Medical Center and is an artist, tutor for the Adult Literacy Program, lighting tech, and cares for her chickens and garden. Cole Lewis is passionate about helping homeowners go solar with confidence with her new book, Go Solar with Confidence (Being released on Amazon Jan 21). Clark is the Executive Director of the Lake County Arts Council and spends her spare time performing and creating theatrical productions with her husband. Members are from as far away as New York but they are all brought together by their love of singing.
The group first began in 2010 as the Noble Singers, a co-ed singing group who would perform Renaissance Christmas music at the Middletown Methodist Christmas Pageant. They soon started participating in the annual Lower Lake Renaissance Fair singing Renaissance music, which ended unfortunately due to a wild fire. From there, the My Divas separated from the Noble Singers becoming an all women group because, as Clark shared, “The guys were unreliable.” At first they went by “Mio Divas” but after discovering the phrase was grammatically incorrect they sought a new title with Clark mentioning “Our Director referred to us as divas” and thus changed it to My Divas.
Over the years the group has grown to as many as eight and slimmed down to four but currently sits at six members. As the group widened their scope from Renaissance music to more contemporary tunes, Fay stated, “We moved up a few centuries.” Today they perform anything including Christmas carols, pirate shanties, 1950s sock hop songs and have even written original pieces for a wedding. They expanded their bookings into wineries, more private parties, and most recently car shows and have also been asked on occasion to perform our national anthem The Star Spangled Banner. The My Divas are available for booking and more information can be found on their Facebook page.
