New Virginians

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The New Virginians is a musical group from Virginia Tech founded in 1972.

Its founder and first director was Stan Kingma, who had directed the Virginia Tech Glee Club which was the nucleus of choral music singing at Virginia Tech. The group featured 24 singer/dancers, a 12 piece showband and a technical staff and focused on a musical variety show which toured Virginia and surrounding States as "musical ambasadors of Virginia Tech". During those 21 years, the group produced 17 albums and performed a cross country summer tour in the late 1970s which concluded with an appearance on the Dinah Shore Show.

The New Virginians underwent a drastic change in the early 1990s as a result of budget cuts. They morphed into the Jazz Choir under the direction of Lisanne Lyons and had a very successful 10 years, winning the Downbeat Award two years in a row for the most outstanding jazz choir in the United States. Then, during the budget cuts of the early 2000s, Virginia Tech lost both its vocal and instrumental jazz professors.

Many great performers around the nation came from this group. A revival of the group will occur in the near future, whether as part of Virginia Tech, or another college in Virginia, the New Virginians in some capacity will some day take to stage the performances which brought laughter, imspiration, and entertainment to thousands around the globe.