Ruby Bilger (BR ’18)
Voice Part: Soprano II
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Positions: Domestic Tour Manager (’15-’16)
Major: Classified.
We can’t express how honored we are to have Ruby – at the tender age of 10, she turned down the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in order to focus on her Slavic singing, and though we’re unbelievably jealous that she got the whole owl-with-a-letter package, we just feel grateful that she chose us over a Patronus. You know rubies, the gem? Yeah, they were named after our Ruby, not the other way around. She’s just that cool.
Favorite Slavs Song: Under construction.
Favorite Cheese: The cheesy kind.
Fun Fact: Ruby’s last name is actually Velociraptor, but everyone’s jealous of her as it is.
Justine Cefalu (TD ’15)
Voice Part: Alto I
Positions: Musical Director (’13-’14), Business Manager (’12-’13), International Tour Manager (’12-’13)
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Major: Environmental Studies
This beautiful female comes from Cincinnati Ohio–the land of George Clooney and Graeter’s Ice Cream! Her hobbies include being smiley, singing Irish folk songs, and making the world a better place. She enjoys home-grown foods, long walks in thick grasses, sunny days, and playing stringed instruments. Justine and her twin sister Anna Rose often delight in the beautiful simplicities of everyday life. Justine owns many beautiful patterned socks and tights. You might as well call her Yovanitsa.
Favorite Cheese: Gorgonzola
Favorite Slavs Song: Nanina
Fun Fact: The beautiful dreads that you see on Justine’s head today were the second attempt at dreading her hair. The first attempt simply slipped out of her silky smooth hair!
Amanda Crego-Emley (SY ’17)
Voice Part: All of them
Positions: Assistant Business Manager (’14-’15), Business Manager (’15-’16)
Hometown: Richmond, CA
Major: History
Amanda has been a Slav at heart for many years before we were lucky enough to get our hands on her. If her voice doesn’t knock your socks off your feet, her eyes certainly will: Amanda has the coolest case of heterochromia. (When she was little, she hoped that this meant she had super powers, and she was right! Her voice and hair are made of magic.) Amanda. Even her name is mysterious. Who knows what hijinks she gets up to in her spare time? We certainly don’t. Whenever we ask her how she’s been, we only get evasive answers. Suspicion confirmed: Amanda is a spy, and a good one at that. How could you not trust that charming smile?
Favorite Slavs Song: Heya Moli
Favorite Cheese: Ricotta
Fun Fact: Amanda was scooped up by a hawk when she was a baby.
Kelly Fu (DC ’19
Voice Part: Soprano II
Hometown: Xiamen, a semitropical island in China
Major: Doubling in History and Indecision
While Kelly has roller skated across fifteen different countries, this is her first experience wandering into Slavic territory and we are thrilled to welcome her wonderful, optimistic energy! Little know fact: Kelly was the fifth original member of The Beatles. After Abbey Road, she peaced out to pursue her dream of singing with The Slavs. In her free time, Kelly rescues puppies that are almost as adorable as she is.
Favorite Slavs Song: Erghen Deda
Favorite Cheese: Anything from blue to feta to cream, despite the sad reality of her lactose intolerance.
Fun Fact: Kelly’s Slavic spirit animal is Peter the Great because “he’s tall, like me!”
Claire Gottsegen (MC ’18)
Voice Part: Alto I
Positions: Domestic Tour Manager (’14-’15), Publicity Manager (’15-’16)
Hometown: Houston, TX
Major: Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Sometimes when you run into Claire, it’s hard not to wonder how so much exuberance and beautiful energy can fit into such a petite human being. Then you remember that she’s extraordinary in many, many ways and you stop wondering and simply start appreciating. A distant descendant of Genghis Khan, Claire spends her free time breaking bricks with her teeth and fighting off bears with her left pinky. What do woodchucks whisper to themselves as they chuck wood? What are fish saying when they open and close their mouths? And what’s the deal with those platypuses? We don’t know. But Claire does. An internationally ranked pun star, she’s a force to be reckoned with.
Favorite Slavs Song: Nanina
Favorite Cheese: Goat
Fun Fact: Claire once tried to count all of her freckles. She was successful but won’t tell anyone how many she really has.
Olivia Gunton (PC ’06)
Voice Part: Alto I
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Major: Making computers do her bidding.
Where do you even start with Olivia? She’s sung with TUIB and performed at the Museum of Modern Art with the Kavkasia Trio. She plays a mean panduri (see image) and electric accordion (use your imagination) and we’re so thrilled to have her back. Olivia’s extensive study of Georgian means that she can pronounce the consonants no one else can, and her enthusiasm for Bollywood and fluency in Hindi (!) make her indispensable in the Slavs’ plans for an eventual world tour.
Favorite Slavs Song: Xubava Milka
Favorite Cheese: Pepper-encrusted goat cheese.
Fun Fact: Olivia once dressed up as Teddy Roosevelt for Halloween.
Charlotte Finegold (BK ’17)
Voice Part: Soprano I
Positions: Tour Manager (’14-’15), Assistant Pitch (’14-’15),
Pitch (’15-’16)
Hometown: Highland Park, NJ
Major: Defense against the Dark Arts, (English Literature, Multidisciplinary Program in Human Rights)
Charlotte may not know any Zulu yet, but she does speak nine other languages: English, French, Thai, Catalan, Korean, Farsi, Tagalog, Urdu, and Yoruba. Notably, none of these languages are of any use when singing with the Slavs, but Charlotte is so talented that she doesn’t need any of that silly “understanding what you’re singing about” stuff. Speaking of talent, Charlotte is nationally ranked in the fine art of cow tipping and expects to receive recognition of her abilities from the agricultural industry any day now. When she’s not busy being such a badass that the rest of us can’t see straight, she dresses up as Princess Leia and tries to count her own freckles. (Alas, unlike Claire, Charlotte has thus far been unsuccessful. This page will be updated when we have more news.)
Favorite Slavs Song: Rachuli Supruli
Favorite Cheese: Goat cheese
Fun Fact: Charlotte has broken the barrier between the wizarding world and our own — she’s been successful at crossing over to Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters and has the scars to prove it.
Kimberly Lai (DC ’18)
Voice Part: Alto I
Hometown: Spring, TX
Major: Food. Yale College may or may not offer this major.
This girl. Around the block she’s known as Kim, Kimbo-Slice, or Porkchop… But here she is simply Kimberly, Alto Goddess. Some say that Kimberly is Chuck Norris’s spirit animal. She’s into food, the cello, and food shaped like the cello. Kimberly loves dancing: contemporary, hip hop, and something called “modern
jazz” which confuses, yet intrigues her.
Favorite Slavs Song: Shto Mi e Milo
Favorite cheese: The edible kind, none of that “say cheese for the camera” crap.
Fun fact: For Halloween last year, she dressed up as Texas. Sadly not to scale.
Jana Lohrová (ES ’16)
Voice Part: Soprano II
Positions: Social Chair (’14-’15), Business Manager (’13-’14)
Hometown: Praha, Czech Republic
Major: Mollecular, Cellular, and Development Biology & Global Affairs, but that may not work out…
Once, two protons collided in a particle accelerator and decided that the Higgs boson wasn’t good enough, so Jana was created instead. In lieu of studying hard at Yale, Jana just does a lot of ballroom dancing because the Viennese Waltz beats microeconomics nine times out of ten. Jana loved Stiles before even being assigned to it because she doesn’t like when buildings are lying to her about their age. She’s not interested in this imitation-Gothic-business. When she’s back in Praha, she roams forests with her white wolf (Swiss shepherd) Kara. Jana keeps an army of three million fiercely protective honeybees as pets. She also lives in a tree house built on an Ent. She brought her home to college with her, and the Ent is in fact posing as a normal tree somewhere on campus.
Favorite Slavs Song: Lale Li Si
Favorite Cheese: sharp gouda/blue cheese/ syrečky!
Fun Fact: Facts are rarely fun, but this one is: Jana doesn’t understand 95% of the words in Slavic Chorus music, but persistently fakes that she does.
Olivia Noble (CC ’19
Voice Part: Alto
Hometown:Buffalo, NY/Corpus Christi, TX
Major: Ratiocination
Every year, the President of Iceland invites Olivia to visit in the winter. Why? Because her smile literally lights up the entire country. Liv enjoys organizing pranks, baking bread, and watching TV adaptations of British mystery novels. She also writes parody songs, and we hope she’ll write one or two for The Slavs. We’re so lucky to have her!!
Favorite Slavs Song: Mujo Kuje
Favorite Cheese: Jarlsberg
Fun fact: Olivia’s favorite cartoon character is Arthur the Aardvark. Yay for alliteration!
Jola Pach (CC ’18)
Voice Part: Soprano II
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Major: MCDB with an intensive minor in Pastry Making.
Jola enjoys hip hop dance, long walks on the beach, fondue, good books, and flying solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She’s basically Amelia Earhart, times one trillion. If you want to know Jola, all you need to know is that her favorite season is strawberry season. How could you not love this girl?
Favorite Slavs Song:Prevrukhna Ptichka
Favorite cheese: Twaróg (farmer’s cheese)
Fun fact: Jola is an undercover Polish spy.
But I think we just blew her cover.
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.
Maclovia Quintana (MC’11, FES’13)
Voice Part: Alto I
Positions: Tour Manager (’08-’09), Business Manager (’09-’10), Musical Director (’10-’11), Returning Slav (’12-’13), International Tour Manager (’12-’13)
Hometown: Santa Fe, NM
Major: Forestry School
Maclovia “Clover” Quintana hails from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She also loves El Nino, and has a special face she makes when talking about this very specific dog. Maclovia is woofing in New Zealand. Maclovia is smart shoes. Maclovia is permaculture. Maclovia is farmer’s markets. Maclovia is red glasses. Maclovia is slav dinner. Maclovia is purple. Maclovia is the green house. Maclovia is a gloriously colored skirt. Maclovia is a nose plug. Maclovia is Oye! Maclovia is spring salvage. Maclovia is a soprano. Maclovia is true love! Maclovia is scarves. Maclovia is an Uwan. Maclovia is amazing! Maclovia is cheese in the form of a human being. Maclovia is all these things and more. We’re so happy to have her back.
Favorite Slavs Song: Israslo Durvo Visoko
Favorite Cheese: The kind that comes from Croatian markets.
Fun Fact: Maclovia and Nila (a slav alumna) are actually the same person.
Athena Wheaton (BR ’18)
Voice Part: Alto I
Hometown: Sebastopol, CA
Positions: Assistant Pitch (’15-’16)
Major: Film Studies
We could fill entire pages about how Athena’s name is evocative of her goddess-like nature and how she’s wise beyond her years and so on and so forth, but the Greek goddess reference thing is so passé, you know? And Athena is the opposite of passé. Reasons Athena is the opposite of passé: She edits films. She plays the cello. She can hold her own in a boxing match. She lives in earth tones. She has excellent taste in music. She has a stare that’s felled men too faint of heart. Need we say more?
Favorite Slavs Song: The crunchy ones.
Favorite Cheese: No cheese discrimination here.
Fun Fact: Athena set a message in a bottle sailing in eighth grade – it was found earlier this year.
The Yale Slavic Chorus 