Our History
Dolce, the Lehigh University Treble Ensemble, is a group of dedicated students passionate about exploring the wealth of choral music written for treble voices. Our members, drawn from the University Choir, represent majors across the university—ranging from the arts to engineering—and bring diverse perspectives that enrich our music-making.
While Dolce’s roots trace back to Lehigh’s first treble ensembles in the 1970s, the group has since grown into a distinctive ensemble with its own mission and voice. Today, Dolce is not only a musical ensemble but also a community where singers come together to explore what it means to be female-identifying in the modern world. Our performances go beyond the notes on the page: we seek to engage audiences with challenging and meaningful themes of identity, resilience, independence, and belonging.
Under the direction of Dr. Liz Olson, Dolce has performed powerful works such as Refugee, Desert Song, and Flight, music that invites both singers and audiences to reflect on shared human experiences. Through these performances, Dolce fosters conversations about identity and community while also cultivating lifelong friendships within the ensemble.
At its core, Dolce is about connection—through song, through shared purpose, and through the bonds that form when voices come together.
After an almost 30-year absence, Dolce has revived the women’s choral tradition in the Lehigh Choral Arts program. Founded in 2007 by the women of the University Choir under the direction of Deborah Field, Dolce established itself through its charming and excellent performances. In its short history, Dolce has begun to amass repertoire ranging from medieval and renaissance pieces to contemporary choral works. Dolce has performed in most Lehigh Choral Arts concerts, including the annual Christmas Vespers and various campus-wide events.
In 2012, Sun Min Lee became the director of Dolce. Under Ms. Lee’s direction, Dolce has become an integral part of the long-standing Lehigh University Choral Arts history as well as the Lehigh Valley community. Dolce’s performances have been praised for their inspiring musical excellence and engagement with the audience.
As part of promoting women’s artistry at Lehigh, Dolce, along with the Center for Gender Equity, has co-hosted the annual Raise Your Voice Gala Concert since 2017 to feature many talented female students, staff, and faculty members at Lehigh. The event has provided the opportunity of connecting Lehigh women artists and sharing the stories of what it means to be a woman at Lehigh. During the fifth annual Raise Your Voice in February of 2020, Dolce raised money for the Nurse-Family Partnership, a non-profit that provides care for first-time low-income mothers in Bethlehem. Along with performances on campus, Dolce has performed at a number of venues off campus, including Kirkland Village, St. Anne’s Church, Fritz Memorial United Methodist Church, Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. During the 2019-2020 season, Dolce was invited to perform at the Historic Bethlehem Downtown Advent Calendar, the local RCN’s holiday broadcast, as well as at Trinity Lutheran Church in Robesonia. In the 2017-2018 season, Dolce celebrated its 10th anniversary along with the 45th anniversary of women at Lehigh. This year-long celebration included numerous performances featuring choral works by women composers, as well as Lehigh University composers Casey Rule, Andrey Stolyarov, and Genevieve Shafer. The highlight of the 10th anniversary was a commissioned piece written for Dolce by Reena Esmail titled “I Rise: Women in Song”. This five-movement work, consisting of 140 female singers from Lehigh Choral Arts and its alumni, mezzo-soprano solo, and orchestra, was premiered to great acclaim. Its texts were selected from the writings of American women authors Eleanor Roosevelt, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, and Arlene Geller, a local poet from Bucks County.
If you would like to keep up with the fun and exciting things Dolce does in the future, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @lehighdolce.
If you are a Dolce alum we would like to reconnect with you. Please contact Emma Clopton, our outreach manager, at ejc525@lehigh.edu.
How to Join
Joining Dolce is as easy as joining the University Choir – if you’re a part of the University Choir, and sing soprano or alto, then you have the option of joining Dolce. Dolce is worth one credit and meets Monday afternoons for one hour in the fall, and two hours in the spring.
Contact Dolce
If you would like to inquire about incorporating a Dolce performance into your event, please contact:
Tess Tuneski, Manager
tet226@lehigh.edu