On a Sunday afternoon, you might find Rachel Dunham strolling calmly to the Arms Music Center in preparation for a performance, like the Concert Choir spring concert in which she not only sang but confidently played Brahms' "Zigeunerlieder" on the piano. You might find her in the geology building (she's a geology and music double major), sitting in her dusty but comfortable office analyzing core samples of feldspar and quartz for her thesis. Or you might find her in Valentine, eating brunch and proudly exclaiming: "I haven't showered, and I smell awful." She's not proud of the fact that she smells so much as the cause: a grueling karate workout in the dojo.

Managing the whirlwind

Dunham's college experience was somewhat of a controlled whirlwind. She was president of the Concert Choir for two years, where she built a close relationship with Choral Director Mallorie Chernin, with whom she'll be working next year. "She is a huge talent and I look forward to working with her," said Chernin of Dunham. Dunham, along with Lane, will work as a graduate associate with the music department next year, teaching ear training to undergraduates and assistant-conducting the choral society.

Chernin further noted, "Rachel can play the piano, cello, conduct and sing," and, indeed, Dunham found the time to do all of these things at Amherst. She played cello in the orchestra for four years, performing in numerous concerts. Sarah Davis '05, a convert to the Isshinyru Karate club, says that Dunham pulled her in, and Dunham herself notes with pride her preparation to promote to a second degree brown belt. Dunham has been in Isshinryu since her first year here, a sort of spokesperson for the odd but common confluence of musicianship and karate.

Born in Glendale, Calif., Dunham was dead set on Amherst the moment she arrived. What wasn't such an easy decision was her major. Dunham always had wanted to study physics-she took Physics 32 and 33 her freshman year, to get started. She also thought she didn't want to study music, even as she committed to singing, playing cello, and accompanying on the piano. Then, things changed. "Two weeks into quantum mechanics, my sophomore year," Dunham winced "I went: 'I can't do this anymore.'" Then, she tried geology and loved it.

As Professor of Geology Peter Crowley recalled: "[Rachel] had not taken a single geo course ... but was excited about geology, excited enough to sign up for two geology courses the following semester." And Dunham was good. Crowley remembered, "In Geo. 11, Rachel was learning a lot about the earth for the first time, but in the upper-level class Rachel excelled-sometimes seeming to go deeper into topics that she had not yet covered in Geo. 11. She had to be struggling, but it never showed."

Along with her discovery of geology, Dunham took some music classes and realized her perceptions were misguided: "I thought it was about grading you on your musical ability, but it wasn't at all. I was pleasantly surprised." The eventual music and geology double major quit physics and never looked back.

Geologic growth

Her enthusiasm for geology shows. For her prize-winning thesis, Dunham studied rocks from the Alps and Montana, noting that other geologists had rarely studied the feldspar samples she used. This made her thesis harder but more exciting. In geologic lingo, Dunham studied "quartz and feldspar deformation on a crystallographic level over a range of temperatures," and, as so many geologists do, she became enamored of her rocks. At least it appears that way: Dunham is going to a geology field camp this summer at the mountain range from which she culled her feldspar samples, the Tobacco Route Mountains in Montana. "I can only pack one suitcase," she bemoaned, smiling nonetheless. As with so many in her major, Dunham has a streak of adventure.

In keeping with her love of adventure, Dunham contemplates being a teacher, and will teach undergraduates "ear training" as part of her job in the music department next year. She's not nervous; she's had experience teaching piano and cello at Amherst, she tutored for the music department and she was a teaching assistant for Geo. 11. Besides, it's what she wants to do-if Dunham doesn't become a high school teacher, she's thinking about becoming a professor. She wants to go to graduate school after her post-graduate teaching year.

Dunham looks back fondly on her four years at the College, and looks forward to another one, filled with singing, conducting and musicianship. Her singing, she noted, actually came as quite a surprise. For years, she was told she couldn't sing, but three years of voice lessons helped her to grow, as a singer, a conductor and a member of an ensemble. Now, looking to the future, Dunham affirmed the place of choir in her life. It is an integral part of her life, something she wants to do "forever, in some form." One of two winners of the Lincoln Lowell Russell Prize for fostering the singing spirit at the College, Dunham brings all of herself to her choir. As a graduate assistant, she'll certainly be singing next year.