Welcome to Fretless - sophisticated close harmony



	Fretless made its debut in June of 1999 at the First Parish Unitarian Church in Bedford, MA. In 2004, we competed at the Eastern Regional Harmony Sweepstakes at Tufts University's Cohen Auditorium, winning third place. In 2005, we produced our first CD entitled "All the Things We Are".



	Alison Weaver is honored to sing soprano with Fretless. She is a retired data analyst and now has more time to dedicate to her lifelong passion of choral singing. Alison grew up in the Boston area and started singing with her church choir at the age of 5 and continued singing through high school. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, she returned to the Boston area and joined the Paul Madore Chorale. Since then, she has sung with Chorus pro Musica, Coro Allegro, and Boston Cecilia. Currently she is a member of The Master Singers in Lexington and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Over the years, she’s sung with conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Andris Nelsons, Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, John Williams and many others. Alison met her husband Chris while singing with Chorus pro Musica. They have shared many musical adventures together. They have one son who is studying engineering at UConn. Alison is excited to be singing in a small group and is enjoying this more intimate music-making experience.

	Becky Linton is our alto. She grew up in a musical family and some of her earliest memories are of singing rounds on family road trips. A chorister since childhood, she particularly enjoys singing sacred music. Over the years, Becky has sung with a variety of choral groups. In her home state, West Virginia, she sang with the Larry Parsons Chorale. After moving to Boston, she auditioned for Donald Palumbo and joined Chorus pro Musica. Currently, Becky sings with Adam Grossman in The Master Singers of Lexington and Mark Morgan in the Hancock Church choir. She lives in Lexington with her husband, young adult son, and their frisky Labradoodle. Becky has her Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and recently retired, after teaching kindergarten for 35 years. These days, she is enjoying volunteer opportunities, is learning to tap dance, and loves singing with her Fretless friends.

	David is our tenor. His musical background is extensive, beginning with rhythmic chants while rocking in his crib. David grew up in Tucson and toured nationally and internationally for five years with the Tucson Boys' Chorus; he can still twirl a rope with élan. He was a founding member, and director in his senior year, of the Mendicants, the first a cappella group at Stanford University. Locally, David has sung since 1976 with The Master Singers, a classical chamber chorus. He was a founding member of the Shawsheen River Rats, a male a cappella quintet that existed for 18 years starting in 1980. The Rats won the New England Regional Harmony Sweepstakes in 1993, and went on to place third in the National Harmony Sweepstakes in San Francisco. With the retirement of the Rats, David started Fretless in 1998. Now retired, David was a Lead Scientist at BBN Technologies and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Medical School and the Center for Advanced Medical Imaging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Throughout his professional career, he conducted medical imaging research, including development of a system for acquiring and displaying stereoscopic “3D” digital mammograms-- implemented for clinical use by Fuji Medical Systems. David continues to live in Bedford following the death of his wife, Sarah, from cancer in 2009, and he has three perfect grandchildren.

	Grant is our baritone. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Grant grew up in New Jersey and studied music composition at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan before a five-year stint at Oberlin College and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he pursued his three great loves: languages (earning a B.A. in French), music (B.Mus. in Theory and Composition), and Lucia (to whom he remains married to this day). At Oberlin, Grant studied composition with Walter Aschaffenburg and Richard Hoffmann, writing music in all genres from solo song to chamber music to opera. After college he spent a year as a classical DJ at WILL-AM/FM, the NPR stations of the University of Illinois, before moving to the Boston area and embarking on a career in computer software. He currently writes database analytical software for the Oracle Corporation in Burlington. Grant has sung with The Newton Choral Society, The Spectrum Singers, the sadly short-lived Cantillare, and, since 2005, The Master Singers of Lexington. Grant lives in Acton with his wife, an avid practitioner of the fiber arts, and four cats.

	Clark is our bass. Clark grew up in southwest Virginia and later in the Richmond area in an artistic family of singers, actors, dancers, and his father. Legend had it that his mother started singing to him in the womb hoping to avoid his being as tone-deaf as his dad. Evidently it worked; he’s been singing ever since. Adding to the classic cliché, Clark came up to Boston for college and never got around to leaving the area. A career small-company software developer, Clark finally gave in to fate and works for Citrix after being acquired by them for the second time. A veteran of several greater Boston choral groups - including the one where he met his future wife Susan - he’s incredibly happy to now be singing bass for Fretless.