Malama Robbins Collinsworth (née Nicholas) founded the WPI Women’s Chorale, today known as Alden Voices, in 1976. Malama was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1925 to Costas and Argyro Nicholas. She was an accomplished pianist by age 9 and unusually mature singer by 13.

 

She studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she founded a college chorus, leading them on several world tours and performing at the Vatican in Rome at the Pope’s invitation. Her college singing associations continued later in life when Malama was Associate Professor of Music at Anna Maria College; she taught voice and music, and founded the Anna Maria College Chorus in 1968. She was also an Affiliate Associate Professor of Music at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

 

Her first husband, Reverend Wallace W. Robbins, served as minister of the First Unitarian Church in Worcester, where Malama was a frequent soloist in the church choir. It was Dr. Robbins who encouraged her to found Salisbury Singers in 1973 – following requests from some of her Anna Maria College Chorus alumni looking for a post-collegiate community chorus.

 

A talented musician and choral director, Malama’s additional contributions to Worcester’s musical groups include founding Salisbury Lyric Opera Company and the Worcester Children’s Chorus. She was also the first female choral director of the Worcester County Music Association. She also co-founded Salisbury Chamber Orchestra and Lincoln Arts Festival in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine.

 

Dr. Robbins died in 1988. In 1991, Malama moved to Sarasota, Florida and married Even T. Collinsworth, Jr. She died in June 1997 and is survived by Collinsworth, a daughter, and two step sons.