Today I am thankful for my church choir. Two years ago at this time, the “low voice choir” (formerly the Men’s Choir) sang this:
I’ve had a long history with singing from the time I was a kid singing in the choir at my Dad’s church in Springfield, Mass.
In High School we had a great choir and it was the time before “political correctness” would have banned us from singing such wonderful classical music like Brahms’ German Requiem.
In college, as a music major, there were choirs and when we finally got to our current home, I joined Sweet Adelines.
I was a member of Sweet Adelines for 10 years, singing bass, before Cushing’s robbed me of that particular pleasure. SA takes lot of energy between rehearsals, performances, competitions, traveling. I just loved it but I couldn’t keep up.
My old chorus, but years after I left:
For a few years, I belonged to a local woman’s singing group but even that got to be too much after a while. There wasn’t the traveling or the competitions but rehearsals and performances cut into that energy.
Several years ago, our church choir director opened up the opportunity to sing for just the Christmas Cantata. No long-term commitment and only half the rehearsal time for about 10 weeks.
I hadn’t sung anywhere outside my car for about 10 years but, with trepidation, I signed up. Because of my bell-ringing and work with children’s choirs, I knew most of the other choir members and that made it a LOT easier on shy-me.
Christmas came and singing with the choir and orchestra was just fantastic. There was the invitation to stay, to become a part of the choir for good but I had my Cushing’s Interviews on Thursday nights and I couldn’t see how I could work all this in.
Then, the choir sang How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place from Brahms’ German Requiem and I was hooked. How could I not join?
So, I moved the interviews to Wednesday nights and Thursdays are free for choir rehearsals.
