The Lebanon County Choral Society will begin their season with two open rehearsals for both their youth and adult choruses. Open rehearsals welcome any interested singer to rehearse with the choir for an evening with no obligation to join. Singers in ninth grade through adult are invited to sing with the Adult Chorus, while those in third through eighth grades are welcome in the Youth Chorus.
Rehearsals are held on Monday evenings at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 22 S. 6th St., Lebanon. The Adult Chorus will begin rehearsals on September 14, while the Youth Chorus will begin on September 21. The youth rehearse from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., while the adults meet from 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. Modest dues are payable at the third rehearsal, and waivers are available for financial hardship. Neither group requires an audition, although experience in choral singing and the ability to read music are helpful for Adult Chorus members.
“I am very excited to get started with rehearsals,” said artistic director and conductor of the Adult Chorus Sean Hackett. “This season we’ll be preparing music on the theme ‘The Peaceable Kingdom,’ including the masterwork by Randall Thompson as well as the Rutter Gloria. Our membership grew quite a bit last year, so we hope to keep that momentum going.”
The choral society recently announced the hiring of a new director for their youth chorus; Gretchen Patti was a long-term substitute in this role last season and has been hired as the director going forward.
Patti is a board-certified music therapist and a Fellow in the Association for Music and Imagery. She graduated from Elizabethtown College with a BS in Music Therapy and St. Joseph’s University with an MS in Healthcare Administration. She earned her fellowship in AMI from the Creative Arts Institute.
Patti’s experience includes directing the children’s choir director for Advent Lutheran Church, West Lawn, PA. She was the Director of Music Therapy at Bethany Children’s Home for 27 years, where she conducted the choir, select choir, and bell choir. She developed the Alpha and Omega Kids, a traveling group that included song, liturgical dance, and puppetry, and wrote and directed the annual musical show for Bethany’s Anniversary Day celebrations.
Singers interested in attending the open rehearsals for either group are asked to register via the organization’s website, www.LCCSmusic.org, to ensure that adequate sheet music is available for all participants.
Founded in 1889, the Lebanon County Choral Society has a long tradition of bringing quality choral music to the Lebanon area. In the past decades they have expanded their mission to include a Youth Chorus, a free music day camp, and a young conductors’ program, all while continuing and enhancing the legacy of excellent choral performances by the Adult Chorus, the foundation of the organization. While centered in Lebanon County, the group includes singers from as far east as Robesonia and as far west as Palmyra and Hershey.
