A new community choir bringing Livingston residents together to harmonize through a shared love of music.
Voices of Livingston Director and Founder Bill Chase said the organization serves as a way for community members to pull together and create something musically outside of traditional school or church settings. Chase said the group currently consists of just over 20 singers and fills a cultural gap that was previously missing.
“I would have to say already it’s a success, just simply because I looked out at the group last night and here were all these different people who had most of them had not known each other even before we started rehearsing,” Chase said. “And they’re, you know, they’re excited, they’re enjoying it.”
Chase said the ensemble includes a wide variety of participants, ranging from teenagers and students to retirees and professionals. He said the group features people who work in local stores, government positions, and large businesses, as well as housewives.
“All of these folks have come together and and the the thing that has caused them to agree with one another during our hour and a half each week is music and that’s it’s a wonderful thing,” Chase said. “There was, you know, a feeling that we needed a musical organization that would draw people in from all different walks of life.”
Chase said the choir welcomes singers of all skill levels and provides instruction for those who may not know how to read music or identify their vocal section. He said he takes the time to help new members find their place in the soprano, alto, tenor, or bass sections.
“I help them get in the right section and give them a little instruction about how to follow the notes even if they they can’t identify notes,” Chase said. “But you can teach people to look at the relationship of notes to each other from left to right and they can see whether it goes up or down.”
Chase said the group is preparing for its first public performances, including an appearance at the courthouse tree lighting ceremony and a larger concert in December. He said the choir had to secure its own funding by visiting local businesses, which have been supportive of the new initiative.
“I want to provide, twice a year, a major concert in Livingston of choral music,” Chase said. “And outside the school, that is not being done by anyone, so I think culturally that can add a lot, and the variety of music that a choir can sing kind of automatically lends itself to bringing people together in different ways.”
Chase said the choir has benefited from local partnerships, including the use of the music library at Livingston High School through choral director Greg Dingwall.
“If we can start to be kind of a fixture in the community and show up at these important events like the tree lighting, maybe a 4th of July type of event or or some other seasonal thing where we just kind of become something that’s an expected part of that, I would love that,” Chase said. “I would love to be that important here that it’s expected that we’re going to be involved in those things because those things are kind of the heartbeat of the community and it’s what you move to a small town for is so that you can see those things.”
Chase said the choir is not adding new members for the current semester but will open for new singers in late December and early January.
