Choirs assemble for music festival

By Paula Grubbs Eagle Staff Writer

May 29, 2014 Last Updated: May 29, 2014 11:14 AM Community

Sweet Adelines also to perform

CALLERY — Praise and worship through music will be on display as Crestview Community Church hosts this year’s Community Music Festival at 7 p.m. Sunday in the church’s sanctuary, 210 Kline Ave.

Choirs from St. John’s United Church of Christ, St. Peter’s Lutheran, Westminster United Presbyterian and Plains United Presbyterian churches, all in or near Evans City, as well as the Crestview choir and the Sweet Adelines barbershop singing group from Cranberry Township, will participate.

The Rev. Bob Goossen, Crestview’s pastor, said each choir will perform anthems they have sung at their home churches over the past year.

The 15-person Sweet Adelines will perform selections from its repertoire, and smaller singing groups from the churches will also perform.

All five choirs plus the Sweet Adelines will join to create a mass choir to round out the event.

Goossen said, with the exception of a short hiatus, the music festival has been performed annually for longer than anyone can recall. He said the event is held in one of the participating churches each year.

“It’s a long-standing tradition here in Evans City,” Goossen said. “It’s a great thing to get together and share different music we’ve learned and to worship and praise together.”

Kathy Robinson, choir director at Plains United Presbyterian, said this is the first year the church will participate in the music festival.

She said the 12-person adult choir will perform “Joy in the Morning,” and a soloist also will sing a selection.

Robinson said the children’s choir, under the direction of Dena Solman, also will perform.

The Rev. Tom Harmon, pastor at Westminster, said his 15-person choir is always pleased to participate.

“We’re a connectional church,” Harmon said. “We’re not only part of the Presbyterian Church USA, the same as Crestview, but we also try to participate in ministry with other churches.”

Harmon, who sings bass in the choir, looks forward to the event.

“We understand our congregational life as needing to be connected to the ministries of other congregations,” Harmon said. “This is a wonderful opportunity to do that and a great way for the community to be able to witness that form of ministry.”

The Rev. Verna Call, pastor at St. John’s, sings in the alto section of her choir.

She said while religious music is available on television and in other formats, the festival gives listeners the opportunity to see a live show.

“To have it coming out of community groups sharing their voices, it’s going to mean more to people,” Call said.

She said the event also gives her choir members a chance to hear voices other than their own.

“It’s fun to be with other choirs and hear what they’re singing,” Call said.

The mass performance by all the choirs together is also something St. John’s singers look forward to, Call said.

“I hope a lot of people come out and hear us,” she said.

Marlene Domhoff, who has served as choir director at St. Peter’s for at least 25 years, said the festival was suspended for a few years until a Seneca Valley senior who was a Westminster member reinstituted it nearly four years ago for her senior project.

“Westminster continued it, and now Crestview is doing it this year,” she explained.

Domhoff said she has selected two pieces that her 12-person choir will sing. She always tries to make one number a spirited, rousing song.

“We have a small, but very dedicated choir,” Domhoff said.

She said people should come out to hear the music offered because their choirs are an essential and hard-working part of each church’s life.

“I think it’s important for (church members) to come out and support their choir,” Domhoff said. “Choirs put in time and effort. They don’t just get up Sunday morning and sing.”

St. Peter’s pastor, the Rev. Dave Saylor, called hymns and sacred music the heart and soul of proclaiming one’s faith.

“It’s important to have tones to the words. It’s a lot easier to learn (God’s) word if you hear it through song,” Saylor said. “Take the ABCs. Do you think you would have learned it as a youngster without singing it?”

The festival will also include light refreshments.

Call said of the festival, “It’s a wonderful way to worship God together.”