CRANBERRY TWP - The Cranberry Civic Chorale wants you.

They want to add your voice to theirs. But they particularly want you if you can play the piano and wouldn't mind doing it for the love of music and nothing else.

Chuck Gerdes became the choir's new director in December, and he's a pretty good tenor, too. He also plays piano for the group.

"I can direct and sing tenor, but I can't play and sing" while directing, he admitted.

When it comes to the pianist and singers, "You don't have to be a professional. We'd like you to be able to read music. And you have to want to have fun," said Gerdes.

With a smile in her voice, Charlotte Gerdes, Chuck's wife broadened the qualifications for applicants to "upright and breathing."

"We'd like someone who is adaptable and will do it for the fun of it. We don't have a lot of money," added Chuck Gerdes.

Practices are every Monday evening. The group does not meet July through September and Christmas through March.

"We are a nice group to be with," added Peggy Grinager, publicity person for the music group.

The chorale puts on two programs per year. Performances of the Christmas program begin around Thanksgiving and run until Christmas. The spring program begins performances in mid-June and winds up in late July, said Chuck Gerdes.

"Our big event is Cranberry Community Day on the Fourth of July at Cranberry Park," said Grinager.

Light Up Night in December is another major performance date, added Eileen Bielski, the librarian for the

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horale and one of its sopranos.

The choir has sung for senior citizen, church and women's groups and for the Cranberry Historical Society.

"If they ask us, we sing," said Grinager.

They sing all types of music, patriotic and religious, and songs by composer Hoagy Carmichael and singer Frank Sinatra.

The chorale is comprised of 22 singers, but we've been as high as 40 at one time, said Bielski.

"Dues are nominal. We only charge them when we need music and we have more than 100 pieces of music to choose from," she said.

The only real cost to joining the chorale is buying a cranberry-colored polo shirt, the summer uniform for the choir.

There are no auditions and members hail from a variety of communities, not just Cranberry.

The civic chorale started in September 1992 and about one-third of its members are originals. Another third are long-term members. The others come and go as people move into and out of the area.

For information, call Grinager at 724-779-9865.