Making beautiful music
Matthew Boice, director of the Washington Festival Chorale, is a man of many expressions during a recent rehearsal at First Presbyterian Church in Washington. The choir was practicing for its final concert of its 10th season, “Old Time Religion,” which will be held Sunday at the Houston Firemen’s pavilion.
Matthew Boice can get a bit animated during rehearsals, and he will ask members of the Washington Festival Chorale to sing a verse or a chord again and again – until it sounds just right.
But they don’t seem to mind. They just like to sing.
Nearly 60 of the choir’s 92 singers showed up for a rehearsal Sunday afternoon on a holiday weekend at First Presbyterian Church in Washington to prepare for the last concert of their 10th anniversary season. They will perform “Old Time Religion” at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Houston firemen’s pavilion. Community Band South and the LeMoyne Multi-Cultural Community Center choir will join the chorale.
“These people love to sing,” said Boice, who is chairman of the music department and director of choral music at Quaker Valley High School. He also is a tenor soloist at First Presbyterian, has been a member of the professional core of the Mendelssohn Choir in Pittsburgh and performs with the Beau Street Players of Washington.
“It’s hard to imagine. The 10 years have gone so fast,” Boice said. “We’ve grown a lot over the years. The one thing that’s different about us is that other choirs are too serious. My thing is, first you’ve got to love it. Then you teach them to be professional. We’ve tried not to take ourselves too seriously at all. We do the best we can.”
The chorale’s origin stems from the Washington Community Choir, which for years was under the direction of G. Richard Zimmerman. It was reborn under Boice’s direction during a small get-together at the home of Jim DeBolt.
“I enjoy it,” Boice said. “The one thing that’s different for me is, at school, you change 25 percent of your choir every year because of graduates.” That’s not to say the makeup of the Washington Festival Chorale doesn’t change, too. But it’s not on a consistent basis.
“We get new people, but we develop good relationships,” Boice said.
Susan Steffick, president of the chorale, agrees. She and her husband, Larry, are charter members of the group. She’s a soprano; he’s a tenor. They also perform with the Char Val Singers and in the choir at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in McMurray, and they have been involved with Washington Community Theater.
“Singing has been a big part of our life. That’s how we met,” said Susan Steffick, noting the couple will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary in June.
“This is a group of people who love to sing, and it’s been a nice experience,” she said.
The chorale is composed of various ages and backgrounds. Many are familiar faces in the community, having performed with other vocal groups and church choirs.
Members of the chorale also enjoy sharing music with others on a smaller scale. They have performed at various nursing homes, including Presbyterian Medical Center, Strabane Trails and Hawthorne Woods. They also will sing the national anthem at the Washington Rebellion game June 5 at Consol Energy Park, and they have performed at Wild Things games.
“It’s part of our mission statement,” said Susan Steffick, referring to the group’s community service projects, “but it’s not just our mission. It’s just that we enjoy music.
Steffick and Marsha Owens, the chorale director at Trinity High School, are among a small group of chorale members who also have started working with youngsters at the LeMoyne Center, helping them with homework and teaching them to sing. The LeMoyne Center children’s choir will join the chorale at its Sunday concert for its finale, “This Little Light of Mine.” Other concert selections include “I’m a Sinner Man,” “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” “Little David, Play on Your Harp” and, appropriately enough, “How Can I Keep From Singing.”
The choir has performed Christmas concerts, dinner concerts at the Washington Elks, and on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy, it performed a memorial concert at Immaculate Conception Church. The chorale collected $3,000 during the concert and donated all of the money to the Flight 93 Memorial and the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department. Both Steffick and Boice said it’s unusual for one nonprofit to do something for another nonprofit.
But that’s what the Washington Chorale is all about.
“We want to do something for people,” Steffick said. “We have a nice group of people, and hopefully we will continue to grow.”