Choir recaps its fourth decade – 2001 – 2011
The Coshocton Community Choir, founded by and conducted by Charles R. Snyder is celebrating its 50th anniversary this season. A celebration concert will be held on Sunday, April 24, at 3 p.m. at Coshocton High School’s McKinley Auditorium. Here’s a look back at the fourth decade of the choir.
“All Creation Sings” was the title of the community choir’s 40th Christmas concert in 2001, and the 15th Christmas festival concert. “River View High School’s Certified Gold Chorale was our guest for that concert,” said Charles Snyder, director, “and the two choirs sang an antiphonal setting of the carol, ‘While by My Sheep’.”
Also, that year, The Coshocton Singers, grades fourth to eight, celebrated its 15th anniversary at the spring concerts.
On July 2, 2001, the community choir traveled to Lakeside on Lake Erie, and sang a concert to an enthusiastic crowd in Hoover Auditorium. “We were billed as ‘Another of the many favorites from last season!’ Snyder said.
The Christmas concerts in 2002 were the last for narrator Kay Finnegan, who had filled that role with class for more than 15 years.
After years of eighth graders asking if there could be a high school choir in the community choir family, it finally happened in the spring of 2003 with the formation of the Coshocton Youth Chorale. After the concerts, youth chorale members asked to have another concert of their own, and Roscoe United Methodist opened their doors for those concerts.
In June 2003, the community choir was invited back to Lakeside for a third year.
“At the 2003 Christmas concerts we launched ‘carols in the round’ and the choir was divided into six smaller groups, spread around the auditorium,” Snyder said. “Although this setup is challenging for the singers, it is a joy for the audience.”
Also, that year, Lyn Mizer organized a campaign to “unsqueak” the 915 Coshocton High School auditorium seats and recruited 42 volunteers to help.
In 2005, after 34 years at the helm of the community choir, Snyder took a leave to recharge his batteries. For those five months, he was at Muskingum College, filling in for Professor Robert Owen Jones, who was on his own sabbatical.
Snyder had been writing the narration for the Christmas concerts for 20 years, and in 2005 he asked Dr. Allan Zagray, retired pastor of Grace United Methodist Church to take over that role
In May, 2006, the Coshocton Youth Chorale was invited to sing for the unveiling of the new sculpture at the Public Library. That June, the community choir was invited to sing at Lakeside again and were welcomed by a large and enthusiastic crowd.
In 2007, the Columbus Symphony selected Snyder as Community Music Educator of the Year, and 45 friends, family members, colleagues, present and former students gathered for the occasion.
The choir had performed their Christmas concert for five years at Dresden Presbyterian Church. “Then in 2009, we began a new tradition of singing our Christmas concert at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Newcomerstown,” Snyder said.
While the choir normally holds music when they sing, there are times when it’s better without it – especially if you’re walking in a procession. So, Snyder keeps after the choir to memorize a few pieces.
“Some altos in 2011, were not so eager to memorize the processional music,” Snyder said. “A couple of them realized they would be on the stage before they had to sing and thought they would set the words on the instrumentalists’ music stands where they could see it and not have to learn the music. A ‘totally innocent’ alto with neat printing, was conscripted into writing the text for them and placing it on the stands. That ‘totally innocent’ alto may have ‘accidentally’ let the plan slip to me, and I will neither confirm nor deny that before the concert, I took great delight in rearranging their pages of text, so they were in the wrong order!”
“In 2012, my sister Cherie and I were at Lakeside for some rare sibling time,” Snyder said. “One evening we went to a symphony concert. We arrived early, and a few minutes later three folks came in and sat in front of us. Soon we heard Coshocton…, and our ears perked up. They were talking about our recent community choir concert at Lakeside and how wonderful it had been. They were surprised that it was a community group. ‘Coshocton can’t be that big,’ one said. ‘How do you think something so wonderful could come from such a small place?’ Cherie and I exchanged looks and smiled but didn’t give in to the temptation to speak. In a time when it’s hard to remember what we had for lunch, it’s quite a tribute to hear folks exuding about something they heard 10 or 12 days earlier.”
Find more information about the Coshocton Community Choir and their upcoming concert on Sunday, April 24, at www.CoshoctonCommunityChoir.org. If you are a choir alumni and haven’t yet received information about the 50th anniversary celebration, call the choir’s office at 740-623-0554.
Category: Arts & Entertainment
