The Lincoln-Way Area Chorale will complete its 20th season at the annual spring performance scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Lincoln-Way West High School, 21701 S. Gougar Road, New Lenox Township.
More than 100 choir members ranging in age from 18 to 81 from the Lincoln-Way area — and a bit beyond — will perform “America in Song,” a patriotic tribute that will include an Armed Forces salute for all five branches of the service, American wartime spirituals, a musical rendition of the U.S. Constitution and “In the Good Old Summertime” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” sung by the men of the chorale, according to Andrea Thompson, an original choir member and the chorale’s publicity chair.
Thomas Albanese, of Chicago, and Nicole Nance, of Flossmoor, will be guest soloists. Albanese will sing George M. Cohan’s “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” and Nance will sing “God Bless America.” They also will perform the well-known duet, “The Prayer,” Thompson said.
For 17 years, the choir was under the very able direction of Charles “Chuck” Stark, formerly a music director in Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210, and it has continued since 2012 to be a musical jewel of the Southland under the direction of Gregory Day.
Thompson said since Day became artistic director, the chorale “has received two national endorsements, an opportunity for an international commission piece, and has captured the attention of other professionals in the choral field both nationally and worldwide. (Day) was recently inducted into the International Symposium of Choral Directors and Choral Composers.”
The idea for a choral concert, Thompson said, arose in 1995 when a small group of adults who had sung with Stark as high school students asked him to direct a Mokena Park District musical performance as a “one-time choir thing.”
She said Stark agreed to direct the choir as long as enough people joined to create equal voice parts in the choir.
“Eighty people showed up, and that was the start of the chorale,” Thompson said.
Ken Reed, another original member and current board president of the nonprofit organization, said rehearsals in the chorale’s first year were every other week and there was one spring performance.
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“By the time we got to our second year, everybody was so enthusiastic that we pretty much went to an every-week format of rehearsal on Monday nights,” Reed said.
“It is work and it is a commitment but it’s one that many of us look forward to every week,” he said.
The chorale has held a second performance, in December, since 1996 and sometimes performs at community events at other times of the year.
The chorale is to perform “America in Song” at the New Lenox Commons on July 12, and for Frankfort’s “Concerts on the Green” series Sept. 13.
Thompson said the 20-year success of the chorale began with Starks’ reputation as a musical director and “a general thirst for some kind of an opportunity to sing.
“How amazing that it has continued and thrived over 20 years providing adults with a place to sing and share the joy of music with the community,” Thompson said.
Reed agreed, saying that he remembered that the group, including Stark, had “a feeling of euphoria” at the first rehearsal.
“There is something that musicians feel,” Reed said. “A wonderful feeling of harmony with everything.”
Reed said a newly established Patron Program allows people to assist the chorale with funding, which is needed to bring in professional singers and musicians who often perform with the chorale, and to provide annual scholarships for seniors at all four Lincoln-Way high schools who will pursue a degree in vocal music, or for general costs.
“We are there to serve the community and provide musical performances that are worthy of the great communities that we live in,” Reed said.
For Sunday’s event, tickets are $14 for adults and $12 for senior citizens and children. To buy tickets, call (815) 469-1010 or (708) 479-1863.
For information about the chorale, visit http://www.lwac.com.
Ginger Brashinger is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.