High Desert Chorale swings into spring

If you enjoy the sounds of the Sisters High Desert Chorale, you may want to mark April 29 and May 1 on your calendar. Those are the dates of the first 2016 performance of the chorale at Sisters Community Church.

Rehearsals for the chorale are held each Monday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, 386 N. Fir St., and if you enjoy singing and want to give yourself and the chorale a boost, come on down. There are singers who have missed a couple of years, but have just returned, and most of them feel it as like it as just yesterday they were singing with their old friends.

Take Leslie the Prodigal Soprano.

"There I was," she said the other night, "walking in the obscured light of my twilight town, through the doors of a familiar destination. I was returning to the weekly rehearsals for Sisters Chorale after a hiatus of four years.

"Much has changed for me since the last note I sang with these enthusiastic beings, but there has always been a smile in my heart when I thought of all of you. I even watched the videos of the last time I was able to participate in the glory of expressing myself through lyrical voice alongside you.

"As I arrived, which happened to be 31 minutes late (last time that will happen), a pool of smiling faces looked up and acknowledged my tardy return. I was promptly welcomed and given sheet music and a chair near the other sopranos.

"As our fearless leader directed on, I picked up the right piece of music, a miracle in itself, I began to sing the first note of a Broadway tune, and the time melted away and the joy, no, the elation of being in a room of beings who create a beautiful thing in the air around them and practice it in order that they may share it with the world is a remarkable experience. I am blessed with such people around me, and I am lifted up on the notes that pour from their hearts to give all of us the gift of song."

In addition to the chorale (if all goes planned) the children's choir will again join in, and if the director of that choir, Lola Knox, can gather up her bell choir, they'll be there to perform as well.

Come and join, any of you who love to sing - whether young or old, bass, tenor, alto, mezzo soprano, or whatever - and want to join in with others of the Sisters community who love to sing.

For more information visit www.sistershighdesertchorale.com.