Imagine arriving at your first choir rehearsal after summer to discover a room full of enthusiastic singers who can hardly wait for the new challenges that await them. You think I’m dreaming? Hardly! All it takes is one energetic, well prepared choir director. Considering the following characteristics held in common by most church choirs will help you in your planning:

• lThey are often made up of some of the most committed people in the church.
• lThey are a community within the larger community and in most cases honestly DO look forward to being together or back together, especially if they have had a summer break.
• lChoir members love to sing. They look forward to being more active in Sunday worship, rather than sitting in the congregation.
• lMost choir members are committed to using their musical gifts for the benefit of the larger community.
• lMost choir members have experienced being “lost in wonder, love, and praise,” as depicted in one of Wesley’s hymns.

Surely some of those points are powerful motivators that if taken seriously should stimulate a choir director into using as much energy and skill as possible to be prepared for that first rehearsal. I have always been fortunate to be a music director in churches where the choirs sang all summer, albeit with fewer rehearsals. But we all need a time of refreshment, and summer provides many opportunities to renew our spirits and hone our skills.

Here are a few suggestions for the summer months:

• lInvite your choir or choirs to continue their leadership during the summer months. Consider forming a summer hymn choir whose chief responsibility is to lead congregational singing. Invite non-choir members and entire families to participate. Practice for one half-hour before church. Positive benefits from this are several: 1) It may provide new choristers. 2) It can mean that you keep learning and using new hymns in worship during the summer. 3) It will keep the choir’s musicianship skills finely tuned.
• lEncourage as many singers as possible to go with you to a summer music and worship conference. There are dozens of these each summer; the Presbyterian Association of Musicians (PAM) sponsors or is affiliated with seven. (See Summer Conferences at www.pam.pcusa.org.)
• lVisit other churches on your vacation and encourage your choir members to do so.

As you look to the fall…

• Plan a choir “rehearsal” retreat early in September. This is a good opportunity to mix worship, vocal technique, sight-reading, and repertoire preparation. Invite another choir director to work with you on this. It stretches your choir’s ability when exposed to another’s conducting style, and it will allow you to break some of the rehearsal time into sectionals.
• Enthusiastically announce your plans for the season in a letter to your choirs, reminding them of the start-up date and providing them with a rehearsal/service schedule for the fall.
• Have an end-of-summer picnic for choristers where you announce your plans for the coming months.
  
• End each evening rehearsal by singing a selection from the Prayer at the Close of Day in the Book of Common Worship.
  
• Plan a weekly music skills class and invite any or
  all from the choirs and the congregation to attend. People who feel confident about their abilities are more likely to volunteer.
  
• Plan an evensong service or hymn festival that recognizes the ministry of music.

Finally, in all of your endeavors, instill in your choirs an appreciation of the high calling to which they have committed themselves.

For more information, contact the author, Alan Barthel, Presbyterian Association of Musicians, at
(888) 728-7228, ext. 5759.