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CHRISTMAS
2007
marks 38 years that the Ferndale Community Choir has been part of the
artistic "Victorian Village" of Ferndale.
Under the direction of Betty Diehl, the 50 to 70 voice choir presents
sacred music in a “Celebration of Song” during the Christmas season and
in the Spring. The
choir began when a group of singers from Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and
Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church got together to sing for a combined concert. They had so much fun singing together at Christmas, that they
got together again to sing for Easter, and the tradition began. While
there are only a few members of the original group who still sing today, over
the years more than 400 people, who now live all over the world, have enjoyed
singing with friends in the Ferndale Community Choir.
People from diverse backgrounds and ways of life, from ages 16 to 83 sing
with experienced musicians and novices, educators and artists, bankers and
bakers. From pastors to
photographers, dairymen (and women) to dieticians, medical workers to
undertakers, and retired people to students, the joy of making beautiful music
together has kept the Ferndale Community Choir together and flourishing. The
choir sings an eclectic selection of sacred music, from choral classics to
contemporary compositions and spirituals. Three
concerts are offered during the Christmas season and three more in
the spring, beginning on Easter Day in the evening.
Quite often concertgoers are from out of town: in fact, there are those
who plan their annual vacations to Ferndale from Nebraska, Southern California
and the Bay Area specifically to coincide with concert dates. Betty
Diehl, director of the Ferndale Community Choir, is known in the
community her own right as a singer . . . everything from solos from Handel’s
“Messiah” to “Flamin’ Agnes.” In
the early years of the choir, her mentor was Bill Crane, a long-time music
teacher in Ferndale. She also
directs the Chameleon Singers, and sings with West Broadway Co. Local
musicians join with the choir for rehearsals and performances, often singing as
well as playing anything from piano and organ to the bells, euphonium, bongo
drums, trumpets, guitar, flute, and violin. To CELEBRATE its 30th anniversary in 1999, the choir assembled a CD of “the best" of the Ferndale Community Choir's Christmas music, and Christmas cards showing the choir in the beautiful setting of the Assumption Church. Both are available for donation at various locations in downtown Ferndale, and by contacting Betty Diehl at her e-mail address b.diehl@suddenlink.net. Rehearsals are held during season every Thursday evening from 7:15 to 9:00 PM at the Ferndale Community Church on Main Street.
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