Messiah Chancel Choir

The Messiah Chancel Choir is a community of singers committed to musical excellence and missional impact.

We extend a broad welcome to singers of varying age, experience, and training, with an emphasis on bringing our best as individuals–from those new to choral singing to singers with years of training and experience. We weave this all together in a beautiful and diverse expression of community. This is the power of a choral ensemble!

Our singers range in age from high school to 80+ and everything in between. We are truly a multi-generational team, and we all learn from each other.

As we prepare music for Sundays at Messiah Church, supporting worship with liturgical leadership and beautiful choral expression, we are also shaping who we are as a choral community with a seasonal repertoire based approach.* Our repertoire ranges from established, historical classics to music from a broad spectrum of living composers, including new works being written at Messiah Church!

From pieces by historical giants like Handel, Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi, Modern compositions from composers like Copeland, Barber, and Britten, to the more contemporary works of more recent and/or living composers like Eric William Barnum, Alexander L’Estrange, Morten Lauridsen, Rosephanye Powell, Caroline Shaw, and Karl Jenkins, we find deep value in expressing the creative variety that is reflective of a timeless and still speaking God.

If all of this seems a little intimidating, don’t worry! We are passionate about bringing singers together of all levels to work hard, grow together, find meaning, and have fun!

You can learn more about our over-all approach to Sunday worship here.

The Messiah Chancel Choir is directed by Russ Ware. If you have questions about choir, or music in general at Messiah Church, he’d love to hear from you!

Russ Ware: russ@messiahchurchlbk.org

Weekly Rehearsals

Regular rehearsals are Wednesdays at 6pm starting on Wednesday, August 27.

Sundays

This season, the Messiah Choir is participating in most Sunday services from Sunday, Sept. 7 through the time of Advent leading up to Christmas.

Special Projects for This Season

*A Repertoire Based Approach

As a church choir, it’s easy to get caught in the tyranny of weekly preparation, scrambling to get something ready in time for the upcoming weekend. We learn something new, perform that piece, and then hand in our music at the next rehearsal, turning to the next few pieces that are coming up. It’s the choral version of wash, rinse, repeat… only with us it’s rehearse, perform, repeat… over and over.

But there is another way!

Our repertoire model accomplishes the same goals and more by taking a more strategic and wholistic approach.

We are interested in goals that move beyond, “What are we going to sing this Sunday?” to, “Where are we going musically this season?” or, “Who are we going to be as a choral community three months from now?”

Practically speaking, we aren’t just lining up songs to fill Sundays. Rather we are building a repertoire of music through the season that represents our collective voice as a community ensemble. Very few pieces will be just “one and done.” We aren’t just checking off Sundays, we’re building our voice!

Every singer who joins the chorus, and every piece we learn, becomes a part of our collective voice. In this model we are always learning and growing. We are ever in motion, always heading somewhere beyond the upcoming Sunday. We’d love to have you with us. Come and give it a try!

Interested in choir at Messiah?

If you’re interested in choir, or have any questions, please let us know!