Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Lower Alabama Community Choir welcomes the community for a free spring concert at the LBW Martha and Solon Dixon Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m.

Now in its second year and sponsored by the Lower Alabama Arts Coalition, the concert will be the group’s second of the 2024-2025 season following a holiday concert held last December. John McAnulty, who has sung with the group since its beginning, serves on the marketing committee.

“Our spring concert this year will feature quite an eclectic repertoire. We will have everything from music by composer John Rutter to gospel to Broadway show tunes to favorite ballads. It will be a great concert with about 35 singers on the risers,” McAnulty said.

The choir is directed by St. Mary’s Episcopal Church Rector Eric Mancil and accompanied by Dr. Steve Hubbard. The choir was successful in adding new members for 2025 following its holiday concert last December.

“We are so excited to present our second annual spring concert to the community. The choir has been working hard over the past several months to prepare the music we will perform. There will be something for everyone,” Mancil said.

This year’s theme is “Songs of Spring.” The choir will begin in the auditorium surrounding the audience to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and then proceed to the stage for the main program.

The first half of the concert is comprised of more patriotic and religious selections such as “America The Beautiful” and “Abide with Me.” There will also be a swinging gospel version of “Witness” sung. After a brief intermission, the second half will include secular songs ranging from Broadway show tunes like “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from “The Lion King” to great arrangements of favorites including “Singin’ In The Rain” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

Other songs included in the program are ‘I Sing Because I’m Happy,’ ‘For The Beauty Of The Earth,’ ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ ‘Everybody Rejoice,’ ‘Why We Sing,’ and ‘Shenandoah’”, McAnulty added.

After a brief winter break, the choir met for rehearsals each week on Monday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. at LBW to prepare for this concert. After the spring concert, the choir will be off for the summer before returning in September to begin rehearsals for its Christmas Concert.

“We actively seek new members and all are welcome. With our choir, the level of singing experience varies a lot. You don’t have to have any formal training or be able to read music,” McAnulty said.

“We have people who are trained music professionals, those who rehearse solely by listening to the music, and every experience level in between. We have people of all ages from 20 to 80. We all come from different walks of life and different faith traditions. We have members from 12 different area churches and many who have no church affiliation. I’d note that if we had just one singer from every church choir in the area, we would be singing with well over 100 people.

Details on how to sign up will be available at the merchandise table during the concert. New members may also enroll by scanning a QR code at the event or by speaking with a member.

“We would love to be able to live stream the event, but music copyright laws prevent us from doing so. After our last concert, I discovered there were a number of folks who would love to come to our concerts but aren’t able to drive at night. If you have a loved one in that situation, what better gift than to bring them to the concert? Y’all come and bring a friend under each arm,” McAnulty added.

The Lower Alabama Community Choir would like to thank the Lower Alabama Arts Council, as well as all patrons of the choir, for their generous support. The choir would also like to show appreciation to LBW for the recent wonderful upgrades to the choir’s rehearsal space there.