||| FROM LYNN BAKER for ORCAS CHORAL SOCIETY |||


Do you love to sing? Especially with other people? The Orcas Choral Society has a deal for you.

We’ve been singing together on Orcas for more than 40 years, with concerts in December and spring. Last year, with the pandemic, we sang via Zoom. Now, with the Delta variant, we’re not quite ready to gather 50-strong for indoor rehearsals, but we are ready to start rehearsing by remote learning. We’ll get sheet music in hand, rehearsal parts on computer, and start learning our parts this month. Call it Orcas Choral Karaoke.

Everyone who loves to sing and can carry a pitch and a part is welcome. If you’re not sure whether Choral Society is for you, this may be a good time to find out. Learning your part at home, no one but you will know if you hit a wrong note.

Of course, at least half the fun is singing together. We hope to begin regular rehearsals in mid-October for our Holiday Concert December 4-5 at the Orcas Center. If safety concerns preclude a full concert, we may yet be able to sing concert selections, perhaps all together, perhaps in small groups, in caroling engagements in December. Either way, we’ll be well prepared to perform.

Artistic Director Marianne Lewis has created a concert of lovely, beloved and familiar choral music, mostly arrangements of Christmas carols. Singers will pick up their music folders at the Orcas Island Public Library beginning September 14, and will receive the parts on computer by e-mail.

Registration forms for the 2021-22 Orcas Choral Society concert year are available now in the community drop at the Orcas library’s front desk. Annual dues are $65 for an individual, $120 for a couple. We do require all members who attend in-person rehearsals or performance to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

If you have questions, contact Lynn Baker, board president, at lynnwbakerorcas@gmail.com or vice-president Tom Baldwin at 360-376- 6815.

Come join the chorus!