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Putnam County Festival Choir returns, rehearsals begin today
DePauw University shared the good news last week that with Covid-19 levels continuing to drop, the university’s Covid status had been lowered to yellow. Soon after, DePauw School of Music followed with an eagerly awaited invitation to the Putnam County Festival Choir to resume rehearsal on campus.
The communitywide collaboration, which aims to bringing together students and residents throughout the county through singing beautiful music, had been suspended in March 2020, when the university had to close its doors to the public due to the pandemic.
Almost two years — to the day — later, a green light was given to PCFC to resume weekly rehearsals, which will be held on Tuesdays from 7–9 p.m., beginning March 8 and continuing through the remainder of the semester. To ensure safe distancing, the choir will meet on the stage of Kresge Auditorium in the Green Center for the Performing Arts, located at 600 S. Locust St. on the DePauw campus.
As a sponsored project of the Greencastle Arts Council, membership is open to people of all ages — and from all corners of Putnam County — who like to sing. It is not necessary to have been a prior member of PCFC to participate in the newly reformed choir.
“All are welcome to join. No audition or special permission is required. If you’re interested, just come to a rehearsal,” said Suzanne Hassler, a GAC board member who also serves as the ensemble’s artistic administrator.
“The Arts Council cannot express enthusiastically enough how pleased we also are to announce that Dr. Eric Schmidt, director of choirs at DePauw, will continue to lead the PCFC this spring as its artistic director and conductor,” Hassler said.
Schmidt will prepare the reunited ensemble for two performances this semester—the first tentatively scheduled for Thursday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m., with the DePauw University Orchestra, and the second on Sunday, May 8 at 3 p.m., with the DePauw University Bands. (The date of the first concert will be announced following confirmation of the university’s Ubben Lecture.)
“We currently have around 50 student singers in the group, so the new community members will be joining a vibrant choir,” Schmidt said. “We will not be restarting from scratch.”
The director also assures prospective members that the student choirs have been rehearsing with masks as part of the university’s policies and will continue to follow the recommendations of the DePauw Covid-19 Mitigation Team.
“We have not seen any spread of Covid in the choirs during either the delta and omicron wave, so we believe it is a safe way to make music. Kresge is a large venue that allows for safe spacing and ventilation even with a large group. The overwhelming majority of our students (97 percent) and faculty/staff (91 percent) also are vaccinated.”
“From the beginning of my appointment at DePauw,” the conductor continued, “it has been my desire to offer a platform on which residents from Putnam County and beyond can make music with DePauw students on a regular basis. I profoundly believe that music has the power to bring us together as a community despite any differences. When we unite our voices in song it becomes more than the sum of the parts.”
Originally founded in 1971, by former DePauw director of choirs Graeme Cowen, the Putnam County Festival Choir regularly joined the student choirs for significant performances such as the annual choir-orchestra concert at the end of each spring semester.
“After two very difficult years for choral singing, I can’t wait to revive the tradition of the Festival Choir that previously was such a vibrant part of the community,” Schmidt said.