Have you heard? There's a chorus that's a voice for the community

By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
The Youngstown Symphony Chorus wants to make its voices heard in the community.
"It's so amazing after 50 years how many people in this area never heard of the Symphony Chorus, because they don't go to the symphony. So it's great to bring the music out to them so they can learn about us," said Sandra Marshall, chorus president.
A year ago, the chorus had to assume responsibility for all of its finances and programming because of budget cuts by the Youngstown Symphony Society. But it is still an affiliate of the society, and that helps.
"It has a lot of benefits," Marshall said. "No. 1 is, we're still the Youngstown Symphony Chorus, which opens a lot of doors."
And opening doors has been an important part of the chorus' year, as it attempts to raise money and gain recognition in the community.
Event performances
The chorus performed at several community events over the past year, including the Austintown Christmas tree lighting, the Williamsburg Christmas craft show at Stambaugh Auditorium, First Night Youngstown, YSU's Summer Festival of the Arts and the Canfield Fair.
The chorus, which was started in 1952, used to perform with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, but had to stop for financial reasons. Marshall said one of the chorus' goals is to eventually perform with the orchestra again, at least once a year.
To make this goal a reality, the chorus not only needs to raise money to fund the performance, but also needs to build up its bass and tenor section.
"What we have is excellent, but it's not enough to carry over an orchestra," Marshall said.
Membership increase
She said exposure at community events has helped in building membership, which is up 50 percent from last year.
This year, the chorus will perform at Austintown Middle School Craft Show on Nov. 8 and the Williamsburg Christmas Craft Show Nov. 21 through 23, where they will also sell raffle tickets.
The chorus also performs two major concerts per year, one during the holidays and one in the spring. There will be two performances of the holiday concert this year, one at Canfield Presbyterian Church on Dec. 9 and one at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Dec. 16. The spring performance has not been scheduled yet.
The chorus, under the direction of Don Megahan, will perform Pinkham's "Christmas Cantata" and John Rutter's "Christmas Pipe Carol" along with several lighter, more contemporary pieces for the holiday concert.
Although the chorus does not charge for its performances, it does accept donations and holds raffles to raise money.
"We don't want anyone to stay away just because they don't have the money. And people are very generous, so that's a big source of our income," said Marshall.
In order to cut costs the chorus no longer uses a rehearsal accompanist and it practices at Fitch High School for a nominal fee.