Renovo Area Community Choir Set to Bring Holiday Magic with Annual Christmas Concert
By Kevin Rauch
RENOVO – For over 30 years the Renovo Area Community Choir has helped to ring in the Christmas holiday season, and the group will do just that this Sunday when Director Patty Lacy accompanied by Brandon Kahley will lead the choir on “Bring in Christmas Day”.
In typical Renovo choir fashion the group will treat the audience through the gamut of holiday emotions as typically a festive, celebratory song will be followed by a memory invoking tune, as the crowd can be seen tapping their feet to one song only to be grabbing for a tissue while they sing the next song.
The Spring and Christmas Concerts have been a staple in the area since 1991. Jim Knauff and eventual Director Wayne Heck and Accompanist Gloria Edmonds formed in part to participate in Renovo 125th Anniversary celebration. Decades later and after hundreds of ever exchanging members, the choir sings on, always to the delight of their typically packed crowds.
After two years original Director Wayne Heck passed the torch to Patty Lacy, who has been a mainstay and guiding force ever since. The accompanist position has been changed several times through the decades as Edmonds, Nancy Moriarity, Tracey Ogden, Martina Rogers, Diane Welshans and current accompanist Brandon Kahley have all taken turns in that title.
A choir member once joked that they may not be much to listen to in the shower if they were to be heard individually in the shower, but collectively as part of the Renovo Community Choir they make magic and no truer description may have ever been said. The flair shines through every year as their Christmas concert in particular sets the holiday tone every late November/early December.
The choir has boasted as many as 49 members at a time through the years, while currently they have less than 30. Still, a great time is always found by those who take in the show.
“We’re down to the two concerts for sure each year, we’ve all gotten a bit older,” Lacy said of the group’s yearly itinerary. “We did take part in Flaming Foliage this year since we had played so many times in the past and this was their 75th anniversary”.
Through the years the choir has taken their show to various school functions such as the Veterans Program, visited the residents at the Bucktail Medical Center, the Masonic Lodge, the Civil War event in Mill Hall and has sung alongside both the Lycoming College and Lock Haven University choirs.
“We all enjoy it and we hope that the people that come and watch us do as well, many people are family and friends and it’s just fun for all of us” Lacy described.
Everyone is always welcomed to the free event, with this year’s Christmas Concert being held this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church.
If you’re looking to get into the holiday spirit, have some smiles and share laughs, all are always provided by the Renovo Area Community Choir and their infectious holiday cheer.
