THE beautiful sound of blended voices will fill St Andrew's Chapel on December 6 when past and present members of Harmony Singers gather for a reunion concert.
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The highly-acclaimed choir has done much to improve the cultural life of Dubbo and western NSW by presenting an extensive repertoire of classical, folk, jazz, modern, religious and theatrical works.
Formed by voice teacher Brenda Lesueur in 2000, the group initially met to sight-read songs.
Membership grew to more than 40, ranging in age from 18 to "well over 70".
Foundation member Lindy Blekemore took over as conductor 10 years ago. Lindy works in partnership with accompanist Diane Pascoe.
The good friends are very much a team, according to Diane who this week received the Dubbo Day Tony McGrane public service award recognising her commitment to numerous groups as a pianist and musical director.
"We don't have official titles and work together to choose the repertoire," Diane said.
"Rehearsals are held once a week and members enjoy coming together to do something they really enjoy.
"Performances range from eisteddfods and concerts to Carols by Candlelight and other special events.
"Earlier this year our special Anzac concert was very well received. Last month we did a three-way performance in St Andrew's Chapel with the Leichhardt Expresso Chorus and The Song Company. The chapel is a perfect venue because it acoustically magnificent.
"Performances range from jazz, blues and musical theatre to the beautiful emotive "warm and fuzzy" songs that give people goosebumps.
"We like to mix things up so there is something for everyone at each concert."
Diane said the SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) choir generally works with four-part harmony material.
It also performs with soprano, alto and bass as well as two-part women's arrangements
"When we have a good membership of men we are also able to do tenor and bass arrangements," Diane said.
"The evolution of the choir has been very exciting and skills are constantly being improved as we move onwards and upwards.
"Singing is such a personal thing and something quite different to learning how to play an instrument.
"The voice is very unique to the individual and it takes courage to step forward to sing in front of others.
"It can be a challenge to master harmony, instead of just singing melody all the time. Singing against another part is a skill and we do a lot of learning by ear while working at a pretty fast pace.
"Choir members work hard and do well to keep up and learn the material. We have pushed ourselves over the years to perform more difficult and challenging things.
"We have done some really lovely work that we are really proud of."
The Sunday afternoon reunion concert will start at 12 noon and conclude with afternoon tea.
Tickets ($15 adults, $12 concession and $35 family of four) will be available at the door.