BETHEL — Women ages 18 and older who are interested in learning to sing barbershop harmony are invited to join western Maine’s Mollyockett Chorus.
It is starting back up from a summer break and three summer shows, member Jolan Ippolito of Bethel said Thursday by email.
“We rehearse in Oxford and have about a 45-minute driving time swath of territory around it where our members live,” she said.
The chorus begins rehearsals for its 2014-15 performance season at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 315 Skeetfield Road in Oxford.
The group is preparing for its fall Sing Outs, which are performances of seasonal music at local nursing homes and other venues, member Nancy McNulty stated Thursday in a news release.
The Mollyockett Chorus began in Norway, with a core group of eight to 10 enthusiastic women, its website states.
The group’s name honors MollyOckett, a well-known Pequawket Indian who was born sometime between 1730 and 1740 and spent much of her life in the local area. She was a healer, an artisan, hunter, storyteller and friend of the settlers in the western Maine region.
The chorus got its charter in 1996 and became a chapter of Sweet Adelines International in Region No. 1.
Members of the chorus come from Bethel, Rumford, Waterford, Lovell, Norway, South Paris, Oxford, Hebron and Bridgton.
The chorus has been singing barbershop harmony since 1996. Barbershop is a musical style sung without accompaniment by bass, baritone, lead and tenor voices.
In January, the chorus will begin rehearsals for its annual road show, which is performed during July at several local concert venues that have included Sawyer Memorial in Greene, All Souls Chapel at Poland Spring, the Brick Church for the Performing Arts in Lovell and the Denmark Performing Arts Center, McNulty said.
The chorus rehearses in Oxford each Tuesday from early September to the end of July, taking the month of August off. New members are always welcome.
For more information about the chorus, call 207-345-3100 or visit the chorus website at www.mollyockettchorus.org.
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- The Mollyockett Chorus entertained audiences this summer with its production of “Big Hair,” a combination of barbershop music and vaudeville-style comedy written by chorus member Jan Ward and directed by Bonnie Fox. Members include Fox, seated in front; second row, from left, Andrea Bennett, Marylin Newell, Susan Leunig, Cheryl Barker, Valerie Sauer and Deborah Luxton. Back row, from left, are Nancy McNulty, Deb Andrews, Janet Coverdale, Deb Nichols, Joan Erler, Jolan Ippolito, Merry Childs and Jan Ward (show creator).
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