‘It enables people to go forward:’ Colchester Community Chorus director Carol Reichard on her love of music and hitting the stage tomorrow evening after a long pandemic hiatus

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, the Colchester Community Chorus was working on a special concert: their 35th anniversary.

But when the pandemic sent everyone indoors for months, the plans were put on pause, said the chorus’s director and founder Carol Reichard.

Tomorrow evening however, the chorus will be hitting the stage for the first time in two years, marking the end of a long dry spell for the group, which for the past 37 years has brought together generations of singers around the love of music.

“Music is my love, people are my love," Reichard said.

Reichard started the chorus when she would accompany the Colchester High School choruses on piano. She said she would hear parents reminiscing as they left about the songs they used to sing when they were younger and thought that singing shouldn't be something they “used to do.” They should still be singing.

For Reichard, music is a lifelong passion. Growing up in a musical family in Pennsylvania, her uncles sitting as first chairs in the Allentown Symphony, Reichard said she sang and played music in her church when she was very young.

Later, she went to school to study music and after graduating became an educator of music at colleges and elementary schools.

Since the chorus’ first concert in 1985 with just 25 members, the group has grown and traveled the world and the country, Reichard said.

An aspect of the chorus that makes it worthwhile for Reichard is how intergenerational it is. The oldest members are in their high 80s and low 90s and their youngest members are in their 20s.

Reichard said the act of making music every Wednesday night, filling the empty halls of the Malletts Bay School with song, is cathartic.

“At the end of the day, it's an energizing thing,” she said. “People are tired out but even though they're tired out, they come in, they sing and they feel so much better for it after.”

The pandemic has put a slight strain on the chorus’s numbers, bringing membership down to one of its lowest periods at around 45 members. At times, the chorus has had as many as 60 people singing in it.

Reichard said that although the pandemic very much impacted the chorus’ membership, many members have also encountered sickness besides COVID-19. But through it all, Reichard said the joy of music brings people back.

“It enables people to go forward,” she said. “Even though they're maybe struggling.”

Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the Colchester High School, the chorus will be singing a variety of pieces from classical to contemporary holiday tunes. The chorus will be accompanied by Frank Whitcomb who has been playing piano with the chorus for over two-decades.

The concert will also feature a performance from the CHS Chamber Singers.