Kendall Community Chorus revs up for a new year

Provided photos – The Kendall Community Chorus performs in many events around the holidays and then later in the spring and summer.

KENDALL – Mary Campbell wanted to give Kendall area residents a chance to sing together in 2008. She got word out about a community choir, but wasn’t sure how many would show up.

Fifty people joined and that number has been steady since then. The choir isn’t slowing down. The Kendall Community Chorus is starting a new season and singers are welcome for the Monday evening rehearsals from 7 to 9 p.m. or on Saturday mornings from 10 to noon. The group meets at the Kendall United Methodist Church. (It won’t be there this Monday because of Labor Day.)

“We have a good time,” said Campbell, a retired music teacher from Medina and Kendall. “There’s no pressure. It’s more for the social.”

The chorus will be preparing for its biggest concert of the year on Nov. 21 at the David J. Doyle Junior-Senior High School. The concert will feature Christmas music and Broadway tunes. In the past six years, proceeds from concerts have benefitted the Kendall Park Gazebo Fund, the Kendall food cupboard, the 2012 Kendall Bicentennial, and the Kendall Fire Department Ambulance Fund.

The chorus also sings at nursing homes and other community events. It leads off the Kendall Firemen’s Carnival Parade in July.

“We open up the parade with ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ and ‘God Bless America,'” Campbell said. “I don’t know anywhere else where that happens at a firemen’s parade.”

The chorus also performed a flash mob patriotic musical medley at the Brockport Wegmans store and at the Hilton Tops. They have sung at three Rochester Red Wings games.

The group draws singers from Kendall, Holley, Hamlin and Hilton. Campbell said more singers are welcome.

“Just show up and you can join,” she said.

She welcomed people to come to practice this Saturday to join the group or the Monday a week after Labor Day.