The Southern Lancaster County Community Choirs (SLCCC) are seeking singers of all talent levels and age groups as preparations get underway for a Christmas concert.

The SLCCC will hold a show Sunday, Dec. 7, at 3 p.m. in the Swift Middle School auditorium,,1866 Robert Fulton Highway, Quarryville. Ticket information will be announced closer to the day of the event.

For now, the group is focusing on recruitment, and everyone is invited to participate. "Most years we have auditions for the choir, and we allow people to try out and then secure a spot in the choir by their interest and their musical talent," SLCCC president Jozlyn Grodski said. "This year we are taking a little bit of a different approach in allowing anybody who has a passion for music to be a part of the community choir. We have two different levels of involvement where you can be a part of the crescendo choir, which is our adult choir, ninth grade through adult, or you can be a part of the community choir, which is open to anybody. We're also doing a children's choir, which is going to be fourth- through eighth-graders."

Go to http://www.slccchoirs.com for more information. "We have two different forms on there," said Grodski. "One is for the community choir, which includes not only the children's choir and the adult choir, but also an opportunity for instrumentalists in the area if they would like to be a part of the orchestra."

SLCCC director Becky Hess said, "Our core choir, Crescendo, has met yearly for 17 years now, and that is the audition group. They're sort of going to be the core part of this concert, but then we're going to have the community members that join us to make what we hope will be a mass choir of community members, as well as a children's choir and an orchestra. This will be a one-time performance."

The choirs will rehearse at Chestnut Level Presbyterian Church on Tuesday nights, with the concert and dress rehearsal at Swift. "We're trying to keep it manageable for folks," Hess said. "Everyone's lives are busy, and there's so many opportunities. They would be committing to essentially five rehearsals and a concert, and we're hoping that will allow more people to feel like they have the flexibility to participate."

The SLCCC is opening membership up to everyone as a way to keep things fresh. "Every year, you look for something new to do, to keep it interesting, because many of our choir members have been in the choir for year after year after year, which is a beautiful thing," said Hess. "But I want to keep it interesting for them. So that's one reason. The other reason is because I think ever since COVID and the world kind of shutting down, we all sort of value that experience of being with others more than maybe we used to, especially in this community. Our hope was to have another opportunity that first weekend in December - Christmas in Quarryville is on (Dec.) 6th - and I think that has been such a tremendous success. We do not, in any way, want to compete with that, but what we tried to do was pick the day after that, to sort of keep it all in one weekend, keep the community thinking about the holidays and the spirit of community here in Quarryville."

Grodski said SLCCC is an ideal opportunity to stay involved with music. "When you're in school, you have music at your fingertips, you have music class that you're a part of, you can be a part of band, you can be a part of orchestra, you can be a part of the choir in school," she said. "After you graduate, there's not as many opportunities for just a person who enjoys music to find those outlets. If you want to be a professional, Lancaster has great professional opportunities. I am a mom and I have a full-time job, but music is something that I love, and I want it a way to be able to keep that a part of my life while being able to do other parts of my life. And this community choir has allowed me to do both of those things."

Musicians are also welcome. "We just had a gentleman who dusted off his clarinet for the first time in a while and played with us this spring, and he was amazing," said Grodski. "You get to keep learning and keep growing. I love that music provides us that opportunity, that you're never done. There's always something that you can be trying or doing or improving on."

The SLCCC has members from across the county, including Willow Street, Oxford, Conestoga, and Washington Boro. "If they're willing to drive, come, we don't care where they're from," Hess said. "There is a huge homeschool base in this area, and I'm hoping we can connect with some of those children and families as well and say, 'Come and join us.' This isn't just a Solanco School District thing or an L-S thing. Anyone is welcome."

Hess stated, "The theme of this concert is joy. I hope that that's what this experience will bring for people who are participants. There is such joy in music and in singing and making music with others. And we live in a community that is very tight knit, and so it just seems like a natural collaboration between this community and music and bringing everyone together in the spirit of joy at the holiday season."