Local church choir to perform on trip to Italy
STATE COLLEGE — A free benefit concert to raise food and funds for Grace Lutheran Church’s food distribution outreach will serve another purpose — the performance will prelude the choir’s trip to sing in Italy.
The public is invited to the event scheduled Saturday, June 27 at 4 p.m. at the church located at 205 South Garner St. Celestial Sounds, formed from the Lenten Ecumenical Choir, will present the program.
Laurel Sanders, director for Celestial Sounds and the Lenten Ecumenical Choir, said this trip has been in the planning stages for a year. Sanders said the Lenten Ecumenical Choir was invited by internationally known composer and conductor Dr. Michael John Trotta.
“In 2025, (Trotta) called me to invite our Lenten Ecumenical Choir to sing the Carnegie Hall premiere of his Requiem,” Sanders said. There were 25 singers who participated — about two-thirds of the same people who are going to Italy. “We were one of four choirs Dr. Trotta invited to sing and after the incredible 4-day experience of rehearsing and performing under his baton, multiple singers said they would love to do something like this again if the opportunity ever presented itself.
“Ironically, a choir member discovered Dr. Trotta had a call out for singers for a one-week trip to perform sacred choral music in Italy, but the deadline to register was only five weeks away,” Sanders added. “I knew it would be an ambitious program of music to learn, but I shared the information and a solid group signed up and committed within the five weeks.”
Since the Italy trip was not a ministry of Grace Lutheran Church, but they allowed the sub-group from the Lenten Ecumenical Choir to prepare our music there, Sanders said she felt it was very important to have the Italy choir give back to the church and our community with the music they were learning.
Therefore, the idea was born to hold two concerts in State College — one in the fall of 2025 and the second on June 27 — to raise food and funds for community food distribution that takes place in the parking lot of Grace Lutheran Church twice per month. Approximately 140 to 160 family units are served at each distribution, Sanders said.
The concert is free, but attendees are encouraged to provide food and/or cash donations for the food donation cause.
“We sang some of the music at our November concert and raised more than $3,100, plus 800 pounds of food,” Sanders said. “The June concert will showcase all of the music we will sing in Italy and it is a kind of “send-off” since we leave for Italy on June 29.”
The group will also sing at the Huntingdon Arts Council’s “Arts Day” on Saturday, June 13 at 2:30 p.m. That concert will be shared with the Centre Bassoon Consort.
Singing in Italy
Choir members, who range in age from 20 to 80, represent churches from numerous faiths, including Methodist, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, non-denominational, and some representation from people who do not go to church.
The experience of the singers is wide-ranging. Some sing in the State College Choral Society, Essence of Joy II, and church choirs; some were in honors choirs when they were in school; a few studied music in college; others are instrumentalists who want to expand their musical experience by singing; some love music but have never sung in a choir.
Sanders will conduct six songs in Pisa, Italy: I Choose Love (Mark A. Miller); Crucifixus from Credo RV 591 (Antonio Vivaldi); Behold, How Good (Michael John Trotta); Yours Are the Hands (Mark Burrows); Sanctus from A Little Jazz Mass (Bob Chilcott); Credo from Afro–Caribbean Mass (Fred Onovwersuoke).
Trotta will conduct an additional nine songs in Rome at a festival concert and for worship at the Pantheon. Songs for the festival concert include Caritas Abundat (Hildegard von Bingen); Jubilate Deo, Dies Irae and Ubi Caritas (Michael John Trotta); Exsultate Justi (Ludovico Viadana); We Are the Music Makers (Reginal Wright); True Light (Keith Hampton); Gloria In Excelsis from “Gloria” (Antonio Vivaldi); and The Last Words of David (Randall Thompson).
“We will perform all of these songs on June 27 at Grace Lutheran Church at 4 p.m. for our concert,” Sanders said.
In addition to singing, the choir’s Italy tour will include stops in Montecatini, Pisa, Lucca, Florence, and Rome.
Choir history
The first year of the choir was in 2012 when Sanders invited the choir of St. Luke in Centre Hall to collaborate with the group. Afterward, she began reaching out to churches across Centre County with different worship traditions.
Sanders said in a typical year, the choir rehearses on seven Sundays in the winter with a couple of make-up rehearsals offered before the annual Lenten Musical Meditation.
“This year, since 25 of the 57 singers who sang during Lent are traveling onward to sing in Italy, we will have had eight or nine additional rehearsals,” Sanders explained.
Sanders said all singers are welcome to join the choir, and she does not audition anyone.
“When new people ask about singing, I ask them to tell me whether they can read music or pluck out their part at a piano, or whether they learn exclusively by ear. Then I work out a seating chart, alternating aural and visual (or mixed) learners, which accelerates the learning curve for those who learn by hearing the music,” Sanders continued.
“The most beautiful part of this choir besides the music making is the friendships that have emerged. Each week we provide homemade goodies and encourage the singers to get to know people from the other churches…and they can’t wait to reconnect the next year!
