The Cookie Choir – building a new era of singing at St John’s
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The newly formed Cookie Choir has been launched and is already rehearsing for a Christmas performance.
The idea of starting a junior branch of the choir came from St John’s Organist and Choir Director Kathy Cooper and is part of a wider attempt to develop singing at church.
The first session – fuelled by cookies – was well attended, and the participants enthusiastic.
Kathy Cooper conducts the Cookie Choir at their first practice.
The first goal is a performance of “O Come Little Children” at the Christmas Pageant in December with a piano accompaniment. Later, treble voices might sing with adult sopranos – anthems or simply songs – possibly during the offertory.
Kathy says her aim is to rebuild the choir from the ground up, to create a new junior choir community and instill a love of singing before children become too busy with competing activities.
“Children’s choirs were decimated by Covid,” she says, “and smaller parishes suffered most of all.
“Our New London County branch of the American Guild of Organists used to sponsor an annual children’s choir festival, and St John’s was always a participant, but I think the last one was in 2020.
“The Guild did some work to try to revive the event a couple of years ago, but reports were that many churches no longer had any children’s choir at all. Even adult choirs lost many singers who did not return.”
Percussion and tympany tune up at the Cookie Choir – the plan is for singers to accompany themselves on percussion at their first performance.
Kathy paid tribute to St John’s former choir director, Susan Worgul, for her work as Children’s Choir Director for many years, and for the extensive library of music for trebles that she accumulated.
Now the plan is for weekly choir practice on Sunday mornings, to avoid having to compete with families’ midweek commitments. Kathy says that with such short rehearsals, she will be patient and not over ambitious.
“We’ll start with a fun warm-up, work on a song, and present a new idea such as a rhythm or a musical concept - dynamics, for instance,” she says. “I’ll mix in some basic interval singing lessons. Percussion instruments are just plain fun!
“Parents at St John’s seem very excited about this project, and I think all the kids are very comfortable and happy to be with each other.
“They were actually remarkably in tune!”
