<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Choir director Andrew Hames conducts the community choir as they rehearse a song (KCAW/Cotter)</figcaption></figure>



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The majority of Sitka High School’s classrooms sit vacant on a tranquil Sunday afternoon, making the excited rumblings emanating from its music room all the more noticeable. Over 70 Sitkans are spread out across the room, helping themselves to cough drops on the piano and sorting through their sheet music ahead of the day’s rehearsal. The pattering rain outside is drowned out by their elaborate vocal warmups, from lip trills to enunciation drills, lead by choir director Andrew Hames.

Sitting amongst the participants is Elle Campbell. Growing up in Juneau, singing in choir was a huge part of her life. She even sang in the Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s choir in high school. While there had been community choirs in Sitka back in the 1970s and ’80s, there were none by the time Campbell moved to Sitka in 2018.

“Everybody’s so creative, and there’s so many amazing musicians, and everybody’s really community minded, so I was really surprised to find that there hadn’t been a community choir here in many years,” said Campbell.

To fill that gap, Campbell made it her mission to establish a community choir in Sitka. Shortly after she began working with Sitka Parks and Recreation, she says she “pestered” Hames to lead the choir while she handled all the logistics. As a born-and-bred Sitkan, Hames has regularly encountered various familiar faces. In the community choir’s first month, Hames has spotted everyone from his current and former high school students (including Campbell), family members, even a renowned doo-wop quartet who performed at his grandmother’s memorial service. 

“I’ve had these crazy, full circle moments just in rehearsal, and I just look around and I marvel at the faces and the voices that I’m hearing, and you have this moment where we’re all just making music together, and that’s the dream, that’s that’s the vision, and it’s just been so exciting to see it happen,” said Hames.

When the community choir was getting established, Campbell and Hames were hopeful that they would get 30 to 40 regular attendees. Since then, over 100 community members have attended the rehearsals, and many of them have become regulars. 

To Campbell, the overwhelming love Sitkans are showing the community choir has been deeply touching.

“It’s really emotional, and it’s really validating too, to be able to build a space that clearly people have wanted for a really long time,” said Campbell. “I’ve been in town talking about community choir for years, and when I finally kind of got this first rehearsal on the books, I had everybody and their mom coming out of the woodwork going, ‘Hey, when’s your first rehearsal?’ ‘Hey, when is this starting?’ So I knew it would be successful.”

Like Campbell, Leah Mason is a long-time vocalist and a big supporter of bringing a community choir to Sitka. Mason loves the endorphin rush that comes from being in a room where everyone is singing together.

“One of my favorite things is just singing the same note with a bunch of other people and not being able to differentiate between us just having the whole thing be a single sound,” said Mason. “And that, for me, is an amazing way to be in community.”

Campbell seconds how a community choir can meaningfully help foster relationships, particularly intergenerational ones.

“Last I checked it was the age split was 10 to 80 but it might even be bigger than that,” said Campbell. “I think that’s a really special part about living in Sitka and interacting with folks who have been here for 30 years, folks who have been here for 10 years, folks who have been here for six months… That’s really where real community building happens.”

While he recalls seeing choirs come together for Christmas performances, Hames cannot remember a time when there was a secular choir that would gather purely for the purpose of creating a space to regularly sing together. Amidst the fast pace of life in the 21st century, Hames believes community choir offers a unique opportunity for participants to slow down and be present with one another. 

“That’s the nature of our lives these days, is we’re all more connected than we’ve ever been, but we also sometimes feel more isolated than we’ve ever felt, looking at our phones or interacting through technology on computers,” said Hames. “This is truly face to face, voice to voice, listening to one another and just being in the moment and making that music together. And I hope that people are really feeling, maybe a sense of community that can that we continue to build in a really great place like Sitka.”

The community choir will continue to rehearse every Sunday until late November. Campbell and Hames are planning a joint concert with Sitka’s community orchestra in March. Beyond that, they hope to see the choir continue to grow, inviting Sitkans of all ages  to join their collective voice. 

Community choir meets every Sunday at Sitka High School. To register, check out Sitka Parks and Recreation’s website.