Community chorus sings in the holidays

Author: Joseph Bergan

The sun had long set last Sunday, Nov. 20, but the temperature grudgingly stayed warm around Mead Chapel, which at 7:30 was full with both students wandering in from Proctor Dining Hall and community members of all ages and varieties. All were gathered to usher in the holidays with Jeff Rehbach and Middlebury's College-Community Chorus, an eclectic group of members ranging greatly in age and geography - from grandmothers from Weybridge to college students from southern California.

The chorus, which performed works from composers such as Felix Mendelssohn, Stephen Paulus, Timothy Billings and René Clausen, sang with a semester's worth of confidence to a comfortably-seated audience in Mead Chapel.

Jeff Rehbach, director of choral music and Library Information Services facilities manager and policy adviser, conducts the choir. His profound enthusiasm for classical music is an inspiration for the group and all those involved.

Ross Commons Dean Janine Clookey, a soprano, said, "Jeff is an amazing human being." Others reflect Clookey's view. "I don't know who else can take a rag-tag group of people and make them sing like that," said Terry Jenny, a tenor.

One of the most striking aspects of the group is its wide variety of participants. People from all areas of the community step onto the stage and put aside whatever differences they may have to sing, and their reasons for singing are as wide-ranging as their backgrounds.

Members sing twice a week on Tuesday and Sunday nights for rehearsals. They gather for intellectual, therapeutic and recreational reasons.

Kirk Sabouran has been singing since 1976, when he graduated from Middlebury Union High School. He now also sings in the St. Mary's Catholic Church choir where he is a bass. Monica Clark, a soprano, is an Americorps representative who works with Vermont Campus Compact, a non-profit organization on campus.

Bette Moffett, a soprano in the group, has been singing in the group since its inception under Emory Fanning, the previous conductor. "This has been a continuing operation for the community and the College for some time in gathering people," she said.

Even though the show mostly involved Christian-themed music, the performance was based on broader feelings of acceptance and inclusion - different prayers and Thanksgiving blessings read by members of the College and the community from all faiths punctuated each piece.

The group prides itself on its relaxed atmosphere and is always looking for new members. "The joy of singing is an experience many people should have in their lives," Moffett explained over juice and cookies at the reception following Sunday night's show.

Rehbach, the widely-acclaimed conductor, has been singing for most of his life. The violin and viola dominated his early years, and the "conducting bug" took hold of him during his graduate years at Cornell University, where he became the assistant conductor of their Chapel Choir and Women's Chorus.

Rehbach began his career at Middlebury in 1981. Since then, he has been involved in the music library and technology services and support, and is currently a liaison in charge of policy and copyright issues on campus. He also orchestrated the move from Starr Library to the New Library.

"I like working with a group of people with different experiences and melding that sound together," Rehbach explained while sitting in his office, the walls of which are adorned with posters from past Middlebury College Chamber Singers concerts, another group he conducts. Coming up to 25 years of service to the College, Rehbach always looks forward to promoting choral singing on campus. "This spring we look forward to working with the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra, a group of local professional musicians," he said.

Rehbach believes that classical music is definitely on the road to a comeback. "There is a whole new revival of classical music - there has been a flowering of acapella choral music, and composers like René Clausen have composed in a contemporary style, writing both sacred and secular works."

One of the final pieces of Sunday's show was a group effort, as the audience joined along in the Mendelssohn piece. "I enjoy sharing music with the audience," said Rehbach. As the audience shuffled out of Mead Chapel, it was clear the pleasure was mutual.