The performance of choral music has a long history in Penn Yan. Up to the mid 1970s the choirs of Penn Yan area churches would on occasion join together to present a concert of sacred choral music. One such effort was on April 7, 1974 when the combined choirs were joined by Penn Yan Academy Chorus members to perform "The Seven Last Words of Christ" by Theodore Dubois. The Director was Dr. David M. Kellermeyer, Director of The Penn Yan Academy Chorus. There were 54 Chorus personnel, plus the Director and Organist.
The next year, Dr. Kellermeyer approached the Penn Yan Council of Churches expressing his desire for a much more ambitious effort - a performance of Handel's Messiah for the upcoming Christmas season. There followed much effort to secure Orchestra personnel, and to contact area churches and schools for singers. The grand result was a standing room only performance in Norton Chapel at Keuka College on December 7th, 1975. Messiah was performed by a 151 voice chorus, accompanied by a 25 piece orchestra. Represented in the performance personnel were 16 churches, along with students and faculty of Penn Yan, Dundee, and Hammondsport schools, as well as Keuka College. The enthusiasm generated by this event is considered to be the genesis of the Penn Yan Community Chorus which has held concerts every year since.
Dr. Kellermeyer conducted the Chorus until the early 1990's when he and his wife Marian moved to their retirement home in Arizona. Steve Uhl, also a Penn Yan music teacher, directed the chorus through the mid 1990s. After that, Ketrina Schedlin directed for a period of a couple of years. The present Director, Peg Patterson assumed the duties in the late 1990s.
Concerts by the Chorus have been held at the Norton Chapel at Keuka College, the Penn Yan Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, and First Baptist Churches, and several outdoor sites including the Court House Square and the Yates County Fairgrounds. A recent concert was held in the middle of East Elm Street at the TrolleyTown Festival.
The Chorus currently holds a Spring Concert and a Christmas Concert each year, as well as a performance for the "Concerts on the Court House Lawn" series each summer. Rehearsals are Mondays at 7:00 PM at the Penn Yan First Baptist church, starting around the first of October for the Christmas Concert, and the first of April for the Spring Concert. All singers are welcome.
Recent concerts:
