A new season is beginning for the three youth choirs at Grace United Church: Small Voices Of Grace, The Spirit of Grace, and The Spirit Singers.
Children and Youth Music Director Kendra Gonczy said they are always accepting of new members.
"All are welcome. It is a free program. We are based at Grace United Church, so we do base around the faith and our beliefs, but everyone is welcome to give it a try if they would like."
She said each of the choirs sings during a monthly church service.
"They take turns being music leaders for the service or just being part of the service, and that is a pretty big part of our group," Gonczy noted, adding Grace United is "extremely welcoming of all new members."
The choirs begin at age three, with the Small Voices of Grace, which had about 30 singers last year; Spirit of Grace about 24; and Spirit Singers, being the oldest group, has seen some members move on to university.
"A lot of our teens and Spirit Singers started in Small Voices and moved their way up, so there's definitely a connection there, and that's kind of a neat thing that we do offer is being able to move up and just that connection they all get together."
While membership is free, they do ask for a commitment.
"It is a year-long program, every single one, and of course, I understand that people are busy and lives are busy of course," she explained. "It's a wonderful group to be a part of if you love to sing and you've ever wanted just a little bit more than our wonderful schools in town can offer. It's just a fabulous program that we love to be able to offer for free for people in our community."
Gonczy has been offering the children and youth choirs for 13 years, and just last year, she was able to take the Spirit Singers to New York City to sing at Carnegie Hall. While that isn't something that she can offer each group, the choirs do get to perform musicals at the end of the year, and of course, the Communithon is an opportunity for a performance early in the season.
"Our older group, Spirit Singers, they just get a few more opportunities, as it's just a little easier since they can drive themselves places, so they've gotten quite a few opportunities over the years to take their music even outside of Weyburn, which is pretty cool," she shared.
Rehearsals are once a week, with 45 minutes for Small Voices, and one-hour for the older groups.
"It's a lot of fun, it goes by fast, and it's just a good chance to make some music with lots of people who just want to make music."
Gonczy said everyone can sing, even if they don't think they can, so anyone interested in joining one of the choirs at Grace United can contact her at 306-380-0690 or call the church office at 306-842-5131.